N'Uv. .

-i-r ;

Give Us a Hearing!

A Straightforward Answer

-^BY—

BISHOP SCHREMBS of TOLEDO
'

\

To FoulCalumny andSlander

IN FOUR LECTURES:

(1) The Catholic Church and Morality.

(3) The Celibacy of the Priesthood.

(3) The Truth About Convents.
*

(4) The Church and Civil Liberty.



FOREWORD,
•

These lectures were delivered in the St. Francis de Sales ’ Cathedral

during the Lenten season of 1914, in answer to the shameful and cruelly

unjust campaign of vilification that is being carried on systematically

against the Church throughout the length and breadth of our land.

Toledo seems to have had more than its share of this nauseating spiU

of “religious swill-barrels.”

The charges and slanders against the Church may be practically

reduced to the following four propositions

:

I. The entire system of Catholic Faith, Morals and Practice is so

essentially co.rrupt and immoral that it necessarily begets moral cor-

ruption and wickedness in its adjherents.

II. The Catholic Clergy as a body is addicted to every form of

immorality, because of the discipline of celibacy and the practice of

the Confessional, which are essentially and necessarily productive of

immorality.

III. Convents are breeding-places and veritable cesspools of every

form of licentiousness and profligacy.

IV. The Catholic Church in America is a “foreign” institution,

yielding civil allegiance to a “foreign potentate,” and therefore a

menace to our free institutions.
^

I have stated these villainous slanders in all their native virulence

and brutality.

The Lenten lectures, which are herewith presented, were designed

to meet the issue squarely and without equivocation, and, by documen-

tary evidence and indisputable facts and irrefutable argument, to

prove the absolute untenableness and absurdity of the charges, as

well as to lay bare the utter irresponsibility and moral degeneracy

and devilish malice of the men and women engaged in this unholy

warfare.
^

In yielding to the many requests for the wider publication of

these lectures, I am guided solely by the consideration of the good to

be accomplished.

The widespread circulation given to the slanders and the brazen

boldness with which they have been flaunted in the face of Catholics

and nbn-Catholics, stirring to the highest pitch the passions of bitterest

religious hate and rancor, setting citizen against citizen, and household

against household, demanded a frank and straightforward answer.

I make no pretence to literary form or perfection; in fact, the

lectures, as they are herewith presented, are an exact stenographic

report of the lectures, as they were originally delivered, with only such

verbal corrections as a stenographic report ordinarily requires.

+JOSEPH SCHREMBS,

Bishop of Toledo.



LECTURE I

THE CATHOLIC CHtJRCH AND MORALITY.

Bigotry’s Indictment Crushed by the Inexorable

Lo^ic of Facts.

In the fifth chapter of the gospel

according to St. Matthew, I read

these words of our Divine Master

(a part--of that wonderful sermon

which he preached on the Mount):

“Blessed,” he says, “blessed are ye

when they shall revile you am|^ per-

secute you, and speak all that is evil

against you untruly for my name’s

sake. Be glad and^ rejoice, for your

reward is very great in heaven; for

so they persecuted the prophets that

were before you. You are the salt

of the earth, but if the salt lose its

savor, wherewith shall it be salted?

It is good for nothing any more but

to be cast out and trodden under foot.

You are the light of the world. A
city seated, on a mountain cannot be

hid. Neither do men light a candle

and put it under a bushel, but upon

a candlestick that it may shine to all

that are in the house. So let your

light shine before men that they m'ay

see yoift good works and glorify your

Father who is in heaven.' Do not

think that I am come to destroy the.
law or the prophets. I am come not

to destroy, but /to fulfill. For verily

I say unto you till heaven and earth

pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no

wise pass from the law, until all be

fulfilled.”

These Words Must Have Greatly Con-

soled the Early Christians in

Their Trials.

The words of the blessed Master,

which I have just read to you, must

have been a great source of Consola-

tion to His Apostles and to all the

early believers in His holy Name.

They had scarcely begun their mission,

when a veritable flood-tide of slander

and lying Und bitterness straightway

arose on every side to meet them.

During the lifetime of the Apos-

tles scarce a day passed, I

dare say, that they were not

brought face to face with a tire-

less campaign of bitterness and vili-

fication of their crucified Master and

of themselves. Yes, their enemies

were able, even in those early days,

to point out among their followers

men who were not living lives worthy

of the gospel of Jesus Christ, men of

whom St. Paul wrote: “For many

walk of whom I have told you often

(and I now tell you weeping), that

they are enemies of the Cross of

Christ,” men that were Christians in

name only, men that were utterly un-

worthy of the sublime vocation where-

unto they were called. On almost every

page of the Acts of the Apostles which

tell us of the early labors of these first

missionaries of Christ, and on almost

every page of the other writings of

the Apostles, their Epistles, the Let-

ters of Saint Paul, the Letters of Saint

Peter, the Apostolic Letters of Saint

John, Saint James and Saint Jude, on

almost every page -of these writings,

I repeat, we find plain evidences of

the sadness that was caused the

hearts of the Apostles by defections

from the Church of men who rose up

within her very bosom to apostatize,

to betray the Church and fairly deluge

her with malignant invective and

cruel, unjust accusations, hurled

against the Apostles and against

Christ their Leader. The whole New

Testament presents ample evidence of

this fact. Now, I say, it must have

been indeed a source* of the greatest

consolation to the Apostles and to the

early believers to recall those blessed

words of their Divine Master on the

Mount, to remember that lone of the

great Eight Beatitudes read as fol-

lows: “BLESSED ARE YE WHEN
THEY SHALL REVILE YOU AND
PERSECUTE YOU AND SAY ALL
MANNER QF EVIL AGAINST YOU
UNTRULY FOR MY NAME’S
SAKE.” Our Lord had told them, you

will recall, that such things had been

foretold by Him, that, when they had

Oea^SRM



4

come to pass, they might remember

that He had predicted these things

and, being thus forewarned, they

might not be scandalized by reason of

these untoward happenings, nor be

shaken in their faith, that they might

not fall away through discourage-

ment and lose their faith in Christ, in

Christas holy Gospel,' and in the teach-

ings of His established Church.

Divine Holiness of Our Faith Vic-

torious Over Scandal.

Christ well knew the weakness of

our nature; He knew how powerfully

we are influenced by our surround-

ings, by our environment, by the

things we hear, by the things we see,

by the things we touch with our own

hands; this He knew full well, and He

came to the assistance of our poor hu-

man nature with the assurance that

behind the fallible life of the in-

dividual believer, which might be

good or bad, there was something else

that could be naught else than good

and irreproachable; that there was

something else which was immortal,

incorruptible, infallible, eternal, as

eternal as God Himself, and as

infallible as God Himself, and

that was the FAITH which He, Jesus

Christ, had brought down from

heaven, which He confided to His

Apostles, and which j;he Apostles ex-

horted Uieir successors to guard, to

guard most jealously—that “deposit,”
which they had handed over to them,

and which these in their turn were to

pass on to the end of time
—
“O Tim-

othy, keep that which is committed

to thy trust” (I Tim. vi:20).

Oh, my dear people, would to God that
we might always remember thi^! Then

would these tides of abuse, of bigotry,

of slander, calumny and vilification

pass, and leave us unharmed by all

their venom, and unshaken in our

Faith. Would to God that we might al-

ways remember this. Then would we

stand firm behind our chosen leaders,

the Watchmen on the towers of Israel,

who point out the weak spots in the

levee as the flood tide is rising, and

when they call out for* helpers,

all would heed the call and has-

ten to stem the tide and save the

inheritance of the Faith for the weak

ones and the little ones of the flock.

Alas, it is not always so! To know

what is right is one thing, and to do

what is right is another. •

The Catholic Church Uniquely and

Unreasonably Hated and

Antagonized.

Today we are passing through an

ordeal. If thinking men would stop

to reflect upon its significance, I am

sure they would be forced to wonder

whence it is that just one class of

citizens, possibly men and women, who

have been well known, who have

lived in the community for years

and even decades of years, who

are here by perfect right, by

every title-deed that can possibly

give men the right to peaceful

habitation, whence it is, I say, that

such a body of men and women should

be singled oi^ from all the rest, and

that aU the filth and all the evil that

possibly can be found in their midst,

among their black sheep, not only now

but for centuries back, should be

thrown in the face of all of them

—yea, th^t their enemies, when
they cannot, even by such meth-

ods, find enough that is^ true,

will unhesitatingly invent things, and

that their inventions should be a

thousand times more damnable

and sinister than any fact—and will
then move heaven and earth in the ef-

fort to brand the entire body with

the responsibility and infamy thereof.

Whence is this? and what is the mean-

ing of it all? No such method is ap-

plied to any other body of men in the

community. There are the men of the

medical profession, the doctors.. You

hear no such wholesale vilification of

their body, and yet, God knows, there

are many doctors that have not clean

hands. There are the lawyers. There

is no such vilification of them, and

yet, God knows and we know, there

are many among them whose charac-

ters leave much to be desired. There

is the business man; there is no such

campaign against him, and yet we all

know that many of his class fall

short of what the public has a right

to expect of them. There are the



5

men of the professions, the men of

education, professors in the univer-

sities, teachers in colleges, high

schools and ordinary schools, the en-

tire teaching profession, a large body

of men and women. Go(^ knows

and we know but too well that

there are among them many

lapses, most unfortunate and most

awful in their consequences, when

you come think of them. Yet there is

no such wholesale vilification of

them. There are men who call them-

selves preachers of the gospel. They

belong to many denominations, far

over two hundred, of them in this land,

and there are thousands and thousands

of this class in our midst. Neither are

their records, all of them, clean. Yet

there is no such wholesale vilification

in their case. One body alone is sin-

gled out, and all, all, seem to join^n

the attack upon this one body, either

actively, by directly engaging in this

revolting campaign of mud-slinging,

lying and slander, promoting it by/ per-

sonal effort, or passively, by a cam-

paign that is almost as guilty, a cam-

paign of silence, shrugging the shoul-

ders, and saying, “Well, I don’t know.

If those things are not so, why then

don’t they prove that they are not

so?”

The Legal Maxim: That a Man Is

Presumed Innocent Till Proved

Guilty, is Reversed for Catholics.

So, in spite of all our boasted re-

ligious tolerance and fairness, in

these days of enlightened civilization,

it has come to this, that we will take

a man’s good name, and then put upon

him the burden of the proof that he

is not a scoundrel. The accepted axiom

of law is that no man is presumed

guilty until he is proven guilty, but

when it comes to this one body, the

Catholic Church, the axiom is changed.

No Catholic, be he pope, bishop,

priest .or layman, is supposed to be

decent, supposed to be honorable, sup-

posed to be pure, until he actually

proves individually that he is not a

devil in disguise. Nor is this merely

imagination. You can read it j-ight

in your daily papers. Even this morn-

ing, one of our daily papers gives

space to a letter of this kind, which’

calls upon the leaders of the Catholic

Church to come forward and to prove

the falsity of those ^charges, or it

says, “We must believe that they are

true.” Good God! Is it not an awful

situation when you think of it? A
man can gratuitously insult your

home, can say that your home

is rotten, and you are supposed

to throw it wide open, to let the

riffraff of the town come in and

satisfy itself that it is not rotten. Yet

that is what we are asked to do!

The Movement Extends to All Walks

of Life and Is Furthered by the

Vilest Methods.

Truly, my dear people, there has

nothing happened within a generation

that is half so vile or half so inex-

plicable as this present campaign of

vilification^ professionally carried

out, and mark you well, supported

openly, as well as in secret, by men in

politics, by men in business, by men in

society. And this is God’s truth! By the

thousands, the hundred thousands,

sheets that are reeking with filth so

dirty, that you would think a decent

man would not contaminate his fingers

by contact, would not pollute his eyes

by so much as glancing over them,

hundreds of thousands of such sheets

are being scattered broadcast over the

country, and are being devoured with

avidity, day after day, week after week.

Books that are teeming with false-

hoods and lies that would put the

very devils of hell to the blush, are

sold for hard cash and by the thou-

sands, are greedily devoured and are

passed on to the neighbor. And all

with one purpose, to stir up hatred,

to stir up enmity, to stir up religious

war against the Cathqlic Church.

The Indictment.'

Now there is the fact. You know it as

well as I know it. You Catholics have

been made to suffer by it, and as for

you that are not Catholics, and who

hear me tonight, who have perhaps

come from very curiosity, to see how

the Bishop of Toledo will meet such

attacks—^there is in your hearts at
least a partial suspicion, if not more.



6

fhat these things are true, and you

are wondering by what sort of in-

tellectual gymnastics the Bishop will

manage to dup,e#.his poor Catholics.

Catholics, of course, have no brains.

They are all stupid. They have no

sense of honor. They are willing to

sacrifice their sons to become “Beasts

of the Sanctuary.” They are willing

to sacrifice their da:ughters to become

inmates of “spiritual brothels,” and

they themselves, all, the „while, are

groaning, it is said, under the galling

tyranny of the Church of Rome. Is

the indictment too strong? Why, I

haven't expressed one-half of its out-

rageous actuality, no, not one-half I

When We Attempt to Clear Ourselves

Prejudice Refuses Us a Hearing.

What is the remedy? I have asked

myself that question hundreds of

times since my return from Rome. Is

the remedy in aught that I can say

or do? Scarcely! For, from the very

start, anything I may say or do is put

down as hypocrisy, lying and deceit.

So the way to the conviction of their

minds and hearts is hopelessly barred

by prejudice and bigotry. Is it any-

thing the clergy can do? Still less

than what I would be able to do! For

again they will say, “Well, of course,

they will deny .it. They are not going

to confess, themselves guilty.”'

Even the Answer of an Irreproach-

able Life Lived in Your Midst Is

Rejected.

And yet, all the while, here we are

before you, living open lives, open as

a book in this city of Toledo, going

in and coming out, day after day, in

the broad daylight, defying the world

to put its finger on a weak spot in

the clergy of tjiis city. There are

eighteen thousand priests in the

United States of America and

American possessions. Their lives

are public. They go about their

duty day after day in the broad day-

light. Out of these 18,000, you may

find a small sprinkling, here and

there, rarely and but seldom, who do

not come up to the expectation of

their Catholic people, or to the re-

quirements of their sacred office. Yet

while, as I have said before, no other

body of men, no matter what their

denomination, is held responsible

for the shortcomings of the in-

dividuals in that body, the 18,000

priests of this country are all held

responsjJWe for the shortcomings of a

few scattered individuals, with whom

the Church has exercised to the utter- .

most her patience, her forbearance

and her love, to bring them back to

better ways. Yea, not only the 18,000

priests, but the millions of Catholics

must needs have their name, their char-'

acter atid their memory aspersed, be-

cause, forsooth, a few men aild women

have occasionally fallen by the way-

side. And all, all are held responsi-

ble! and we ^re told, “There you are;

it is the fault of the system. The

man couldn’t help it; it is the system

that is to blame. It is the Catholic

Church, that produces such results.”

That is what we are told. Is it not

strange ?

Cowardice from Within Acquiesces in

the Injustice from Without.

Now, in the face of all this, look-

ing for a remedy, I am confronted by

another strange phenomenon. You

will wonder what it is. The phenom-

enon is not from the outside, but it

is from within. I am confronted

by the phenomenon of a species of

Catholics, so weak-kneed, so utterly

devoid of loyalty, that they shrink

from anything like a bold and

open declaration of their rights. They

are always afraid; always afraid.

They say, “Oh, please don’t say any-

thing! Don’t you know you might of-

fend those dear good friends of mine ?

It would be too bad! Oh, please don’t

say a word!” They say, “Oh, isn’t it

too bad, the imprudence, the absolute

lack of discretion of that Catholic

Bishop of Toledo, who is always, al-

ways, always proclaiming, wherever

he has the chance or the opport.unity,

the rights of Catholics, and who is

always and everywhere championing

and holding aloft the gage and stand-

ard of the honor and purity of the

' Catholic Priesthood, of the Catholic

Sisterhood, our daughters and our

.
sons!” That is the strangest phenom-



7

enon of all. These Catholks, with, I

know not what kind of aspirations,

1^’ho are always, always shrinking, al-

ways cringing, always crawling, in

the face of^he vilest accusations, will-

ing and ready to kiss the foot that

spurns and kicks them, who seem to

think that it is by a special grace that

they are allowed to live in this coun-

try at all, these are they who plead

most pitifully:
^
“Oh, for God’s sake,

don’t say a word, don’t say^a word!

Sit back in the corner and hide your-

self!” It is too bad that they cannot

get back far~~eiiough to sit on the

North Pole, to s^y there and freeze

on it! That is where they belong!

The Real Remedy.

Again, I ask, what is the remedy

-against this state of affairs? Let

me tell it to you in a plain, jilain word.

The remedy gainst this unbearable

situation is a strong, well educated,

well disciplined, united Catholic laity.

That is the remedy. Catholic laymen,

who are able and ready to give the rea-

son for the faith that is in them; Cath-

olic laymen, who are able and ready

with indisputable arid convincing facts

to meet this onslaught of lying and

slander; Catholic laymen, with purity,

honesty and integrity in their own

lives, giving the lie to those who vilify

their Church; Catholic laymUi who,

under the banner of an enlightened

and intelligent charity, are not afraid

to meet this miserable prejudice and

bigotry, and who, thoroughly equipped

with the knowledge and the principles

and the grand truths of their holy

Catholic Faith, stand ready and able

to dissipate the dense ignorance that

inspires this bigotry.

There alone is the remedy, and I

shall not rest, though I must travel

day ^nd ni^ht and traverse the length

and breadth of the diocese, I shall not

rest, until I have united the .entire

Catholic laity of the Diocese of To-

ledo under a banner inscribed “For the

Honest Rights of Catholics!”

The Answer t(K Particular Charges

Postponed to a Future and Public

Occasion.

In treating of this question, I scarce

know where to begin. I have deter-

mined, however, rather than enter

upon a refutation of the individual ac-

cusations against the Catholics at this

time, to postpone that to some other

occasion in the near future, when

I hope, surrounded by the united

clergy and the united laity of this city,

to take a public stand in the City of

Toledo in regard to these accusations,

and hurl them back with frank and

open statements of fact;'iO'r the Cath-

olic Church has nothing to hide, noth-

ing to be ashamed of, no skeletons in

the closet!

This Does Not Mean that the Catholic

Church Includes No Sinners

Among Its Members.

I do not mean to say, as I will

presently explain, that there are not

in the Catholic Church men or women,

or even members of the clergy, of

whom we have every reason to be

ashamed. No: Of such we have a

few. But, as I will • also pres-

ently show, their deficiency can-

not be laid ah the door of the

Church. Their mistakes, their sins,

are not the effect, are not the result

of their Catholicity, but are the effect

and the result of their neglect of ev-

erything that the Catholic Church en-

joins upon them, and committed by

them in despite of everything that the

Catholic Church could do to restrain

them. They ^re the “tares,” of which

our Lord speaks, and says they shall

always be in His Church. They are

the “blades that have sprung up on

the rock and have withered away,”

because they neglected the moisture

of prayer and of good deeds, which

was necessary to keep fhem alive.

They are those other blades, which

spring up, but are “choked by the

thorns and the thistles” of the world-

liness surrounding them. They are

the “bad fish in* the net” of the

Church till it be drawn to Shores of

Eternity.

One Particular Instance Singled Out

as an Illustration.

There is just one instance, I will

mentiou tonight. I said a moment ago

that all manner of crimes, all manner



8

of beastly things, horrid things,

things that absolutely surpass the de-

lirium of the most insane imagination,

no matter how incredible or monstrous

they may be, are charged against the

Catholic Church; that the country is

flooded with papers and books, describ-

ing filthy crimes of an unmentionable

nature, that are supposed to be per-

petrated in our convents, those homes

of virtue and of piety, consecrated to

the service of God and to the best

service of humanity; and these are

blackened, and the placard “Unclean”

is nailed to their doors by the shame-

less traducers of. Priestly and Relig-

ious virtue. Among others, one of the

most damnable books that is doing

service in this cause of filth is a book

that is much vaunted and flaunted by

these moral vultures of bigotry, a book

that is being spread broadcast over the

land, and which is called—^why, it is
almost a desecration to mention the

name in the Church, but I will never-

theless mention it
—
“Maria Monk.”

Did you ever hear that name? Well

now, just let me give,* by way of illus-

tration, an exposure, on non-Catholic

authority, of what is nowadays ad-

duced as one of their strongest argu-

ments against priestly virtue and

the purity of our convent homes; and

precisely because it is so considered,

I am taking that for an illustration.

Who Was Maria 5^onk?

Maria Monk was a common, vile

prostitute, who never had seen the in-

side of a convent. She had been an in-

mate of a so-called Magdalen asylum

in the city of Montreal, conducted by a

certain Mrs. McDonald; and there she

found the companions, whom she de-

scribes as fellow “Sisters” in her book,

all like herself, incorrigible prosti-

tutes. It was there, under the .guid-

ing hand of men calling themselves

“ministers of the trospel,” that the

so-called book, of the “Awful Revela-

tions of Maria Monk” first saw the

light of day; there they were compiled

and they have been doing service ever

since. By the hundreds of thousands,

that book has been sold in England,

in America, and in every land where

the English language is spoken; that

book has gone into countless homes,

to poison the minds and hearts of the

people against the Catholic Church, to

disgust them with most revolting

nightmares of so-called pfiestly and

religious depravity. Now what are the

facts? You know it is not a recent

thing. I have here a work of Cardi-

nal Newman. Cardinal Newman had
occasion in his day, in England, to

refute the story of this infamous

woman. When this story was first

published. Col. W. L. Stone, Protes-

tant editor of the New York Commer-

.

cial Advertiser, Mr. A. Frothingham,

president of the Bank of Montreal,

and Mr. Duncan Fisher, of New York
City, all of them Protestants,^ were se-

lected as a Committee to go to Mon-

treal and to investigate the convent

of the Hotel Dieu, where this in-

famous woman claimed to haVe been

a nun, and of -WThioh she claims in her

book to give an accurate description.

These three Protestant, gentlemen,

acting ,as a committee for a large

body of Protestants in New York,
went to Montreal, made a thorough

investigation, and brought back a com-

plete refutation of the story of this

greatest imposter of the Nineteenth

Century. They confronted her, then

in jail, and .her three associates, still

in the, |^agdalen asylum as incorrigi-

ble prostitutes, and proved to the ex-

clusion of every possibility of denial

that they had never been inside of that

convent. Nay, what is more—and this
is the most convincing of all refu-

tations—a certain company in Mon-
treal, Jones & Company, of English
Protestants, who took the pains to in-

vestigate, found that the so-called

Revelations of this infamous woman

were taken verbatim, word for word,

from another book, published in the

year 1731, one hundred years before,

in England, under the title of “The

Gates of Hell Opened, or a Develop-

ment of the Secret of Nunneries.”

“Maria Monk’s pamphlet,” says a Liv-

erpool paper, “is a verbatim copy of

that work, the only difference being a

change of names.” And the editor of

,a Boston paper pledged himself that

this was a fact, and the editor of an-

other was ready to make affidavit



9

that the original work, one hundred

years old then, was in his possession

a few months previously, when it l\^ad

been lent to the publishers of Maria

Monk’s “Disclosures.”

Maria Monk Proven an Unprincipled

Liar and Incorrigible Profligate.

Now that is the story of her book,

and its investigation by a fairminded

committee of Protestant gentlemen,

finding first of all, that the woman

had never even seen the inside of a

Catholic convent; secondly, that the

description she gave of the convent

was an exact description of the Mag-

dalen asylum of Mrs. McDonald and

not of the Hotel Dieu; and thirdly, that

the companions, described in her book,

were not nuns at all, but, like herself,

inmates of the Magdalen asylum. Yet

despite all Jthis, the infamous woman

continued to be dragged about the

country, for the sake of revenue and in

the interest of Bigotry, until finally,

despite all efforts to the contrary,

she had to be returned to jail,

and died there as a common prostitute,

which she had been all her life. Yet

this is the work that is STILL doing

gallant service right here in the city

of Toledo and in many other cities of

oiir land! Now these facts have been
made known and published again and

again and again, but you might as

well reason with the Rock of Gibraltar

as to reason with Prejudice and

Bigotry that is determined to believe

this tale, and therefore clings to it

religiously, and still spreads it with

fanatical zeal, thus continuing and

diffusing its baleful pestilence and

evil effects. I give this merely

a§ one instance. I might take up

every book, I might take up the

career of every so-called ex-priest

and of every so-called ex-nun who

is touring the country, and give you

their record, until, before I had

half finished, you would feel that

you had to get some artificial way of
closing your nostrils to the unbear-

able moral stench that would issue

forth from the bare description of

the lives of these inen and women,

who are the heroes and heroines of
this crusade against the Catholic

Church, from whose fold (if they ever

were real priests or real sisters) they

were thrown out, because of their in-

corrigible immorality. But for that

matter half of them never were

priests, nor had the slightest con-

nection with the Catholic priest-

hood; and as for those who claim

to have been sisters, the farthest

and nearest that most of them

ever got to a Catholic Sister was when

they entered the door of a refuge for

confirmed prostitutes, a refuge kept

for the love of God, by Catholic Sisters;

and the nearest they ever got to a con-

vent, was when they entered a Good

Shepherd Home, or a Magdalen Asy-

lum, not as Sisters, but as penitents

to be reclaimed unto virtue.

The Fundamental Question at Issue

Fairly Stated and Squarely Faced.

But this is not my purpose tonight.

I mean to take up an entirely different

line of argument. We are told that
the Catholic Church naturally, neces-

sarily, of its very nature produces im-

morality. The Catholic Church AS

SUCH is rotten and essentially bad,
and brings forth nothing but badness,

precisely because the Catholic Church

itself is rotten and corrupt. On what

is that assertion based? It is based

on the indisputable fact that there are

bad Catholics. Yes, and pointing to

these they say with scorn: “There is

your Catholic Church!” Now I want
to ask this honest and fair question

of all thinking men: Can the wick-

edness and the immorality of indi-

vidual Catholics, be they of the laity

or be fhey of the clergy, can that,

I ask, be charged up against the Cath-

olic Church? If the Catholic Church

teaches immorality, if the Catholic

Church naturally tends to immorality,

then Yes; otherwise. No!

First Argument Disproving That

Catholicism is Corrupt by the Irre-

sistible Logic of Facts.

Let us take up the argument. I say,

then, that, if the Catholic Church, AS
SUCH, produces wicked lives, bad lives,

immorality and moral corruption, then

those who are the most faithful to the

practice and to the teachings of the



10

Catholic Church must of nocessity be

the worst men. That is sound logic,

isn’t it? If the natural tendency of

the Catholic Church is to produce

moral rottenness and corruption, then

it follows, as an inevitable conplu-

clusion: the better a Catholic, the

worse a man; the more fervent a

Catholic becomes, the more wicked he

grows. Let me descend to the con-

crete. He^, for example, is the

doctrine of CONFESSION. We are
told that the CONFESSIONAL is

a veritable cesspool of immorality.

Lectures are given FOR MEN ONLY,
and lectures are given FOR WOMEN
ONLY, in order to portray adequately

and without constraint the rottenness,

of this institution. Again, we are told*

that the doctrine of INDULGENCES

takes away, in the Catholic ^hurch,

the obligation of real, sincere repent-

ance, and that therefore it makes a

Catholic heedless of sin. We are told
that the Catholic doctrine of rever-

ence for, and love of Mary, the Mother

of Jesus; that the invocation and the

veneration of Mary, the Mother of

Jesus is a source of idolatry, and leads

Catholics into careless and negligent

lives, because it makes them under-

rate the necessity of Christ, the

Mediator.

The Pretended Corruption of Cath-

olicism Reduced to Its Logical

Consequences.

Well now, if this be true, then I say

the man or woman that goes most

often and most faithfully to confes-

sion must of necessity, by frequent

contact with that cesspool of' corrup-

tion, become wholly depraved and

thoroughly glutted with immorality.

If the Catholic confessional is a cess-

pool of immorality, then the more you

have recourse to it, the worse you will

get. Again, if indulgences and the

veneration of Mary destroy the fear

of sin and deceive men as to the

need of repentance, then of neces-

sity the man that is most zealous

and untiring in liis efforts to gain

indulgences, where and whenever

possible, the Catholic who is most de-

vout in his invocation and veneration

of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, that

man should become a veritable monster

of Sin! My conclusion is strictly
logical.

The Reality of Fact Do^s Not Square

With the Theory That the Catholic

Religion is Bad.

Now as a matter of fact, it is just

the opposite. In the man who goes

most frequently to the Sacrament of

Penance, in the man or the woman

that makes a practice of Confession,

we find a noble and holy and beautiful

life; and we find, inevitably and with-

out exception, that the man who is

living an absolutely rotten life, the

man who is morally corrupt and lep-

rous from top to bottom, the man who

calls himself a Catholic, but lives like

a beast, is a man who has not been

near the confessional for months and

perhaps years. Tllere are the facts in

the case. So it is not the practice of

Catholic teachings that makes men

corrupt, but it is the negiect of those

practices that lead men away from

the path of virtue.

Catholicism Not Only the Stay of

Innocence but the Most Powerful

Inspiration of Reform.

