ÚuX- ¿^REFUTATION 

SOME CALUMNIES 

AGAINST T H E 

CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

REV. JAMES C. BYRNE. 

' T h r o w Dirt . E n o u g h and Some will S t ick . " — Archbishop Whatcly 

' Well , will St ick, but not Sta in ." — Cardinal Newman. 

T H E CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY. 

A m e r i c a n S e r i e s of IPubl ioot ions , N o . 1. 





REFUTATION OF SOME CALUMNIES 

AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

B Y R E V . JAMES C . BYRNE. 

"Throw Dirt Enough and Some will Stick.''&Archbishop Whately. 
" Well, will Stick, bat not Stain, "¿r Cardinal. Newman. 

Envy yields tribute to worth and to worth alone. 
The indifferent talker is patiently endured, the orator 
is criticized; ordinary workmanship satisfies, but flaws 
are detected in the masterpiece. To be the object of 
the slings of envy is the condition of all that is noble 
and exalted of its kind, from the humble work of 
human handicraft to the infinite perfections of God, 
from the teaching of the prophets, who were stoned, to 
the wisdom of Christ, who was crucified. I t is not to 
be wondered at, then, that the compact and impregnable 
organization, the miraculous and indomitable vitalitv, 
the logical system of doctrine, the corresponding faith 
and practice, and the ever increasing resistless ranks of 
the Catholic Church have ever been the objects of the 
envy, the calumny and the unfair criticism of fallen 
man. Every age has laid at the feet of the Catholic 
Church the tribute of its hatred. Turning back the 
pages of her eventful history we behold, strewn along 
her path, the crumbling redoubts and dismantled strong-
holds of her enemies. "Here the Dolopian soldiers, 
there the fierce Achilles pitched his tent." Deserted 
now, and cold, are the hearths where once the flame of 
enmity fiercely burned, but the same spirit has moved 
onward contesting every step of the Church's progress. 
To deny the existence of this spirit is to deny the ex-
cellence of the Church. 

But even were we so simple and confiding as to be-
guile ourselves that this spirit of enmity does not exist, 



we should be very harshly undeceived on all occasions 
when the Church has reached a new outpost in her un-
deniable onward march. I t is then that the antago-
nism of the sects breaks forth with all the bitterness of 
one who finds "himself ^allied to a losing cause. It is 
not a surprise, therefore, that recent events—the Bal-
timore Centennial, the convocation of a Catholic Con-
gress, the consecration of four new bishops in , th is 
Province—through which the world around us was 
made in spite of itself to feel the strong and healthy 
throbbings of life in the Church so often denied, were 
the occasion of an unusual outburst of hostility. While 
the press was most fair and commendable, what writh-
ings in, what abuse issued from, sectarian pulpits! I t is 
not, however, to honor calumniators (far be it from us 
to notice unmanly adversaries!) but to meet the senti-
ments of the Catholic public too often outraged by the 
publication of the vilest vituperation, that we deem it 
proper to make some.calumnies against the Catholic 
Church the subject of our brief remarks. 

On the eve of a political struggle there is nothing 
which either party so much fears as a plausible cam-
paign lie, well directed, the falsity of which it will take 
time to make apparent. The reason is evident. Ex-
citement is at a high pitch, the soul is strung to its ut-
most tension, all power, both aggressive and defensive, 
is exhausted, and the multitude is prone to be led more 
by frenzy than by the cool and calculating act of reason. 
Hence, such falsehoods, which at other times would be 
insignificant, are, in this rush of feeling, like the rock 
in the path of the torrent, capable of producing the 
greatest results. 

