OCR Text |
Show THE CHURCH AND THE NEGRO. J Need of Negro Catechists Is Shown by the Following. The secuiar press is agitating the question or "Education for the Negro. ' 'the loilowing irom the report or the Winchester conierence or missionaries to non-Catnoiics is of timeiy interest. Father Elliott or New York said: "We wisn to place ourselves on record as favoring the evangelization of the colored people. Ihe race proolem is a difficult one with us in politics, our missionaries are going to be successful success-ful because they are the bearers of Cathonc truth. The Catholic Church makes for peace and for brotherly love amongst races. "With her perfect democracy and equality of man at the altar, as well as her doctrinces that bind in conscience, con-science, she holds the key to the solution solu-tion of the race proolem. There is not a prominent public man in the south but would desire to see the colored man Catholic. 'Ihe reasons tor this desire may net be of the highest: they know that the Catholic Church is a strong restraining power and does not a Utile to suppress ill-regUiated passions: and so for the sake of public safety, if not for any higher reason, they think the Negro wou.d be better within the told of the Catholic Church. "Moreover, a.otiK nu this desire to see the Negro Catholic, there is a deep religious sentiment among the colored people that will conduce in the strong est kind of a way to the accomplishment accomplish-ment of this end. "That the Negroes are a deeply religious re-ligious people is evident to anyone who has been among them, but their religious re-ligious aspirations have been sadly lnisdirected. "It is a consolation to know that for a long time some of the noblest priests whom God ever gave to His Church have been laboring among the Negroes. Ne-groes. This work was begun by an Englishman, En-glishman, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan. The Josephites, now independent, are laboring in this glorious field. They have many splendid young men in their seminaries. These latter need help, however, and the kind of help that we can give our praise and encouragement. encour-agement. All good priests should say God speed' to them, and send vocations voca-tions to them if there be a chance. There are drawbacks, to be sure, the instability of the race, and yet others. But the converts are not hastily taken in by the Josephites. Catechists are trained for work here, as is done by our brethren in China and India. Besides, Be-sides, the Josephites individual priests here and there are doing noble work among the Negroes." Father Price of North Carolina said: "The Governor of North Carolina said to me some time ago that he was astonished as-tonished that tho Catholic Church had not taken hold of the Negro and evangelized evan-gelized him. The Catholic Church alone can uplift him. This is the universal sentiment in the South among the white people." Bishop Byrne of Tennessee said: "I would say myself that the race problem prob-lem here is becoming very serious, and the whites do not realize it. They say the Negro is of no consequence here, and the white man can dominate him. But the Negro is not a coward, and he is just now realizing his power and growing importance. Until after the war the Negro never did any of the wor k the white man does in the North. He is working now side by side with the white man in all of the trades, and in many of the professions. We have Negro physicians even. They all show an aptitude for organization. The colleges are educating many of them to a high degree. They are capable of a great deal of education. All this Increases the power of the Negroes. Thev know- this and are becoming ag gressive. In my opinion portions of the South will in some future day belong to the Negro. The Negro increases much faster than the white man. We must acquire influence over the Negro in order to direct hia religious life in the right lines. Prominent whites promise prom-ise to assist us in the conversion of the Negro. I will guarantee that every Negro parish after two years will be self-supporting in every well-sized city. Negroes contribute well to the Church; they are almost as generous as the Poles." Bishop Allen's remarks were as follows: fol-lows: "In my fliocese I also have noted an inclination on the part of the Negro Ne-gro to enter the Church. All prominent promi-nent people in Alabama agree with the rest of the South that in the Catholic Cath-olic Church is the right place for the Negro. We have Creole Negroes in Southern Alabama who are loyal to the Church and are a wonderful example of stability. They are of a mixed race, part Indian or French or Spanish. They are honest and trustworthy, and an island isl-and that many of them inhabit, in the Gulf of Mexico, is called 'The Isle of Saints. " |