And again, if you find that a man, a

Catholic, is a reformed drunkard, or

else, from a
^

swearing, a cursing, a

filthy mouthed beast, he has become a

decent-living man, a conscientious and

honorable father, a dutiful husband, a

kind and respectable, decent, honest

neighbor, if you find that such a

change for the better has actually

taken place in him, and you ask “Well,

how did it all come about?”—^his near
acquaintances will tell you that the

change in that man, the reformation

in that man, dates from the day

and hour when, through some kind-

ly and providential influence, that

man at ' least found again the

way to the Confesional; that it

dates precisely from the day, on which

that man resumed the practice

of his Catholic duties; that from that

very moment dates his moral change

for the better. Now these facts are
the merest commonplaces for you

Catholics, as old and familiar as your

own birthdays, truths that you act

upon instinctively and base your judg-



11

ment on, without the slightest fear of

being mistaken or deceived. And as for

you, who are not Catholics, you too can

easily verify these facts (if you would

only be just and fair enough to take

the pains) by merely asking that so-

called Catholic, who may have scan-

dalized you by his shameful life, when

it was that he last went to confession,

and you will find, inevitably and in

-vevery instance, that he has long since

abandoned the practice of regular con-

fession, and that from the day of his

neglect thereof he started^ to go down

in the scale of decency and morality.

These Facts Demonstrate That Cath-

olicism Exerts Good and Holy

Influence.

Now this is a patent fact, visible to
all, which cannot be gainsaid. It is

impossible to deny it. What does it

prove? It proves plainly, and beyond

the possibility of contradiction, that

CATHOLIC FAITH and Catholic
teaching and Catholic practice will

naturally and necessarily produce

virtue, honor, respectability and a

pure Christian life, and it demon-

strates that the neglect of such prac-

tices and of such religious principles

is what constitutes' the peculiar at-

tribute of the scandalous Catholic. It

is not the Catholic who attends to his
religious duties that you need fear in

your contact with him, either in bus-

iness, or in social, or in political rela-

tions. No, but I say to you, be-

ware of the man who calls himself a
Catholic, but who has become

a

I

stranger to his Catholic faith and to

Catholic practice and to Catholic

duties! Look out for that ma-n! You
cannot rely upon him, either socially

or morally or politically. He is a
dangerous man, and YOU know it!

A Second Argument From the Logic
of Facts Vindicating Catholicism.

Let me take another line of argu-
ment. Now we all know, and we must
all admit, that there are some Cath-

olics at least, whom we all concede to
be good, honorable people. There is

no gainsaying that fact, no matter

how much you may vilify the Catholic
Church at large and Catholics in par-

ticular. You must all admit, and even

the worst enemies of the Church ac-

tually do admit, that there are individ-

ual Catholics who are certainly good,

honest, clean men, decent, respectable

and noble hearted Christian women.

Now, if the natural result of Catholic

teaching and Catholic practice is to

make men bad, and if the natural re-

sult of Protestant teaching is to make

men good, then I say the more these

good Catholics adX^ance in virtue,

the more they must grow away from

the Catholic Church, until at last they

find an asylum in one of the many
split-up denominations of Protestant-

ism
;
and on the other hand, the worse

a Protestant becomes, the more he will

gravitate toward the Catholic Church,

which is the natural refuge, according

to Bigotry’s assumption, of everything

that is bad.

Undeniable That at Least Some Cath-
^

olics Are Good.

Now I again repeat, we know that
there are Catholic men and women
who are unquestionably good. Go, for
instance, to the Protestant veteran of

the Civil War, and dare, within his

hearing, to say a single word against

the noble hearted Sister of Charity,

who nursed him on the field of battle,
and you will find to your cost that he

will not st^nd for it. He KNOWS
that those were good women. He
knows that! There are thousands and
thousands of Grand ^rmy men that
have gone through the Civil War, who
will not stand ^or one word of insult,

or reviling against the noble-hearted,

self-sacrificing Catholic Sisters of

Charity. Again we know, those of us
who ha^e any acquaintance with his-
tory, that a Saint Vincent de Paul was
a veritable Giant of Christian

Charity. He stands out conspic-
uous for this virtue, among all his "

contemporaries, head and shoulders

above them all. We know, too,
that a Saint Francis de Sales was

loved by his most bitter antagonists

and enemie^, because of his marvelous

meekness and sweetness of temper

and character. We all know that men
like Manning and Wiseman and New-
man conquered for themselves the ad-



12

miring love of a whole nation, in
the

face of the bitterest antagonism
to

everything that was Catholic. We

know that Leo XIII was so wonderful

a man that he was universally
loved

and admired, even by those that
would

have preferred to hate him, but
who

could not. There was no man ,of late

years who, within the moment of his

death, received such tribute
from

friend and foe alike, as did this great

and good Pontiff.' Yet these were all

Catholics. So after all there are some

good and noble Catholics!

Catholicism, if Bad, Should Repell the

Good and Attract the Wicked.

Now. I say, if the natural conse-

quence of Catholic Teaching and

Catholic practice is to make men

worse, then these men and women, as

they became better and better, would

have gradually drifted away from the

Catholic Church, and would ultimately

have found an asylum in one of the

many hundreds of the Protestant de-

nominations.

Protestantism Ought Then to Acquire

Our Best and We Its Worst.

And on the other hand, bad Protes-

tants—and I am sure even the bitter-
est enemies of the Qatholic Church

will admit that there are at least some

bad Protestants. Don’t you think so

yourself? Well, then, if the natural

tendency of the Protestant Church is

to make men constantly increase in

goodness and virtue, then these bad

Protestants would finally have grown

tired of their association with so many

angels, and would have sought refuge

in the “MONSTER HAREM” of the

Catholic Church.

The Actual Facts Prove the Reverse

to Be the Case.

Now what are the facts? Facts are

stubborn things. What are they

in this case ? The fact is that I

defy the world to mention to me a

single good, unselfish, disinterested

practicing Catholic, a man faithful

and tried in virtue, who has ever aban-

doned the Church. It is not the good

and decent Catholic who leaves the

Catholic Church; it is the rubbish, the

rank weeds, the men who are unwill-

ing to square with the morality of the

Catholic Church, these are they who

leave the Church, either voluntarily,

or, in the case of priests, by compul-

sion. The ex-priest is he that has been

silenced, excommunicated, thrown out

of the Church, because of a scandalous

life. There is the fact. I boldly issue

the defiant challenge to mention to me

one single’ name, ONE SINGLE

NAME of a man, who left the Cath-

olic Church for disinterested motives,

in order to better himself spiritually.

Protestantism cannot point with pride

to a single irreproachable and unsel-

fish convert from Catholicism.

Protestantism Has Given the Very

Flower of Her Children to

the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, it is also a fact

—and again I say facts are stubborn
things—^that it is, in the main, the riff-
raff, the refuse of Protestantism,

those of whom respectable Protest-

ants themselves are heartily ashamed,

who are least friendly and most bit-

terly and uncompromisingly hostile, in

their ignorant and malignant hate, to

all that is Catholic; while on the con-

trary, there are thousands and thou-

sands of earnest prayerful men be-

longing to Protestant denominations,

who, striving for perfection and spir-

itual sanctification, have brought the

most enormous sacrifices, have given

up everything, home, friends, wealth,

position, yes, life itself, in order to

enter the fold of the Catholic Church;

and after their entrance into the Cath-

olic Church, they have compelled the

admiration of a hostile world by the

purity and the nobility of their lives.

I need mention only Manning, I need

mention only Newman, I need mention

only in our own day Benson, the son of

the Protestant Archbishop of Canter-

bury. These men sacrificed everything

for very love of the Catholic Church. I

could mention hundreds and hundreds

of others. Their names are household-

words. THEY did not come to us cling-

ing to the apron-string of a woman.

It wasn’t said of them, as it, is said in

a St. Louis paper: “Father Gallagher,

who became an Episcopalian in order

to marry.”



13

Sacrifice the Test of Sincerity.

No. People do not enter the Catho-

lic Church for that. When kings per-

secuted for religion^s sake, when to

persevere meant to tread a path of

thorns; when kings had lands to dis-

tribute, when denying your faith,

meant to tread a path of roses: the

men and women who, under Queen

Bess of England, gave up their lives

and all their possessions, and were

willing to go to the Tower, to be

racked and tortured, to be dragged to

Tyburn Gate, there to be hung, and

cut down and, while still alive, to be

disembowelled and quartered, the

Catholics and their converts of those

days certainly LOVED THEIK RE-
LIGION. Not all the honors, wealth

or possessions which Queen Bess held

out ^ to them, could win the true

and good to the New Religion, no,

—

but they were a powerful inducement

for the backsliders and renegades

from the Catholic Faith, who may in-

deed have loved their new religion,

BUT THEY CERTAINLY DID Lt)VE
THEIR LIVES.

A Matter of Personal Experience.

My experience as a priest of the
Church reaches back twenty-five

years, lacking a few months. In

the course of this considerable period

of experience as a Catholic priest,

I have known hundreds, who have en-

tered the Catholic Church, and I have

known some, to my sorrow I say it, who
have left the Catholic Church, but, as

I have just said, I have known many,

many more who have entered it.

I myself—and I give thanks to God
for it—^was privileged to receive hun-
dreds to instruction. I believe that

the converts that I personally, in

these tlwenty-five years of my priest-
hood, have received into the Cath-

olic Church, will easily number over

,two thousand. Now, in all my ex-
perience as a Catholic priest, I

can say this frankly, I have

never yet found a virtuous and

practicing Catholic, who was true

to the teachings and true to the prac-

tices of his holy religion, I have never

found such a one, I say, leaving the

Church. Secondly, I have fouhd

hundreds and hundreds of honest,

sincere souls, seeking for truth,

seeking for light, seeking for moral,

spiritual and religious uplift, who,

despite tremendous odds, and at

the cost of heroic sacrifices, have

entered the Catholic Church. Thirdly,

I have always found <that, when a

Catholic, whether lay or cleric, left the

Church, there was always some tem-

poral advantage which he sought to

gain thereby, or it was a case of anger

and injured pride, that swept him like

a torrent out of the Church, or, in more

instances still, it was a vision of

womanly beauty, of which the Church

had said: is not lawful for thee,”

but which his heart nevertheless de-

sired—a -Vision of beauty,” which

he left the church to acquire. Now,

the fourth f^ct, I have always found

that in the grave and solemn

moments of life, when men are

swayed by the mighty, mighty

niotive of approaching death and

the imminent Judgment of God. in

the face of death, I say, I have al-

ways found that the apostates gladly

turn back to the Catholic Church.

No matter what the reason was

that took them ojjjt of the Church,

if they have the chance at all, mark

you, my friends, in the face of impend-
ing death, they will call for the priest

of the Catholic Church! Is there a

moment when man is more likely to

be swayed by solemn truth and sin-

cerity than Vhen he stands on the

brink of eternity, face to face with the

coming Judgment of God?

Your Virtue Must Be the Best De-

fense of Our Honor.

Oh, my dear people, I have tried in
simple, plain words, that would be

intelligible to you all, to put before

you the plain proof of the spirit-

uality, the strength, the moral and

the religious value of the Catholic

Church. Let me close with the words
which St. Paul, in this morning’s

Epistle, addresses to us, even as he

addressed them, almost nineteen hun-

dred years ago, to his own people at

Corinth: “Brethren,” he said, “see to

it that you receive not the grace of

God in vain. ^Behold, now is the ac-



14

ceptable time, now is the day of sal-

vation.” And then a little farther on

he adds: “Live honestfy and holily,

that our ministry may not be blamed.”

Ah, my dear Catholic people, I told

you at the beginning of this sermon,

that the real remedy, the only effective

remedy against this campaigi^ of

vilification against the Catholic

Church, is a strong, loyal, devoted and

religious Catholic laity. Here you

have the words of St. Paul, telling

you, as he told the Corinthians of old,

that it is your duty so to live that our

miuistry may be not blamed, that

those who are outside may have noth-

ing to say against us, because you

Will be the living argument of the

honor, the power and the efficacy of

the Catholic priesthood of Jesus

Christ.

LECTURE II.

THE CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTHOOD.

Ploughshare of Peason and Facts Driven Through the Vile Ban^ngs

of Ex-Priests, who were Expelled from the Church for the, Very

Immorality which, in a Spirit of Revenge, they now At-

tempt to Fasten Upon Her. ^

“What accusation bring ye against

this man?” Thus asked Pilate of the

High Priests and the Scribes and the

Pharisees, who had brought the Mlas-

ter before his court. “Why, if this

man were not a malefactor,” they

said, “we would jiot have delivered

him unto you.” “Why, of course he

is a malefactor! He must be! That is

why we brought him here,” thus spoke

the Scribes and the Pharisees. And

the false witnesses came, .and they

spake all manner of evil and false

testimony against Christ. “This

man,” they said, “seduces the people.

Hie stirs them up. He forbiddeth the

giving of tribute to Caesar. He is the

enemy of public order. He is a dis-

turber of the peace. There was peace

in our land until this man “''came

amongst us and began to teach his

strange doctrines of another King-

dom. He said he is a king; he wants

to rule over m%n. He setteth himself

up against Caesar. If thou let this

man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend!”

While others said, “He blasphemed,

he makes himself a God; he forgives

sins; he pretends to have Divine pow-

er. He says he is a teacher sent of

God, and that whosoever will not hear

his message and his word shall be

condemned. He is a disturber of the

peace.” And while the Scribes and

the Pharisees and the High Priests

urge that he is a malefactor—-it needs
no proving, of course not! why THEY
SAY SO, that is enough!—and while,
the false witnesses pour forth their

volleys of/ filth and of damnably lies

against the Divine Master, the un-

ruly mob beyond, that surges to and

fro beneath the Praetorium, is shriek- -

ing itself hoarse with fury and clam-

oring loudly for His de^h. “Away

with him!/’ they cry, “to the cross

with him! Crucify him!” And wheir

Pilate, moved by some faint in-

stinct of humanity to save Christ

from their extreme cruelty, be-

cause he saw that they had. delivered

Him over out pf hatred and envy and

malice, presented to them the worst
'

cutthroat in all the land of Judea,

Barabbas, a common highway-robber,

whose very name was a terror to all

the people in and about Jerusalem,

and said, “Which will ye have?” they*

shouted with one accord, “Give us

Barabbas! Crucify Christ!”

History Repeats Itself.

My dear people, that all happened

nineteen hundred years ago, and be-

cause Christ’s Bride, the Church, is

one with Him, the Body indwelt by.



Him, the True Vine, aye, the very Liv-

ing Continuation of Christ through all

the ages, conling down from the begin-

ning, passing through all* history,

treading the highways and the byways

of human existence, descending

through all the ages, dwelling among

all the nations, a stranger to no time

or clime or country, therefore, that

same history for aye repeats itself

in Christas Church. ‘As it was

in the beginning, is now and ever shall

be.’ “Jesus Christ the same yester-

day, and today, and forever”! (Heb.

xi:8).

Again in bur own day the leaders

of men, outside of the Catholic Church,

have put their heads together, and

they have whispered it among them-

selves, “We must get rid of the

Church, at .all costs! Wherever we

turn, she it is who blocks «ur progress.

We must make an end of her!”

Capital Her Enemy Because She Be-

friends Labor.

Greedy Capital, seeking to grind

down the workingman, and to make

of him a veritable slave, finds in the

Church alone the one power in all this

world that dares to step up to it un-

daunted and say to it, “It is not law-

ful! You cannot do this thing!” The

one obstacle it finds athwart its path

is *the Church of Ages, holding her

protecting and battle-scarred aegis

over the laboring man, whose friend

she has ever been since the days of

the Carpenter of Nazareth. Read the

great historians of the past ages

!

Read the great philosophers who have

studied the science of history, read

even a Guizot, a Hallam, a Gibbons, a

Victor Cousin, each of them hostile to

the Church, yet all of them compelled

by sheer force of facts to tell you that,

throughout that long period of

the “Dark Ages,” so-called, the

Catholic Church was the only friend

the poor and the down'-trodden had.

You cannot blot that out of history! It

is there in indelible characters! And

if all of the histories were to be

burned and wiped out of existence,

there would still remain innumerable

monuments in stone and bronze and

masonry, in every land under God^s

sun, to proclaim to all the merit of the

Church, in behalf of the laboring man.

Human Religions Hate Her Because

She Is Divine.

. The religious teachers outside . of

the Church hate her because she will

not be as one of them; she will not

be a human institution, but claims to

be divine in her origin and .life; be-

cause she will not, like them, speak

the vagaries of human opinion, but

dares to proclaim, without alteration

or compromise. Divine, Eternal Truths,

because she alone ' “teaches as one

having authority, and not as their

Scribes.”

The Chief Priests and Princes of the

People.

All the leaders of the people accuse

her before'the tribunal of the World,

and when the World asks them. What

is the trouble, what have you got

against this Church, wny do you ask

me to ostracize her, why do you ask

me to repudiate her, why do you ask

me to deny her children the civil

rights that are g||"anted to all other

citizens? they answer, “If she were

not a malefactor, we would not be de-

nouncing her.” It needs no proof.

Why, of course not! These leaders

of human thought, these leaders of

religious thought outside of the Cath-

olic Church, they have decreed it and

that is enough. Let her be crucified!

The False^ Witnesses.

Then, lower down* in the social

scale, there are others, the suborned

j^itnesses, who are vomiting forth

their false testimony against her.

They yell out their vile calumnies

and slanders against the Church. She

is an enemy of the country, of course

she - is ! She is plotting against the

liberties of free America! She is un-

dermining the glorious sytem of pub-

lic education! She is disturbing

homes by her marriage laws! She is

a disturber of the peace! She must be

done away with!

“And Some Rising Gave False Testi-

mony Against Him and Their

Testimony Was Not

Agreeing.”

These accusations come in bewild-



ering rapidity, and yet they are not

concordant. While one will bring one

accusation, the other will say, “No,

that is not the reason, but this is the

reason;” and their testimony is not

in -accord.

The Rabble.

And beyond these there is the great

rabble, that is clamoring against

the Church, clamoring for her de-

struction. If it had the power today,

it would ruthlessly crush out her very

life, mercilessly destroy and utterly

exterminate her from the face of the

land; it would do again what it

did in Penal Times, it would

put a price upon the head of every

bishop and priest in the country. It

would f confiscate the lands and the

properties of every Catholic, and it

would make it a crime to profess one-

self a Catholic, a crime punishable 1^

imprisonment and death. Had it the

power, that is what it would do! Such

then is the condition we are facing

today.

These tides of persecution return

periodically. Wheir one generation is

gone, it is begun all over again. All

the old and rusty weapons of former

times are brought out once more, to

do new service. Take the record of

the Know-Nothing days; you find that

all the antiquated ammunition, which

did service then, has been brought

into requisition today. Read any of

the papers of those days, read any

of the books, the magazine articles

that were written then, and you will

fancy that you are reading the actual-

ities of the present day.

The Most Formidable Feature of the

Present Attack on the Church Is

That It Is Not Confined to the

Vulgar and Ignorant.

But here is the saddest feature of

this awful campaign. It is not only

the rabble, -it is not only the mob, it

is not only the ignorant that are

clamoring against the Church, that are

inciting against the Church—^though
that were dangerous enough, because

a mob is always a dangerous thing,

history proves that—but mark you
well, it is from the higher levels of so-

ciety as well that the attack proceeds.

It is the leaders of so-called Thought,

outside of the Church, the leaders of

religious thought, the leaders of sec-

ular thought, they have all combined

against her. Wherever you look today,

whatever book or magazine you

chance to pick up, there staring you

in the face, in language now disguised

and now open, is another accusation

leveled against the Church. You have

a constant undercurrent that is arous-

ing hatred against the Church, that is

creating suspicion and distrust of the

Church, from the highest circles down-

ward, in the university-circles, on the

platform, in the pulpits, everywhere

and always you find it in evidence. It

would seem that they simply cannot

let the Church alone!

Educational Centers of the Land Iin-

pregnated with Irreligious

Thought.

A few years ago a tremendous sen-
sation was created in our country by

the revelation of the conditions of

thought prevalent in our great state

universities, in our high schools. Peo-

ple were shocked to hear of the prin-

ciples that were being inculcated into

the youth of the present day. They

were shocked to learn that men, trust-

ed and honored as presidents of our

great universities, as professors and

leaders of thought, thrust aside con-

temptuously, without the slightest

misgiving or scruple, all the old moor-

ings of Christian morality and Chris-

tian dogma. They brushed all this

aside as so many useless cobwebs. And

they boldly announced and boldly

taught the youth of the land that a

new era was dawning, that the old

God had been dethroned and a new

God, Humanity, was rising with the

consciousness of divinity within it,

realizing and recognizing that it, and

it alone, was the god that should be

served. That spirit is growing today.

It has not changed. When President

Eliot composed his famous “Six-Foot

Library” of the. quintessence of human

genius and intelligence, he did not

even think that a New Testament, con-

taining the sublime moral teachings of

Christ, was deserving of a place in

this library of New Thought, and

when, just recently, his brain was



17

pleased to give birth to another new

child, a New Religion, he calmly in-

formed us that this New Religion will

need Christ no longer.

Professor Ross, of Wisconsin Univer-

sity, vs. the Catholic Immigrant.

Just now one of our reputable mag-

azines, the Century, is publishing a

series of articles oii the influence

which immigration is exercising upon

our country, and in |ihis article the

writer. Prof. Ross, of ‘the University

of Wisconsin, takes occasion to point

out that immigration is today a source

of grave dahger, a real menace to this

country. And why ? Because this im-

migration is largely from CATHOLIC

countries. Because these people, com-

ing to our shores, will be quickly

I taken up by the Catholic Church, their

children will be placed in her

parochial schools, isolated from their

fellow-citizens, and will thus grow

apart, says this wise professor, from

the rest of the nation, and in this

way become a menace to the coun-

try. Why? .BECAUSE THEY ARE
CATHOLICS! That is the inference.

*And, if the Catholic immigrant, who

is coming to our shores today is a

menace to our American institutions,

why, of course, those Catholics that

ha^e immigrated heretofore, the Irish,

the Germans, the French, the Bel-

gians, or of whatever nationality they

were, they, by unavoidable inference,

constitute the same kind of a danger.

That danger is growing, and grow-

ing all the time, because .the Church

is growing all the time. So there

again, in one of the leading maga-

zines of the country, you find

propounded hy one of the leaders

of secular thouj^ht, the same idea,

“the Catholic Church a menace to our

country!” And yet, in the face o/ all

this, we are told that the Catholics

should remain supine and inactive,

should sA quietly in a corner and be

good little boys and girls, lest they

disturb the peace!

In Language Less Disguised and Re-

fined the Vile Rabble Are Incited

to' Take Up the Same Hue

and Cry.

While such accusations are being

hurled against the Church from the

higher (so-called) circles, there are

others that are being brought against

her among the crowd, among the mob,

as I might call it. And here,

in conformity ;with the character of

the audience and the end to be

achieved, the appeal is to all that

is vilest, most bestial and degraded,

so as to involve the great mass of the

people in the flames of religious

bigotry and hatred against the Catho-

lic Church.

These Vile Creatures Claim to Cham-

pion the Cause of Protestantism,

and Respectable Protestant-

ism Does Not Deny

Their Claim.

It is now the third month that our

city has been the theater of the ex-

ploits of two vile specimens of this

class, who have been pouring forth

^unstintedly all the foulness and ran-

cor of their own corrupt hearts, stir-

ring up the blackest kind of religious

hatred, by means of damnable slanders

and lies and calumnies against the

Church, against her institutions,

against her priesthood, against her

sacraments. And this is being done

IN THE NAME OF RELIGION, IN
THE NAME OF RESPECTABLE
PROTESTANTISM ! And it is not re-
pudiated by Protestants! I have looked

in vain, for th^*ee months, for so much

las one^word of repudiation, from any

reputable source, of this despicable

campaign, of vilification that is going

on continually. The public press is

silent. “Oh,” it will tell you, “why,

you must not notice that! IPs be-

neath your dignity.” That is all very

well, provided no harm is done by it.

But when you reflect that fifty, thou-

sand of the citizens of Toledo have

been most cruelly slandered, calumni-

ated, vilified and outraged in that

which they hold most sacred, and

that this has been going on continu-

ously for the past three months,

without the slightest hint of a

protest from any quarter, does it

not seem high time for the

press that is supposed to create a

sound public' opinion on all questions

affecting the betterment of the city.



18

S

regarding all that concerns the inter-

est and the welfare of the community,

is it not, I ask, high time for the press

of the city to come forward and take

the decent stand of absolute repudia-

tion? Instead, however, there is si-

lence, supreme silence, in the camp of

so-called respectable Protestantism.

Not a word of repudiation of tjiis

foulness, not a word of repudiation

of these two human cesspools that are

filling Toledo with the stench of the

rottenness of their hearts, belching

forth incessantly, night after night,

the filthiest and foulest accusations

against fifty thousand citizens of To-

ledo.

Only a Coward Can Acquiesce "tn an

Insult Against What Should Be

Most Sacred to Him, His

Religion.

Now, understand, there is nothing

in this wide world that is nearer and

dearer to a man than his- honest re-
*

ligious convictions. There is nothing

more sacred to a man than his honest,

sincere relations towards his God.

When you strike at these, you strike

at something that is fundamental in

his makeup, and he is a coward, the

worst kind of a coward, that does not

manfully defend his most sacred of

rights, his most .sacred of liberties!

Catholics Are Insulted Publicly and

With Impunity. -

I have here a card that was dis-

tributed 'this* afternoon in the street-

cars of the city of Toledo, without let

or hindrance; the
'

distributors were

suffered to abuse the system of public

conveyance for their nefarious pur-

pose, and there was no man to say

them nay. This card announces the

“PATRIOTIC”—of course, they are
always patriotic

—
“Protestant Lec-

tures.” They have been in progress,

as I have said, now for almost three

mbnths. It is an undying patriotism,

isn’t it ? There is no limit to it. And

this is what you get at these “patri-

otic meetings.” You can get your fill

of “Rome, Rags and Relics, or the

Shinbone Exposed.” Why, these men

haven’t brains enough to know what a

relic is! You can get your fill on

^‘Raffling Souls out of Purgatory, or

the Pope’s Pawnshop.” You can hear

all about the “^IV[an of Sin,” the man

whom the world reveres and esteems

as the Great White Shepherd of

Christendom, the Spiritual Leader of

three hundred million human souls—

the “Man of Sin” forsooth! And then

you can get the “MASS” or “ROME’S

PANCAKE GOD EXPOSED.” Now,
if there is anything more damnable or

blasphemous than that, I would like to

know it!

Will You Suffer Christ to Be Blas-

phemed for the Sake of In-

sulting Us?

Now, I appeal, aye, if there are

Protestants here tonight, I appeal

even to Protestants, to a Protestant’s

knowledge of Scripture. All Protest-

ants claim that the Lord’s Supper is

somehow or other Christ. And, Ac-

cording to their own teachings, when

they receive or partake of the Sacra-

ment, as they still are pleased to call

it, of the Lord’s Supper,, they believe

that somehow or other it is not merely

bread, or, as that ribald blasphemy

here calls it, “pancakes,” that they

receive; but it is, in some vague, mys-

terious way, they don’t know just

how, they will not define it, they will

not descend to the specific ana say

it is this kind of a presence or that

kind of a presence, but they have an

instinctive feeling that it is Christ,

and that they receive Christ, either

virtually, symbolically or actually.

I appeal, then, to the respectable

Protestant element of the city of To-

ledo, in protest against the damnable

blasphemy of applying such an epithet

to the Lord’s Supper, whether one be-

lieves it to consist, as we do, in the

actual, real, substantial and bodily

presence of Christ, or whether one

believes it, according to your way,

to consist in a figurative, mystical

presence of Christ, and I ask you to

answer in all fairness, wheliier it is

not, according to your conception, as

well as ours, a hideous blasphemy to

hurl such a vile and contemptuous ex-

pression as that, at a doctrine, which is

fundamental in the Christian Religion,

the Pasch of the New Law, the most

hallowed ceremony that Jesus Christ

performed in all His life, when,



19

the night before He died, with His

Apostles gathered round about Him,

He took bread into His sacred and

venerable hands, and blessed it

and brake, and gave to His Disciples

saying: “Take ye and eat. This is

my body.” The devils of hell shrink

back from such a sacrilege! Yet here

are two men In your midst, who

dare to blaspheme that which is so^

unutterably sacred to Catholics, and

which ought to be equally sacred to

Protestants, and they do it in the

name of your Protestantism. And

you stand for it, merely because it is

aimed af the Catholic Church!

The Confessional in Fiction vs. the

Confessional in Fact.

Then there is something most de-

y lectable FOR THE LADIES, and it is
just for ladies alone, because it is so

exceedingly delectable, surprisingly de-

lectable, on “The Priest and Woman.”

It promises much, as you can readily

see from the title. And then there is

^another lecture FOR MEN. Of course,

it would not do to ignore the men, and

so there is to be a special lecture for

them on “Behind the Sealed Doors of

the Confessional Box.” All the mys-

teries and all the horrors that the dis-

torted human imagination of incarnate

fiends can manufacture will be placed

“behind the sealed doors of the con-

fessional.” And all the while anybody

that has an atom of good common

sense and who cares to do so, can

walk into the Catholic Church at any

time and look INTO THE OPEl^
DOORS OF A CONFESSIONAL,
whenever it suits his fancy. He can

come of a Saturday afternoon, or eve-

ning, or on the vigil of any holy day,

can enter any Catholic church, and sit

there for hours, and see FOR HIM-

SELF how exceedingly simple, how

exceedingly harmless, how exceedingly

innocent on the very face of it, is the

practice of the Sacrament of Confes-

sion. So it goes on!