Now, the Catholic Church is ever in the midst of a 
great campaign—made a spectacle worthy of the ad-
miration of men and angels. Every moment her mem-
bers realize that they have followed Christ's injunction 
to renounce all they possess in order to become his 
disciples. They have allowed their reason to be taken 
•captive by faith, and they have curbed their will and 
mortified their inclinations to meet faith's require-
ments. But flesh and blood will assert themselves, and 
the battle against the spirit will cease only with death. 
A new calumny, therefore, adding ignominy to their 



3 

every sacrifice, is almost more than human irature can 
bear. But just as the combat with flesh and blood 
never ceases, so also there is the incessant assault from 
the world outside. Every sectarian if he wish to justi-
fy his name of Protestant, feels called upon to use every 
means to bring about the destruction or paralyze the 
action of the Church. The incessant combat ever thick-
ens, and calumnies, as falsehoods in a political cam-
paign, spread like wildfire among non-Catholics, and 
false impressions thus made crystalize into the most 
deep-rooted prejudice. I t will not be amiss to take a 
brief glance in particular at a few of these falsehoods, 
which, only through the most unjustifiable frenzy, could 
have passed current for genuine truth. 

Fifty years ago there was not a more common or 
catching heading on all non-Catholic pamphlets, ser-
mons and religious journals than the celebrated motto: 
" I f ever the liberties of the United States be destroyed 
it will be by Romish priests.—Words of Lafayette." 
Lafayette had promised his Catholic wife on her death-
bed that he would give more attention to religion. He 
had received the last rites of his Church, and he had 
been laid to rest in a Catholic cemetery, with Catholic 
hymn and prayer, two years before the scandalous 
words ascribed to him had risen to the surface of reli-
gious bigotry. But,being a revolutionist by profession, 
on the one hand, this saying ascribed to him was just 
possible, and being most dear to the American people 
on account of his gallant deeds, on the other, there was 
enormous weight attached to the mere possibility of 
such an utterance. The improbability of the saying 
had to be proved, the testimony of lying witnesses had 
to be dissected and confuted, the character of the great 
general had to be discussed, and all his speeches and 
writings diligently scanned. And, while this work took 
up the time of churchmen, the motto went bravely on 
doing its deadly work of destruction. Yet when all 
the evidence was in, it was convincingly shown that 
just the contrary were the sentiments of our country's 
defender. He had argued in the French chamber in 
opposition to the bill for the expulsion of the Irish 
trappists, that if the Jesuits of Georgetown were not 
dangerous to the United States, much less would these 



4 

refugees Hfrom Ireland be dangerous to France. Thus 
the lie was nailed by documentary evidence, but the 
prejudice it had engendered remained. 

Hence, taking another step forward, we meet with a 
like calumny which has had a most peculiar history. 
Forty years ago there appeared in the Shepherd of the 
Valley, a paper published by a Catholic layman in St. 
Louis, the following words: " I f Catholics'ever attain, 
which they surely will, the immense numerical majority 
in the United States, religious liberty, as at present un-
derstood, will be at an end — so say our enemies." 
The words " so say our enemies" indicate that this was 
an objection which the Catholic editor undertook to 
confute and did confute in the same article. Yet 
strange to say, these words, garbled and mutilated, 
were quoted by the Protestant press as a positive 
declaration of principles on the part, not of an indi-
vidual and irresponsible layman, but of the Catholic 
Church. The calumny spread here and was refuted. 
It crossed the Atlantic and Pacific, reappearing in 
Ireland aud Australia, and was refuted again. These 
words were attributed to Archbishop Kenrick, and 
again the charge was set aside. Finally, judge our 
surprise when, in the year 1888, in a book entitled 
"Christianity in the United States," this calumny is 
put down as a "recent utterance" of the Archbishop 
of Philadelphia. But this was evidently overdoing it, 
and the summary call on the author to produce the 
evidence or retract has obtained from him a full re-
traction of this statement. And thus another lie was 
put in its coffin, and there is documentary evidence of 
its natural death. 
/ Again, what more common attack against the Jesuit 
Fathers, and by inference against the Catholic Church, 
than that they teach t h a t " The end justifies the means" 
in the sense that a good intention can sanctify actions 
which are intrinsically bad? Every child can under-
stand that there is the closest relation between the 
means and the end to be attained by them. If the end 
is natural, natural likewise are the means; if the end 
is supernatural, supernatural must be the means to 
attain it. A walk, a drive, a talk, things indifferent in 
themselves, may be made good or bad according to the 



