OCR Text |
Show DESERET NEWS SLANDERS NEW MEXICO CATHOLICS. Editor Intermountain Catholic: In a recent number of the Deseret Evening News, which is the acknowledge acknowl-edge organ of the Mormon church, there appeared an editorial respecting thj demand of New Mexico for admission admis-sion to statehood in the Union, and I am surprised that it has been ignored in the Intermoumain Catholic. There are unveiled and unfriendly intimations to Catholicism in the article in question 'Ahich. to one familiar with the history of Utah before and since her admission to the Union, are in extremely bad taste. j The charge that in 1S79 admission was denied New Mexico because of the domination of that territory by a Catholic organization is mystifying, as emanating from an authentic Mormon source, when it is recalled that Utah was kept from statehood for over a quarter of a century on the ground that her people were in such abject submission to a domineering priesthood that a free suffrage was Impossible. This charge was denied with a vehemence vehe-mence and persistence almost unpa- ralleled. and no more bitter denunciation denuncia-tion of it was made than appeared in this same church organ. In view of the experience of this state, it would have not only been good taste on the part of the Mormon church organ to have assumed that Catholics in New Mexico had been maligned, but it would have been more consistent with that spirit of Christian charity which ! Mormons profess, and which the News, as the mouthpiece of a church accepting accept-ing immediate and direct revelation, claims to be guided by. The article also refers to the bad reputation of the Catholic organization organiza-tion in New Mexico. The press of the country united in charging the Mormon Mor-mon church with all manner of iniquities in-iquities blacker than which were never laid at the door of any ecclesiastical ecclesi-astical organization. These charges are made today. In view of this well-kr.cwn well-kr.cwn and undeniable fact, what shall be thought of the readiness of the inspired in-spired organ of the Mormon church when it so eagerly and unnecessarily a;id unwarrantably refers to another organization or-ganization in such terms of revilement as are applied to the body it represents? repre-sents? If such utterances are inspired, it cannot be claimed for them that their source is the same as that which warned men to judge not lest they be judged, and to turn the left cheek and to suffer rather than give reviling and persecution? And as a justification for now giving to New Mexico a statehood long denied, the News says that "the influx of the Anglo-Saxon element has been so great in late years that there can be no well-founded well-founded fears of turning the state, if it should obtain statehood, over to an order or-der that ha3 a bad reputation." How familiar all this sounds! Exactly as if the Tribune in its fighting years were referring to the church of which the News is the authorized mouthpiece. mouth-piece. Again: "More than half a century cen-tury of schooling for the duties of statehood should be sufficient." This was the excuse given when those who had so bitterly opposed the admission of Utah found it would be to their personal per-sonal advantage and to the advantage of the political parties whose welfare they were trying to promote when they I finally commended and supported the i movement to secure statehood for Utah. j Every charge which the News so freely brings against Catholics in New Mexico has been iterated and reiterated against 'Mormons in Utah, together with other charges beyond comparison in number and in iniquity. Unfailingly these were denied by the Mormons anl the News, their organ. That paper and the DeoDle behind it noL-ori t -ha believed, and branded the charges as infamous, and it took long years before be-fore the public temper so altered that it would tolerate even the suggestion of the admission of Utah to statehood. It would seem that the lesson of adversity ad-versity to the Mormon people has been of little profit, since their organ is so ready to accept and repeat charges against a Catholic organization in another an-other state. It must also be apparent that the merciful and tolerant teachings teach-ings of Christ do not appeal to the inspired in-spired gentleman who wields the pen on the organ of the Mormon church. I am frank to say the article disgusted dis-gusted me. I am neither a Catholic nor Mormon, but the readiness of the News to pounce-upon another religion that, so far as this country is concerned con-cerned has lived in amity with all other ecclesiastical organizations, is both nauseating and disheartening. I have yet to hear that Catholics anywhere have promulgated, preached and practiced prac-ticed doctrines in violation of the plain . iaw of the land; but that the Mormon Mor-mon church has done this, and the Deseret News also, even its editor cannot can-not deny. Not only this, but the Mormon Mor-mon priesthood, in contradiction to Catholic policy, has compelled its people to a violation of laws, and gloried in their defiance. The Mormon priesthood, in view of a 1 the past, could well afford to repudiate repu-diate the utterances of the writer in the News, who volunteered an assault upon the Catholic organization in New Mexico. AN UNREDEEMED. |