The One-Sidedness of This Campaign.

The wonder of it is, my dear people,

that the Catholics of the city of To-

ledo and other cities of the land, have

had enough calm and patience, and

moral restraint about them to put up

with such a condition of affairs, and

hot allow their just anger to get the

Ibetter of them. Catholics and Protest-

ants of Toledo, when did you ever hear

of the Catholic Church standing forth

in any city of the land to prosecute a

campaign of vilification, lies, slanders

and calumny, of damnable religious

bigotry, prejudice and hatred against

fellow citizens ? Point out to me

one single example! Cite me

one instance where a Catholic

Church, or a Catholic pulpit has ever

been disgraced and abused for such

nefarious work as this! Why, there

would be riot, there would be blood-

shed in the land, if Catholics would re-

taliate in kind! . Point your finger at

a single man calling himself a priest,

that abuses his position for such pur-

poses, as this, and I guarantee to you

that he will be silenced within twenty-

four houts.

Voltaire, the old arcK-infidel, had

this motto, and he was true to it to the

end: “Fling mud,” he said, “fling mud

all the time! Some of it will stick.”

Evidently this is the plan of the pres-

ent campaign.

Celibacy of the Catholic Clergy the

Especial Target of Calumny.

Let me take up but one instance

thereof. I dare say that two-thirds, yes

two-thirds of this entire campaign of

vilification, which is directed against

the Church today, is aimed primarily

at the Catholic priesthood, at Catholic

priests, monks and nuns. They are mis-

represented. and painted in the dark-

est possible colors. You are made to

believe, if you will listen to these lies,

that the Catholic priest is necessarily

an incarnate beast, that he is a mon-

ster of immorality, that by reason of

celibacy he is necessarily a danger to

morality, a corruptor of women.

The Charge Is General, Not Specific.

Of course, those who say these things

take very good care not to be specific

in their Charges, they are very careful

never to mention the name in particu-

lar, except in some isolated instances

of public fault. But the charge is uni-

versal. They tell you: “That is one

who was caught! , The others were



20

shrewd enough not to get
caught. But

from that one, judge -them all.”

It Is Acknowledged That
the Accusa-

tion Rests Not So Much on
Attested

Facts As on the Assumption
that

Celibacy Necessarily Pro-

duces Immorality.

lYet these papers, that
are being

printed in the especial
interest of this

campaign, will go so far as
to state

emphatically that it is not
the faulty

of the individual man, but
it is the

fault of the system; they say
it is the

Roman Catholic system that is
to

blame for the whole thing.
There is

that system of celibacy,
which con-

demns the priest to a life of
solitari- ,

ness, instead of being
placed by the

side of a woman, in a happy
home, he

is placed without, and,
as a wolf in

sheep’s clothing, left
free to .destroy

woman’s virtue promiscuously.
That

is the accusation. And it is
precisely

by reason of celibacy tha,t
the priest is

assumed to be necessarily an
immoral

man. That is the accusation.
We are

'

told,, furthermore, that
he is immoral

because of the confessional;
the con-

fessional is necessarily
an institution

of lust, instituted for
the degradation

of priest and woman. Now,
these, it

is said, are the two causes
of priestly

immorality. Let us examine
them

frankly.

Isolated and Individual Cases
of Im-

morality Beside the Mark.

Does the celibacy which the
Church

enjoins upon her priesthood,
does that

create an immoral priesthood?^
I ex-

perience not the slightest
misgiving in .

answering absolutely and
confidently,

without fear of contradiction,
that cel-

ibacy has absolutely nothing
to do with

immorality. There are occasionally
to

be found in the Catholic
Church, men

that do not come up to the
standard

of holiness, to which a
Cathplic

ought to attain in his
daily life.

There are some few, both
among

the laity and the clergy,
who

fall from their duty, but,
mind you,

as I proved in my last lecture, you may

not charge this to the Church,
unless

you can prove that the Church
teaches

crime, that the Church enjoins
the

practice of wickedness, or
that the

Church rewards or recommends
teach-

ings and practices, which of
themselves \

produce wickedness and immorality,

or at least unless you are
able to

prove that the Church connives
at

such conditions, and does
not take

steps to repress them. Then,
and then

only, can you press home your
point,

that the wickedness, the
immorality,

the crimes of individual
Catholics,

should be charged up
against the

Church.

Catholic Teaching and Practice
Give

the Lie to This Assumption.

Now, as a matter pf fact, I
showed

in last Sunday night’s
lecture that

Catholic practice and Catholic
teach-

ing are the very opposite
of this.^ That

instead of producing crime
and wicked-

ness, as a matter of fact
they produce

the highest type of
virtue, and, when

you find the man that has sunk
to the

lowest, in the scale of
morality, when

you find a confirmed drunkard,
a prof-

ligate or criminal of any kind,
it mat-

ters not, when you find, I say,
such an

abandoned wretch and hear
it said

of him that he is a
Catholic, you

have but to question
him, and in

every case, without
exception, you will

get the self-same answer
for the ask-

ing, namely that he has
long since

abandoned the practice of his-
faith,

and that his downfall dated
precisely

from the time he gave up the
practice

of regular Confession.
Catholic teach-

ing and practice, therefore,
tend essen-

tially to produce not vice,
but the

highest type of virtue.

Marriage, the Opposite of
Celibacy,

No Reliable Safeguard of

Morality.

Now let us take up the case of cel-

ibacy. Celibacy, we are told,
produces

immorality, makes the priest
neces-

sarily an immoral man,
makes him a

danger to feminine virtue.
What would

you have the priest do? Why,
marry,

of course! Then I suppose
you will

claim that marriage is a
safeguard, is

a surety against
immorality. That is

the obvious conclusion.'
But is this

true? Does marriage of
itself, and

necessarily, protect a man against
im-

morality?



21

Marriage Does Not Protect the Pro-

testant Clergy Against Im-

morality.

Let us take the 6ase of the married

Protestant clergy. I ask you an hon-

est and a frank question. Does the

married Protestant clergy stand out

pre-eminently and conspicuously as re-

markable for its purity, far above the

Catholic unmarried priestood? What

is the answer ? Have you never read in

the columns of the daily papers in-

stances of the most shocking immoral-

ity committed by married Protestant

clergymen? Nov)^ mark you well, I

want it emphatically understood, and

I proclaim it absolutely and loudly,

^ that I believe the Protestant clergy, as

a body, to be honorable In its moral

life, but I proclaim it just as emphat-

ically and just as loudly, that there are

many and noted instances of the most

shocking and of the most revoltingly

immoral intrigues and immoral crimes

perpetrated by the married Protestant

clergy. And I appeal to your own ex-

perience, I appeal to the columns of

the daily press, and, if I wanted to es-

tablish a chronicle of scandal, I could

easily fill column upon column with the

immoral scandals of the married Prot-

estant clergy. Well, then, marriage ap-

parently does not protect them against

immorality. Now, if marriage does

not protect the married Protestant

clergy against the commission of im-

moral crimes, why would it act dif-

ferently in the case of the Catholic

clergy? How would marriage pro-
tect the Catholic clergy more than it

does the Protestant clergy?

Criminal Records More Favorable to

the General Morality of the Un-

married Catholic Than to That

of Married Protestant

Clergy.

' I have no fear in making the asser-

tion, and I am satisfied the criminal
records of our land will bear me out,

when I say that there are more cases

of infidelity to the vows of marriage

among the married Protestant clergy

than there are cases of infidelity to

the vow of celibacy among the unmar-

ried Catholic clergy. In fact, the in-

famous infidel and rationalistic Truth

Seeker Co., of New York, which never

loses an opportunity of unscrupulously

and viciously attacking the Catholic

Church, has published a book of statis-

tics on this subject, entitled the

“Crimes of Preachers.” In the pre-

face of the most recent edition of this

work, which gives a chronicle of cleri-

cal crime in the United States and

Canada, from 1878 to 1912 inclusively,

the vile muckrak^rs* and scandal- .

mongers, who to their own eternal

shame have compiled this monument

of infamy, make the following laconic,

but very illuminating and significant,

confession: “Comparatively few Cath-

olic priests figure in this record.” Of

course, they immediately hasten to off-

set the damaging effect of this admis-

sion by proposing a variety of pos-

sible explanations, BUT THE FACT

REMAINS and speaks for itself, de-

spite all attempts to explain it away.

In a book of statistics, which fairly

teems with the scandalous crimes of

Protestant ministers, the publishers, ^

notwithstanding their notorious hat:ted

of the Catholic Church, frankly admit:

“COMPARATIVELY FEW CATHO-
LIC PRIESTS FIGURE IN THIS

RECORD.” When we consider how

vastly the Catholic Church in this

country outnumbers the largest Prot-

estant sect, this admission becomes

doubly significant, and, coming from

such a source, constitutes a triumphant

vindication of the Catholic clergy.

Marriage, then, of itself does not

prevent immorality, nor does celi-

bacy of itself produce immorality. It

is not what the Church imposes, but

.what corrupt human nature prompts,

that leads to the commission of any

sin.

Undisciplined Passion the Real Cause

of Immorality.

Human nature, if not carefully

guarded and subdued by watchful re-

straint, if not strengthened by the

grace of God, obtained through con-

stant and earnest prayer, will inev-

itably break out like some wild and

raging element, no matter what the re-

ligion or system of morality professed

by the careless and self-indulgent

devotee. Passion unrestrained and un-



y

disciplined will sweep with it the neg-

lectful celibate Catholic priest and will

sweep with it, with no less force

and power, the married Protestant

preacher.

Celibacy Even a Better Safeguard

Against Immorality than

Marriage.

If, from a merely natural point of

view, there is a vantage ground at all,

it is in favor of the celibate priest, be-

cause complete abstinence is more

easily observed than restraint with

moderate indulgence. You have a

plain illustration of this acknowl-

edged principle of ethics, when dealing

with the passion of DRINK. It is

easier on the whole to practice Teeto-

talism than to practice safe and cer-

tain temperance with partial indul-

gence.

Marriage No Absolute Guarantee of a

Moral Life Among the Great

Mass of the People.

• Let me go one step further. Let me

reach out beyond the rather restricted

circle of the clergy; for, after all,^tha)t

is a very narrow circle, when you

think of the vast country in which we

live. There are millions and millions

of our people in this country who are

living the married life. I ask you,

does marriage, of itself alone, act as a

deterrent against the commission of

immoral crimes? You know it does

not! Why, every day the columns of

our papers are filled with the' nasty

details of the foulest crimes commit-

ted against womanhood and against

-Roman’s virtue by men and women

who are married. Our divorce courts

are crowded, and at the very founda-

tion of nearly every divorce case there

is a “corespondent,” there is mar-

riage—infidelity. Of the millions of
homes of married people, I ask you

are there not hundreds, yes, are there

not thousands, whose doorways are

darkened by the crimes of a guilty

consort? Are there not those whose

hearts are broken by the infidelity of

the man or the woman for whom they

have sacrificed their own liyes? Our

county asylums, our state asylums,

our insane asylums, our hospitals, our

prisons and penitentiaries are filled

with men and women, as a result of

crimes and sins and diseases that be-

gan in marriage infidelity. There are

business men’s offices, the walls of

which could tell stories that would

press the bipod from your hearts. Yet

they are all married. Does marriage

in itself protect? Does marriage of

itself offer the surety of sound moral-

ity? No, it does not! Then why be

so solicitous about the Catholic

priest? Why be so anxious to have

him married, in order that he may be-

come a moral mah ? If marriage

fails to produce morality, just of it-

self alone, it surely will not do more

for the priest than it has done for the

preacher, or for the ordinary married

layman.

As There Is No Necessary Connection

Between Marriage and Morality, So

There Is No Necessary Con-

nection Between Celibacy

and Immorality.

But perhaps someone will say,

“Well, it is true marriage does not ab-

solutely protect a man or woman

against immorality, but even mar-

ried men and women fall, how much

more so a man who is not married at

all, and who has the relations of the

Catholic priest? Surely celibacy will

be even more dangerous then. Now,

you see, I am stating the objection

frankly. I do not minimize. I am

putting it strongly, am I not?

Is that objection true? I say, no,

it is not, and I appeal to your own

consciousness, I appeal to your own ex-

perience, and in a moment I know you

will stand with me and brand it as the

most damnable libel that has ever

been pronounced against the human

race at large. To say that celibacy

produces and necessarily leads to im-

morality, and that a man who is lead-

ing a celibate life is^ an immoral man,

is the most stupendous libel upon the

human race which has ever been ut-

tered! Why, if that is true, then you

are branding with the scarlet letter

your unmarried children, you are

laranding as profligates your unmar-

ried sisters and brothers; you are

branding with immorality your un-

married aunts and uncles; you are



23

branding with the stamp of deepest

infamy widowed husbands and wives;

you are branding with the burning in-

famy of immorality husbands and

wives wh6 for serious reasons are sep-

arated from one another for consider-

able lengths of time. Why, my dear

people, that is the most, stupendous

libel that *has ever been spoken

against millions and millions of your

fellow citizens, whom you respect and

revere

!

You Cannot Argue from Celibacy to

Immorality Without Branding

Millions, Aye, Your Own

Flesh and Blood, With

Infamy.

Mind you, when I state j^rinciples,

these principles work themselves out

into facts. You cannot hurl this slan-

der into the face of the Catholic priest-

hood, without hurling it at the same

time into the faces of thousands and

thousands of those that are near and

dear to you.

The Statistics of the U. S. Census for

1910.

According to the statistics of the

United States Census for 1910, there

are in the United States of America

8,072,643 unmarried males over twenty

years of age. There are for the same

period of time 4,448,067 unmarried

males between the ages of fifteen and

twenty, making a total of 12,520,710

unmarried males in the United States

above fifteen years of age. For the

same period of time there were in the

United States 4,902,712 unmarried fe-

males over twenty years of age, and

there were 3,985,764 unmarried fe-

males between the ages of fifteen and

twenty. That makes a total of over

twenty-one million unmarried males^

and females in the United States. And\

if this accusation against celibacy has

any virtue in it, it brands twenty-one

million people as immoral. Are you

ready to swallow that?

A Monumental Libel Against Twenty-
One Millions of American

Citizens.

The men who offer such an ar^-

ment, must evidently think that their,^

audience is gullible enough to swallow

anything; but when they utter this

damnable falsehood, they are simul-

taneously giving utterance to a most

monumental libel against twenty-one

million celibate people of the United

States, of whom the priests of the

United States are only an
^

insignifi-

cant and negligible portion. Now, I

ask you again, are these twenty-one

millions of citizens profligates?

It Impugns the Reputation and Virtue

of All Our School Teachers.

I will give you another illustration.

We have in the United States an enor-

mous public school system. For the

most part, this public school system is

in the hands of female teachers, over-

whelmingly so; and again, for the

most part, these teachers of the pub-

lic, schools are UNMARRIED. Their

relations to thei;r scholars are most

close, most intimate. There is an af-

fection that, naturally springs,up be-

tween them and those who confidingly

look to them as teachers of every-

thing that is supposed to be good and

worth knowing. If celibacy produces

immorality, are you prepared today to

apply this principle to the entire body

of teachers in the United States, to

,

the hundreds and thousands of them

in your midst, are you prepared, I

ask, to fasten Upon them the charge

of immorality? If upon the priest,

why not upon them ? You say, we can

point to priests, who have fallen, and

I say I can point to many more min-

isters that have fallen, and I can point

to teachers, too, that have fallem Oh,

my dear friends, how men and women

will sit there quietly, while such damn-

able libel is being uttered against

such a large and representative por-

tion of the population, goes entirely

beyond my comprehension!

“Of the Fullness of the Heart the

Mouth Speaketh.”

Now, I ask you: who, for the most

part, are they^ that utter this libel?

and why do they utter it? Get the

names of those who deaf in these nas-

tiest of all lecturing-campaigns, and

you will find that, for the most part,

they pose as “ex-priests” or as “ex-

nuns.” I say they “pose,”, because

many of them ARE NOT AND



24

NEVER WERE PRIESTS, ARE NOT
AND NEVER WERE NUNS! They
are ex-priests and sx-nuns FOR
REVENUE ONLY. But let us take
the case of those few who really were

priests, at one time. They claim that

because of their intimate knowledge

of the priesthood, they know what

they are talking about,- and they make

the broad assertion that priests and

nuns as a class are immoral because

of celibacy. Now take these men

and look up their records. Mind well

what I am saying! Hunt up their

records; and you will find that they'

are ex-priests and they are ex-nuns

precisely because the Church would

not tolerate theii^ immorality, and

THEREFORE KICKED THEM OUT,
after she had exhausted every means

of trying to eifect their reformation.

They were suspended from their

office by their bishops, BECAUSE OF

THEIR IMMORALITY, OR BE-

CAUSE OF HABITUAL DRUNK-

ENNESS. The Church would not tol-

erate their conduct, and therefore they

were put out. And now they pass

through the country and they prey

on the
.
gullibility of the poor^ un-

fortunate dupes, who are willing to

pay them the cash in order to hear

the story of their own rottenness and

profligacy, which by a strange perver-

sion they now attribute to
,

others.

Far different is the testimony .of

Priests and Religious whose separa-

tion from the Church was not due to

immorality.
,

In order to make this point perfect-

ly clear, let me appeal, for one mo-

ment, to the testimony of those priests,

who have left the Church in a 'half-

way decent nianner. You know there

are men who sometimes leave the

Church in a huff. Their pride has

been wounded; because they fancied

themselves injured, because they

thought themselves slighted, or dis-

regarded. They felt that they were

not sufficiently appreciated according

to their proper deserts, and in a huff, in

aii angry mood, in a fit of injured pride,

they left the Church. Or again,

through reading and dabbling in in-

fidel worlds, beyond their ken, they

gradually lost their faith, and left

the Church, because they no longer be-

lieved in her doctrines, but at least

they remained self-respecting men.

There have been such. Do ^rou ever

hear them making these accusations of

immorality against the priesthood of

the Church? Oh, no! No, never! Not

one of them! Let me give you several
instances, all of them fresh in my
memory, and all of them within my
own lifetime.

Testimony of Dj*. Doellinger.

Perhaps the greatest man that left

the Catholic Church, priest as he was,

jvithin recent times, was the famous

Dr. Doellinger, of Germany. He was,

in his day, one of the foremost Catho-

lic historians. He was a professor at

the University of Munich, a Catholic

priest, a most learned man, a remark-

able man in every way. He was

slighted, somehow or other. His in-

jured prjde rebelled against the

slight, and he took occasion of *the

Council of the Vatican to sever him-

self from the communion of the Cath-

olic Church. He was acclaimed by

the Old Catholic Church, but he never

became a member of it, and do you

know the reason why ? The reason

that Doellinger refused to join the

Old Catholic movement, and become

its head, was this: The Old Cath-

olics, immediately
,

upon establish-

ing themselves, passed a resolu-

tion abolishing the celibacy of the

clergy, and establishing a married

clergy; and because they did that,

Doellinger would have nothing to do

with them. He was out of the Catho-

lic Church, but he was a decent man.

He was a clea/i man, from every point

of view. There was not a blot or blem-

ish attached to Dr. Doellinger’s moral

character. He left the church, simply

in a huff; it was a case of injured

pride, wounded pride—that was all.
After his separation from the

Catholic Church, he wrote to a Prot-

estant Anglican (Episcopalian) cler-

gyman in England, the words

which I shall quote presently. How

different this man's testimony from

the testimony of those lying scoun-

drels, who have been thrown out of



26

the Church because of their record of

immorality, which the Church would

no longer tolerate! Here is what Dr.

Doellinger writes to an Anglican

clergyman: “You in England,” he

says, “cannot understand, how com-

pletely ingrained it is into our people

that a priest is a man, who sacrifices

himself for the sake of his parishion-

ers. He has no children of his own,

in order that all may be his children.

His people kno-vir that his small wants

are supplied, and that he can devote

all his time and all his thoughts to

them. They know that it is quite

otherwise with the married pastors of

the Protestants. The pastors’s income

may be enough for himself, but it is

not enough for his wife and' for his

children. In order to maintain them,

he*must take other work, literary, or

scholastic. Only a portion of his time

can be given to his people. And they

know that, when the interests of his

family and' those of his flock collide,

his family must come first and his

flock come second. In short, he hds a

profession, or a trade, rather than a

vocation, and he has to earn a liveli-

hood. In almost all Catholic congre-

gations a priest, who married, would

be ruined, and all his influence would

be gone. The people are not all ready <

for so fundamental a change, and the

circumstances of the clergy, do n6t ad-

mit of it. It is a false resolution.”

How different in tone, I repeat, are
these solemn words of Dr. Doellinger,

a fallen priest, but in his life at least

respectable!

Again, Dr. Doellinger wrote to an-

other Anglican friend: “When a

priest can no longer point to the per-

sonal sacrifice which he makes for the

good of his people, then it is all over

with him and the cause which he rep-

resents. He sinks to the level of ordi-

nary men who make a trade of their

work.” There is the opinion of Dr.

Doellinger. Now, there was no man liv-

ing about that time that had more

chance to talk about the scandals of

the Church or of the clergy than Dr.

Doellinger, because there was no man

who was better versed in the history

of. the Middle Ages; add so if he had

wanted to compile a chronicle of

scandal, he could easily have done so.

But, no, he knew well that after all,

those were isolated cases, and that the

great body of the Catholic clergy

stood intact and unblemished, before

the world.

Testimony of Pere Hyacinth, the

Ex-Dominican.

I will give you another such an in-

stance of a priest who fell away from

the Church. He was a famous Do-

minican preacher, a friar. Father Hya-

cinth Loyson by name. He fell away

from the Church through infatuation

for a woman, whom he had been instru-

mental in converting to the Church.

She, unfortunately, perverted him, and

he left the Church to marry Madame

Loyson. He always retained a certain

amount of respectability. He never

said- anything mean or low. Yet he

knew the Catholic clergy well, because

he had traveled extensively, and he

was here in the United States. He

came to this country, preached, and

gave lectures in some of the most

prominent churches. What does he

say about the priesthood of the Cath-

olic Church? He says: “I am well

aware of the true state of our clergy,

and I know of the self-sacrifice and

the virtue within its ranks.” That is

the testimony of Father Loyson.

^

Testimony of Father Tyrrell, tht

Ex-Jesuit and Modernist.

I will give you a third testimony.

The name of the man is familiar to

you all, I dare say. I refer to the fa-

mous Jesuit, Father Tyrrell, who be-

captie a Modernist, and was condemned

by the Church. His later works were

recently placed on the Index by

Pius X., the present Pope. He left

the Church, he refused to submit. He

left, because of wounded pride and be-

cause he had ceased to believe. Did

he ever in his life, as a fallen priest,

utter one word of vituperation against

the morality of the Church? No! But

on several occasions, when he ^was ap-i

preached by inquisitive individuals,

who actually questioned him on this

very pointy he indignantly resented

and repudiated the implied insinuation

as often as it was made. “Sir,” he

was wont to say, “I would have you



26

know that the virtue of the Catholic

priesthood is unblemished!”

Here, then, you have three ex-priests,

all of whom left the Church under cir-

cumstances more or less respectable.

They were not thrown out and kicked

out, because the Church would not

stand for their immorailty. No. And

not one of them, though they all were

thoroughly acquainted with the

Church and the Catholic priesthood,

not one of them would corroborate the

lying testimony of indecent ex-priests.

But these other men, whose own

hearts are rotten and corrupt, who

cannot conceive how by any possible

planner of means, anybody else can be

at all different from what they are,

because they themselves are living

sewers of corruption, and naturally

conclude that everybody else must be

like themselves, these are thejT who

make such accusations, and they

make them all the more readily, be-

cause they find that a gullible Protest-

ant public is willifig and anxious to

roll out the money into their empty

pockets.

Testimony of Renan, the Infidel

Ex-Seminarist.

The fourth witness to whom I ap-

peal, in testimony of the truth of what

I am saying, is Renan, the famous

infidel author of the “Life of

Jesus.” Now, Renan was a French

Seminarist, or clerical student, who

left the Seminary on the eve of his

ordination to the priesthood. He was

a learned man, but by his constant

reading of infidel works, he became

himself an infidel. He left the Church,

and he wrote many infidel works, at-

tacking the teachings of the Church

most violently; aye, few infidels, per-

haps, have done more harm to the

popular mind than Renan, the French

ex-Seminarian. But Renan never de-

scended to the level of a low and

vile “ex-priest.” No. He -kept

himself, from that point of view, out-

wardly respectable. He left the Church,

because he had become an infidel, and

years after he had left the Church, we

have from his pen the following tes-

timony concerning the Catholic priest-

hood. Now, remember he had been a

cleric and a student for the priest-

hood, and was consequently in daily

contact', and on intimate terms, with

a large and representative number of

the French clergy. He knew them

well; he knew priests, as few persons

outside the priesthood ever know

them; for, as a Seminarian, he had

every opportunity of observing them

closely, and of forming a thorough es-

timate of the true character of the

priesthood of the French nation—and
you know that the French are, as a na-

tion, naturally Ifotr-blooded. What does

Renan say about the Catholic priest-

hood, to whose ranks he was once an

aspirant? Renan says: “The fact is

that what is commonly said about the

immorality of the clergy, in so/ far as

my experience goes, IS ABSOLUTE-

LY DEVOID OF FOUNDATION. I
spent thirteen years of my life under
the charge of priests, and I never saw

the shadow of a scandal. I HAVE
KNOWN NO PRIESTS EXCEPT
GOOD PRIESTS. The confessional
may possibly be productive of

evil in some countries, but I saw no

trace of it in my life as an ecclesias-

tic.” There is the testimony of an ex-

can4idate for the Catholic priesthood,

who became an infidel, one of the most

famous infidels of the last century. If

he could have availed himself of the

charge of immorality against the

Catholic clergy, it would have been

considered a powerful argument in

favor of his own irreligious philoso-

phy. But though he was an infidel, he

was at least decent, and would not

stoop to foul calumny^.

A Testimony Above Suspicion.

In conclusion, let me cite you a tes-

timony to which no one can possibly

take exception, the testimony of per-

haps the greatest enemy that the

Catholic Church has ever had, the tes-

timony of the Arch-Infidel and ex-

Catholic VOLTAIRE, whose war cry

against the Catholic Church was the

famous “Eccrasez T infame!”—^^“Crush
the infamous thing!” Yet even he

was forced in very justice to ac-

knowledge: “The life of secular men

has always been more vicious than

that of priests; but the disorders of

r-r



27

the latter have been more remarkable

FROM THEIR CONTRAST WITH

THE RULE” (Voltaire, Essai sur les

, Moeurs, tom iii., ch. cxii).

Luther the Protestant vs. Cicero the

Pagan.

But some one will .say to me, “But

isn't it true that celibacy is practically

impossible?” No; that is not true!

Celibacy is not impossible. Man has

reason, a man has a free will, and

added to these, man has every means

of obtaining God’s mighty grace, and

by the grace of God a man can live

a most virtuous^ life in single blessed-

ness. Isn’t it strange, while we hear

men like Luther protesting that celi-

bacy is impossible, and that, for this

reas.on, he found himself constrained

to marry, isn’t it strange, I say, that

we find a Heathen Philosopher who ap-

peals to human experience to prove

the very opposite of what Martin Lu-

ther affirmed. Cicero, the Heathen

philosopher, the Pagan, in his own

day, Cicero wrote these words: “Ab

-

iisque (jmpudicitiis) abstinere minime

esse difficile si aut valetudo,aut officium

aut fama postul^t,” which, translated

into English, reads, “It is not at all

difficult *"to abstain from sexual grat-

ification and indulgence when either

health or one’s office or public renown

and good name demands it” (Dispu-

tationes Tusculanae). J]!icero, the

Pagan, finds three good, solid and ef-

ficacious motives, which can keep a

man celibate and pure and virtuous.

Isn’t it strange that the Pagan knew

tl(is, whilst Luther denies it?

Long Training and Preparation to

Which the Church Subjects

Her Priesthood.

Then look at the care which the

Church expends upon her priests and

upon their training! What a long and

careful training she subjects them to!

Years of study, and years of disci-

pline! She tries them" and probes

their character for evidences of that

stability and firmness, which she in-

sists uf>on, as essential for their

office. She' fills their minds and their

hearts with those solid 'principles of

* virtue and of knowledge, which will

efficaciously sustain them in trials and

temptations. She carefully studies the

character
,

of each candidate, and re-

jects the one, while she accepts the

other. Nor does she reject the weak-

er characters for motives of pride, or

severity. No, but solely because she

realizes that such men would not be

fit for the office.

Sanctity of the Priesthood Safe-

guarded on Every Side.

And when, after years of study and

discipline, with a thousand checks

thrown around him, with innumerable

safe-guards on every side, with legis-

lation to guide and warn him, with the

reverence and the love of his people to

encourage and inspire him, to keep

him ever worthy and faithful to the

last, the Church finally does admit the

candidate to the priesthood, she be-

stows upon him lavishly all the pow-

erful spiritual means, all the spirit-

ual treasures of grace that are cal-

culated to keep him true to his people,

to his office, and to his character as

a priest. Every day she bids him mount

the altar of God and partake of that

life-giving Food of which Christ de-

clared: “He that eateth My fles^
and drinketh My blood abideth in Me
and I in him.” Every day she bids

him recite his “Offibe,” the Official

Prayer of the Universal Church. This

is that Breviary of Psalms and Canti-

cles and Lessons, the Book of, our

Common Prayer, which the Church

pressed into his hands on the day he

was ordained a subdeacon, and bade*

him use it well. Year in, year out, she

constantly urges him to use all those

means of discipline and restraint that

are necessary to curb the sensual in-

clinations and the animal appetite,

to aid him in gaining the mastery over

self, after the pattern of St. Paul,

who said: “I chastise my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest. perhaps,

when I have preached to others, I my-

self should become a castaway” (I

Cor. ix:27).