5 

end in view. It is evident that an act of heroic charity 
may be destroyed by a bad intention. Hence in par-
ticular cases it is true that the end does determine the 
morality of an act, and, in the writings of the Jesuit 
Fathers, such doctrine, with well defined limitations, 
may be found, but nowhere the general maxim that 
" T h e end justifies the means." On the contrary, all 
Jesuit moralists have taken care to teach that the end 
does not justify the means, and that, no matter how good 
the intention, it cannot make good what is intrinsically 
bad. In the year 1852, in Frankfort, a Jesuit Fathe"r 
read a declaration, that, if any witness could produce a 
Jesuit author who had uttered the maxim " T h e end 
justifies the means," either literally or in equivalent 
terms, he would pay him a thousand florins. Ten years 
elapsed and only one applicant appeared, and the Prot-
estant University of Heidelberg, to which was left the 
decision, would not allow that his garbled extracts 
from Jesuit authors proved this claim. A few years 
ago the former pastor of this church offered a thousand 
dollars to any one who could produce, from a Catholic 
author, the equivalent saying, "Evil can be done that 
good may come." But he oflered it in vain; there was 
no applicant. Yet with all this the Protestant Bishop 
of New York had the effrontery, in the year 1888, to 
produce some mutilated texts and claim the money on 
a similar challenge. He added, however, naively, that 
he did not expect to get it. Who will ever remove 
from the minds of Protestants this silly prejudice? It 
has been embalmed in the Encyclopedia Brittannica by 
another Protestant clergyman, and there it will remain 
forever—a monument of bad faith. 

But, alas! There is a more dreadful calumny still, 
which, to the shame and disgrace of all manhood, from 
time to time reappears in our press. I t often happens, 
as you know by experience, and from a thorough fa-
miliarity with the facts, that in Catholic families, now 
here, now there, there is a daughter who, by her inno-
cence, sweetness and strength of character, is the joy 
and reliance of her home. Where she enters the sun-
light falls, and whatever she does is done well. When 
into this angelic heart God whispers the summons to 
leave all for his sake, surely he will guide her s 



6 

and be her guardian. Of such are the inmates of our 
convents and cloisters. And their work? It is charity 
to the aged, charity to the fallen, charity to the unlet-
tered, the sick and the dying. Surely if there is good-
ness on earth there is its home, and if all other Catholics 
must be reputed bad, these inoffensive females will get 
the credit of good deeds. Would that, for the honor 
of the human race, we could say this were the case. 
But, alas! We .find that those whom the greatest 
villain will reverence in the street, are outrageously 
wronged in these days from Christian pulpits. And 
not only they, but we find always that the serpent who 
hisses against the Sister of Charity casts his venom 
against the Mother of God. But, just as of old, Mary 
crushed the serpent's head, so also now, whoever, with 
her, have a common adversary, are by this fact alone 
sufficiently protected. But from this calumny let us 
learn this lesson, that there is no hope of shielding the 
Church in other countries and other times from cal-
umny, since we cannot shield her in our own; there is 
no hope of protecting the innocent, who are unknown 
to us, from abuse, when we cannot save our own ac-
quaintances, friends and relatives from the vilest 
slander. 

A few general observations will not be out of place 
in regard to this subject. 

Our enemies visit so called Catholic countries and 
come back with no knowledge of the home, but they 
do show a very suspicious acquaintance with the slums. 
It is no pleasure to Catholics to learn of the dark im-
moralities of London, of Stockholm, or' of Berlin, but 
what fiendish delight these ministers take in rooting 
in the mud of Italy, of Mexico, or of South America. 
We have never gathered up, with ghoulish glee, the 
frailties of ministers, however frequent they may 
be chronicled. This news is really more painful to us 
than to a good many infidel preachers. Yet many a 
minister has traveled the country and made a fortune 
by outrageously exaggerating the human side of the 
Church. Can such conduct be Christian? And sta-
tistics? What can they prove? With us heresy is a 
great sin; with outsiders it is a glory. Denial of the 
prerogatives of Christ, of Mary, of the Church, is, with 



