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Show l JTI1IIE TOE CATHOLICS TO ACT- The war department on the 5Ui insL asked the International Young Men's 1 Christian asportation committee to t r. place an association secretary upon each of the transports soon to sail to Manila. Congress failed to make any provision for additional chaplains to accompany the new troops about to be i. sent out, -"anil there are in Manila to care spiritually for the 4.",000 troops al-1 al-1 ready there, scarcely a half dozen ' ' chaplains. The association, it is said, 1 will make every effort to comply with the government's request. Hut what "of the Catholics in Ma- c nila? Is no provision to be made for them? Of the 4.",0(M) troops now in the , Philippines perhaps 40 per cent are Catholic or of -Catholic parentage. Thu j government, f course, will not asl; for volunteers from the Catholic priest - hood to, minister to the Catholic sol- c ui.r, and the volunteers that will go 1 from the Noting Men's Christian asso-J asso-J ciation wi'l find no more need for their 1 services than the average army chan- i lain, whose principal duty consists in drawing: bis salary and looking wise. Of the thirty-two chaplains in the ; United States army, only one is Cath olic, while it is said the majority of the soldiers are Catholic. Neither tue recent Democratic nor the Republican administrations have appointed chaplains chap-lains with a view to the spiritual needs of the army, but political grounds solely sole-ly have received consideration. Catholic soldiers have been shamefully shame-fully neglected. Protestant chaplains cannot minister to their spiritual needs and such ministrations are entirely in-acceptable. in-acceptable. Notwithstanding this fact, the authorities, who have been fully cognizant of it, have persisted in satisfying satis-fying political obligations and bowed before the politicians, who, in the name of religion, have paid their political debts to the Methodists, to the Baptists, Bap-tists, Episcopalians, etc., at the cost of the lights of Catholic soldiers. Heretofore chaplains have alwaj-s been paid. The action of the war department, de-partment, however, in appealing to-the Young Men's Christian association to furnish chaplains gratis to the troops in Manila opens up a new condition which we are sure Catholics will meet as generously and as promptly as have the non-Catholics of the Young Men's Christian association. The Intermountain Catholic calls attention of t.h h'sh try to the condition of our troops now in Manila, and to the attitude of our government thereto. "We suggest that a call for volunteers from the priesthood be made, and the Intermountain Inter-mountain Catholic will guarantee $500 towards the expense of supporting support-ing any priest who will be sent to minister to our troops without pay. |