Self-Sacrifice Essential for the Priest-

hood.

Thus does the Church prepare her

ministers for this sublime office, for

this work, which she intends to con-

fide to them, and which of its very na-



28

ture demands entire and absolute self-

sacrifice. For the priest must ever be

at the service of his people. Nothing

must be too hard, no call too difficult,

night or day, no matter what the case

njay chance to be. It may be contag-

ious disease, it may be small-pox, it

may be the black pest, it may be
cholera, it may be the yellow fever; he

must recoil at nothing! He has nothing

to hold him back, no little ones to

look into his face weeping and saying,

“Oh, stay with us!” no woman’s arms

to wind themselves around his neck

and bid him think of her! He thinks

only of his God and of souls, and be-

cause he LOVES these, he goes at the
call of duty, even though he is fully

aware that it will cost his life.

This Produces the Unselfishness

Which Has Endeared the Priest

to His People.

This it is that has endeared the

Catholic priest to his people at all

times. This it is that has enabled him

to undertake every sacrifice and to

brave all perils; in the darkest days of

persecution, as well as in the bright-

est day of prosperity, the priest is

ever to be found in the midst of his

people, ever ready to minister unto

them, his life not . his own, but theirs,

theirs, always theirs, even unto death.

Such is the thought, Tlvhich the Irish

bard puts in the mouth of the aged

woman, dying in her lowly and lonely

cabin, in the bleak night of famine and

winter, a thought inimitably expressed

in these sweetest of words:

“Who in the winter’s night, Soggarth

Aroon,

When the cold blast did bite, Sog-

garth Aroon,

Came to my cabin door, and on my

earthen floor )

Knelt by me, sick and poor,

Och you, and only you, my Soggarth

Aroon.”

This Alone Explains the Intense De-

voted Love of Catholics for

Their Priests.

This it is that explains that won-

derful love, that wonderful devotion,

that wonderful attachment, that ex-

ists between a Catholic priest and his

people. It is this that makes them

come to him in their, trials, in their

sorrows, as well as in their joys7^ It

is this that binds their hearts to him

and his heart to them, and yet they

never forget the distance that sep-

arates them.

The Confessional His Glory, and Not

His Shame.

And in the confessional, which by

these blasphemous tongues is exe-

crated and reviled, the most sacred

institution of God’s mercy—he sits
there hours and hours. Oh, how little

they understand the confessional, "virho

calumniate and revile it and blas-

pheme it, and drag It In the mire!

How little they understand the pain,

the heartache that the priest must

suffer from his hours and hours in

the confessional, all day and deep into

the night, sitting there, patiently lis-

tening to the woes, the griefs and the

sore wounds of his people, binding

up the broken-hearted and pouring

the consolation of God’s InUnite mercy

into contrite and humble hearts, which

He hath said He will not despise.

Why Listen to Lying Lecturers, When

You Can Easily Investigate for

,
Yourselves?

In this Church of St. Francis, de

Sales, of the Cathedral Parish, num-

bering over 2,000 souls, you will al-

ways find us, your Bishop and his

priests, on every Saturday afternoon

and evening,
/
each at his post, AN

OPEN CONFESSIONAL, as every-

one, who has eyes, can see. Anyone

who chooses can come and see iot

himself, there are no “sealed poors;”

there are no mysteries about it at all.

It is all public, nothing secret or sin-

ister about it of any kind! You will

see me there for hours at a time; for

Bishop as I am, cheerfully and gladly

do I burden myself, to fulfill the man-

date of Him, Who said. “Whosoever

sins you shall remit, they nre remit-

ted unto them.” (John xx:23); and I

would not forego the task, however

hard or burdensome it may prove.

What It Means to Vilify the Catholic

Confessional and the Millions Who

!Frequent It.

Here in this Cathedral parish over



29

two thousand souls practice confes-

sions regularly, yes, frequently. In

the city of Toledo, there are twenty

parishes with resident priest’s, and

all the souls belonging to these

twenty parishes, numbering in all

some fifty thousand, are, for the most

part, regular in the practice of confes-

sion, and they are all men and women

that you know well, who live in your

very midst. In the diocese of Toledo,

there are ninety parishes, with over

one hundred and forty priests, and

some one hundred and fifty thousand

Catholics. Now who is the man that

will dare-to stand up in the face of

these one hundred and fifty thousand

Catholics, who know confession as no

one else can know it, from their own

experience, who, I ask, will dare to

face them all, with their priests behind

them, and all gathered around their

Bishop, who will face that whole ar-

ray, and hurl into the face of one hun-

dred and fifty thousand honorable men

and women, the damnable calumny

that the confessional is a veritable

cesspool of immorality? Oh, what a

dastardly outrage! Go further still!

Take all the dioceses of the United

States; yea, include the three hundred

million Catholics of the world, from

'the Pope of Eome down to ^he simplest

and humblest Catholic child. They all

practice confession—men of intelli-
gence, men of honor, men and women

that are well known to you, in their

going and in their coming. Will you

dare to brand them all indiscrimin-

ately, as immoral? Will you dare to

fasten upon them all the dark, foul

blotch of immorality?

Yet the Maligners of Catholicism Do

Not Stop at So Monstrous a Crime.

But this, my friends, is precisely

the damnable outrage which is actual-

ly here and now being perpetrated by

these men who make a trade of out-

raging Catholic men and women in

that which to them is most sacred, tra-

ducing them before the world and ac-

cusing them of unmentionable crimes.

The Old Story Retold Today.

Hear the babel of voices outside,

that mob, hurling its curses, calum-

nies and slanders against the Church,

even ,as 19 centuries ago the mob

flung them against Christ. We are
execrated, we are anathematized, we

are condemned without a hearing, and

they bid us surrender the last vestige

of our rights as American citizens,

those rights which were bought so

dearly by the heart’s blood of our

Catholic forefathers, who fought gal-

lantly by the side of their Protestant

fellow citizens, on many a battlefield,

in defense of the Land of the Free.

“That, Whereas They Speak Evil of

You, As of Evildoers, They May

Be Ashamed That Falsely Ac-

cuse Your Good Conversa-

tion in Christ.”

Oh, Catholics, I repeat to you today

what I said to you oh so many occa-

sions: Let your lives be pure and holy

and noble; let your lives, unblemished

and just beyond all reproach, be the

living vindication of your Holy Catho-»

lie Church. When your Church or

your priesthood is attacked, hang not

your heads in shame, but stand forth

like men, to defend your well-beloved

Church, dare, by word and deed, to

give back the lie to the lying tongue

that would fain blacken the char-

acter of her, who is your devoted

and tender Spiritual Mother. And

then, then 'indeed, by the very beauty

of your souls, by the very purity

and holiness . of your lives, will

you compel, in time, the admira-

tion and the appreciation of those,

who now, because “they know not

what they do,” revile you and blas-

pheme that which is holiest and most

divine. Fear not then to raise your

voice in defense of your glorious

Church and of your sacred and con-

scientious rights; in word and deed

forever be true to your faith and dare

always be Catholic, not merely in

name, but in truth, “Having a good

conscience that, whereas they speak

evil of you, as of evildoers, they may

be ashamed that falsely accuse your

good conversation in Christ” (I Pet.

iii:16).



LECTURE III.
—

(

THE TRUTH ABOUT CONVENTS.

The Noblest Women on God’s Earth Gloriously Vin-
dicated from the Vile Slanders of Shame-

less Tongues.

In the fifth chapter of the Epistle

of St. Paul to the Christians at Ephe-

sus, I read the following words: “Be

ye therefore followers of God as most

dear children; and walk in love, as

Christ also hath loved us and hath de-

livered Himself for us as an oblation

and a sacrifice to God for an odor of

sweetness. But fornication and all un-

cleanness or covetousness, let it not

so much as be named among you as

becometh saints; neither obscenity nor

foolish talking nor scurrility, which is

to no purpose: but rather giving of

thanks. 'For know ye this and under-

stand that no" fornicator nor unclean

nor covetous person, which is an.idol-

ater, hath any inheritance in the king-

dom of Christ and of God. Let no

man deceive you with vain words; for

because of ithese things cometh the

anger of God upon the children of un-

belief. Bo yet not therefore partakers

with them.”

The Holiness and Purity of the Early

Christians Did Not Protect Them

Against the Vilest of Calumny.

These words, my dearly beloved peo-

ple, express the fundamental morality

of the Church of Jesus Christ. This

was the teaching of the Apostles. Upon

this teaching were formecf the lives of

early Christians. Their lives were

lives of holiness, of purity, of the love

of God and the love of their neigh-

bors; and yet, strange to say, despite

the fact that the Christians strove in

every way possible to translate this

language of the Apostle into terms

of their everyday lives, notwithstand-

ing this, I say, we find that. the early

Christians for the space of almost

three hundred years, were constantly

subjected to attack, to the most vicious
"

calumnies and slanders, precisely on

the point of morality.

Works of All the Early Defenders of

the Faith Almost Entirely Occu-

pied with the Refutation of
'

Horrible Slanders.

If you take up the writings of the

early Christian apologists, I care not

who they are, Athenagoras, the great

head of the School at Alexandria

about the year 170, Tertullian, that

giant of the early Christian days, who

dared to present his Apologies for

Christians to the very Emperor of

Rome, Justin, the Philosopher and Mar-

tyr, Minucius Felix, the Roman law-

yer, Origen, and a host of others,

whom I might name, were constantly

engaged in answering the innumer-

able objections and insulting inquiries

that were showered upon the Chris-

tians by their Pagan persecutors, who

persisted in accusing them of every

conceivable crime against decency and

morality. A common charge made
against Christians by all their enemies

during those first "three centuries

was the charge that they were

guilty of murder, that in their

assemblies they murdered children

and partook of their flesh and

drank their blood. That was a com-

mon accusation. You will read it in

all the works of the prominent Pagan

adversaries of the Christians. Celsus,

the great Pagan philosopher, imputed

it to the Christians of his day. They

were likewise accused of performing <

and perpetrating in their meetings

the most horrible obscenities and de-

baucheries, of committing the most

unnatural crimes of incest and the

like.

Methods ‘of thei Primitive Persecutors

of Christianity.

Such accueations continued to be

made uninterruptedly for three hun-



31

dred years, and whenever the Pagans

of those days wished to rouse the

rabble against the Christians, desired

to muster a mob, to make it thirsty

for the blood of Christians, and send

it through the city streets mad with

rage and howling: “The Christians to

^the lions,” all they had to do was to

•harangue the rabble about these al-

leged crimes of the Christians.

Now, as Then, the Same Discrepancy

Between the Innocence and Holi-

ness of the Accused and the

Foulness of the Accu-

sations.

Now, as it was in those far-away

days with the early Christians,

those models of every virtue,

of charity, of the love of God

and the .unselfish love of their

neighbor, the Christians scarce dar-

ing, in obedience to the teaching of St.

Paul, who said, “Let these things be

not as much as even named among

you, for they become not the children

of God,” to breathe eyen the name of

fornication, or obscenity, the Chris-

tians, whose lives were absolutely ir-

reproachable in this respect, while the

lives of their Pagan adversaries were

filled with every species of moral cor-

ruption and degradation, with the very

unmentionable vices which they im-

puted to the Christians, so it is with

us today.

Same Methods in Vogue Today.

There is no charge that is too vile

to fling at the Catholic Church, in or-

der to curry favor with the mob, for

political or other purposes, and hence

we find such charges periodically re-

vived, and we find men and women

who make it a business, and a paying

business too, mind you—A PAYING
BUSINESS—to go through the coun-
try inflaming the passions of a large

element of' our populace against the

Catholic Church, against her priest-

hood, and especisfily against those of

her children who lead a retired and a

holy life, away from the busy throng,

her Monastic Orders and her Sister-

hoods, ’her nuns and her monks.

^ The “Escaped Nun.”

It has grown fashionable these days

to have thrilling lectures on “THE
ESCAPE OF A NUN,” by an “escaped
nun” or of “THE RESCUE OF A
NUN” by a “rescued nun.” It is
strange, isn’t it, that the story of

“Escaped Monks” does not draw. It

has got to be a nun in order to get the

crowd. The escape of a monk would

not be romantic enough,they have no

sympathy for him7"but get the “es-

caped nun,” and you will have the

crowd.

Insanely Morbid and Harrowing

Fiction.

Now these lectures—witji all their
thrillers, their harrowing tales of

prisons, underground chambers of tor-

ture, sepulchers in^the walls, where

nuns are immured alive and left to

die a slow, lingering death, of the

^graves beneath the convent floor of

the innocent little children, the fruit

of hideous debauchery, with their

blood-curdling hints of poisonings and

diabolical orgies, that are carried on

in the depth of night or in broad day-"

light—profess to describe the lives of
the Nuns, the Sisters, of the Catholic

Church! ' Good God, what a fiendish

travesty!

Contrast Between the Heroic Virtue

of the Nuns and the Abominable

Nature of the Charges

Agaiiist Them.

And so these women, who have gone

forth from noble Catholic homes, who

live and work in your midst, who teach

your children the elements of religion

and morality, who nurse your sick and

dying, who recall, by a life and exam-

ple of extraordinary self-sacrifice, the

wandering and the erring, the outcasts

cursed and abandoned by their own

fathers and mothers, turned out on the

street b^ an unpitying world, these

noble women who devote themselves to

the care of the aged poor, whose con-

dition is at times so disgusting as to

have alienated the filial affection of

their unnatural children, these women,

I say, whose heroism is beyond the

power of words to tell, a heroism which

is not confined to a single occasion, but

continued day after day in sweet un-

conquerable patience, right in your

very midst, within your daily sight,



32

these heroines of mercy and charity

who toil incessantly, unselfishly, with-

out earthly recompense of any sort,

these are they who, from the public

platform, from the pulpits of Chris-

tian churches, from the street cor-

ners and public halls, are being de-

nounced as veritable beasts in human

form!

Oh, I can understand—yes, I can
understand—^how the blood of loyal
Catholics is made to boil with indig-

nation, when such outrageous charges

and filthy jibes are leveled at these

devoted women, who to them are most

sacred, most holy, and most inviolable,

whom they know to be; the Pride, the

Honor, the Glory and the Crown of

their Church!

The Romance of an “Escaped Nun” Is

a Screaming Farce on Prot-

estant Credulity.

The wonder is that there are any “es-

caped nuns.” The wonder is that there

is any scope at all for the “rescue of

a nun.” But let me tell you right here,

there will be “escaped nuns” and there

will be “rescued nuns,” AS LONQ AS

IT PAYS TO TELL ABOUT THEIR
RESCUE OR ESCAPE. That is the

secret of it; and when it ceases to

pay, when the gullibility of the ig-

norant and credulous has at last

subsided, when it has been satiated

and saturated to the point of not being

able to absorb any more of these devil-

ish charges, then the interest , in the

“escaped nun” and the “rescued nun”

will cease of its own accord. Why?

Because there is no legitimate reason

for an “escaped nun,” and ther'e can-

not be any scope whatsoever for the

“rescue of a nun.” Why do I say this ?

Because every nun can walk out, in

broad daylight, any time that she

wants to. There is absolutely no let,

no hindrance to her exit from the con-

vent. It is one of the most easy

things for a Sister of, for a member

of any Catholic religious community

to effect her release from a Catholic

convent. IT IS RATHER HARD TO
GET IN, BUT IT IS QUITE EASY

TO GET OUT; it is difficult to obtain

final admission to the ranks of a re-

ligious community, the easiest thing

in the woi^ld to withdraw therefrom.

An Appeal to Common Sense.

Now, surely I know whereof I speak,

and, if proof be still required, I appeal

to your own knowledge of the facts.

Have you never seen these nuns walk-

ing on the streets of your city? They

are
,

perfectly free, they have no de-

tective with' them. There is no one

there that holds them in chains or in

bondage. Any one can accost them

on the street. They are as free, if

they so desire, to go into your house,

into any house, they are to

go into their own convent homes.

How can' these Sisters—^to make this
appeal to your COMMON SENSE

—

how can these Sisters be guilty of the

awful crimes, of the abominable orgies,

of the unspeakable immoralities and

the revolting, nameless sins that are

charged against them, arid yet go on,

within your sight, day after day, doing

their daily work in your schools, pass-

ing to and fro on the streets, where

every man may look upon them and

scan their faces to see whether the un-

mistakable claw-marks, the never-to-

be-hidden ravages of degradation and

of dissipation be stamped thereon,

or rather to see instead that there is

stamped upon their faces that which

speaks its own language of charity, of

reserve, of modesty, of the sublimest

womanly virtue.

There Was a Day When the Sisters
Needed no Catholic Defenders.

Oh, it is sad, it is heart-breaking,

to be compelled to stand before an au-

dience of free-born American citi-

zens, of respectable men and women,

to defend the honor, the integrity and

the purity of our Catholic sisterhood!

Ah, there was a day when no one

dared to raise his voice against the Sis-

terhood of the Catholic Church ! There

was a day when Protestants admired

and revered the Sisters, when they

wondered at and admired the Cath-

olic Church precisely because of her

Sisterhoods and the wonderful work

which these heroic women accom-

plished, in spreading that all-embrac-

ing network of Christian charity, rep-

resented by innumerable religious

communities throughout this vast

land, when, I say, the unselfish devo-

tion of these Sisters, in the interest of



33

charity and humanity, was the source

and the object of unstinted admiration

on the part of all our countrymen, and

they said, “What a wonderful work

it is!''
*

Astounding Blindness of Bigotry.

If the Catholic Church has anything

admirable about it, anything that

compels the attention and the rever-

ence of an outsider, it is precisely, as

he himself would confess, these insti-

tutions of religious worship, of relig-
^

ious virtue, of education, of charity

and of self-sacrifice; this it is that has

ever formed the chiefest marvel of

the Catholic Church. Yet prejudice

and bigotry are absolutely without

reason. They are both blind. Begot-,

ten of passion, they produce passion

^
in their turn, and passion always de-

stroys reason.

Why Are the Protestant Sisterhoods |
Immune from Attack, While the

Catholi<; Sisterhoods Suffer?

Let me appeal, however, for one

moment to thinking men and women.

Let me appeal to you, at least, who

have some sense of fairness. How is

it that no silch charge is leveled

against the sisterhoods of Protestant

churches? Why, you ask, ave there

any sisterhoods in Protestant

churches? Yes, indeed! Why, most

assuredly! Did you never, for in-

stance, hear of the Deaconesses of the

Methodist Church? They are a body

of women gathered together for the

purpose of doing service for their

churchy They are employed in hos-

pitals; they are employed in visiting

homes; they are doing a valued serv-

ice for their church; they are said to

be a splendid body of women. Who

ever thinks of charging them with

crimes and sins unmentionable, merely

because they are banded together for

church service ? What about the sister-

hoods of the Protestant Episcopalian

Church? You know that, especially

of late years, “monastic life" has been

revived in the Protestant Episcopalian

Church. We have witnessed the
strange spectacle of sandaled monks

coming from England and teaching in

their religious habit, clad like Catho-

lic friars on the streets of the large

cities of our land.

The Episcopalians have large com-

munities of women, who have retired

from the world, to imitate the life

of the Catholic sisterhoods, and are

living celibate lives, directed and

guided by clergyman. If the religious

life in a sisterhood is necessarily a

cause of immorality and a feource of

crime in the Catholic Church, why

is it not productive of the same

results in the Protestant Church ?

Why, then, is not a portion, at least,

of thes^ attacks directed against

them? Have you never heard of the

Deaconesses in the Lutheran Church?

In Germany these religious homes of

Protestant women have made tre-

mendous progress in late years, and

are said to have attracted many re-

markable women, who, following their

natural aspirations to a higher and

holier and a better life than they could

ever think of living in the world, sur-

rounded by the cares thereof, have en-

tered these sisterhoods, and in their

ranks are living lives of virtue and

chastity fashioned upon those of the

Catholic sisterhoods. The Lutheran

organization of deaconnesses at Kai-

serswerth, Gerniany, alone claims 16,-.

000 members. Is there any reproach

cast upon them? No. THE THING IS
WRONG ONLY WHEN IT IS CATH-
OLIC. There is the rub! there is the

explanation! It is hatred of the Cath-

olic Church that inspires such atro-

cious charges, not love of truth!

Different Treatment of Protestant and

Catholic Confessionals a

Parallel Case.

It is exactly the same here as with

the attacks that are made upon the

confessional. We hear it said con-
stantly and repeated, until we are fair-

ly nauseated thereby, that the cofi-

fessional is a cess-pool of immorality;

and yet there are hundreds of Protest-

ant Episcopalian clergymen who are

hearing confessions, right here in our

own country. If you will open the

Book of Common Prayer of the Epis«

copalian Church, you will find the war-

rant for confessioji plainly and clearly

expressed therein. . You will find the

minister directed to hear the confes-

sion of all that present them-

selves, and, if they desire it, to pro-



34
%

nornice upon them absolution. Why is
it that only the CATHOLIC CONFES-

SIGNAL is a cess-pool of immorality,

and not the EPISCOPALIAN CON-

FESSIONAL? Why is it that only
celibate Catholic priesthood is im-

moral, and not the celibate Episco-

palian clergymen? It always comes

back to the same, the self-same, an-

swer and explanation! You can read

in the religious press of the country,

our own as well as that of other coun-

tries, how Protestant clergymen will

ever and anon, openly and frankly, ex-

press their profound regret that they

have' no confessional in their churches.

I distinctly recall that, right here in

the city of Toledo, within the last

year, some Protestant clergymen came

out in public interviews, declaring

that they were of opinion that a

Protestant clergyman ought to be a

confessor to his people, but, of course,

all this is forgotten, when religious

bigotry comes into play, and there is a

question of arousing religious hatred

and animosity. All of these institu-

tions are badj are rotten, and a source

of corruption SOLELY BECAUSE
THEY ARE CATHOLIC—foi- that,
and for no other reason!

The Convent and the Requisites for

Admission Thereto.

Let me tonight enter more in detail

into the life of. the Catholic convent.

What is a convent? What is a con-

vent like?
.
Why do girls go to a

convent ? What do they do in the

convent? Why don^t they stay at
home?

Definition of a Convent.

A convent is a religious home for
young women who desire to lead a

holy and a retired life; who wish to

consecrate their lives exclusively and

absolutely to the perfect service of

God, in a manner and degree that are

utterly impossible out in the world,

and^in the case of active sisterhoods
—

^to the perfect and devoted service

of humanity, as well, with a view to

the alleviation, in some way or an-

other, of the sufferings and the ills

to which mankind is. heir. That is the

V meaning of a convent.

The Convent Easy of Exit, Difficult of

Entrance.

I told you before that, while it is

quite easy to get out of a convent, it

is rather difficult to enter a con-

vent. The Church is most particu-

lar, is most exacting in the conditions,

which she lays down for admis-

sion into her convents. In the first

place, she requires perfect physical

health—a sound mind and a sound
body. She also requires unblemished

character; there must be no public

stain, there must be no moral blemish

upon the character or reputation of

those, who seek admittance to the

ranks of her Sisterhoods. The family

record must, as a rule, be clean and

respectable. There must be, in the

candidate, none other than a pure mo-
^

tive, the disinterested motive of de-

voting herself perfectly to the service

of God, in a manner, which is impos-

sible in the busy life of the world.

Finally, a person, desiring admission

into a convent must be ABSOLUTE-

LY FREE IN HER CHOICE. The
Church is most insistent in enforcing

this condition. She demands that

there be not the slightest pressure or

intimidation, that there be no cajoling,

no coaxing of any sort, on the part,of

anyone. She is firmly determined to

secure for herself absolute certainty

that the desire to enter the religious

life is really free and voluntary on

the part of the candidate; otherwise

the doors of her convents are inex-

orably closed. No one may enter the

religious life who does not enter upon

it entirely of his, or her, own free will

and choice.

Profession Preceded by a Prolonged

Period of Trial.

The entering of a religious com-

munity, though perfectly voluntary

and deliberate, is nevertheless fol-

lowed by a long period of trial pre-

scribed by stringent laws, wherein the

candidate is tested, first as a “postu-

lant,” and subsequently as a “novice.”

If during this prolonged period of

trial, the candidate should at any time

discover that her first fervor has

cooled, and that she has made a mis-

take, she is perfectly free, not mei^e-

ly physically, as she always is, even



35

after her vows, -but also in conscience,

to leave at arly moment, without

scruple or hindrance of any sort; the

process of exit is very simple indeed.

After this period of trial has passed,

then and then only is she allowed to

make her Profession, to take her Re-

Hgious Vows. It was St. Francis de

Sales who said that, in marriage we

have just the reverse of the religious

life. In the. religious life the no-

vitiate comes fir^t and then the yows

or profession. In marriage tAe vows

or profession come first and then the

novitiate. And the Saint makes the sa-

gacious comment that, if marriage

had such a preliminary novitiate, he

much feared that few indeed would

persevere long enough to make their

profession.

The Dominant Motive of Religious

Life.

Now, why do persons wish to enter

upon a religious life? Wfiy do they

desire to choose that form of life,

isolated from the world ^t large? Be-

cause our Divine Lord and Master

Himself inculcated the excellence

thereof and expressly invited His fol-

lowers to lead such a life. Our

Blessed Lord and Savior came into

this world to be the living exemplar

of that which all should strive to be,

of that to which, in a greater or lesser

measure, we must all aspire. Now, He

came to teach us mainly by His own

actions and example, for we read of

Him that He “began TO DO and to
teach.” He did, and practiced Him-

self, most perfectly, every part of His

own teaching. * •

“If Thou Wilt Be Perfect.”

Now, in the Gospel of St. Matthew,

Chapter xix, we find depicted- the fol-

lowing memorable scene: A young
man—arid the Gospel tells us, he was
a rich young man—came to' Jesus and
said: “Good Master, what good thing

shall I do that ! may have life ever-

lasting?” That was a serious ques-

tion indeed, and Our Lord gave it a

plain and categorical answer. He said

to him: “If thou wilt enter into life,

keep the commandments.^’ This is the

way that leads to Life Everlasting

—

the way of the coihmandments ! And

the young man asked,, “Which com-

mandments?” Jesus answered him by

enumerating the Commandments of

God, so that there might be no mis-

take about it, that there might be no

possibility of the young man’s misun-

derstanding His words. Our Blessed

Lord and Saviour, accordingly, men-

tions them in detail: “Thou shalt do no

murder; Thou shalt not commit adul-

tery; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt

not bear false witness; Honor thy

father and thy mother; and. Thou shalt

love thy neighbor as thyself.” These

are the commandments. And the young

man said to Him: “All these have I

kept from my youth. What is yet
wanting to me? Is there aught else

that I miust do ? Is there anything

more that is needful ? What lack I yet ?.

Master, behold I am desirous of doing

more than^ merely entering into life.”

And the Master answered and said

to him: “IF THOU WILT BE PER-
FECT”^—there is here a striking
change of language; the first was “IF

THOU WILT ENTER INTO LIFE,”
and now it is “IF THOU WILT BE
PERFECT”—that is more than the
first, and the advice is: “Go, sell all

thou hast and give to the poor, and

thou shalt have a treasure in Heaven,

and come and FOLLOW ME.” The con-
ditions of the perfection which Christ

demands from the young man are far

superior to the obligations of ordinary

life, whose observation is of absolute

necessity for the salvation of one’s

soul, for the bare entering into life.

“If thfllu wilt be perfect,” then give

up the world; give up its pleasures;

give up its honors, its posts of qarthly

power and vantage; give’ up the

things that the world most loves. Go

^ell it all, leave it all behind thee,

and “FOLLOW ME.” “And when the
young man had heard that saying, he

went away sorrowful, for he had great

possessions.”^ K[e was not ready to

part with them, His heart was loath

to detach itself from the things of

earth that he possessed. He loved

them passionately, loved the enjoy-

ment thereof, and therefore he refused

the call of the Master, the call, not to

the ordinary life of men, but the call

to something far higher, the call to

the perfect life. He refused this call,

and the Master, looking after him.



36

said to His disciples: Amen, Amen.

And I say unto you that a rich man

shall hardly enter the Kingdom of

Heaven.” And the disciples wondered

very much, saying: “Who, then, can

be, saved?” And Jesus, beholding,

said to them: “With men this is im-

possible, but with God all things are

possible!” Then Peter, answering,

said: “Behold, we have left all

things, and we have followed Thee.

