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Show Catholic Church and Mormonism Sectarian Missionary Boards Send Out Appeals to Catholic Newspapers Calling Attention to the "Menace of Mormonism" Father Lambert Answers. I The ministers have snubbed The In-j In-j termountain Catholic. No copy of i appeal described by Father Lambert in his editorial reply in last week's Freeman's Free-man's Journal was sent to this paper. Hence we are unable to say whether such document is a product of the Ut-: Ii missionaries or a brand 'new article made up in the east. No matter. Father Fa-ther Lambert's position on this question ques-tion voices the sentiment of. Catholic., in these mountains and is approved bv the church in Salt Lake. It follows: The representatives of the Methodist. Presbyterian. Baptist and other sectarian sec-tarian missionary boards ten in all have sent out "a statement and appful calling the attention of the Christian public to the position, work ,.nd mo.i-ace mo.i-ace of Mormonism in our country." As a copy of this appeal was sent to the Freeman's Journal we suppose a simi'ar one has been sent To the other Catholic papers in the country. Accompanying Ac-companying the appeal was a request, that a copy of the paVer containing comments on it be sent o them in return. re-turn. After saying what we. have to say to these gentlemen vie will comply with their request. 1 In the first place, considering that these missionary boards have since their establishment devoted most of their attention, time and abilities t antagonizing the work of the Catholic church in various parts of the world, their appeal now to Catholics for help against Mormonism shows that they have more brass than other kind of funds in their treasuries. For years these hoards have been sending their anti-Catholic agents t,i Catholic countries, to France. Italy. Spain. Mexico and the South American republics, to wage unrelenting war against the Catholic church and her institutions. in-stitutions. And all this time they have had Mormonism among them and right under their piously uplifted noses. Under Un-der their eyes' and without a whisf.fr of protest from them Catholics hav. been vilified and misrepresented in the most unscrupulous manner, and their I churches and convents burned. And now, with such an anti-Catholic ! record, these missionary boards, rei-og-j nizing their own impotency to cope j here at home with the Mormon propa- I gandists. have the supcilative impu-! impu-! dence to ask Catholics to join them in an anti-Mormor. crusade. AVe are ex- pected to forget what they have been j doing and ignore what they are still I doing, and fall into line under their di- j rection. We are more concerned with I their old-born and c hronic zeal against the Catholic church than we are with j their new-born zeal ar-inst Mormon-j ' ism. I j The Catholic church stands alone, in i I magnificent isolation, from the jarring! sects as they .rise, wrangle and decay.! ' She needs not and heeds not the appeoll j to her of one sect against another. In! her eyes they are all the same rebels i against her divine authority, destroy- j ers of Christian unity in the world, and; j teachers of false doctrines. She eon- j demur, polygamy as she condemned it hot ore Mormonism had existence: as she condemned it when .Martin Luther I and Melanethon first introduced it into l Christendom by sanctioning the polyg- ' I anions marriage -of that buck goat.! Philip Landgrave, of Hesse. She not! j only condemns simultaneous polygamy. but she also condemns successive po- j lygamy, or tandem polygamy as Fa- j ! ther Cronin felicitously calls it; a po- j j lygamy that flourishes in the United ' I States under our loose divorce laws. land is increasing to an alarming ex-1 tent, without any earnest or vigorous ! opposition on the part of the sects. i j Mormonism is an offshoot of Protest- i ; antism. They read the Bible and judge j for themselves, defending their polyg-J amy from it. Its founders, Joe Smith.! Brigham Young and others, were Prot- ! est ants, and its missionaries are su' - j j cssful only in Protestant, countries,! ! Kngland. C.ermany, Norway and Swe-j ! den. and Protestant North America. It i makes no impression on Catholic eour-i eour-i tries, Ireland. France, Italy. Spain. J Portugal, or in the South American republics. re-publics. If it be a political, social and moral disease its bacilli seem to llour- ish in Protestant countries; Catholic i countries seem to be immune. We would, therefore, advise the mission boards to recall their agents from Catholic countries, where they are cf no practical utility, and set them to work at and about Salt Lake, and sc.? if they can discover an antidote and prophylactic. With the exception of polygamy, the charges the circular makes against thrj Mormons are familiar in tone and phrase. They are the same that the agents of the mission boards have been making and reiterating for years in every key from C sharp to H fiat, against the Catholic church. Here is an example: "Its ) priestly oligarchy threatens free government, its grasping priestcraft invades property proper-ty rights: its varied vices are destructive destruc-tive of good morals, while its pagan i doctrins and practices are antagonistic antagonis-tic to the gospel of Christ." Now. if we write "Catholic church" where the stars are in brackets, the Catholics will recognize the old familiar. famil-iar. face and tone of the quotation, and it will remind him of "Auld Lang Syne." As we know the sentence to he false with "Catholic church" in the brackets, we want better evidence ot its truth than the authority of the mission mis-sion boards, when even Mormonism is substituted in the brackets. Gentlemen of the mission boards, we understand you: we know your liter-' liter-' attire and your methods: we have nr. confidence in you: we cannot yoke with you against the Mormons: nor can we yoke with them against you. You ar. both alike in error and in antagonism to the Catholic church: with the difference differ-ence that you are more meddlesome iy so. more aggressively so and more o:-iensivelv o:-iensivelv so than the Mormons are. The Catholic church will fulfill h-r divine mission in her own way and work to lead victims of error and sinners sin-ners to light, truth and repentance: nd to lead immortal souls to eternal life. . In this work of hers she will include in-clude you and the Mormons alike as objects ob-jects of her solicitude and charity. |