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Show "Sbame oh tbt Childless Jkh". Archbishop Farley Denounces American Ideas of Marriage Marriage Fruitful Among Catholics. i (By James Creelman in New York World.) President Roosevelt's virile denunciation denunci-ation of the ease-loving selfishness which avoids marriage, and the married mar-ried cowardice which shrinks from the begetting of children a species of "race " suicide'--inspired - ,,, Archbishop Farley yesterday, speaking' for the mighty Church:' which . .' restored, monogamous, indissoluble marriage to the world, to utter a few frank words to the American people. "If the race is dying out on this continent the evidences of it are not to be found within the frontiers of the Catholic church," he said. "We hold that marriage is a scrament,' and that no man or woman may avoid its natural consequences save by deadly dead-ly sin, an impiety abominable and sacrilegious. "The modern conception of matrimony, matri-mony, which ignores the sacrament, holds the bond lightly as a contract to be voided by human decrees of divorce, and introduces the theories of Malthus or other political economists into a divinely ordained order of nature na-ture that is mere paganism. The Church preaches everywhere as a religious re-ligious duty the law of Eden, given I by God himself to the first husband j and wife 'Increase and multiply.' " i IMPRESSIVE IN HIS SOBRIETY. There was an impressive sense of peace, order and sobriety in the drawing draw-ing room of the archiepiscopal palace, with its gray walls, carved Gothic doors, quaint red velvet sofas and chairs, and the marble faces of Pope, Cardinal and Archbishop anointed celibates of oilier days looking down upon the living Archbishop as he raised his voice in praise of conjugal and parental joys he could never, as an ordained priest of God, know himself. him-self. A short, stout body, a fine, rosy, wholesome face, with sincere gray-blue eyes, Roman nose, broad, full brow; a splendid deep head, covered with silver hair and crowned with a purple skull cap; a gold cross of exquisite workmanship hanging against the bosom of the scarlet-trimmed black cassock, and a pale amethyst ring-sign ring-sign of episcopal authority shining on plump hand that is Archbishop Far ley as I saw him. HE KNOWS HIS NEW YORK WELL There is not in the""second city of the world a more human, kindly, helpful help-ful man than this manly, gentle, prelate pre-late who for thirty-two years has carried car-ried on his ministry in the heart of New York's crowded tenements; nor is there one who better knows the complex population of the. metropolis. metropo-lis. "There is no shrinking from marriage mar-riage or the consequences of marriage mar-riage wherever true Catholics are found," he said. "Go over to the East 3ide district, in which I have spent so large a part of my life, and you will find that almost every Catholic, home looks like a school. There you will find married life blessed with abundance abun-dance of children. Heaven prosper these honest, brave men and women and their handsome,' hiughing children. They are the bulwarks of the nation. Robert Burns has expressed it all in 'The Cotter's Saturday Nnight.' " - "But the poor who bring forth children chil-dren without prospect of means to support them what of them?': "There is not a husband and wife in New York so poor that I would not wish them more children. Whenever j I enter a house in which there are many little ones I always say: 'God bless you for raising this large family. fam-ily. In my schools I had 1,00 chil- i . i i ARCHBISHOP FARLEY. . dren, and there were 400 more attending attend-ing the public schools all living- between be-tween Forty-second and Thirty-third streets, in a strip two blocks wide, between Third avenue and the East river. SHAME ON THE RICH. "If the educated and the rich avoid the natural responsibilities of marriage mar-riage it is to their greater shaiTT?; for they can support large fam- J ilies with less effort. To the selfish- ! ly childless rich man or woman, who j wonders how the poor of this city can bear the hardships of their lives contentedly, con-tentedly, I would say: 'Go to the homes of the poor and see their children. There is the secret of social so-cial bliss. There is the sweetness of poverty.' "And no matter how large the family fam-ily is, nor how slender the means to mainain it, when one of the little ones dies ah! father and mother weep and mourn as the shepherd for the lamb he has lost of many. It is always the same cry, no matter how maity are left behind: 'Ha was my favorite favor-ite son; she was my favorite daughter.' daugh-ter.' The man or woman who shrinks from that attitude is selfish and craven crav-en beyond words to express. "The reason why true Catholics are free from the offense which President Roosevelt has so properly condemned is that our Church makes marriage an essentially religious act. Marriage is not merely a natui-al contract as in pagan times an exchange of wills between two persons. The original marriage in Eden was governed by the direct command of God, 'Increase and multiply.' Then men fell away from grace, and the darkness and confusion con-fusion of pagan times followed, , with its polygamy and concubinage. Even in the latter days of the Jewish prophets, monogamy, as ordained in the Garden of Eden, was not preserved, pre-served, for there was plurality of wives' and, besides, Moses ('because of the hardness of their hearts') granted bills of divorce. ESTABLISHED AS A SACRAMENT. "But when Christ came, monogamous monoga-mous marriage, as a sacramental in-dissoulble in-dissoulble union, was established. Mar-j Mar-j riage is one of the seven Christian i sacraments. The sacrament of bap-1 bap-1 tism is the first The sacrament of extreme unction is the last. With each sacrament the recipient receives grace and strength to bear some duty the first to be born with truth, the last to be born into heaven. "Now, the firm teaching of our Church is that with the sacrament of marriage God imparts to .the pair at that moment strength to fulfill the responsibilities of their union to the woman strength to enduse the ordeal of motherhood, to the man strength to remain loyal to his wife an dto win bread for his children. . "The Church teaches that the legitimate legiti-mate object of marriage is the begetting beget-ting of children. Any other view would degrade matrimony to the low level of selfish passion. Every natural consequence conse-quence of this holy sacrament of matrimony mat-rimony is a part of . the religious obligation ob-ligation of a. true Catholic. It is not only gross impiety to a,void having a large family, but it is an offense as serious as perjury; nay, it ranks with murder. SIGNS OF THE PAGAN SPIRIT. "The avoidance of marriage and children, of which the president has 1 ." (Continued on. Page. 3.) i - SHAME ON THE CHILDLESS RICH. (Continued from. Page 1.) written, is the obvious consequence of irreligion. Civil marriages, divorces, all these are signs of the same pagan spirit. As the Holy Father declared a little more than a year ago: " 'To reckon Christian nuptials among those engagements which are contracted and rescinded by the civil law is a great and pernicious error. For the Redeemer and Restorer of human nature, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, having abolished the custom repudiation, restored matrimony to its former force and character, which God, its author, had appointed from the beginning; and raising it to the dignity and virtue of a scarmanet, and above all ordinary transactions. In point of fact, "if it be once admitted that the marriage bond be broken, all constancy and stability in marriage is thereby destroyed.' "The falling off in the population of France can be traced to the religious infidelity which prevails in a large part of her poulation The practical Catholics Cath-olics of France, those who truly follow fol-low the teachings of their Church, cio not shirk the duties of fatherhood or motherhood. It is the unfaithful, the skeptic, the atheistic part of France that has ceased to be a souroe of strength to the nation. "I fully agree with President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's words. The man or woman who will not marry for fear of parental responsibilities, re-sponsibilities, or who, being married, challenges the . will of God by seeking to escape from having a family, is a coward and unworthy of respect." |