What therefore shall'we have?” And

Jesus said to them: “Amen. I say

to you, that ye, who have followed

Me, in the regeneration, when the Son

of Man shall sit on the throne of His

Glory, ye also shall sit on twelve seats,

judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And EVERY ONE”—now, mark these

words—“every one that hath forsaken

house, or brothers, or sisters,
or

father, or mother, or wife, or children,

or land^, for My Name’s sake, shall

receive an hundred fold and shall in-

herit life everlasting.” Here you have

the principle laid down most clearly,

in words that cannot be misunder-

stood. It is not an obscure passage of

Scripture; these are plain wprds,
dis-

tinguishing, in sharp contrast, the life

of the ordinary Christian in the
world

from a life that is more perfect, a
life

that involves greater sacrifice,
that

means the renouncing of all those

things that are so dear to flesh
and

blood, namely, the enjoyments,
pleas-

ures, honors and possessions of
the

world; yea, and still more, even the

comforts of home, the compan^nship

of those we have learned to love, with

whom we havd lived from earliest

childhood days, it extends even
^

to

these dear ties, and means parting

from all we hold most dear, entire re-

nunciation, it means to j^orsake ALL,

and why? Not for earthly motives,

as the young woman doe^ when she

leaves father, mother and home to

cling to a man and follow him, as his

wife—she indeed likewise leaves father
and mother, but leaves them for the

compensation of human love, for the

reward of an earthly home, her re-

nunciation is for the sake of these.

Such, however, is not the recompense,

which Christ holds out to those who

renounce all things to follow Him.

But of these He says: He that leaves

father and mother, sister and /brother,

or aught that is dear to him; for My

Name’s sake, and therefore, for the-

love of God, to lefiad a better and a

holier and a more perfect life, de-

tached from worldly car^, detached

from worldly occupations, and devoted,

absolutely given over to the love*

and the service of God, such an one,

says the Master, “shall possess an

hundred fold and life everlasting.”

The Question Is Not An Open One

—

Christ Has Spoken! It Is Decided

Forever!

So.it is evident that THE LIFE OF

RENUNCIATION MUST BE POS*

SIBLE, AND THAT OUR LORD

MUST HAVE DESIRED IT. Our

Lord must have expected such a life

of His more intimate friends and dis-

ciples. Yea He had enjoined it upon

His Apostles, the Twelve, who

followed His own example most

closely, wliS^were faithful to His

call, who left all things for

Him. Could not Peter say: “Lord,

behold, we have left all things” and

does not Christian tradition tell us

that, as a matter of fact, all the Apos-

tles led pure and celibate lives and

went about imitating the example and

doing the work of the Master, that

they associated with themselves other

helpers who, like themselves, led this

same life of perfect purity and of per-

fect renunciation. And do not tell

me that this is asking too much of

human nature, that it is impossible!

Nor ask: How can a man lead such a

life as this? Here again the Master

Himself gi¥es you the answer, in that

same nineteenth chapter of St. Mat-

thew.

The Question of the Pharisees.

We read there how the Pharisees

came to our Lord and asked Him a

question. Yea, it was to “tempt” Him

that they asked the question, and what

was the temptation? They wanted to

know whether it was right and lawful

to put away one’s wife. Here are the

words of the Gospel: “They came to

Him, tempting Him, tsaying unto Him,

Is it lawful for a man to put away his

wife for every cause. He, answering,

said to them, ‘Have ye not read
that

He Who made man from the begin-



37

ning, made them male and female, and

said, For this cause shall a man leave

father and mother and shall cleave to

his wife, and they two shall be one

flesh. Wherefore, they are no more

two, but they are one flesh. What,

therefore, .God hath joined together,

let no man put asunder.’ ” This was

Christ’s answer to their question con-

cerning the indissolubility of mar-

riage. . He had come to restore what

was lost. They asked the question,

and He had answered it. Marriage,

by its very nature was essentially one,

the union of one man with one woman

by a lasting and inseparable bond,

becoming one, in one flesh, so that

what GOD, by the very nature of His

institution, had joined together, it

was no longer MAN’S province to put

asunder. Now, they said to Him,

“Why then did Moses command to give

a bill of divorce and put away the

wife?” And^Ie said to them, “Moseis

by reason of the hardness of your

hearts suffered you to put away your

wives : but from the beginning it wa,s

not so.” Moses permitted a special

dispensation, owing to very peculiar

conditions, under which the Jewish

people were living in his day, but,

as Christ tells us, that was because of

the hardness of their hearts, and

Moses only tolerated it, he only per-

mitted it, but it had not been so from

the beginning. This, therefore, was

not marriage as God, the Creator,

intended and established it. “And

I say unto you,” says Christ—Oh,
listen to these words—how solemn
they are, from the mouth of Him

Who said, “I am the Son of the living
God, and now from henceforth you

shall see the Son of man coming on

the clouds of Heaven to judge the liv-

ing and the dead!” Listen, for it is

Christ, the Judge of the living and the

dead, the Son of the Living God, Who
speaks: “But I say unto you that

whosoever ,^hall put away his wife

except it be for fornication and shall

marry another, committeth adultery,

and whoso marrieth her that is put

away committeth adultery.” It was in

order that the exception He had made

might not be misunderstood—and
there are a number of other passages

\

of the Holy Scriptures that prove it

and show clearly that Our Lord meant

that fornication or adultery were

grounds not for absolute divorce, but

only for separation without freedom

to remarry—that He hastens to make
the latter qualification; “And whoso

marrieth her that hath been put away

also committeth adultery.” Therefore,

the bond itself has not , been severed

in the case of separation on account

of adultery.

The Dismay of the Disciples.

Now, when the Disciples—mark
you, it is not now the Pharisees, but
the Disciples, '-to whom our Lord al-
ways clearly revealed His mind con-
cerning everything-^when the . Dis-

ciples heard this explanation which

their Master gave of the real status

of marriage, and reilized its exacting

conditions in the New Dispensation,
under the New Law, under the Law of
Christ, the Disciples exclaimed in dis-

may: “If the case of a man with his
wife be so, then it is not expedient to

marry.” They appreciated the diffi-

culties that might arise therefrom,

and felt that then indeed marriage

would be almost sure to become at

times an awful and burdensome yoke,

and so they said: “If the case of a

man with his wife be so, it is ex-
pedient not to marry.”

Christ Expressly Approves of Celibacy

What is the answer of the Mas-
ter? His answer is simply; “ALL
MEN TAKE NOT THIS WORD,
BUT THEY TO WHOM IT IS
GIVEN.” Does Our Lord condemn

or rebuke the suggestion that it is

not expedient to marry, that it is bet-

ter to lead a celibate life for the love

of God, for higher motives? Does

He reprove this idea? No, not at all!
On the contrary. He confirms it, and
He says: “Not ^-all take this word,
but they to whom it is given, for there
are some eunuchs who were born so
from their mother’s womb, and again

there are eunuchs who were made so

by men, and there are eunuchs who

have made themselves eunuchs for

the Kingdom of Heaven, HE THAT
CAN TAKE,* LET HIM TAKE IT.”
Here you have the clear and explicit

words of our Lord, not indeed com-

manding celibacy, not indeed enjpining



it as a precept, but giving it as a

counsel, a so-called Evangelical Coun-

sel, to be followed for a heavenly mo-

tive, for the sake of the Kingdom of

Heaven, for the sake of leading a

more perfect life, and He adds the in-

vitation: Let him that feels within

himself the desire, the aspiration, the

attraction to this higher kind of life,

let him take it. God’s grace will be

with him.
—

‘‘He that is able to receive

it, let him receive it.”

St. Paul, the Apostle, Commends Vir-

ginity and Celibacy.

Now, what the Master so clearly

taught, what the Master practiced in

His own life (for He Himself led that

life of perfect purity and virginity),

what He showed His especial love for

. through the choice of a Virgin

Mother, and the choice of a celibate

Precursor, St. John the Baptist (’who

led this life of singleness out of love

for God, to devote hin^self wholly and

exclusively to his work as the Herald

of the Lord), what He so urgently

commended to His Apostles, promising

them in reward “the hundred fold” and

Eternal Life, that we find the great

Apostle St. Paul, in his turn, teaching

most explicitly; for, if we, take up the

First Epistle of St. Paul to the Co-

rinthians, Chapter 7th, we find the

Apostle advocating celibacy and urg-

ing the faithful to follow his own ex-

ample in this respect: “For I would

that all men were even as I myself.

But every man hath his proper gift

of God, one after this manner, and

another after that. I say therefore

to the unmarried and widows. It is

good for them if they abide even as I.

But if they canndt contain, let them

marry,” and to this advice, he adds

in verse the twenty-fifth of the same

chapter: “Now, concerning virgins, I

have no commandihent of the Lord,

but I give counsel as having obtained

mercy of the Lord to be faithful.* I

think, therefore, that this is good for

the present necessity, I say that^it is

good for a man so to be,” i. e., it is

good to be free in order to serve God

more perfectly. “Art thou bound unto

a wife ? seek not to be loosed. Art

thou loosed from a wif^ seek not a

wife. But if thpu take a wife thou

hast not sinned, and if a vir^n marry

she hath not sinned. Nevertheless

such a^ ‘these shall have tribulation ih

the flesh, but I spare you, But this

I say, brethren, the time is short. It

remaineth that they also who have

wives be as if they had none.” Them

further on : “But I would have you

be without solicitude. He thajt is with-

out a wife is solicitous for the things

that belong to the Lord, how he may

please God: but he that is with a

wife is solicitous for things of the

world, how he may please his wife^

and he is divided.” Then after con-_

trasting in the same way the married

with the unmarried woman, he finally

concludes: “I speak for your profit,

not to cast a sin upon you, but for

that which is decent and which may

give you POWER TO ATTEND
UPON THE LORD WITHOUT IM-
PEDIMENT. Therefore both he that

giveth ' his virgin in i^arriage doeth

well, and he that giveth her not doeth

better. For blessed shall she be if

she so remain according to my coun-
sel, and I think that I also have the

spirit of God.”

The Religious Life Among the Early

Christians.

Could any teaching be more plain on

the subject than that of the Apostle?

And this teaching of his was so plain

and so perfectly in conformity with

the -teaching of the Master and with

the practice of the Apostles them-

selves, that we find it practiced by the

Christians, from the earliest Apos-

tolic days. We read in the Acts of the
Apostles, how, even then, holy women

devoted themselves entirely and ex-

clusively to the service of the Church.

We notice how frequently St. Paul re-
fers to these women, mentions

them by name, commends them

for their work and declares that

their names are written in the Book

of Life. We know from the earliest
Christian annals, what d wonderful

respect and reverence was paid by the

early Christians to these holy wom-

en, who, following the example and

the teachings of the Apostles, dedi-

cated themselves wholly to the work

of the Church and the more perfect

service of God. We see how they were



39

everywhere and always held in the

greatest veneration and respect. We
see how throughout the history of

those early days of the Church, this

life always appealed to a large num-

ber of unselfish souls, how they sep-

arated themselves from the world and

led most holy, virtuous and heroic

lives, for the glory of God and the sal-

vation of souls.

Origin and Development of the

_Monastic Life.

During the era of the early persecu-

. tions of the Christians, we find the.

deserts peopled by what were called

the “Fathers of the Desert,” even in

those days the Egyptian desert in the

region of ancient Thebes had actually

become a spiritual Paradise, the Gar-

den of the Church, where flourished

every Christian virtue of renunciation

and of perfect sacrifice, for the love of

God. Then, as the persecutions

ceased and a well ordered Chris-

tian life developed throughout the

vast extent of the fast-crumbling

Roman Empire, we find the be-

ginnings of the Monastic life. We
find great and holy men, like St.

Basil and St. Augustine, laying down

fixed rules for the guidance of those,

who had withdrawn from the world,

in order to serve God more perfectly.

Those rules are still being followed,

in th^ Church to this day.

One of the grandest historical

works of the last century, the

monumental work of Montalembert,

entitled “THE MONKS OF THE
WEST,” gives us the description of

the life of these Monastic institutions,

from their earliest origin and develop-

ment on, throughout the entire Chris-

tian Era. This great man in his won-

derful work traces out for us the

gigantic labors accomplished by these

Religious Orders, feats which form the

chiefest glory of, and shed the. grand-

est lustre on the whole of Christen-

dom. He showed that everything that

is worth possessing today originated

exclusively in the life of self-sacrifice

of these devoted men and women, who

separated themselves voluntarily from

the world in order to devote them-

selves more perfectly to the service

of God and to the service of their

fellow men.

Protestant Inconsistency.

Oh, it is so strange, so incompre-

hensible, that men should understand

these things very well indeed, when

it suits their own purpose, and should

utterly misunderstand them ' when

they concern the Catholic Church!

Protestants Can Understand and Ad-

mire Self-denial in the Girl of

the Foreign Mission.

Thus, for instance, to give you^but

one illustration, non-Catholics find it

perfectly natural, and they speak of

it in glowing terms in their journals,

in their missionary annals, as a most

admirable thing, that young women

should lea*b their homes, give up

their relatives, give up the joys and

the comforts which they can find in

their home-surroundings, and wander

afar, as missionaries, into distant

pagan lancfs, and when these young

women, who have sacrificed much to

follow what they consider the “mission

call” of Jesus Christ, return from

abroad, with what enthusiasm are

they not hailed and welcomed by the

various Protestant bodies and denom-

inations? Their journals fairly gush

with fulsome praise of the work of

these devoted women, who have sacri-

ficed worldly prospects and forsaken

all to follow for a time a missionary

avocation. Yet after all their sacri-

fices and hardships were not nearly

so severe as those of the Catholic Sis-

ter on the ^Foreign Mission, or in the

leper-hospital; they have always en-

joyed comfortable board and lodging,

their salaries were high and the

period of their exile a comparatively

short one—not a lifetime as in the
case of the Catholic Sister engaged in

that field of work.

The Call of the Catholic Sister They
Misunderstand,

Yet strange that these same men,

who applaud the young woman of

their own sect, who leaves home, fam-

ily and friends for the Foreign Mis-

sion, will find it absurd, will speak of

it reprovingly, when a Catholic girl

feels the call of God within her heart,

and, going to her parents, says,

“Father, mother, I feel a higher

cajl than the call to the life of the

world. I do not feel that my life can



40

be happy, that I will be doing my

best by remaining in the world, I do

not feel that my life is cast in these

ordinary pathways, I do not desire to

marry, I do not ‘desire to remain in

the world, I seem to hear a voice

within calling me and saying: ‘Come

and follow me/ I see thousands

who are waiting to have, the seed of

Christian virtue planted in thoir

hearts, who, in the years to come, will

bless me and you, dear parents, be-

cause you gave me up, that I might

form and fashion them to true

Christian lives; I .hear the moaning

of the sick and the dying, the voices of

the unfortunate, the stRcken ones,

the victims of every kind of human

misery, and in my days of Christian

service I Mil minister unto them and

spend myself for them, ty render their

lot more bearable and make them

happy, to reconcile them with God’s

Providence, to show them the path-

way that leads to higher and better

things, and prepare them for the true

and only purpose,, for which they have

been created. Life Eternal, which is

to know Thee, 0 God, and Jesus,

Whom Thou hast sent.

“Oh, parents, I see how, through

tear-dimmed eyes, you reveal your

courage and resignation. God bless

you for the cheer that you have given

to me!”

Oh, how I would like to take these

parents by the hand and lead them

into the vast fields of the labor of our

Catholic Sisterhoods, to let them see

with their own eyes, to let them feast

upon a spectacle, so glorious and

triumphant for Christ!

Sister Rose Parsons Lathrop.

How I would, like to take you

with me to that hospital for the in-

curable, for the cancer-stricken,

where men who ordinarily see nothing

but black despair ahead of them, are

sheltered and taught resignation to

their sad fate and filled with a super-

natural hope by that devoted woman.

Sister Rose Parsons Lathrop. A con-

vert to the Catholic Church, the

granddaughter of Nathaniel Haw-

thorne, the great American author,

she renounced all the bright allure-

ments and charms of a happy hdme

and loving friends, to devote herself.

day after day, to the care of these

poor unfortunates, who have been

abandoned by their own relatives,

^whose disease is so loathsome that no

one will endure to stay with them,

and yet, for the. love of the Master,

she is doing this heroic work, cheer-

ing their lives and preparing them

for a happy and Christian death. Oh,

what blessings rise up to Heaven

from the lips of these men, as they,

depart from the “vale of tears,”

which has been rendered so . blessed

for them by the service of this noble

woman and her companions!

Sister Catherine Drexel.

Qr take that other grand woman.

Sister Catherine Drexel, the million-

aire’s daughter, reared in the fashion-

able home of her millionaire father in

Philadelphia. Like Sister Rose Par-

sons Lathrop, a convert to the Church,

she has been devoting herself ex-

clusively. to the work of the education

of the poor Indians and the despised

Negroes. There she is, with her de-

voted band of sisters, spending herself

for the uplifting, for the Christianiz-

ing, for the civilization of those poor

children of nature and of those unfor-

tunate men and woman, who by us> by

our legalized oppression, were bruta-

lized in slavery for decades of years,

and it is among these that she lives

and toils in her intense longing to do

her best for poor, neglected ones of

Christ’s flock.

An Angel of Mercy.

Visit with' me in spirit the battle-

fields of our country, and behold there

always the Sister of Charity on the

gory, corpse-stre'wn plain, as she

passes from one shattered piece of hu-

manity to another, bending over them

tenderly, deftly binding up their ghast-

ly wounds, whispering sweet words of

sympathy, consolation and hope in the

ear of the dying—an Angel of Mercy,
she, untiring, unshrinking, all heed-

less of the rain of shells and the pat-

ter of the bullets around her. Visit

-with me the pest-stricken, in times

when dread disease and pestilence

have overwhelmed our land, when

even parents fled from their babes,

from the suffering of their children,

and here again it is these sisters who



41

were the first to go and the last to de-

part. They gave their lives" for the

love of God, for the reward which God

hath promised them that are the min-

isters of His mercy to men.

“Give not that which is holy unto

dogs, neither cast ye your pearls be-

fore swine, lest they trample them

under foot, and turning upon you,

rend you.”

Oh, my dear people, when we pause

to reflect" on such sublime charity and

heroism, we utterly are at a loss to

understand how dastardly cowards

should venture to besmirch that which

is so glorious and divine, should be so

far lost to sentiments of natural no-

bility and decenc^r, as to dare to make

such angelic women as these the inno-

cent victims of the loathsome desecra-

tion of their foul and filthy imagina-

tions !

Association for Lofty Religious and

Humane Motives Perfectly Le-

gitimate.

“But,” we are asked, “why should

they gather together in this way?

Can’t they remain at home and be

good?” Well, why then will you allow

mep and women to band together in

associations for almost every other

conceivable purpose—purposes of bus-
iness, purposes of education, purposes

of gain, purposes of politics? Appar-

ently, this is always right and lawful,

except where it is a case of women or

men banding together for the purpose

of serving God more perfectly, of

being in a safer position to withstand

the onslaughts of passion, of being

better able to lend mutual support and

encouragement by their common good

exampld, in order to succeed more per-

fectly in leading he*roic and devoted

lives of service. Then, and then

alone, is it wrong to associate!

And why, may I ask? Why not
accord the same liberty of associa-

tion for a higher, holier, nobler, more

heavenly purpose to such as have that

desire withinA their hearts, that you

would in the case of associations for

inferior aims ? It is not considered just

and right today, that a woman should

be given her freedom, when it is a

question of choosing her pathway in\

life? We champion the principle that

it is wrong to force anyone into a mar-

riage, which they themselves do not

desire. If freedom is granted to those

that desire to marry, why not freedom

and liberty of choice to those that de-

sire to live a holy and a better life?

Why should that life alone be with-
held from them ?

The Vow of Poverty.

What are these vows that the

Religious Vows as Legitimate as

Marriage Vows.

But, you say, why bind oneself by

a vow to such a life as this ? Oh, but

we do not put such queries, when there

is ' question of the merely natural

things. We find it right, proper, yes,
admirable, do we qot, that a man

should plight his troth and fidelity to

the w6man of his love? We find it
equally right and admirable, do we not,

that the woman should vow and pledge

her loyalty to the man she chooses for

her husband? Why, then, should* it

be wrong to swear loyalty and fealty

to Jesus Christ, the King of Glory,

Lord of Lords arid King of Kings, with

a view to devoting oneself entirely to

His love and His service? Why isn’t
it right in this case ?

The Vow of Obedience Legitimate.

“But,” you say, “thie obedience that

is demanded in a religious community,

is it not slavery ?” Oh, tell me, dos you

consider the obedience of a child to its

parents slavery ? Do you consider the

obedience of a wife to her husband, in

things lawful, slavery? Do you con-

sider the obedience of a soldier to his
^

general slavery? Do you consider it

slavery for a man to obey the laws of \

his country, or the call of his country

when it summons him to sacrifice all

in its defense, yea, to lay down his

life, if must be, in glad, unhesitating

obedience upon the altar of the

country’s liberty and freedom? No,

no! You find it perfectly proper

here, you find it right, you find it

noble, you praise the man, and saj^,

“He is a hero.” Then, why is not that

man a hero, why is not that woman

a heroine, who, by the vow of obedi-

ence, lays his or her life at the feet

of Jesus Christ, in answer to the call

of the Master, who said: “Go, sell all

thou hast, and come and follow me”?



42

Church demands of her religious ?

They are three—the vows of poverty,
obedience and chastity. There is the

vow, of poverty. What does it mean?

it means the voluntary cession of all

personal rights of property, in -order to

create a common fund for the general

use of the Community. It is putting

into practice that which we read' of the

early Christians, who came and sold

their goods and brought the proceeds

to the Apostles, under whose guidance

they established a community-life.

And, as in those early days the first

Christian lived the common life, under

the direction of the Apostles, even so

today the Catholic Religious, surren-

dering their own personal rights to

earthly possessions, level all social

distinctions between themselves, those

distinctions which are so 'often the

cause of the jealousies and envies and

contentions of every-day life, in order

that they may the more perfectly pos-

sess the peace and happiness and love,

“which the world cannot give,” and

do their work in common. They thus

contribute to a common fund, out of

which al-1 are nourished and sustained

with common fare. This poverty has

the further advantage of disentan-

gling the heart from its attachments

to earthly goods, and thus rendering it

more attentive and willing to- hearken

to the voice of God. This vow of pov-

erty, which is taken by the religious,

does not deprive her of her means of

livelihood. She has all that she needs.

We really need very little for our exist-
ence between the cradle and the griave.

The Master tells us that it is only food

and raiment. These, after all, are the

sole necessities,'^ and in a religious

community the member^ are provided

therewith from their common fund and

their common earnings. For the rest,

all distinction is abolished, and if

aught remains over and above the bare

necessities of the Community, it is

used for works of charity and educa-

tion, and for the furtherance of every-

thing that is for the welfare of hu-

manity.

The Vow of Obedience. ^

And this vow of obedience, which

the world professes not to understand

—^behold how conscientiously and

proudly ,the soldier observes it!

Ha^e you ever heard of the great gen-

eral, William Tecumseh Sherman?

What a question! In his autobiog-

raphy this man has a most remarkable

passage in reference to himself. Gen-

eral Sherman, speaking of himself, as

a soldier, gives utterance to these

memorable words: “I have never in

all my life Xdisobeyed OR EVEN
QUESTIONED an order received
from a higher commanding officer,

though many and many a time

I have risked my health, my repu-
tation, and even my life, in obeying
orders, and EVEN THE HINTS to ex-
ecute plans and purposes, that were

nots^at all to niy liking.” There you

have the obedience of a soldier! With

him the word of command comes be-

fore every other consideration. Now,

what the soldier does for an earthly

commander in the army of his coun-

try, that the soldier of Christ is will-

ing to^do for the Master.

Religious Obedience an Intelligent

and Voluntary Obedience.

And this obedience, which, at first

sight, seems so hard, which ,sor

many think means subjection to

the caprice of superiors, is in

reality nothing of the kind. Such a

notion' is absurd. Without order and

well regulated authority, no so^

ciety could exist. It would immediately

go to pieces, it would disintegrate.

Hence this obedience is an intelligent

and voluntary one, an obedience to a

superior, who will issue no command,

except in strict accordance with a well

defined and clearly iaid-down code of

rules, rule^^hat are plain, concise and

reasonable, which form, in a word, a

precise constitution; they clearly de-

fine the province and subject-matter

of the obedience demanded. The

rules are constituted by and are in the
‘

control of the community governed by

them. These constitutions are studied

by the candidates for years, before

they finally pledge themselves, by vol-

untary act, to the obedience regulated

thereby. There is no scope whatso-

ever for caprice, there is nothing cruel,

nothing tyrannical, in such communi-

ties. Every single subject of obedi-

ence is clearly designated and moves

within well-defined limits.

V



43

Then, too, there is no social body on

earth, that is really more democratic,

more republican, in its form of govern-

ment, if I may so express it, than our

religious communities. The superior is

elected by the free suffrage or votes of

those who constitute the community.

She may not be chosen by any other

way than by free suffrage, and when

she is elected superior, she may not

condu<^t or ‘guide the community, ex-

cept in accordance with the constitu-

tion and rules, that are extremely

definite. She is accountable to 'the

community, to the members of the

community, for every one of her acts.

In most instances, to secure the valid-

ity of her act, she must obtain the con-

sent of her counsellors, who, like her-

self, are elected by the free suffrage of

the members of the community. And

there must be rotation in office; she

may not, beyond a certain period of

time,^remain superior. At the expira-

tion of her term of office, she must,

unless re-elected, step down from her

pre-eminence, and go back into the

same rank and file, to which ordinary

sisters, formerly Under her, belong.

After a certain period of time, even re-

election is absolutely prohibited. Sure-

ly, then, when we consider the rules

and constitutions of such communities,

we must marvel at the freedom and

the democratic form, wherewith the

Church has endowed her religious in-

stitutions from the earliest times.

The Vow of Chastity.

And as for the vow of chastity, I

have already shown, in my last
lecture, as well as by testimony of

Christ and St. Paul, just quoted, that

wonderful efficiency, power for good,

is given to those, who voluntarily re-

nounce even the lawful pleasures of

life, in order to devote themselves

more perfectly to the service of God.

Tribute of Maitland, Non-Catholic

Historian, to the Service of the

Monks for Humanity.

Perhaps^one of the grandest tributes

to the monastic orders of the Catholic

Church ever penned by man is

that of Maitland, a non-Catholic

writer and great historian, who in his

work entitled “The Dark Agbs,” writes

as follows: “It is quite impossible to

touch the subject of monasticism

without • rubbing off some of the dirt

which has been heaped upon it. It is

impossible”—now, mind you, this is
one of the historians who has most

thoroughly studied that period and

that work of the Church, and he

I studied it as. an impartial outsider,

not as a Catholic, and therefore his

'testimony is perfectly unbiased—“it
is impossible,” he says, “to get even

a superficial knowledge of the medie-

val history of Europe without seeing

how greatly the world of that period

was indebted to the monastic, orders;

and feeling that, whether they were

good or bad in other matters, monas-

teries were beyond all price in those

days of misrule and turbulence, as

places where (it may be imperfectly,

yet better than elsewhere) God was

worshipped—as a quiet and religious
refuge for helpless infancy and old

age, a shelter of respectful sympathy

for the orphan, the maiden and the

desolate widow—as central points
whence agriculture was to spread over

bleak hills, -and barren downs, at^d

marshy plains, and deal bread to mil-

lions perishing with hunger and its

pestilential train—as repositories of
the learning which then was, and well-

springs for the learning which was to

j^be—as nurseries of art 'and science,
giving the stimulus, the means, and

the reward to invention, and aggre-

gating around them every head that

could devise, and every hand that

could execute—as the nucleus of the

city which in after days of pride

should crown its palaces and bulwarks

with the towering cross of its ca-

thedral.

“This I think no man can deny. I

believe it is true, and I love to think

of it. I hope I see the good hand of

God in it,^ and the visible traces of His

mercy that is over all His works. . .

Let me thankfully believe that thou-

sands (of these monks) were men of

enlarged minds, purified affections,

and holy lives—that they were justly
reverenced by men—and, above all,
favorably accepted by God, and dis-

tinguished by the highest honor which

He vouchsafes to those whom He has
called into existence, that of being the

channels of His love and mercy to



44

their fellow creatures” (Preface to

first edition, page 2).

Such is the testimony of a rational-

ist, of a man with no faith in the

Catholic Church, but of one who sees

on the pages of History, stamped in

characters clear, bold and indelible,

the sublime record of the wonderful

work that has been accomplished for

humanity by these monastic institu-

tions through the nineteen centuries

of the existence of the Catholic

Church.

What They Are Doing for Our Own
Land Today.

But why look to other times and

places, when we have only to glance

over our own land today? If, at one

fell stroke, every convent and every

monastery that flourishes in the

United States at this present moment,

were to be wiped out of existence, oh,

what a wail of misery! what a wail of

despair and anguish would go up

from thousands upon thousands of

Christ’s poor, who today are shel-

tered in these blessed homes of Chris-

tian charity, as the beneficiaries of the

bounty, the love, the devotion, the self-

sacrifice of our devoted Sisters!

Sister Alphonsus.

About a year ago, there died in Big

Eapids, Mich., a certain Sister Alphon*-

sus, whom it was my privilege to have

known for upwards of thirty years,

one of ^ the most remarkable women, I

think, in the whole State of Michigan.

