"Chain Letters" - Archbishop's Opinion - 1937

The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 4 October 1937

"CHAIN" LETTERS.

Archbishop's Opinion.

CATHOLICS AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP.

The circulation of "chain" letters was deplored by Archbishop Gilroy during his address after the dedication and blessing of additions to the Roman Catholic Church of St. John of God, Auburn, yesterday afternoon. He said he had received one that stated that the writer was a Catholic, but which he thought had come from an enemy of the Church.

Archbishop Gilroy was speaking of good citizenship. He said that he had received a letter, "purporting to come from some Catholic, and addressed to his fellow Catholics," which urged that Catholics should unite in order to gain authority in Australia, and to depose from authority all persons who were not Catholics.

"There is no need for me to say that this letter is spurious, and did not come from any Catholic authority," said the Archbishop. "There is no such desire among Catholics, and, if any receives such a letter, he can do nothing better than destroy it. It is contrary to Catholic teaching and doctrine."

"While every Catholic had the right to aspire to any position of authority," the Archbishop said, "he must not achieve his ambition by underhand means.

"It would be wrong and inexcusable to strive to depose any honourable man from the position he holds simply because he does not belong to the Catholic Church. I am sure that no Catholic has ever tried to do this. It would be dishonourable and unjust. This letter has come from the enemies of the Church, and clearly shows that their ambition is to put Catholics in a bad light," he added.

PRESS CRITICISED.

Archbishop Gilroy said that facts were misrepresented in "the secular Press," and that matters appeared that were not based on the best moral principles. It was a curious coincidence that newspaper references to Russia and Spain were Communistic in viewpoint.

"The capitalistic Press is at one with the Communists, and in these matters they have found a comradeship," he declared. "In Australia we rejoice in our freedom, and, yet there has been a destruction of that freedom in order to foist upon us matters that are hostile to the best interests of the people in any country.

"There is no security in such a country as Russia except, perhaps, for the dictator and his friends. Your ambitions, I am sure, are to keep your grand democratic institutions, and to make this country a working man's paradise."

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17408818