OCR Text |
Show 1 1; rffiiFASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. American Catholics Honor Memory of the Greatest AmericanFather Ameri-canFather McQuade, Army Chaplain, Talks About the Philippines. There was an immense audience at the Cathedral hall. San Francisco, on the night of Washington's birthday, on the occasion of the Y. M. I. day celebration, cel-ebration, given under the auspices of Capital council No. 11. The programme included the following follow-ing numbers: Selection, orchestra; opening remarks, chairman of the evening, Franklin A. Griffin: vocal solo, "America, the Home of the Free," Mrs. J. H. Coppersmith; recitation, "The Night Watch," Mrs. A. A. Killen: Keller's Kel-ler's "American Hymn," Cathedral quartette, composed of Mrs. Coppersmith. Copper-smith. Mrs. Ross and Messrs. Cohn and Genshlea; tenor solo, "Marguerite," J. II. Desmond, encore, "If I Have You:" selection, orchestra: address. Rev. Joseph Jo-seph P. McQuaide of San Francisco; "Amerita." The address of Rev. Joseph P. McQuaide Mc-Quaide of San Francisco was an elo- j qucnt effort, and stirred the audience to a pitch of enthusiasm in several instances, in-stances, where he referred in glowing tribute to the patriotic and loyal zeal i of Catholics, not alone in America, but j in every country where the Church of I Rome was established. He claimed it was not necessary for the Catholics to prove their loyalty to their country. In tfif days of Washington, when patriotism patriot-ism meant something, and cost something, some-thing, the Church was not lacking in loyalty to the revolutionary party. In no instance in the. history of mankind had Catholics ever been wanting in loyalty to their native or their adopted country, no matter whether it was democratic or monarchial. The Church taught Justice. Mercy and Charity. Christ's kingdom is not of the world, and the Church points the way to God. It does not interfere in a man's al- j legiance to his government. I America owes much to Catholicism. ! Its very discovery is credited to Isabella Isa-bella and Columbus. During the dark days of the revolution. Catholics were found in every army, on every battlefield, battle-field, and their valor is a matter of history: their loyalty was unquestioned: unques-tioned: they contributed of their talent, their blood and their treasure. When President Polk called for volunteers, vol-unteers, whole regiments of Catholics offered their services, and went to the front to fight men of their own faith, but they were loyal and true soldiers. The same thing happened during the civil war. and some of the grandest men in that struggle were Catholics. The bravery and heroic deeds of so many of the Catholic church caused the immortal Lincoln to remark, "No matter how brave the- men of other creeds, there were none braver than the Catholics." The speaker then came down to the war with Spain, in which Catholics playod a considerable part, although they were fighting a country that was intensely Catholic. He said Hobson was a hero, but he had six heroes behind be-hind him, four of them Catholics, and the only man among them who was wounded bore the good old Catholic name of John Murnhy. The most entertaining portion of the lecture was that relating to the Philippine Phil-ippine islands. Father McQuaide served as charliin of a California regiment in the is'ands. and familinrized himself him-self with the habits and customs of Its peonle. their religion, education and civilization.- He said the Filipins. of whom we hear and read so much, are the highest type of Malay in the world, and that 85 per cent of them are Catholics. Cath-olics. In comparison to the other people of the Malay race, the Filipino is unapproachable unap-proachable by any. Filipinos are highly high-ly civilized, educated and moral people. peo-ple. Prior to the outbreak of the war with the Americans, there were 117.000 children enrolled in 1.600 schools in the island of Luzon alone. There were normal schools in Manila for the instruction in-struction of teachers: a newspaper in every, town of any importance: there were doctors and lawyers and all were full-blooded Filipinos. The greatest lawyer that has been in the islands in thirty years, and who is today the supreme su-preme justice of the supreme court of the islands, is a full-blooded Filipino. There was a good system of schools, and no lack of education. As an instance, said the speaker, every Filipino was a fine penman. In fact, some of them write like an engraver. en-graver. It was the custom to register j all sailors at Manila, and there were seven Filipinos, who could write, to one of all other nationalities combined. I Let justice be done the Filipinos, said I Father McQuaide. Their education will j compare favorably with that of the people of any country in Europe, and their religion dates back over 300 years. It has been said that they are immoral. When the American soldiers entered Manila they found fewer outcasts out-casts than were contained in any city of its sizez in the world. Bishop Potter is a fakir, said the reverend lecturer. He visited the islands, isl-ands, stopped a few days, came away, alleged he knew it all, and put in his time slurring the Church. Bishop Potter had said fhat the people peo-ple were immoral: that the children were not baptized, nor marriages celebrated, cele-brated, because of the exorbitant fees charged by the priests. To disprove thiH. the speaker gave his experience in the island of Negros. where he went with Grneral James Smith. He stopped in, a little town where there was a neat Catholic church, but no priest, as the latter had been made a prisoner prison-er by the insurgents. The Filipinos were delighted to have the services of the speaker as such, and he baptized their children. He asked what was the usual fee paid, and was informed that it was 6 cents, and the marriage fee was 24 cents. He thought that was sufficient refutation of the statement of Bishop Potter that immorality was the direct result of exorbitant fees charged by the clergy. He said the Fil'plnns were simple in their habits and religious ideas. There have been three centuries of Catholicity in those islands, and they contain many beautiful beau-tiful little chapels. The natives are j very devout. Just outside of Manila is a factory where 1.000 Filipinos aro employed. In returning from their work they pass a little chapel facing the sidewalk, and every one bows be- fore the altar. The Spaniards and Filipinos Fil-ipinos while they warred, were in sympathy sym-pathy when it came to reMgion. Fome dys before Dewey sank the Spanish fleet in Manila bay. the ofli-ce's ofli-ce's and crews of the latter fleet came ashore, went to the churches, confessed, con-fessed, made their wills and prepared fo- death. As one of the officers said, they knew that Dewey would bear down upon them with a modern fleet. nrmd with modern guns, and that their ships would be sunk and ii-ft ii-ft roved. V "What can we do with our anti- quated outfit against such odds?" the officer remarked; but they stayed ry their guns, and went down with their colors flying. There has much been said about the cruelty of the Americans to the wounded wound-ed Filipinos. On one occasion the speaker saw a soldier standing over a native who was wounded to death. He looked as though he would liKe to finish his fallen foe. His eye haopened to catch sight of a chain about the Filipino's Fil-ipino's neck. He knelt, opened the shirt and found a scapula. The soldier was a Catholic. His her rt immediately changed from hatred to love, and kneeling over the dying man. he asked him if he did not wish some "chow-chow," "chow-chow," meaning something to eat, and a few minutes later that Filipino was eating bread with preserves upon it. They were enemies in battle and yet they were soldiers of the samr faith. Many such instances fell under the priest's observation. At one time, he recalled the words of General Smith, who, addressing his men. who were disposing of the remains re-mains of some dead Filipinos, said: "Boys, give them a decent burial. The poor fellows died fighting for their homes and their native land." |