When she died, one of the most in-

fluential papers of the city of Grand

Rapids wrote an editorial on the

death of that woman, whose name had

been a household word in thousands

and thousands of homes of the State

of Michigan, the field of her life’s

work, and these are the opening words

of this editorial, to which I refer:

“Few women indeed have given to

the world what Mother Alphonsus

gave during the past fifty years of

her life, and today, as she is being

laid away to rest, from thousands and

thousands of hearts will gratefully

arise the prayer: ‘God bless that noble

woman, who nursed and cared for us

in the days of our sadness and sor-

row!” When a secular journal, hav-

ing absolutely no connection with, or

partiality toward her religious insti-

tute, will speak this glowing tribute

of veneration and love, of genu-

ine and enthusiastic admiration, for

the work of this noble woman, who

did the work of the Master for more

than fifty years, hers must indeed

have been a glorious life, to evoke

even from the secular press, which

ordinarily ignores the glorious works

of Catholic charity, a tribute such

as this!

Oh, my dear Christian friends, had

I the time and the leisure requisite for

the enormous task of collecting for

you the countless tributes, that have

been penned, have been printed, have

been spoken, have been conceived

within the hearts of men and whis-

pered from the lips of those who have

fallen under the spell of the goodness

and worth of these wonderful women,

these women whose lives are inspired

solely by the purest and intenseet love

of God, I could pile up before you such

a vast and dazzling wealth of glorious

testimony as no other theme has, or

^ver could call forth, as no other work

for humanity in our land can or could

ever boast of!

The subject of the Religious institu-

tions of the Catholic Church is indeed

emblematic of the grandest and purest

love that the world knows of, and,

therefore, when men attack such in-

stitutions as these, they attack that

which is most holy, which is most

sacred, and which brings more bless-

ings upon the community than almost

any other institution, of which it is

possible to conceive.

Challenge of the Bishop of Orleans.

Never to be forgotten, is the famous,

unanswered and unanswerable chal-

lenge of one of the great bishops of

France, Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of

Orleans, who, in response to the in-

famous taunts of infidels, offered to

pay for the printing of the following

advertisement in their various jour-

nals :

“Atheistic philosophers, agnostic

followers of Voltaire and critics, I ask

you, for the sake of suffering human-

ity, to publish this advertisement on

the front page of your journal:
“
‘Wanted—500,000 heroes of both



45

sexes, to care for the sick, to instruct

neglected and troublesome children,

on condition that these heroes and

heroines keep themselves chaste, pa-

tient, forbearing, working ten hours

a day for 33 cents, and receiving in

return to supplement their salary, in-

juries and calumnies, while they deny

themselves even innocent pleasures.’

.
“Print this in your papers: I will

pay for the advertisement. You

laugh at me. Not without reaspn per-

haps * * * you are

wrong. This army exists, and it is

sublime. One only Master could have

created it and inspired it; He raised

it. He recruits it. He arms it and has

commanded it for twenty centuries
* * * and it asks ho reward save

the smile and benediction of its Mas-

ter, Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Nemesis for Clemenceau.

An^d today, when we see France, in

the paroxysm of her rage against re-

ligion, driving out these ’ saintly wom-

en, is it not the strange irony of fate to

find the very men, who drafted and

promulgated those impious laws, i re-

calling their persecuted Victims, to

nurse them and their darlings, in the

day of sickness and trial. Just re-

cently we had occasion to witness this

sublime Nemesis in the case of Clem-

enceau, and in that of Waldek Rous-

seau, two of the most relentless foes

of the Church and the very authors of

those brutal laws against the Relig-

ious, but whose first demand, on find-

ing themselves sick unto death, was:

“Bring me a Catholic sister to nurse
me and restore me to health!”

Consistency of the Socialist Termagne

And again, the other day, Ter-

magne, the leader of the Sot;ialists in

Belgium, on discovering that his own

sister lay ill, dangerously ill, would

not rest, until he himself had

brpught one of the Sisters of Char-

ity, whom, but shortly before, he had

brutally maligned in Parliament; but,

apparently, she was the only one whom
he

,

desired to have at the bedside of

his own dying sister, to ensure for her

the conscientious care, which he well

knew would come to her only at the

hands of these noble women of Qod.

M. Meline, Former Premier of France,

Exposes the Underlying Motive

of All Animosity Towards

the Sisters.

lil. Meline, former Premier of

France, whom no one will venture to

accuse of partiality towards the Cath-

olic Church, in answer to the speech

of Bounet, at a Masonic banquet, in

which the latter announced the Ma-

sonic plan of expelling the Religious

from France, came out with an edi-

torial in “La Republique Francaise,”

of which the following are the con-

cluding sentences

:

“And when they shall have succeed-

ed in driving all the beloved Sisters

out of the country, what will they do ?

They will replace them by ‘apostles

of the big salary.’ Such is their high-

est ideal.

“But why this insane substitution?

FOR THE ONLY CAUSE WHICH
CONTROLS ALL THEIR ACTS—
THE HATRED OF GOD, IN WHOSE
NAME THESE ANGELS OF CHAR-
ITY MAKE THE VOLUNTARY
SACRIFICE OF ALL THE PLEAS-
URES OF LIFE!

“Where is the man, after this, who

will persist in the denial of the ex-

istence of God? Hear me, readers, it

is not often we trouble you with re-

ligion in the columns of this news-

paper, but, answer me, is it possible

to hate so ferociously, so inhumanly

a being who does not exist? If God

be only a chimera, how shall we con-

ceive on the one hand so much love,

and on the other so much hatred, one

persecuting the other on the field of

human misery? For the honest thinker

there is in the repulsive outrage of

the Freemason and in the silent hero-

ism of Catholic charity one and the

same Credo! Does not Scripture say

that faith lives even in the depths of

hell?”

An Appeal.

Friends, I appeal to you, is it pos-

sible for men to go further in the

mad riot of their fiendishly distorted

and putrid imaginations than have the

dastardly propagators of this awful

campaign of lying and misrepresenta-

tion in your midst ? They have

dragged down into the mire of infamy,

all that is holiest and purest, all that



46

stands for the best morality in our

city. Oh, shame, shame on the lying

tongues, eternal shame on them, I say,

that dare fasten even the foul breath

of evil suspicion upon these women,

who, by their going and coming in

your midst for the many years past,

have proved their worth and their

Christian dignity, their high ideals,

their sublime Christian character!

When Knighthood Was in Flower.

How refreshing it is to turn from
the revolting nausea of such infamy,

from the present disheartening dearth

of non-Catholic chivalry and remem-

ber that it was not always so, to re-

call that formerly there were many

not of our faith, whose love of truth

and sense of honor constrained them

to defend the Sisters with burning,

eloquent words of honest indignation.

Listen to what Brann, the famous ag-

nostic editor of the Iconoclast, could

say of these saintly women and their

despicable, defamers:

“Who is it that visits the slums of
our great cities, ministering to the

afflicted, comforting the dying, re-

claiming the fallen? When pestilence

sweeps over the land, and mothers de-

sert their babes and husbands their

wives, who is it that presses the cup

of cold water to the feverish lips and

closes the staring eyes of the deserted

dead? Who was it that went upon
the Southern battlefields to minister

to the wounded soldiers, followed

them to the hospitals and tenderly

nursed them back to life? The Ro-

man Catholic sisterhoods, God bless

them!

“One of those angels of mercy can

walk unattende<l^ and unharmed

through our ‘Reservation* at mid-

night. She can visit with impunity

the most degraded dive-in the White-

chapel district. At her coming the

ribald song is stilled, and the. oath

dies on the lips of the loafer. Fallen

creatures reverently touch the hem of

her garment, and men, steeped in

crime to the very lips, involuntarily

remove their hats as a tribute to noble

womanhood. The very atmosphere

seems to grow sweet with her coming,

and the howl of all helTs . demons is

silent. None so low in the barrel-

house, the gambling den, or the

brothel, as to breathe a word against

her good name; but when we turn

to the Baptist pulpit, there we find

an inhuman monster, clad in God*s

livery, crying: ‘Unclean! unclean!*

God help a religious denomination

that will countenance such an in-

famous cur!”

Tribute of Jack Crawford, the Federal

Scout.

Or let us take the testimony of

one, who but recounts his own actual

experience, one better qualified, in

this respect, than most others

perhaps to talk authoritatively of

the work and worth of the Catholic

Sisterhoods. Let this passage serve

as a final word—^for yoi^ will pardon
me, I trust, if I have detained you too

long, since the subject is one that

would not well bear shortening—in
cbnclusion, therefore, let me read

you this passage from a speech de-

livered by the famous American

scout apd soldier, Jack Crawford, a

character well-known in American

^military animls. These are his words

concerning the Catholic sisterhood

—

Jack Crawford, understand well, is

not a Catholic, but during the war he

had intimate knowledge of these Sis-

ters—and this is his tribute to them,
the expression of his own experience:

“On all God’s green and beautiful

earth there are no purer, no nobler,

no more kindhearted and self sacri-

ficing women than those who wear

the sombre garb of Catholic sisters.

During the war I had^many oppor-

tunities of observing their noble and

heroic work, not only in the camps

and in the hospitals, but right on the

death-swept field of battle, right in

the firing front of dreadful war,

where bullets hissed in maddening

glee and shot and shell flew madly

by with demoniac shrieks, where the

dead and mangled forms lay, with

pale blood-flecked faces, yet wearing

the scowl of battle. I have seen the

black-robed sisters moving over the

field, their solicitous faces wet with

tears of- human sympathy, minister-

ing to the wailts of the wounded and

whispering words of comfort into

ears soon to be deafened by the cold.



47

implacable hind of Death; now kneel*

ing on the blood-bespattered sod, to

moisten with water the bloodless lips,

on which the icy kiss of the death-

angel has left its pale imprint; now

breathing words of hope, or oi immor-

tality beyond the grave, into the ear

of some mangled hero, who^e last shol,

in our glorious cause had been fired

but the moment before; now again,

holding the crucifix to receive the last

kiss from somebody’s trembling boy,

from whose breast the life blood was

hashing, and who had offered his life

as a willing sacrifice on the altar of

his country; now with tender touch

and tear-dimmed eye binding gaping

wounds, from which most women

would shrink in horror; now scraping

together a pillow of forest-leaves,

upon which some pain-wracked head

might rest until the spirit takes its

flight to other realms; brave, fearless

of danger, trusting' implicitly in the

Master, whose overshadowing eye

was noting their every movement,

standing as shielding, heavenly angels

between the dying soldier and the

horrors of death—their only recom-
pense, the sweet-souled, soothing

consciousness that they were doing

their duty; tkeir only hope of reward;

that peace and eternal happiness

which awaited them beyond the

starry battlements above. \

“Oh, friends, oh, friends! theirs is

a noble work! How many a veteran
of the war, who wore the blue or the

gray, can yet recall the soothing touch

of a Sister’s hand, as he lay upon the

pain-tossed couch of a hospital? Can

we ever forget their sympathetic

eyes, their low, soft-spoken words of

encouragement and cheer, when the

result of the struggle between life

and death yet hung in the balance?

Oh, how often, how often have I fol-

lowed the form of the good Sister Va-

lentia with my sunken eyes, as she

moved away from my cot to the cot

of another sufferer, and I breathed

from the most sacred depths of my
faintly beating heart the fervent

prayer: ^God bless her! God bless

her!’

“My friends, I am not a Catholic,

but I stand ready at any and at all

tinies to defend those noble women,

even with my life; for I owe that

life to them.”

There is the tribute of a soldier,

who had personal knowledge of the

work of these noble women, devoting

themselves with unselfish, sacrificing

love to their duty, as they saw it, upoi^

the battlefield. That same heroic

work is re-enacted continuously, in

a thousand different ways, in every

field of beneficence and charity

which they enter, and I say to you

all from the bottom of my heart,
knowing, as I do, whereof I speak,

knowing well the kind of work

which they accomplish, and especially

to those of you, who have daughters

that are following that sacred calling,

or who long to give their life to God,

0 fathers, 0 mothers, begrudge not

your child to God! You may indeed

in selfishness keep that child at home

for a few years, and enjoy for your-

selves her unselfish devotion and love,

but remember that you thereby de-

prive the world of a glorious service,

for which that world must else have

one day sung its blessings, both on

her and you, for time and for eternity.



LECTURE IV,

THE CHURCH AND CIVIL LIBERTY.

The Loyally of Catholics to Fla^ and Country Unim-

peachable.

“Whosoever Maketh Himself a King,

Speaketh Against Caesar.”

' In the 18th Chapter of the Gospel

of St. John, I find described as fol-

lows the scene of Christ’s trial be-

fore Pilate. The High Priests, the

Pharisees, the doctors of the law and

the scribes, in their malice and hatred,

had at least succeeded in taking Christ

a prisoner, through the treachery of

one of His own disciples, Judas. They

have brought him before the Roman

Procurator, and many are the charges

they lay at His door. Perhaps the

most formidable of these, the one that

weighed most in the balance with

Pilate, was the accusation that Christ

had proclaimed himself the King of

the Jews, that he spoke of His King-

dom; and hearing this, Pilate called

Christ into the court-room and asked

him, “Art thou the King of the Jews?”

and Christ answered him, “Sayest thou

this thing of thyself, or have others

told it thee of me?” And Pilate

answers, “Am I a Jew? The High

Priests and the Counselors, thine

own peoi>le, have brought thee here;

they are making the charge!—art
thou then a king?” Thereupon

Christ answers most solemnly and de-

clares himself unequivocally, “Thou

sayest that I am a king. For this was

I born, for this* cause came I into the

woj:ld, that I should give testimony of

the truth; and every one that is of the

truth heareth my voice.” He had ex-

plained but a moment before to Pilate:

“My kingdom is not of this world; for

if my kingdom were of this world, my
servants would come and do battle for

me that I should not be delivered to

the Jews; but now my kingdom is not
hence;” and a moment later, as we have

seen, he lays it down clearly, plainly,

so that the simplest might understand

the nature of His Kingdom and. know

that His was the Kingdom of Divine

Truth, the Kingdom of Divine Revela-

tion, the Kingdom of the Spirit; such

ever was and is Christ’s ' Kingdom^

—

“And everyone,” he says, “that is of

the Truth heareth my voice.” Pilate,

realizing that there was no fault to

be found with that kind of a kingdom,

I

that it did not at all conflict with the

kingdom and rule of Imperial Caesar,

sought to free Christ. In order, how-

ever, to make some concession to the

Jews, he had Him scourged most

cruelly, he allowed the soldiers to

crown Him with thorns, to put upon

Him the purple mantle of mockery,

to place the reed sceptre in. His hand,

to blindfold, buffet, taunt and ridicule

Him, to bow the knee and spit into His

face, until Christ was made in very

truth th^ picture of most abject

misery.
^

And then, at last, he led Him

out before the vast assemblage, think-

ing their hearts would melt for sheer

pity, and he said to them, “Behold,

I bring you your king! See

how innocent, see how absolute-

ly harmless is this king of yours,

whom you have brought before me,

this king whom you accuse of con-

spiring against the authority of

Caesar.” But the Jews say, “No, no!

away with Him! crucify Him! crucify

Him!” and again' Pilate asks, “Shall

I crucify your own king?” And then

the Jews, forgetful of their theocratic

regime, as God^s Chosen People, cry

out, “WE HAVE NO KING BUT
CAESAR”! That was equivalent to a

denial of their faith. That was v the

^renunciation of their special preroga-

tive as custodians of Divine Revela-

tion; for the Jews were GOD’S OWN
CHOSEN PEOPLE. And now they

have apostatized, they have repudia-

ted God; they no longer desire God to

rule over them, and they say, '-“We

have no king but Caesar alone.” And

again they urge Pilate and say, “If

thou let this man go, thou art no friend

of Caesar’s, for every man that set-

teth himself up as a king, is an enemy

of Caesar!” Then Pilate, cowardly as



49

he was, yielded against his better

judgment, and mounting the judg-

ment seat, . washed his hands, broke

the staff, and condemned Christ to

death.

The Identical Charge Made Against

Christ’s Church.

That is a strange scene, isn’t it?

But it is a gcene, my dear friends,

which is being re-enacted day after

day right here in our own country!

For, after all, the Church is nothing

else but Christ continued through the

ages. The Church stands in place of

Christ. Christ established her and

lives in her. He said, “Go ye into the

whole world! For as the Father hath

sent me, so send I you.” He put them

in His place, made them—^the Apostles
nnd their successors—the bearers of
His divine message to mankind, and

invested them with His divine King-

ship. He made the Church His King-

dom upon earth. Oh, how often, when

you ’read the Scripture, do you not

find Christ calling His Church His

Kingdom! Now we are told today, and
hear it from all sides, from the pul-

pits of Protestant churches, from the

professorial chair of the University,

from the public rostrum and platform;

we read it in the magazines and in

hundreds of papers, that, the Cathoflic

Church is an institution that strives

for temporal power, that the Catholic

Church -wishes to establish a king-

dom, wishes to destroy the institutions

and the civil liberty of our country,

and that a Catholic cannot be a good

citizen because he owes allegiahce to

a foreign potentate. Now, I am stat-
ing the objection very plainly, am I
not? I couldn’t make it plainer, if I

tried. That is the sum and substance

of it, although it is chanted In every

key of the scale. Yes, it is constantly

dinned into our ears in all manner of

ways, that the Catholic Church is a

FOREIGN INSTITUTION, that the
Catholic owes allegiance to a foreign

potentate, that the Catholic Hierarchy

is a foreign body, dangerous to Amer-

ican liberties. Hvery tenet and every

article of our holy Catholic Faith is

twisted, distorted, misconstrued to

give color to this charge.

The Answer Is Also the Same.

And yet the simple and permanent

answer to this objection is ever

one and the same, the answer of

Christ to Pilate, “MY KINGDOM IS
NOT OF THIS WORLD.” Bear that
in mind, and you have the answer of

the Catholic Church
—
“For thjs have

I been placed in the world by Christ,

to give testimony of the Truth, and

they that abe of the Truth hear my
voice.”

Now, Christ, after \he Resurrection,

said to the Apostles, “You shall be

witnesses unto me through Judea and

Samaria and unto the uttermost ends

of the earth — you are established
the Kingdom of Truth, the Kingdom

of My
,

Church, but MY KINGDOM IS
NOT OF THIS WORLD.” It has
naught to do with temporal power or

civil rule!

The practical relation of Catholic

morality to civil allegiance and' to

secuilar government is most aptly and

clearly expressed in those simple, plain

words of Chri^. “Render to Caesar

the things that are Caesar’s, and to

God the things that are God’s.” Our

Divine Saviour here gives distinct ex-

pression to the principle that Caesar

(the world, the civil government) has

not ALL the right nor ALL the
power; that there are things, which

are beyond the jurisdiction and beyond

the competency of the State.

The Scribes and Pharisees, on that

occasion,^ had come tempting Him,

seeking to entrap Him in His Tspeech,

and to this end, they put the insidious

question, regarding the payment of

taxes : “Is it la-wful to pay tribute

unto Caesar?” and tlje words we have

quoted were His answer: “Render to

Caesar the things that are Caesar’s

and to God the things that are God’s.

Forget neither the one, nor the other.”

That is the attitudp of the Church in

regard to civil allegiance: in all things

that pertain to the . la-wful interests

and rights of the State, the Church

says, “Render to Caesar the things

that are Caesar’s;” and in all things

pertaining to God, to Divine worship,

to faith, to spiritual things, she says,

“Render to God, the things that are

God’s.” Caesar may not claim those
things. Caesar may not impose them



60

as to matters of conscience, in a word,

CAESAR MAY NOT ENSLAVE THE
CONSCIENCE; the conscience must

be free and untrammeled, because it

represents the relations of man to his

God.
'

“It is Better to Obey God Rather

. Than Men.”

In the fifth chapter of the Acts of

the Apostles, we' have a remarkable

instance in point, which shows plainly

just how far the Church will go, when

there is questioA of coming into con-

flict with the State. It is a remark-

able instance and I will briefly review

it for you. We read in this chapter of
the Acts that the Apostles had pub-

licly, in the temple, on the streets, in

the market-place, preached Christ and

Him crucified. Now the
,

Council of

the Jews, the High Priests and all

the enemies of Christ, took this very

ill, and co,mmanded the Apostles to

be cast into prison. But we' read that

during the night, the angel of the

Lord .came and opened the prison'

doors, and the next day, the Apostles

were again to be found in the

temple, ^ giving testimony of Christ.

Wheli, therefore, the Jewish High

Priests, who were the rulers of

the people in many matters, even

temporal and civil, thought to sum-

mon the Apostles from prison,

their messengers returned and said,

“Why, the men that you cast into

prison are teaching in the temple!”

Ai^d so they were again apprehended

and brought before the Sanhedrin, and,

when they stood' before this Council,

they were asked: “Did we not com-

mand you that ye should not teach in

this name, and behold you have filled

Jerusalem with your doctrines, and

you have a mind to bring the blood

of this man upon us. You are charg-

ing us with Christas death.” But Peter

and the Apostles answering said, “WE
OUGHT TO OBEY GOD RATHER
THAN MEN.”

Conscience Not the Lawful Province

of the State.

Now, if there is any man that be-

lieves in the SACRED SCRIPTURE,
that believes that is the revealed word

of God, must he not of necessity agree

with us in saying the same thing

regarding all the encroachments of

the State upon the domain of con-

science? If
.
the State should ever go

outside of its lawful province, the

temporal and civil welfare of the

people, and strive to usurp dominion

over conscience, these words inspired

of the Holy Ghost, must be our an-

swer: “We ought to obey God rather

than men!”

Example of the Apostles.

And the Council had them flogged^

and then dismissed them, with the

injunction that they must not teach

any more. What did the Apostles do ?

We read, “And they indeed went forth
from the presence of the council re-

joicing that they were counted worthy

to suffer reproach for the name of

Jesus, and 'every day they ceased not

in the temple and from house to

house to preach Christ Je^us.” There

you have a simple illustration of the

relation of the Church to civil power

overstepping its proper limits — We
must obey God first and foremost.

Civil Allegiance Due Solely and

Exclusively to Our Country.

The statement that the Catholic

Church is a “foreign” institution—^that
is, owes allegiance to a “foreign poten-

tate,” namely the Pope of Rome; the

statement that the Pope aspires to be

the temporal ruler of the world, that he

is sgeking to get power here in these

United States, that (aS the excited

imagination of these foolish men would

have it) < the Pope is actually en route

for the White House, all this is rank

nonsense! We say with the utmost sin-

cerity and with the utmost earnestness,

absolutely and unequivocally, that'WE
OWE NO CIVIL ALLEGIANCE TO
THE POPE, that we do not recognize

the Pope as our temporal ruler, that

the Pope has nothing to s'ay to us

regarding our civil life. That is

outside of his domain. We owe civil

allegiance to our country alone and to

our flag, to the United States and to

the Stars and Stripes. Catholics the

country over stand ready to defend

every article of the Constitution, and

to bold every star in this flag, hold

it there, if needs be, by the shedding of

their hearts^ blood. This is an absolute,

sincere and unequivocal statefhent, to



.1

V
61

which every Catholic, from the

bishops and priests of the country to

the humblest layman of our land, can

honestly and conscientiously sub-

scribe. It is the ONLY doctrine on the

subject that exists in the Catholic

Church, and anything outside of that

doctrine is absolutely false and un-

-Catholic.

Pope Leo XIII Officially Declares the

Position of the Church, on this

Point.

Pope Leo XIII of blessed memory,

the man who, by the purity of his

life and by the wonderful power of

.his intellect, succeeded in riveting

upon himself the attention and admir-

ation of the whole world, Pope Leo

XIII, I' say, wrote a remarkable Ency-

clical Letter on the Constitution of the

Christian State, and in that letter he

uses the following plain and clear lan-

guage—and, mind you, this is the
authentic teaching of the Catho-

lic Churcli; the official teaching

of its infallible Head, of -the Pope

himself, who is here speaking and

teaching all the nations of the earth

(because this letter was addressed to

the entire Catholic world, and there-

fore carries with it most absolute and

final authority, representing the

authentic and authoritative teaching of

the entire Catholic Church)
—
“God”

he says, “God has divided the charge

of the human race betweoa two powers,

the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one

set over divine things, the other over

human things. Each is supreme in

its own kind. Each has certain limits

within which it is restricted. What-

soever in human affairs is in any

manner sacred, pertaining to the sal-

vation of souls and the worship of

God and the like belongs to the Church.

But ALL OTHER THINGS, which

are embraced in the civil or political

order, ARE OF RIGHT SUBJECT

TO THE STATE.” Now, I ask you,
could you get a clearer, plainer, or

more candid expression than this ?

Surely there is no ambignity about

these w6rds! A child can understand
them. And that is the authentic

teaching of the Church!

Official Inquiry of the English Gov-

ernment.

Let me give you another illustra-

tion, another instance. In the early

decades of the nineteenth century, MR.

PITT, who was then PRIME MINIS-

TER OF ENGLAND and contemplat-
ing the Catholic Emancipation Act,

sought to inform himself thoroughly,

before his government should grant

Catholic Emancipation, as to whether

there was anything in Catholic the-

ology, in Caijiolic doctrine, that would

in any manner interfere with the civil

allegiance of the Catholic subjects of

England; and so the Honorable Mr.

Pitt, then Prime Minister of England,

sent the following THREE CATE-
GORIC QUESTIONS, to the six most

famous Catholic universities of Europe,

asking them to give thereto an un-

equivocal and categoric answer. I will

read for you the three questions:

I. “Has the Pope, or Cardinals, or

any body of men, or any individual

oPthe Church of Rome”—now, if you
think to find anybody else besides

then:e in the Church of Rome, you will

have to hifnt long and unsuccessfully
—“has the Pope, or Cardinals, ot any
body of men, or any individual of the

Church of Rome, any civil authority,

power or jurisdiction or pre-eminence,

whatsoever within the realm of Eng-

land?” That is a plain question,

isn’t it?

II. “Can the Pope, or Cardinals, or

any body of men, or any individual of

the Church of Rome absolve ' or dis-

pense with His Majesty’s subjects

from their oath of allegiance, upon any

pretext whatsoever?” That is also

a plain question.

III. “Is there any tenet of the

Catholic faith, by which Catholics are

justified in not keeping faith with

heretics, or other persons differing

from them in religious opinions, in

any transaction, either of a public or

a private nature?”

Unanimous Answer of the Six Catholic

Universities.

There are the three questions, and

these three questions were submitted

to the six most famous Catholic uni-

versities of Europe? And here is the

unanimous answer that was returned



by the six universities, identical,

couched in the same terms. You can

find it all in the British Parliament

records. Mr. Pitt read them in Parlia-

ment. Here are the answers:

I. “That the Pope, or Cardinals, or

any body of men, or any individual of

the Church of Rome, has NOT any
c;ivil authority, power, jurisdiction, or

pre-eminence whatsoever, within the

realm of England.” That is cate-

goric, isn’t it?

il. “That the Pope, cardinals or

any body of men or any individual of

the Church of Rome CANNOT absolve
or dispense with his Majesty’s sub-

jects from their oath of allegiance,

upon any pretext whatsoever.” That

is clear and categoric, isn’t it?

III. “That there is NO principle in
the tenets of the Catholic faith, by

which Catholics are justified in not

keeping faith with heretics, or other

persons differing from them in re-

ligious opinions, in any transaction,

either of a public of a private nature.”

These are the answers of the uni-

versities. On tile strength of
^
those

answers, the Catholics ill England

were “emancipated.” And the first

instance is still to be put bn record of

Catholic treason against the Govern-

ment; I mean of treason inspired by

the Catholic Church. There is not a

single instance!

Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore.

These answers of the six universi-

ties may be supplemented by the fol-

lowing memorable statement of Arch-

bishop Spalding, of Baltimore, made in

the year 1855:

“But are not Catholics the subjects

of a foreign prince, the Pope?” This

slander—like almost everything else

said against us—has been refuted so
many thousand times already, that

we are almost afraid to tire the pa-

tience or insult the understanding of

our readers by answering it again.

No man of common intelligence or in-

formation need be told, at this late

day, that the obedience we owe to

the Pope is confined entirely to re-

ligion and spiritual things; and that

he neither claims^, nor we allow, any

jurisdiction over us in temporal mat-

ters affecting our civil allegiance.

This question has been ,so long set-

tled throughout the ci'^lized world,

that its revival at present appears to

be wholly useless, if not utterly ab-

surd. When it was a question, more

than sixty years ago, of removing

some of the penal laws, under which

the Catholics of England had been so

long suffering, this very question in

regard to the nature and extent of

Papal jurisdictiori was discussed; and

it was then settled to the entire sat-

isfaction of Mr. Pitt and of the whole

British Parliament, which according*-

ly passed the Catholic Relief Bill. The

oath of allegiance freely taken by

Catholic Bishops, and Members of

Parliament and officers of the govern-

ment in Great Britain and Ireland,,

with the sanction of the Popes them-

selves, expressly disclaims belief in

any civil power or jurisdiction over

British subjects, as inherent in the

sovereign Pontiffs.

“To prevent all possibility of mis-

understanding on this subject, and

to remove every pretext of calumny,

the Popes authorized a change in the

oath taken by a Bishop at his conse-

cration, striking out all obscure

clauses of feudal origin, and retain-

ing those only which promised obedi-

ence in spirituals. What more than

this could be asked by any reasonable

man, fo'r the final settlement of the

question? The Catholic Bishops of

the United States, with, the express

sanction of Rome, take the path, ' as

thus^ modified; and they have more

than once officially declared, both in-

dividually and in their collective

capacity, their solemn belief that the

Roman Pontiff has none but spiritual

power and jurisdiction, outside of his

own immediate States. The first

Catholic Bishop of the country — the
venerable Carroll of Baltimore,—wrote
as follows on this subject, in a pas-

toral letter issued February 22, 1797

:

•

“
‘There would indeed be a founda-

tion for the reproach intended by the

words foreign jurisdiction, if we ac-

knowledged in the successor of St.

