Fix this text
The Neweastle and Maitland
Fix this textCatholic Sentinel
Fix this text(Registered at the General Post-Office, Sydney, for transmission by post as a Newspaper]
Fix this textThe Official Organ of the Diocese of Maitland
Fix this textANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION .. .. 3/6
Fix this textRev. G. P. Flatley, Editor .
Fix this textVol. XXVII. No. 7.
Fix this textMAITLAND, APRIL 1, 1959.
Fix this textPrice, 3d.
Fix this textOn Human Respect
Fix this textyHHAT a queer unmanageable sort of term is
Fix this textHUMAN RESPECT! We see it so often in
Fix this textprint and in practice that we now easily recognize
Fix this textit; but really, if we met it for the first time, most
Fix this textof us should not be able to make head or tail of it.
Fix this textUsed in its ordinary sense it is a moral cowardice
Fix this textkeeping men from speaking or acting as they know
Fix this textthey should, through fear of what others may think
Fix this textor say of them.
Fix this textOn the other hand, we must be careful not to
Fix this texthave wrong ideas about moral courage. Moral
Fix this textcourage does not mean parading; flaunting our
Fix this textvirtues, trumpeting our good deeds, sky-writing
Fix this textour excellences, as did that Pharisee in the temple
Fix this textwho reminded God what a fine fellow he was and
Fix this texthow well he compared with the sinner whom he
Fix this textlooked at from the corner of a disdaining eye. It
Fix this textdoes not mean saying prayers and doing good and
Fix this textholy deeds ‘that we may be seen by men.’
Fix this textHuman respect has enormous crimes to its ac-
Fix this textcount. Here are two. Pilate sent Jesus Christ to
Fix this textHis death through fear of being reported to his
Fix this textRoman masters. Herod had St. John the Baptist
Fix this textbeheaded through fear of what his company would
Fix this textthink of him if he broke a stupid oath he made
Fix this textwhen well in his cups.
Fix this textHuman respect can make men ashamed of doing
Fix this textthe right thing and proud of doing the wrong.
Fix this textWriting of his sinful boyhood, Saint Augustine
Fix this textsays: I invented things I had not done, lest I
Fix this textmight be held cowardly for being innocent, or
Fix this textcontemptible for being chaste.’
Fix this textThere is much moral cowardice amongst us. A
Fix this textsmutty story is told in company. What keeps
Fix this textpeople from treating the smutty raconteur as he or
Fix this textshe deserves? Human respect. The good name of
Fix this textanother is attacked. What keeps us from dissocia-
Fix this textting ourselves from the attack, at least by our
Fix this textsilence? Human respect. What makes many
Fix this textpeople, even passing for good Catholics, more
Fix this textafraid of being caught with a holy book in their
Fix this texthands than with a risky novel? Human respect.
Fix this textThis statement once emanated from a body of
Fix this textProtestant bishops: ‘People are more ashamed to-
Fix this textday to mention God’s name than to tell an obscene
Fix this textstory.’ It is scarcely too much to say that in our
Fix this textdaily speech the Creator is almost taboo in His own
Fix this textcreation.
Fix this textMen seem to be the worst offenders in this
Fix this textmatter. Men who would at once accept a chal-
Fix this textlenge to fight, who would be heroes on the battle-
Fix this textfield and the first over the top, who would risk life
Fix this textand limb to save a life, will shrivel up before a
Fix this texttaunt or a sneer. They would fear being caught
Fix this textwith a rosary in their hand, or carrying a fair-sized
Fix this textprayerbook, or saluting a church, or joining a
Fix this textsodality, or going to Mass on a week-day, or making
Fix this textthe Way of the Cross. They would fear what the
Fix this textother fellows might say—the other fellows and
Fix this texttheir sisters and their cousins and their aunts.’
Fix this textAnd the folly of it! How often we fear that
Fix this textothers are thinking queerly of us and they are not
Fix this textthinking of us at all! Anyhow, if they think little
Fix this textof us for following our conscience, they would
Fix this textprobably think less of us for not following it
Fix this textthrough fear of them.
Fix this textHow many bad Christians does not Human
Fix this textRespect keep from becoming good! How many
Fix this textgood from becoming better!
Fix this textIt's easy and takes two shakes of a lamb's tail!
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(2016). The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland Retrieved July 26, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-308447706
The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2016. Web. 26 July 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-308447706>
2016, The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland National Library of Australia, Canberra viewed 26 July 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-308447706
{{Citation
|
| title=The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland.
| year=2016
| section=online resource : illlustrations
| issn=2206-5466
| issue=Vol. XXVII No. 7 (1 April, 1959)
| location=Canberra
| publisher=National Library of Australia
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-308447706
| id=nla.obj-308447706
| access-date=26 July 2025
| via=Trove
}}
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