7 

us, an unheard of crime; with them it is the climax of 
a flight of orator}'. Divorce with us is attempted 
sacrilege;- with them it is the end of a bad bargain. 
Statistics, therefore, ignore both the greatest virtues and 
the greatest crimes in the calendar; but the crimes are 
not ours—the virtues are. Notably, workhouse statis-
tics are often worthless. A poor man takes a glass too 
much and is sent to prison. A rich man, for the same 
offense, is taken home in a carriage. Only the poor of 
all religions drift into the workhouse, and the religion 
which has the most poor must naturally deplore the 
largest proportion there. The Catholic Church, there-
fore, which has a mission to the poor, the weak and the 
outcast, which has no exclusive membership, is not to 
be judged by the faults of those over whom she weeps, 
but by the exalted fruits of charity, of chastity, of pa-
tience, of evangelical counsels put in practice which are, 
in her, everywhere manifest, and in her alone. Thus is a 
tree judged by its f rui t—not by that which falls to the 
ground and is cankered and dwarfed, but by that 
which remains cleaving to the tree, and therefrom im-
bibing vitality and worth. As for American freedom, 
our adversaries may rest assured that the Church 
which first raised aloft the standard of religious liberty 
on this soil will be the last to strike down these colors. 
Everything around us brings home this conviction. 
The Catholic Church belongs to no party. She enters 
into no deal to divide the spoils of the school system 
and university. Her priests nowhere are superintend-
ents of state schools, reformatories or asylums. Over 
one-half of the soldiers in the United States Army are 
Catholics, and yet in the width and breadth of this 
land there are only two Catholic chaplains. There is 
no church in this land that has carried respect for the 
religious convictions of others to such an extreme as the 
Catholic Church. If, however, the dynamiter and the 
socialist say that it is impossible to be good Catholics 
and American citizens, according to- their idea, we 
cheerfully — nay, triumphantly, admit the charge. 

Yet, with all this, the Church cannot expect to make 
her teaching more limpidly clear than did her divine 
founder. She will never appear more clearly of divine 
origin than he appeared; and, therefore, in a wicked 



8 

world she will always find enemies as he did. We 
know that the devil and the flesh militate against us; 
let us be pursuaded that the world will not be our 
friend. That hoarse cry of the world, breathing fury 
and hatred," Crucify Him,Crueify Him," is as. audible 
to-day as it was in the prcetorium of Pilate. The world 
is against the Church, and the true spirit of the Church 
is against the world. It is not, therefore, her great glory 
that kings have professed her faith, although she num-
bers some of them among her saints; but it is her glory 
that she has given strength to the weak virgin to with-
stand the cruelty of tyrants. It is not her glory that 
the rich encircle her sanctuary; she rather leaves to 
them the unsolved problem how they can enjoy the 
good things of this life and the glorious things of the 
next; but it is her glory that she can console the poor, 
alleviate the pain of the suffering, bring joy to the 
earnest seeker after truth, and assuage the sorrow of 
the heartbroken. Hence, a voluptuous people will not 
accept her, because she crucifies the flesh. A money-
making people will hold aloof from her because she 
teaches no love of riches, and because she is humble, 
a proud people will persecute or despise her. From 
out her fold, therefore, will always go those who have 
not her spirit. " They went out from us," says St. 
John, "because they were not of us." Into her fold 
will come those noble souls who appreciate the gem of 
truth, and receive the grace to barter all they possess to 
obtain it. Then; indeed, it is for us to beware lest a 
worldly spirit overcome us and we despise the humility 
of the cross. Oh, may we ever have in horror that 
spirit which would have been ashamed of the Divine 
Master had it found him in the poverty of Bethlehem, 
the "seclusion of Nazareth, or the humiliation of cal-
vary. Christ yesterday, to-day and forever. We must 
love him amid hisses as well as hosannahs; in Geth-
semane and on Tabor; with his crown of thorns as 
well as with his crown of glory.