Peter any power or prerogative,

which clashed in the least degree with

the duty we owe to our country or its

laws. To our country we owe allegi-

ance and the tender of our best serv-



63

ices and property when they are

necessary for its defense; to the

Vicar of Christ we owe obedience in

thing's purely spiritual. Happily, there

is no competition in their respective

claims on us, nor any difficulty in ren-

dering to both the submission which

they have a right to claim. Our coun-

try commands and enforces by out-

ward coercion, the services which

tend to the preservation and defense

of that personal security, and of that

property, for the sake of which politi-

cal societies were formed and men

agreed to Jive under the protection of,

and in obedience to, civil government. -

The Vicar of Christ, as a visible head

of His Church, watches over the in-

tegrity and soundness of doctrine, and

makes use of means and weapons that

act only on the souls of men, to en-

force the duties of religion,^he purity

of worship, and ecclesiastical disci-

>pline.’

“Our Bishops, assembled in solemn

council at Baltimore, have often pub-

licly proclaimed principles identical

with those just announced, as ema-

nating from the venerable founder of

our hierarchy. We can make room

for but two extracts, the first of

.which is taken from a pastoral letter

issued by them in the Sixth Provin-

cial Council of Baltimore, held in

May, 1846; from which it will be seen

that our Bishops—in their collective

and official capacity, are very plain

and explicit in their declarations on

this very poiht:
“
‘The paternal authority of the

Chief Bishop is constantly misrepre-

sented* and assailed by the adversar-

ies of our holy religion, especially in

this country, and is viewed with sus-

picion even by some who acknowledge

its powerful influence in pireserving

faith and unity. It is unnecessary for

i!s to tell you, brethren, that the King-

dom of Christ, of which the Bishop of

Rome, as successor of Peter, has re-

ceived flie keys, is not of this world;

and that the obedience due tjo the

Vicar*of the Saviour is in no way in-

consistent with your civil allegiance,

your social duties as citizens, or your

rights as men. We can confidently
appeal to the -v^hole tenor of our in-

structions, not only in our public ad-

dresses, but in our most confidential

communications, and you can bear

witness that we have i^ways taught

you to render to Caesar the things

which are Caesar’s, to God the things

which are God’s. Be not, then, heed-

ful of the misrepresentations of fool-

ish men, who, unable to combat the

evidences of our faith, seek to excite

unjust prejudice against that authority

which has always proved its firmest

support.
' Continue to practice justice

and charity towards all your fellow-

citizens — respect the magistrates —
observe the laws—shun tumult and
disorder, as free and not as having

liberty as a cloak for malice, but as

the servants of God. You, brethren,

have been called unto liberty: only

make not liberty an occasion to the

flesh, but by charity of the spirit,

serve one another. For all the law is

fulfilled in one wordi.TJiou shalt love

thy neighbor as thyself. Thus you will

put to shame the calumniators of our

holy faith, and vindicate, it more

effectually than by any abstract pro-

fession or disclaimer.’

“But there, is another declaration,

made by the Bishops who composed

the Fifth Council of Baltimore, held

in May, 1843, which has even more

weight in settling this question, be-

cause it occurs in an official letter ad-

• dressed to the Pope by the assembled

American prelates. The Pontiff, far

from being offended by this explicit

disavowal by the American Bishops of

all Papal authority and jurisdiction

in merely civil matters, says in hi's

official answer: ‘Your letter was most

pleasing to Us’; and he praises the

zeal, of our prelates. Here is the

extract alluded to—the Bishops are
speaking of the efforts made by our

enemies to put doW' the Church in

this country:
“
‘They spread doubtful rumors

against us among the people; .with

untiring' efforts^they circulate among

the ignorant and uninformed, books

which calumniate our most holy re-

ligion; they leave no means untried

to infect with their errors their Cath-

olic servants; and although our fore-

fathers poured out their blood like

water for the defense of our liberties

against a Protestant oppressor, they



54

yet seek to render us, their fellow-

citizens, suspected by falsely asserting

that we are ^educed to servitude un-

der the civil and political jurisdiction

of a foreign prince, namely of the

Roman Pontiff, and that we are there-

;fore unfaithful to the Republic.’
”

The Catholic Catechism.

The Catholic Church has a very

simple book which she puts into the

hands of the children of her flock, as

well as into those of adults and of the

laity at large, a book which is the of-

flcial text -book of the Catholic Re-

ligion, which instructs Catholics

concerning their duties, in re-

lation to morals, and with re-

gard t6 Catholic worship. This

book is called the CATECHISM, It is

a very simple book; you can get it

for five cents at any one of the Catho-

lic book-stores here in town. 1 have

a larger one hei'e, one written by those

“horrible Jesuits.” Surely that ought to

be a pretty tough and rabid one; for

you know the Jesuits are such awful

people! Well, now, l am going to read

from De Harbe’s catechism, written

t)y a Jesuit, the authentic teaching of

the Church, as it is inculcated in all of

the Catholic schools, in all of the Cath-

olic Sunday Schools, and in all Catho-

lic sermons. There is no variation

from thaT teaching. We haven’t got.

one kind of teaching in these books,

and another in some secret and

esoteric channels. No, every Catholic

can tell you that there is just one set

of teachings for Catholics the world

over. I

Chapter of the Catechism on the

Fourth Commandment.

Let me read you from this Cate-

chism the instr(iction, that is given to

our children sAd to our Catholic laity

respecting their duties toward tem-

poral rulers, towards the civil govern-

ment. I turn in the Catechism to the

chapter on the Fourth Commandment

of God, “Honor thy father and thy

mother, that thou mayest live long

upon earth and that it may be well with

thee.”

Obligation Toward SPIRITUAL

Superiors.

Here is one of the questions, “What

are our duties towards our Spiritual

rulers?” I will begin with that, be-

cause some might think that it is

there that the mischief lies. - Now
listen! What are our duties toward

our. spiritual rulers, that is, the Pope,

the Bishops and the Priests of the

Church? They are the spiritual rulers

of the Church, there isp’t any question

about that. The Bible gives testi-

mony of it. Here is the answer:

“First, we are bound to honor and

love them, as the representatives of

God and as our spiritual fathers

:

second, we must submit to their or-

dinances for the welfare of the

Church; third, we must pray for them;

and fourth, we must provide for their

support, in the manner established by

law and custom.” This is followed

by the texts of Scripture cited to

^rove thifi teaching: “With all thy

soul fear the Lord and reverence His

priests” (Ecclesiastes vii:31). “Obey

vyour prelates and be subject to them,

for they watch as being to render an

account of your souls, that they may

do this with joy and not with grief;

for this is not expedient for you”

(Heb. xiii:17) . This last is the instruc-

tion of St. Paul to the Church of the

Hebrews
—
“The Lord ordained that

they who preach the gospel should live

by. the gospel.” This is taken from

the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the

Corinthians, Chapter 9th, verse 1-^h.

Also .^parallel passages in St. Luke’s

Gospel and St. Paul’s Epistle to Tim-

othy are cited: the example of the

prayers of Christians for Peter, when

the latter was in prisqn (Acts of the

Apostles xii:5); also the exhortation

of St. Paul to thq Colossians, iv:3.

There you have the Scriptural war-

raVit for the inculcation of these duties

of Catholics towards their spiritual

rulers.
^

How One’s Duty Toward a Spiritual

Superior May Be Violated.

Now comes the question, “Vhen do

we sin against our spiritual rulers?”

The answer to the question is# plain:

“When by word or deed we violate

the reverence due them, or when by

speaking ill of them we lower their

character; secondly, when we oppose

them and thereby become the cause



55

of schism and of scandal; and thirdly,

when, contrary to our duty, we refuse

to contribute towards their support,

and to provide for the divine service.”

Then again there are a number of texts

of Scripture giving the Scriptural

warrant for every one of these duties.

Duties Towards Temporal Rulers.

Now comes the question, “What are-

our duties towards our temporal rul-

ers?” Ah, there is the point at last!

Now listen to what every Catholic is

taught the wide world over, not only

here in the United States, not only in

England, or in Germany, or in France,

but everywhere; wherever there is a

Catholic priest teaching Catholic mor-

ality, this is what he inculcates:

Question: “What are our duties

towards our temporal ruler's?” An-

swer: (1) “We are bound tO'.show our

temporal rulers, ordained by God, re-

spect, fidelity and conscientious obed-

ience, and to suffer anything rather

than to raise sedition against them;

(2) To pay the taxes imposed by

them (always taking it for granted,

of course, that they are just taxes);

and (3) To assist them in their neces-

sities and dangers, and even to sac-

rifice our property, yes, our life, for

their defense against the enemies of.

our country.” * There is the teaching

that is inculcated into the hearts of

Catholic children; that is the teach-

ing of our Catholic parochial schools.

Do you think it will constitute a

danger to the civil liberties of our

country? This is again followed by a

number of passages from the Bible

showing the Scriptural warrant for

every one of these duties.

What Constitutes a Sinful Violation

of a Catholic’s Duty^to His

Country.

Then comes the next question, “How

do we sin against our temporal rul-

ers,” and the answer is: (1) “By

hatred and contempt; (2) by reviling,

blaspheming them; (3) by refusing

to pay the lawful taxes due to them;

(4) by resistance and rebellion; (5)

by any. sort of treason, violence or con-

spiracy against our Government and

country.” That, too, is the teaching

that is inculcated into the mind and

the heart of every Catholic. Is there

anything treasonable about it? Has

the Government of the United ’filtates

aught to fear, Jn its constitution or in

its liberties, from a body of men and

women, who are formed upon princi-

ples and teachings such as these,' and

who recognize that this is indeed

God’s own will and God’s own revela-

tion?

Where It Is Lawful to Refuse

Obedience.

Now, lastly, “When are our parents,

superiors* and sovereigns not to be

obeyed?” Ah, you say there is the

nigger in the fence! Well, let us look

at him. I am going to pull him out

and sl^w him to you. Now keep your

eyes and your ears wide open! “WHEN
THEY COMMAND ANYTHING UN-
LAWFUL BEFORE GOD, then you
may not obey them,” after the exam-

ple of the Apostles, who, when they

had been interdicted by the Council

from preaching Christ crucified, an-

swered, “We ought to obey God

rather than man” (Acts of the Apos-

tles, vii:29).

Scriptural Examples.

Other examples follow, e. g., Joseph

in the House of Potiphar. His mistress

demanded of him a sinful act. She de-

manded that he commit adultery with

her. She was-, infatuated with this

young man, with his natural beauty

and comeliness. She was his mistress;

he was the slave. Slie thought she

owned him, body and soul. She

thought all she had to do was to say,

“Come with me,” but she found a man

with a conscience, and he «aid, “No,

how could I do this wicked thing in

the sight of my God?” He could nof

in conscience obey; he must refuse

obedience, because “we must obey God

rather than man.”

Another exampl.e, Susannah, the

wife of Joakim, one of the most beau-

tiful and virtuous women in Israel,

who, by reason of the social position

of her husband, entertained in her

house, as frequent guests, two of the

venerated judges of the people. They

were old men, but their corrupt and

rotten hearts burned with the un-

seemly lust for their neighbor’sv

wife. And so they sought out an op-^



66

.
portunity, that they might entrap her

and force her to commit sin. They

secreted themselves . in her garden, in

the orchard, where they knew she

would retire, and, when she had sent

awa.y her maids to bring the

things necessary for a bath, they went

to her and said, “Now do our bidding,

or we will hand thee over Ifo the power

of the law!” Susannah said, “I am in

great stress, for if I do your bidding,

I offend God, and if I do not your bid-

ding, I am fallen a prey to your hatred

and to your revenge.” “But,” she

said, “it is better to obey God than

man.” Anct SO she refused, and she

started to cry out, and so likewise did

they, and they brought the ^charge

against her, that she had committed

adultery with a young man, who Was

secreted in the garden, and of course

they couldn^t hold him because the

\ young man was stronger and more

agile than they,—so they said; and
they assembled the people, and Susan-

nah was condemned to be stoned. But

God raised up Daniel, the Prophet, who

halted the people and bade them go

hack and judge a just judgment. And

returning, they convicted those men

of their falseness and of their de-

pravity of heart; whereupon there was

meted out to them the punishment,

which they had striven to inflict upon a

heroic and guiltless woman.

There you have a simple example of

circumstances, under which we are

obliged to disobey, no matter what the

cost, namely when authority, however

lawful in itself, demands something

of us that is wrong in the sight of

God. You have given as further ex-

amples the Scriptural story of the

three young men condemned to the

fiery furnace for refusing to 'sacrifice

to an idol, the story of Elenzar and

the Seven Maccabees, etc., etc—and all
these '^Scriptural exaniples are cited,

as warning to a Catholic, to make him

realize that God comes first.

Protestants Themselves Admit the

Justice of This, but Conveniently

Forget and Ignore It, When

Attacking Catholics.

Now every Protestant, if he wants

to be true to himself, must absolutely

agree with me, and say the same

thing. But, in their hatred against

the Catholic Church, they are willing

to sacrifice anything and everything,

even the most sacred and precious

principles, just for the sake of fasten-

ing the stigma of disloyalty upon the

Catholics. Now I might go on multi-
plying instances, I might go on

^quoting the teaching of the Church

from thousands and thousands of

documients, until- I had piled up be-

fore you a vast library. Such has ever

been the teaching of the Catholic

Church, and for nineteen centuries it

has not varied in the least. But what

is the use ? Those who are apparently

determined by fair means or foUl to

brand Catholics with the charge of

allegiance to a “foreign potentate,”

are not open to conviction; after all

had been said and done, they would still

persist in saying; “Catholics owe al-

legiance to a foreign pope.” Again,

I Say to you, that charge, that state-

ment is absolutely and unequivocally

false, and I, as a Catholic Bishop, am
perfectly willing, yes, as a Catholic

Bishop I MUST SUBSCRIBE to the
following anathema; “CURSED BE
HE WHO SAYS YOU OWE THE
CHURCH TEMPORAL ALLE-
GIANCE.” I subscribe to that, anath-

ema with all my heart So does every
Catholic. And yet, no matter how

often We deny it, invariably the old
charge will be brought up again. No
matter how numerous or weighty the'

disproofs we amass, it will still be re-

peated; the old lie, the old falsehood,

the old slander never dies, it survives

all refutations, and ever and anon

is made to do new and valiant

service against the Church of Jesus

Christ. “If thou let this man ^o, thou
art not Caesar’s fridnd!” If you make

truce with the Catholics, if you are a
'

friend of the Catholic Church, they

declare that you are no friend of

Caesar’s. It is always; Down with
the Catholic! IN THE NAME OF PA-
TRIOTISM AND LIBERTY, DE-
PRIVE HIM OF LIBERTY!—aye,
these men are so blind that they

do not see that they themselves, not

the Catholics, are the real offenders

against the principles of religious and

civil liberty; for they spare no effort

to rob their Catholic fellow citizens of



57

every vestige of civic and conscien-

tious rights. In the very name of

civil liberty, they advocate the en-

slavement and disenfranchising of all

their fellow citizens of Catholic faith.

The Church’s Position in the Middle

Ages No Argument.

'‘Now those who charge the Catholic

with allegiance to a “foreign poten-

tate” are in the habit of citing in-

stances from the history of the MID-

DLE AGES. They will quote the acts

of certain popes, or of certain bishops.

THEY HAVEN’T REALLY READ
HISTORY, and consequently they do

not know that in those days of the

barbarian invasions, and of the

reconstruction of European civ-

ilization, the Church, by vir-

tue of the law of nations, owing

to the stress of ' the times, and BY

VIRTUE OF THE CONSENT OF
THE PEOPLE was vested ofttimes
with CIVIL FUNCTIONS, over and

above her inherent religious and spir-

itual power, that in those days popes

and bishops were ALSO SECULAR
princes. That was a condition

brought about by the peculiar and

exceptional social conditions of those

days. Now anybody, who is at all ac-

quainted with history, knows that well.

And anybody that does not know it,

and, in consequence, appeals to such

instances in proof of the fact that the

Pope strives for universal temporal

dominion, succeeds in simply doing one

thing, that is, IN MANIFESTING

HIS OR HER SUPREME IGNO-
RANCE OF HISTORICAL DOCU-
MENTS AND THE HISTORICAL
EVENTS AND MOVEMENTS OF
THE PAST CENTURIES.

Our ^Statements Based on the Testi-

mony of Protestant and Not of

Catholic Historians.

Far different is the verdict of the

GREAT HISTORIANS of today, or
the great historians of a century ago

—and I am hot now speaking of Cath-
olic historians; I am speaking only of

Protestant historians, and all of my
quotations shall be exclusively from

Protestant sources, from Protestant

authors, who studied history thorough-

ly, and not in the usual superficial

manner of those whose ‘^little knowl-

edge is a dangerous thing.”

Peculiar Conditions of Feudal Times.

In the days of feudalism, when em-

perors and kings and princes and

barons exercised despotic power over

their peoples, the Church, by common

consent, was recognized as THE AR-
BITER OF NATIONS. That was
written in THE INTERNATIONAL
LAW of that period. It was confirmed
by the consent of the governed. The

Pope was the suzerain of those petty

principalities and powers, and oft-

times bishops also were secular

princes. Now understand, I am
not . at all justifying or praising

that condition 6f affairs. God for-

bid! I would not for the world, for

any consideration whatsoever, desire

the return of such abnormal social

and economic conditions. In those

days, however, it was really a neces-

sity. Anybody acquainted with his-

tory will tell you that. As an illus-

tration in point, let me give you three
famous testimonies from men, who

certainly are not to be accused of be-

ing over-friendly to the Catholic

Church, but who are men that have

studied history and know the facts.

Testimony of a Protestant Clergyman

and Historian.

Now' in the first place I am going
to cite the testimony of a famous

Protestant minister, the Rev. E. Cutts,

D.D., a well-known author of no in-

considerable fame, contained in a work

published by the English Society for

Promoting Christian Knowledge. Here

is what Rev. Dr. Cutts, a Protestant

minister, has to say concerning the

conditions prevalent in the times, to

which I am now referring: “In the
Middle Ages,” he says, “the Church

was a GREAT POPULAR INSTITU-
TION. One reason, no doubt, of the

popularity of the mediaeval Church

was that IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN
THE CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE”
—Do you hear that?—“and the
FRIEND OF THE POOR. In politics
the Church was ALWAYS ON THE
SIDE OF THE LIBERTIES OF THE
PEOPLE AGAINST THE TYRAN-
NIES AND DESPOTISM OF FEUD-
AlL lords. In the eye of the nobles,the



58

laboring population were beings of an

inferior caste; in the eye of the law

they were chattels; in the eye of the

Church they were brethren in Christ,

souls to be won and trained and fitted

for heaven. In social life the Church

was an easy landlord and a kind mas-

ter.” That is the reason, for linstance,

that we have in England the PROV-

ERB, “It is good to live under the

bishop’s crook.” The bishop’s crook is

his pastoral staff, so called by reason

of the crook', in which its upper ex-

tremity terminates. That was a COM-

MON PROVERB in all England, and
the same was true in Germany,

“Unter dem Bischof’s Stab ist gut

leben.” That was the proverb! You

know the proverbs are the kernels, the

quintessence of the wisdom and of the

experience of the day that produces

them. Th^ Rev. Dr. Cutts goes on de-

scribing, the action of the Catholic

Church in those days, and he says,

“On the whole, with many drawbacks,

the mediaeval Church did its duty

—

according to its own light—to the
people. It was a great cultivator of

learning and art, and did its best to

educate the jpeople. It had vast polit-

ical influence (at that time) and it

used* it on the side of the liberties

of the people.” She was not, there-

fore, the enemy of the people nor

the enemy of liberty. “By ’means

of its painting and sculpture in the

churches, its mystery-plays, its re-

ligious festivals, its catechising and

its preachiijg, it is probable that the

'chief facts of the Gospel history and

the doctrine of the Creeds were more

universally known and more vividly

realized than among the masses of

our present population.” (Turning-

points of English Church History, pp.

16, 165.) That is the testimony of a

Protestant minister, a gentleman of

culture, a man who made deep studies

and researches into the conditions

prevalent during the Middle Ages.

Does this sound as if the Church Were

the enemy of civil liberty? Does this

sound as though the Church enslaves

the people ?

itative. It is the testimony of the

famous Canon Farrar, Chaplain to

Queen Victoria, perhaps one of

the most learned men of the An-

glican (Episcopalian Church), a Prot-

estant minister and a scholar of the

first order. Here is what Canon

Farrar has to say about the social

and the civil influence of the

Church in those very Middle Ages,

which men, extremely ignorant of true

conditions, are at);empting to hold up,

as proving that the Church strives

to usurp civil power. They seem

not to understand that the con-

ditions in those days were AB-

SOLUTELY DIFFERENT from what
they are today. Here is his tes-

timony: “From the fifth to the thir-

teenth century, the Church was en-

gaged in elaborating the most splen-

did organization which tjie world has

ever seen, starting with the separa-

tion of the spiritual fi*om the tem-

poral, and the mutual independence of

each in its own sphere.” Isn’t that

strange? That is just the opposite

of what we are told today, is it not ?

Weigh the significance of those words!

He continues: “Catholicism ' worked

hand in hand with feudalism for the

amelioration of mankind. Under the

influence of feudalism, slavery became

serfdom, and. aggressive was modified

into a defensive war. Under the in-

fluence of Catholicism the monasteries

preserved learning and maintained the

sense of the unity of Christendom. Un-

der the combined influence of both

grew up a lovely ideal of chivalry,

moulding generous instincts into gal-

lant institutions, making the body vig-

orous and the soul pure, and wedding

the Christian virtues- of humility and

tenderness to the natural graces of

courtesy. and strength.”* Now, mark

these words. It is Canon Farrar who

speaks! “During this period THE
CHURCH WAS THE ONE MIGHTY
WITNESS FOR LIGHT IN AN AGE
OF DARKNESS, FOR ORDER IN
AN AGE OF LAWLESSNESS, FOR
PERSONAL HOLINESS IN AN
EPOCH OF LICENTIOUS RAGE.”
That is the testimony of Canon Far-

rar, and he knows what he is talking

about. “Amid . the despotism of

Testimony of Canon Farrar.

Let me give you a second testimony,

no less authentic and no less author-



69

kings, he continues, and the tur-

bulence of aristocracies, it was

an inestimable blessing that there

should be a power which, by the un-

armed majesty of simple goodness,

made the haughtiest and the boldest

respect the interests of justice, and

tremble at the thought of temperance,

righteousness and the judgment to

come.” This quotation is to be found

in £Ge Halcyon Lectures for 1870, on

page 115.

I will give you another testimony,

that of the famous Scotch traveler,

Samuel Laing, a Protestant, a famous

traveler, a man who traveled the wide

world over and studies the histories of

the various peoples. Here is Laing’s

testimony concerning the activities of

the Catholic Church in these mediaeval

times, whose, chronicles are now being

ransacked, with evil intent, by ig-

norant men, who neither understand

history nor care to understand it, be-

cause, forsooth, a thorough under-

standing mighb render their armory

of ill-digested facts quite useless*as

weapons of attack against the

Church. Here is what Laing says:

“Law, learning, education and science,

all that we term civilization in the

present social conditions of the Euro-

pean people, spring from the suprem-

acy of the Roman Pontiff”—that is,
the Pope — “and of the Catholic
priesthood ‘over the kings and the

nobles of Middle Ages. All that

men have”—oh, mark this sentence!
I would like to write it in let-

ters as big as the motto, “You can

do better in Toledo,” above your

streets, upon an enormous electric

sign, as the statement of a great Prot-

estant scholar, to be offered as food

for reflection to those, who, in their

supreme ignorance, make such absurd

charges against the Catholic Church.

Now listen to this sentence: “ALL

THAT MEN HAVE OF CIVIL, PO-
LITICAL AND RELIGIOUS FREE-
DOM IN THE PRESENT AGE MAY
BE CLEARLY TRACED, IN THE
HISTORY OF EVERY £:OUNTRY,
TO THE WORKING AND THE EF-
FECTS AND THE INDEPENDENT
POWER OF THE CHURCH OF
ROME OVER THE PROPERTY, SO-

CIAL ECONOMY, MOVEMENT,
MIND AND INTELLIGENCE OF
ALL CONNECTED WITH HER IN
THE SOCIAL BODY.” (Observations
on Europe, p. 395.) What a wonder-

ful statement! What a wonderful tes-

timony from an eminent man of let-

ters, not an ignorant ranter, but one

who ranks high in the world of litera-

ture and in the field of history!

An Article in the North American
Review. •

Here is the lasf testimony that I

shall quote, and>^ is from the pen of

an American author. It was written in

the year 1845 fdr the North American

Review, and it reads as follows—Now,
bear in mind that this was written,

during the time that slavery still ex-

isted here in the United States, for,

after all, we Americans have much to

be ashamed of
—
“The Catholic Church

was in reality the life of Europe. She

was the refuge of the distressed, the

friend of the slave, the helper of the

injured, the only hope of learning.

* * * Let us not cjing to THE SU-
PERSTITION, which teaches that the

Church has always upheld the cause

of tyrants. Through the Middle

Ages she was the ONLY FRIEND
AND ADVOCATE OF THE PEOPLE
AND OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN.
To her influence was it owing that

through all that strange era, the

slaves of Europe were better protect-

ed by law than are now the free blacks

of the ^United States by national stat-^

utes” (North American Review of the

month of July, 1845). What a mag-

nificent testimony! What a wonderful

tribute

!

Yet in the face of all this, these men

will go about striving, by misrepre-

sentation, to stir up hatred and bitter-

ness and strife to a dangerous crisis

among our populace here in the city

of Toledo, with the set purpose of

disenfranchising their Catholic fellow

citizens; and then you wonder, why

our blood boils! And despite all that,

men will have the face to say, “Oh,

you shouldn’t notice it!” There is

scarcely a Catholic working on the

railroads, or working in the factories,

that is not continually, day in, day out,

exposed to most galling and un-



60

bearable insults. What I admire

is their self-control and their patience,

their restraint under insult. Were it

not for that, there would unquestion-

ably have been bloodshed and riot long

ago, in the city of Toledo, which today

is countenancing two moral swill-

barrels, of the worst type, and suffer-

ing them to deluge whole districts,

aye the entire city, with their disgust-

ing and nauseating foulness; and this,,

to all appearances, with the conniv-

ance of the civil authorities.

Practical Consideration of Catholicism

in the Concrete.

I might go on indefinitely. I might

produce whole libraries of testimony,

to establish the truth that I

have so clearly and so unequi-

vocally laid before you. But let

us now pass from the teaching of the

Catholic Church to*the practice of the

Catholic Church. Let me make this

challenge, which I defy anyone to me§t.

Point out to me in the history of this

country ONE INSTANCE of the trea-
son of the Catholic Church against the

civil liberties of the United States!

Now, if the teaching of the Catholic

Church is damnable, if the teaching of

the Catholic Church is destructive of

civil rights, if the Catholic Church is

oathbound from the Pope to the

bishops, the priests, the Jesuits, the

religious orders, tho Knights of Co-

lumbus, or any other Knights, if she

is oathbpund to do all those horrible

things that we are told about, surely

you ought to be able to produce,' in the

history of the last three hundred years,

at least one example, at least one in-

controvertible instance, of Catholic

treason to the institutions of our coun-

try. Now, I ask you to produce so

much as one single instance in point.

I defy you to do it!

Pamphlet of the Rev. F. M.

Foster, Ph. D.

I have here a most interesting little

pamphlet mailed to me by “a dear,

good frienO” of mine, an anonymous

friend—they are always anonymous,
these “dear friends,”—these dastardly
cowards, who haven’t the courage or

manliness to give their names, moral

assassins, who fear the light and who

always strike in the dark! Is my lan-

guage strong? Some people dislike it.

They think I am awfully plain. I am! I
thank God for it, and I shall continue

that way. I was born that way. I am
the son of a blacksmith, and I believe

in hitting with a sledgehammer. I

am not ashamed of it either—^here
then is a little pamphlet called “The

Church of Rome—Twenty-Sixth Thou-
sand! Idolatries

—

b, Despotic and Im-

perial Display, far Removed from*the

Lowly Christ—Oaths taken by Priests,
Bishops, Cardinals, and last of all.

Jesuits—A church seeking to control
civil power: Sermons by the Rev. F. M.

Foster, Ph. D., 335 West 29th St.,

Pastor of the Third Reformed Presby-

terian Church of New York City, pub-

lished by the Young” People of New

York, two cents per copy. Very cheap!”

Yes! That is the most remarkable

thing about' it. It is cheap all the way

through! Now in this remarkable book-

let—it is so remarkable, that really
it amounts to a screaming farce and

for sheer comedy would beat anything

that has ever been pfesented on the

stage, of any city of our country—so
much so that I have laughed many a

time and most heartily, since it came

into my possession, and I cannot recall

of ever having seen anything half so

ridiculous, absurd and naive. I have

asked myself with almost incredulous

laughter: “Can it be possible that

there are people' so gullible as to swal-

low all that rot and then call them-

selves intelligent people of the faith

of Jesus Christ?” Now, I am going

to read you this Jesuit oath, which, in

all seriousness, this good preacher

gives to his congregation, as being the

genuine article. I could not thinlf of

reading the whole oath; it is far too

long, but I will read you the most in-

teresting passages. When Mark An-

thony delivers the funeral oration

over the body of Caesar, he says, “If

you have tears, prepare to shed them

now.” So to prepare you, I say: If

you have any laughter in you, prepare

now to give it vent!

