TO LEGALIZE GOOD FRIDAY.
By C. M. S.
A BILL was recently introduced into the Legislature of Massachusetts, providing that Good Friday be made a legal holiday in that State. The reason for the introduction of this bill, as given by the Boston Pilot (Catholic) is this: "As the closing of liquor saloons is compulsory in Massachusetts on legal holidays, it would be a satisfaction to right-minded Christians that the chance to desecrate Good Friday by the vice most repugnant to its spirit should be reduced to the minimum." Which is, in other words, a demand for State aid in the popularizing and promulgation of a religious custom. It is not an appeal for the protection of the people from the ravages of the liquor traffic; for they need that protection on one day as much as another, on work days as well as on religious festivals. Nevertheless, such demands are usually backed by the argument that compliance with them will elevate the moral condition of the people; when the fact in the case is that the morals of the people are a secondary consideration, and the elevation of a day, or religious observance, to a legal position is the object primarily sought after. A compulsory recognition of a religious ordinance is the end to be accomplished by such a law. If it result in reducing intoxication on that day, then the reduction of intoxication is used as a convenient lever to help pry the day into power and prominence. If the lessening of intoxication were the thing sought, it would be sought on every day of the week. The Pilot states that the provisions of this bill are already "approved by many Protestant bodies." Their approval has been shown by their demand that sanctity be legislated into Sunday to help the morals of the people, to reduce intoxication, and, ultimately, to get people to church. The argument is the same in either case. If Sunday, an institution of the church, has a right to State aid in maintaining its assumed sacredness, Good Friday has the same grounds for such assistance. Protestants should not deny to Catholics the legal sanctity for Good Friday which they themselves claim for Sunday. If one demand is right, the other is right; but both are wrong. And if intoxication is a menace to morals on Sunday and Good Friday, then it is a menace on every day of the week—and it is. And if the saloons can be closed on Sundays and Good Fridays, they can be closed every day in the week. If men and women desire the closing of the saloons, it is not necessary to make every day a church holiday in order to accomplish it. The saloon is an unmitigated evil; but to use it, open or closed, to make legal or compulsory an ordinance of the church, is an evil also. Close the saloons, close them every hour of the day and every day in the year, but do it because of the curse they are, and not to create or perpetuate another evil in the form of compulsory religious observances.