The “Jesuit Oath.”

Well, here is the oath: “I do fur-

ther declare that I will help and assist

and advise all and every one of His

Holiness’ agents”—^that is the Pope’s



61

—“in any place wheresoever I should
be, in Switzerland, Germany, Holland,

Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England,

Ireland, or America, or any other king-

dom, or territory, I shall ever go to,

and to do my utmost to extirpate the

heretical Protestants, or the liberal

doctrines, and to destroy all their pre-

tended powers, regal or otherwise. I

do further promise”—This is really
delicious; it is a most amazingly in-

teresting commentary and side-light

on the astounding Psychology of Big-

otry— T^do further promise and de-

clare that I will, when opportunity

presents itself, make and wage relent-

less war, secretly and openly, against

all heretics, Protestants, and liberties,

as I am directed to do by the Pope,

to extirpate them from the face of the

whole earth.” Poor Protestants! their

doom is certain!—and now this is the
interesting part of it, it is so excruci-

atingly funny: “I will hang, bum,

waste, boil, strangle and bury alive

these infamous heretics. I will rip

up the stomachs and the wombs of

every woman, and I will crush their

infants’ heads against a wall, in order

to annihilate their execrable race; that

when the same cannot be done openly,

I will secretly use the poisoned cup,

the strangulation-cord, the steel of the

poniard, or the leaden bullet, regaiti-

less of the honor, rank, dignity or au-

thority of those persons, whatsoever

may be their condition in life, either

public or private, as I at any time may
be directed to do by any agent of the

Pope or the Superior of the Brother-

hood of the Society of Jesus,” and so

on until the Oath terminates in this

bloodcurdling imprecation: “In affirm-

ation of which r hereby dedicate my
life, my soul and all my corporal pow-
ers, and with this dagger, which I now

receive. I will subscribe my name in
my blood in testimony thereof. And
should i prove false or weaken in my
determination, may my brethren and
fellow soldiers in the Militia of the

Pope cut off my hands and feet, and
my throat from ear to eari’—Could
anything be worse than that?

—“my
belly opened and sulphur burned

therein”—Just think of it!—“^nd
all the punishment that can be

inflicted on me on earth, and my soul

be tormented’, by demons in an eternal

hell forever, all of which,” and so on,

“I do swear by the Blessed Trinity,”

and so on, until we arrive at the actual

signature. Now isn’t that a most re-

markable document TO BE PREACH-

ED FROM THE PULPIT OF A SO-
CALLED RESPECTABLE PROTEST-
ANT CHURCH? Now I ask these poor,
credulous creatures: If such state-

ments are true, why are you not able

to name at least one heretic that has

been murdered by a Jesuit. Produce

him! I defy you! Produce him, I

say! Just fancy gentle Father Hoehn,

or Father Weiand, Father Reichel,

dear old Father Kramer and the two

venerable Fathers Steffen, just imag-

ine, I say, these men taking such an

oath as that! Now I ask, can there

be anything more supremely ridicu-

lous and more supremely devilish than

the Hatred that will preach such

hideous folly in. the name of Christ-

ianity?

The History of Our Country Knows of
No Catholic Traitor.

Again I say: Produce one man in

all the history of the United States,

one Catholic, bishop, priest or layman,

who, by order of the Church, or en-

gaged by the Church, or countenanced

by the Church, or with the connivance

of the Church, has ever plotted against

the liberties of our country. Produce

one such, I say. You cannot; for

there is none. There was one great

traitor, Benedict Arnold. He was not

a Catholic! The reason he gave for

betraying his country, in a private

letter, was that he hated “those d

Papists that George Washington sur-

rounded himself with.”

Catholics Here in America by Right of

Discovery and Exploration.

Look at the story of our country.

Haven’t Catholics a right to ' be

there ? They are here by right

of discovery. Columbus was a

Catholic. They are here by right

of exploration. It was Catholic

missionaries who explored oui^ prairies,

our woods and our rivers. The names

of Fathers Marquette, Lallemont,

Jogues, Breboeuf, De Smet, Aulneau,

Charlevoix and a host of others will

ever shine, in brightly illuminated



62

j

characters, on the pages ^ the history
of this country as names of men who

gave their live^ and sacrificed them-

selves for its Christianization and civ-

ilization, as the names of heroes who

bedewed its soil with martyrs’ blood,

which Tertullian calls “the seed of

Christians.”
'

Religious Liberty a Catholic Contribu-

tion to America.

The first colony in the United States,

that, in those days of colonial life,

when persecution for religion’s sake

was the common argument, the FIRST

COLONY, I repeat, THAT RAISED
THE STANDARD OF RELIGIOUS
AND CIVIL LIBERTY, IN AMERICA,
WAS THE CATHOLIC COLONY OF
MARYLAND, under its Catholic Pa-
tron, Lord Baltimore. Th^ persecuted

Protestants from Massachusetts and

from Virginia were received with open

arms into the Catholic Colony of Mary-

land, and they were given the same

rights of suffrage, of worship, of edu-

cation, of civic freedom, as the Catho-

lics who founded that colony. When,

however, the Puritans seized upon the

government of Maryland in the year

1654, the history of pur colonial days

records that the first act of these mei>

was to abolish civil liberty for Catholics

(Archives of Maryland, vol. iii,, page

313). Repaying with the blackest in-

gratitude the charity of the Cath-

olics, who had taken them in

and given them civil liberty, they

deprived their benefactors of civil

liberty; and, afterwards, the An-

glicans, at four different times,

towards the end of the seventeenth

and at the beginning of the eighteenth

century, made stringent laws impos-

ing fines for those who did not attend

their worship. They established the

Church of Ungland as the “established

chuf^ch” of the Colony; they deprived

the Catholics of theilr freemen’s rights;

they taxed them with the “tithes” for

the support of the Protestant Episco-

palian worship. They made a law that

a Catholic widow could be deprived of

her Catholic children, etc. (For those

who may be desirous of verifying for

themselves the statements we

have just made, the following

references are given: Bancroft,

10th edit., pp. 244, 248, 257;'

Irving Spence, Early History of the

Presbyterian Church; Johnson’s

“Foundations of Maryland,” p. 31;

Archives of Maryland, vol. iii, p. 313;

vol. i, pp. 340-341; vol. iii, pp. 325-

384; vol. X, pp. 425-429; vol. xiii, pp.

425, 4:^9. p. 81; Bacon’s “Laws of

Mainland;” etc., etc.) ' But I have no

desire to bring up the acrimonies of

the past, only let me tell you this,

that, when you come to the chapter of

persecutioxis for conscience’ sake, w©

have a tale to tell as well as Jh© other

side, and the less said, the better it

will be. “Let the dead past bury its

dead!” Mistakes were made on both

sides, but the Catholic Church, on the

whole, hasn’t anything to be ashamed

of. And when you come to compare

the persecutions for conscience’ sake

in the camp of the Protestants with

the persecutions for conscience’ sake

in Catholic countries, you will find

that the contrast is a strong one and

decidedly favorable to the latter. There

isn’t anything in all history that is at

all comparable to the atrocious perse-

cutions inaugurated by the Protestants

in Ireland and continued FOR THE

LAST 300 YEARS. Edmund Burke,

the Protestant statesman, said that the

“PENAL LAWS” of England were the

most devilish piece of legislation that

was ever invented by men.,

The Catholic Soldiers of the

Revolution.

The Catholic Church is indigenous

to the soil. She has rights here. We

are not strangers. We won our rights

during the War of the Revolution. We

fought for the liberties of our country.

When Washington was encamped at

Valley Forge, during the most trying

period of the Revolutionary War, in

deepest dejection of heart, aye almost

in despair, who was it that held up his

arms, who was it that came to his aid,

and made the establishment of our

country a possibility, and helped to

raise the Stars and Stripes and fling

them to the breeze ? Who was it ? It

was a Catholic hero that came from

Catholic France, the Catholic Lafay-

ette; it was the Catholic Count Roch-

ambeau; it was the Catholic General

Kosciusko; it was John Barry, the



63

Father of the American Navy, and

dozens of famous men, that I might

mention, who, in that most try-

ing and critical period of the war,

came to the assistance of George

Washington, and enabled him to free

our country and make it a nation. And

then we are told, forsooth, that we have

no rights here! Search the records of

the land; read George Washington’s

Farewell Address, and his answer to

the Address of the Catholics of those'

days, and you will hear from the lips

of the Father of his Country the testi-

mony to the bravery, the honesty, the

sincerity, the uprightness, t|ie valor,

the courage and the absolute loyalty of

the Catholic soldiers and generals, who

helped to establish the United States

a free and independent country.

Lincoln’s Characterization of Bigotry.

Abraham Lincoln, writing in 1855

to an old friend, Joshua F. Speed, said: .

“When the Know-Nothings get con-
trol, it (the Constitution) will read:

^All men are created equal except

Negroes, and .foreigners, and Catho-

lics.’ When it comes to this, I should
prefer emigrating to 'teome country,

where they make no pretense of lov-

ing liberty—where despotism can be
taken pure, and without the base alloy

of hypocrisy” (Recollections of Abra-

ham Lincoln, by Ward Hill Lamon).

Glorious Names of Catholic Heroes.

Continue your search through the

history of our Nation, down to the aw-

ful war which devastated the North

and the South. Oh, what glorious

names you meet there! Phil Sheridan,

the Hero i of Winchester, was he a

traitor to his country? General

Rosecrans of Ohio, considered by

many military experts the best
general of the Civil War; John

Meagher, with his brave and dash-

ing Irish Brigade, who turned the,

;tide of battle at Gettysburg; John

Mulligan, the. Hero of Lexington, who

cried out to hia Catholic soldiers,
'

“Drop me and save the flag!” the gal-
lant '69th Regiment of New York

—

etc., etc.—why, there 'were a number
of regiments in the Civil War that
were composed entirely of Catholics!

Even Those Who Fought for the
South Were in Their Own

Eyes Patriots.

You will say, “Weren’t Catholics on

the side of the South?” and we will

ask you in return: Weren’t there
^

Protestants on the side of the South

as well ? Those men below the Maso?

and Dixi#n Line ,they saw things in

their own light. They thought that

we were wrong. They fought for what

they considered right. Have we not

agreed to bury the differences of the

past? Do we not on our Memorial

Days love to bring the Blue and the

Gray tdgether?

The Spanish War.

In our late Spanish War, were there

not Catholics who gladly enlisted?

Were there not Catholic officers and

Catholic soldiers ? They were fighting

against a Catholic nation; they were

tn^e to their own.

Honored Public Men Who Are
Catholics.

And are not our Catholic men in

public life worthy of the honest vote

of a Protestani? Look at Chief

Justice White, on the Bench of the

Supreme Court of the United States

today. Where is the man who dares

attach even the suspicion of treason

to his name? Yet he is a m st devoted '

Catholic. Who dares attach the 'breath

of suspicion to Charles Bonaparte, the

Attorney General under the Roosevelt

administration? Yet he too is a de-

vout Cathplic. Who dares attach the

breath _of scandal, or of treason to

Supreme Justice McKenna ? These

pien ai*e all Catholics. CATHOLICS

HAVE AS much’ RIGHT TO OC-
CUPY POLITICAL POSITIONS
WITHIN THE GIFT OF THEIR NA-
TION AS ANYBODY ELSE. Their
rights •'in . this country are vested

rights, which no man may deny them.

Let those men, who come from across

the line, who have lived here for years,

without ever having taken out their

citizen’s papers, and who are now go-

ing about the country preaching hatred

against the Catholic Church, let those

men return whence they came!

Let them understand that CATHOLIC

BLOOD helped to cement the founda-
tions of our liberties, and that we do



64

not mean to be deprived of them!

The Parochial School un-American?

But some one will say to you, “Lbok

at your Parochial school-system! Isn^t

it un-American? Why do you sep-
arate yourselves from the rest of the

nation ? Why do you build up a school-
system of your own, which ^ abso-
lutely inferior, which does not teach

American citizenship?” What do you

know about the Catholic school-sys-

tem ? Why, you have never even been

inside of a Catholic school! Come to

me any time and I will afford you

ample opportunity of investigating

for yourfeelves.

The Catholic Schools Have Demon-

strated Their Efficiency.

I might recall to your minds the com-

petitive examinations, that have been

conducted in this country, again and

again, and show how, in practically

every instance, the pupils of the Cath-

olic schools came out with first hon-

ors. For ten years, when I was pas-

tor of St. Mary’s Church at Grand

Rapids, at the end of every year I

sent the pupils of the graduating class

to take the corresponding examina-

tion in the public schools. Now
mind you, these boys and girls

were suffering from a handicap,

^hey had been trained under different

teachers; they had been trained with

different textbooks; they were not

familiar with the methods of the pub-

lic schools. They were brought in

there at a disadvantage, and were nat-

urally embarrassed and not at home.

And yet, during the ten years that I

sent the pupils of my parochial school
to these examinations, NOT ONE OF
THEM EVER FAILED, but on the
contrary they came out WITH THE
HIGHEST PERCENTAGES. AND
THE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ARE
THERE TO PROVE IT.

Our Attitude Towards ^the Public

Schools.

You say, “Why does the Catholic

Church constantly inveigh against the

public schools?” The Catholic Church

does not inveigh against them, she has

no quarrel with the public schools,

she cherishes no enmity against them.

The Catholic Church simply 'says.

“The public school may be all

right for those that do not want

any religion, but I want religion for

my children, and therefore I am going
to have my own schools.” That is the
true position of the Catholic Church,

and it is a patriotic one, because, as

George Washington, the Father of our

Country, told us, RELIGION IS THE
FOUNDATION OF PATRIOTISM.

The Sense in Which the Term Godless
Is Applied to These Schools.

You ask: “Why then do you hear

bishops and priests talking about the

Godless public schools?” Well, that

term is sometimes used, but it has two

meanings. The word “Godless” MAY
MEAN WICKED, IMPIOUS. • It is
NOT USED BY US IN THAT SENSE.
When it is said that the public school

is Godless, the meaning is that God

has no standing in it. It is a school

without God; it is a school from which

God is officially excluded. And is it

not a fact that Religion is exiled from

the Public .Schools?

Protestant Divines Say the Same

Thing, but They Are Not Criticized.

Why, my dear people, if I wanted

to quote for you the strong and blunt

utterances of Protestant Divines,

Protestant Episcopalian bishops, Prot-

estant Methodist bishops, Protestant

ministers, Protestant laymen, states-

men and scholars, who have freely

spoken their mind about the public

schools, I could pile up before you a

mass of testimony, compared with

which the statements of Catholics

would pale into insignificance.

Why Then Do You Oppose the Intro-

duction of the Bible Into the

Public Schools?

Someone will say, “If you are so

anxious to have religion in the schools,

then why don’t you let us introduce re-

ligion into the public schools?” Well,

isn’t that a remarkable proposal ?

So you want the PUBLIC schools ^o

become PROTESTANT schools, and

have the CATHOLICS PAY for them,

and then have the Catholics build their

own schools besides and pay for them,

too? Do you call that fair? You

talk about “OUR schools.” What

do you mean by “our schools” ?



65

Do you mean to say that the

Protestants are the only ones who

have any rights in the public schools?

Why, don’t you know that there are

over fifty million men and women in

the United States, who do not profess

any religion at all? Haven’t they got

’some rights in the schools ? Don’t you

know there are millions of Jews in the

country?* Haven’t they got rights in

the public schools? I tell you they

have, and I admire them for the spunk

which they manifest in fighting for

their rights.’ Last Christmas in New

York, they banded together and pro-

tested against the singing of Christ-

ftias carols in the public schools, and,

as a consequence, THEY WERE NOT
SUNG. You didn’t DARE to with-
stand the JEWS. But you think the

Catljolic is an old dishrag to mop the

floor with. But I tell you Catholics

are not dishrags! THEY ARE CIT-
IZENS! They claim the SAME
rights as other citizens.

Moral Theologies.

Again they say, “Look at your Cath-

olic morality. Isn’t it destructive of

American decency?” And then, for a

proof, they appeal to the text boo)cs

of moral theology. .Well, what about

those text books? They say, “Why,

these text books of Catholic theology,

they are filled up with definitions of

all kinds of immoral crimes and sins!”

Why, of course they are! That is what

they are intended for. They are TEXT

BOOKS ON THE MORAL LAW, and,
if they are text books on the moral law,

they must expose moral perversity.

SO ARE YOUR LAWYERS’ BOOKS
FILLED WITH IMMORALITY.
They are filled up WITH THE SAME
THINGS, because the civil law of

Europe was taken, largely from .the

Canon Law of the Catholic Church.

Are lawyers immoral, because they

study those law books? LOOK AT
THE TEXT BOOKS OF THE DOC-
TORS. They are filled with all manner

of things that touch upon sex and sex-

relationship. Are the doctors immoral,

because they study those books? Why,

no! they must study those books,

in order to be able to take care of

the ills and diseases to which

human flesh is heir. You talk

about the text-books of moral theology

and you say that the Catholic Church

is immoral and the Csftholic priest is

rotten, merely because he studies

that book. Well, then, tell me what

about THE PROTESTANT PREACH-
ER WHO STUDIES THE BIBLE. Did
you ever read the Book of EXODUS?
Did you ever read the Book of DEU-

TERONOMY? Did you ever read the
Book of LEVITICUS? Why, there

are DESCRIPTIONS 0F CRIMES

AND OF SINS CONTAINED THERE-
IN, as forbidden by the living God,

which would make your hair to stand

on end! ARE THOSE WHO READ
THE BIBLE TO BE ADJUDGED IM-
MORAL? Is the BIBLE to be ad-

judged IMMORAL because it. contains
those PROHIBITIONS of Almighty

GOD AGAINST CRIME AND
AGAINST SIN?

Legislation Against Clerical Wicked-

nessl

But, they say, “The Catholic Canon

Law imposes penalties on priests

who commit unmentionable crimes.

Therefore,” they say, “such is the life

of the priest.” Well, that is a strange

reasoning, isn’t it? Because on the

statute-book there is a penalty for

transgression and crime, because, for

instance, on the statute books of the

country you have adultery, you have

fornication, you have incest, you have

sodomy, you have bestiality, all those

awful crimes clearly defined, clearly

stated, and ybu have penalties im-

posed for those who commit them

—

DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
AS A BODY ARE ADDICTED TO
THOSE CRIMES? Why, no! Those

laws are there IN ORDER TO WARN
THE CITIZENS. AND SAY: “Be
your guard; for, if you commit

such a crime, this will be

your ptinishment.” So these laws

apd the penalties PROVE, ON THE
CONTRARY, THE MORALITY OF
THE CHURCH; it proves that the
Church will not stand for those

crimes; it proves that the Church will

not tolerate that kind of a life, and

therefore imposes the severest pen-

alty on such as commit these crimes.



66

That' is all it proves. It takes a most

perverted imagination indeed in a

man to pry into such books, of which

evidently he Cannot have the first

glimmering of an understanding, and

declare with astounding stupidity,

“There you see what the Cath-

olic Church is!” How absurd, how ri-

diculous; and, if they realize what they

are doing, how devilish! because they

pervert the truth and are deceiving

the people.

The Wire-pullers.

And now let me ask a final ques>tion,

who are they that engage in this un-

holy war against the Catholic Church ?

I have now, in the' course of these

four lectures, laid before you a

plain and clear and unequivocal an-

swer to the various objections and

charges that have been made against

the Catholic Church. I hav^ answered

them frankly, and I have answered

them fairly, as I have stated them

honestly. Now, in conclusion, I ask

you, who are they, who have com-

bined against us in this unholy war?

Bird Coler, a Protestant gentle-

man of New York, says that poli-
tics are always at the root of re-

ligious bigotry. To quote his own

words: “Religious prejudice is al-

ways political in its origin. When

traced to its root,, it will be found al-

ways^in the mud of secular .politics and

never in th^ temple of God. Politicians

have embittered peoples against re-

ligious bodies for purposes evil and

selfish. Good men in all the churches

have been deceived by these calumnies.

Honest men in all of them have be-

lieved in fal^e stories of repugnant

practices on the part of the members

of churches other than their oym. But

tlte politician was always the first to

utter the lie.” That is absolutely true,

and it applies most aptly to the pres-

ent conditions of affairs. The whole

agitation at the present time is due

largely to, and has been brought into

existence mainly by, POLITICAL IN-

TRIGUE AND SOCIALISTIC IN-
TRIGUE. First of all, it is mainly a

SOCIALIST campaign, and how short-

sighted are those very ones, who have

most to fear from Socialism! For

the only effective rampart against

Socialism, is, according to all rec-

ognized authorities, the Catholic

Church. M^rk Hanna was a shrewd

statesman. MARK HANNA told the
people of Ohio that, when the great

conflict came, HE LOOKED TO THE.
CATHOLIC CHURCH TO SAVE THE
COUNTRY FROM SOCIALISM. How
foolish are those who are nowTeaguing

with them against us! For instance,

SOME OF OUR BIG EMPLOYERS
OF LABOR HERE IN THE CITY
ARE FINANCING THESE DAMN-
ABLE SHEETS OF BIGOTRY—and I
know whereof I speak, I make the

charge boldly, and I am not afraicf

who Hears me. I tell you there are

men, high in finance and in business,

in this city, who are spending large

sums of money for this ungodly cafn-

paign, IN ORDER TO DIVIDE THE
LABOR SENTIMENT. I wish the
papers would priht that, but THEY
DARE NOT!
The Catholic Church and Politics.

You say the Chu/ch maddles .in poli-

tics. Why, who talks politics? The

Catholic priest ? Bah ! You NEVER
heard politics from a CATHOLIC

pulpit, but POLITICS IS PERFECT-

LY AT HOME IN THE AVERAGE
PROTESTANT PULPIT. Oh, what

a chapter I could open for you on that

score, if I had a mind to! Take up the

columns of your daily papers, and

learn, for yourselves, who are the real

offenders, the men that are really dab-

and a half. I NEVER, during all

that time, made ONE POLITICAL
UTTERANCE. I defy any man to

put his finger on the date, to put

his finger on the article, to put his

finger on a single word, by which

I interfered with politics. Yet I could

name for you many ;prominent

men in this city, who came to my house

and asked me to so interfere, promi-

nent Protestant gentlemen, men that

stand high in the esteem of the com-

munity, and I gave them all the same

answer “CATHOLICS ARE FREE

IN THEIR POLITICS. WHEN
THERE IS A QUESTION OF MO-
RALITY, WHEN THERE IS A
QUESTION OF CATHOLIC RIGHTS,

THEN I SPEAK OUT, and it is MY



67

RIGHT to do so, and I do not care

who hears it. But when it is a mere

question of party politics, I have noth-

ing to do with it.”

Who Are Our Adversaries?

Now, who are they, I ask again,

that are leagued against us in

this unholy war ? First of all,

away back, you have the “Know-

Nothings,” whose inglorious cause

died an ignominious death of shame, in

the face of the heroism, patriotism and

devotion manifested by our gallant

Catholic soldiers, and our noble, unsel-

fish Sisters of Charity, during the Civ-

il War. Time, however, weakened the

effect of this grand lesson upon Amer-

ican Protestants, and, under the pat-

ronage of designing politicians, “the

old and true American Protective As-

sociation,” the A. P. A., succeeded the

“Know-nothings,” and was "Organized

with its headquarters at Pittsburg, Pa. ^

It soon lost influence, however, with

the mass of the people, although

it claims to be still secretly at work

“with feverish activity,” striving to

injure Catholics in every way pos-

sible, and lays claim to the Menace

as its mouthpiece. Next in order come

the “Guardians of Liberty (Bigotry),”

organized to continue in our own

day the cowardly, vile and under-

hand tactics of their worthy pre-

decessors, with their headquarters

in New York. Shunning publicity, ever

secret, dark, insidious and anonymous

in their attacks, well is it said of

them in St, John^s Gospel: “For

everyone that doeth evil HATETH
THE LIGHT, heither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be veproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the

light.”^ (John 111:20,21.) To these

must be added “The American Federa-

tion of Patriotic Voters,” which has

for its president' D. J. Reynolds, of

Minneapolis, and claims to control

5,000,000 votes, and the United So-

cieties of “EQUAL” (?) Rights, with

their center at Chicago. Associated

with these cowardly scoundrels, in the

same nefarious cause, is the American

Secular Union and Freethought Fed-

eration, under the presidency of G. E.

Macdonald of New York, whose object
is to combat the exemption «of churches

and religious institutions from taxes,

to* expurgate the school books of all

that savors of religion, to abolish the

observation of Sunday, as a. day of

rest, whose constitution contains the

following clause: “We demand that

all laws exacting a ‘Christian’ moral-

ity be abrogated, and that in their

place a NATURAL morality be sub-
stituted, with equal human rights.”

Finally add to these the Bohemian

Freethinkers’ Federation of America,

the Bohemian Guard of Freethinkers

at Chicago, in short all the great

Ferrer Associations and Free Thought

organizations, and the Knights of Lu-

ther, whom even respectable Protest-

ants loathe. WHAT A GLORIOUS
TRIBUTE TO THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH, WHAT A TRIUMPHANT
VINDICATION OF HER SANCTITY
IT IS, THAT SHE IS ABLE TO
POINT TO THESE AND SAY:
“SUCH ARE MY ENEMIES!”

Shameless Anti-Catholic Literature.

And turn to the wretched, filthy,

vulgar, corrupt, pandering, degener-

ate literature circulated by these ene-

mies of hers, in order to drag her down

into the mire of public con-

tempt, in order to besmirch

and dishonor her, that her pur-

ity and goodness may cease to be

to them a standing reproach, a living

proof that virtue, purity, charity and

chivalry are possible and not mere

chimeras. Oh, how frantiqly they

strive to befoul her with their own

filth! Oh, how one-sided, too, is this

unholy war; for she never retaliates!

Review the catalogue of these shame-

less sheets, that have her destruction

as \their principal object, and behold

here again another vindication of her

sanctity. There is, for example. The

Menace, The American Citizen, The

Peril, The Truth Seeker, The Jef-

fersonian, The Liberator, The Era,

Tom Watson’s" Magazine, The Melt-

ing Pot, The Wasp, The Yellow

Jacket, The American Turner, Sokal,

Amerikanische Turnzeitung, Lib-

erty, The Freidenker, etc., etc., etc.

To these one must add three or

four hundred Socialist, Anarchist,

I. W. W., and Ferrer papers, which.



68

though professedly published for other bishops, priests and sisters with im-

purposes, join no less heartily and morality. Why don’t those men come
enthusiastically in the attack upon the forward and make definite and specific

common^ enemy, the Catholic Church, charges? Let them dare, and they

What a vindication, I repeat, of the will speedily be taken care of! IF

Catholic Church, and how great is her BISHOPS ARE IMMORAL, WHY
claim upon the gratitude of American SHOULD I BE ANY EXCEPTION?
citizens, for her opposition to these If priests are immoral, why should

hosts of darkness! the priests OF TOLEDO be an excep-
Week after week these execrable tion? If convents are the scenes of

sheets continue to pour forth their indescribable orgies. Why don’t they

vileness, and the wonder of it all, is, take place ^ERE ? Let them make
that people are able to stomach so their charges SPECIFIC, and in the

much of this contemptible stuff, same moment they will answer to the

You would think they would grow Law.

weafy of the same old story; you Conclusion,
would think they would in time be-

come fairly nauseated with the damn- Behold, then, the array of forces in

able filth, with which these papers are league against the Catholic Church,

reeking, and' disillusioned by the in- the dark, ungodly, hosts of evil, fight-

credible fiction, the open contradic- ing tooth and nail to destroy her. She

tions, the constantly-exppsed dishon- must ind^d be holy and good to have

est tactics and cowardly methods, the earned the enmity of such as these,

venal spirt, the evident bad faith, the She can not be a force for evil, else

insane rancor and hatred, that is char- such as they would love her. This was

acteristic of this vile literature. But Christ’s grand vindication, and it is

apparently there is.no limit to the likewise hers: “If Satan be divided

credulity of their dupes! against Satan, his kingdom cannot

The Law No Protection Against Their
fulfillment of

Diabolical Cunning. prophecy, and like her former foes,

“But,” you say, “why don’t you bring these too will have their day and

those papers to justice?” Because will disappear, even as they have al-

they are most careful to go just so far ways disappeared in the past, but while

and no farther. THEY WILL AL- they last, they do an infinite amount of

WAYS CONFINE THEMSELVES harm. They sow the seeds of hatred

EITHER TO THE RARE IN- and of discord, and he that sows the

STANCES OF PUBLIC CRIME, seeds of hatred and of discord doeth the

OR TO SUCH GENERALITIES devil’s work. “Marvel not, my breth-

THAT UNDER THE LAW YOU ren, if the world HATE you. We know

CANNOT ' TOUCH THEM. They that we have passed from death unto

have evidently gotten LEGAL life, because we LOVE the brethren.

ADVICE, the censorship of a He that loveth not his brother abideth

lawyer, to warn them just how far death. Whosoever hateth his

they may go, in their aspersions and brother is a murderer; and y? know

their vituperations, ' without incurring that no murderer hath eternal life

legal penaltie^. Now they charge abiding in him.” (I John iii: 13-15).

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