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Show i;-... IiJSCm the victor - j I j j winch over- T . b 9 w cometh the :i! 1 (J universal i - j CHURCH CALENDAR. J First Sunday of Advent. Gospel. St. Luke xxi, 25-S3: Signs foretelling the destruction of the world. Sunday, Nov. 30. St. Andrew. Monday, Dec. 1. BI. Edward Com. and Com. Tuesday. Dec. 2. St. Bibiana. V. M. Wednesday, Dec. 3. St. Francis Xavier, C. Thursday, Dec. 4. St. Barbara, V. M. Friday, Dec. 5. St. Sabas, Ab. Saturday, Dec. 6. St. Nichalos, B. C. DROP NATIONALITY. ; " The Proceedings of the Second Na- l tlonal Convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies" ro-, ro-, cently published, makes interesting and ' valuable reading. The following is the report of the Very A. B. Oechtering's remarks. Rural Dean Oechering is an irremovable rector of Fort Wayne diocese dio-cese and a member of the diocesan , council artd the school board. The very ; reverend dean said: j From the start of the Federation of Catholic Societies in the United States I have taken a deep interest in the Fame, for the simple reason that we are tirst of all American citizens. Tvo years after I left my native country, . Westphalia, I tried to become a citizen of the United States at that time of J Ohio, because 1 lived in Cincinnati. I ; was a seminarian of Mt. St. Mary's I , seminary of the west. In 1S61 I was , ordained and became pastor of a cele- i brated town, Delphi, Ind. It was just I at the opening of the great rebellion ( of the civil war. I took out my first' , papers then in Indiana, and afterwards . ' I became a full-Hedged citizen of the , United States, so that I might cast i i my vote for the president of the United j States. I gave up my claim to the , (lerman empire it was not an em- , pire at that time, it was only the king- , dom of Prussia, but never was a Prus- I ' sian at heart. My father God bless i f his grave and give eternal rest to his I j. soul taught his four boys this lesson: l ' "In Prussia we have but three words, , j Pay your taxes, be a soldier and keep , ; your mouth shut." And when I left , , that kingdom and had become a citi- ' zen of the United States, I said: '"I " ; ; am now a full American and I want to ' . dr PVPrvthincr. that tVio ArrniT-?nan i-in- I i stitution guarantees me as a citizen of I j' the United States, and next to that, or ' first of all, I am a Roman Catholic, ; and I shall profess my faith until I 1 ; die." My lot was cast among the Irish, among the French, among the Ger- mans, and now I have a congregation, j and have been its pastor for the last , thirty-five years, that consists of ail j ? nationalities; it is cosmopolitan in ev- try sense, for I have Germans, I have Flemish. I have Hollanders, I have 1 Canadian-French, I have Russian : Catholics. I have Poles, I have Italians, , i , and we are all good, straightforward r ; American citizens and Catholics. As such I stood last May as a dele- . gate from our local society before the , Staats-Verien of Indiana, at Laporte, and told those twenty-five or thirty 1 German societies that gathered in con vention there: "Drop your nationality. ' Re Catholic and stand up for your . J rights. Join the federation of all j bodies." When 1 said "Drop your na- ) tionality," I added, "In your local or- l ganization you may carry on your ! 1 ' proceedings in whatever language you J ' ; please." . j ; i And you, reverend fathers, ga 'if home and preach to your people. I ' ; ! am. not coming here to give you a leo- - ' j ture; I need it myself: but I wish that ' J j every American priest I talk German; ' j i ' that is my father's fault; I can't help , f that would go home and teach his ; j people that they are first Catholics, , . and. second, drop that question of na- tionality; leave that where it is and sy ' s to the world: "I am an American 1 I citizen, and that is all, and I stand up i ' I and demand my rights under the con- 1 ; stitution as long as it pleases Almighty '! God." I say that to every German j delegate or every Polish delegate or ' S ; j every French delegate that may be ! ' j here today. American citizens, and i ' Catholics above all' If you work on that linf, I am with you. If you work : against that line, then I will go home . j and say, "I have nothing more to say." . j These are my sentiments and my feel-; feel-; j ings; for these I stand, and for these I i I I K'ill work. ' i ; i . ; f To Aid Girls in Need. I i i j A branch of . the Catholic order of 'if "Oeuvre Cathoiique Internationale de I 1 : j Fribourg" is to be established In New I ' t York City, to care for the thousands '' , ' i j f helpless Catholic immigrant girls I . i who arrive at that port each year. The I j I project was delayed, somewhat by the ! I I death of Archbishop Corrigan, but with 5 I I the appointment of his successor, Arch- , bishop Farley, it has again made prog- 1 . ' i ress and wiil soon be in active opera- ' i ! lion. : ' I j The history of tins institution is in- i ! ! ! terestingly told by an exchange, as j i ; ; foilows: I I The founder of this benevolent so- i ' j- r iety is Father Joseph Dernaz, a young 1 Swiss priest, who has had much suc- : ! cess in establishing branches of the , ! j ' order in Italy and Switzerland. He has i : j now turned his attention to the United ' ' States. Father Dernaz first became I : j impressed with the necessity for the i ; kind of work done by the society of i ' I which he is the founder while 'present ' t several years ago at an audience given i " by the pope to a delegation of mission- I i ! ary priests who had been laboring in . ' '; ; Africa. The pope commended the hc- roic and self-sacrificing efforts o the ' i f pnerts jn carrying the gospM into the . ! i lieart of Africa. "But," added the poje, ; ; f "it is not only a black slavery that ' ' ' exists in this world; there is also a : ! : white slavery. Would to heaven some bold man would arise to lead a deter- . mined and systematic onslaught on the ! j terrible evils which confront young and I ' j i innocent girls deprived of protection at i ; home, or who go out into the world to s earn their livelihood." ; These words inspired Father Dernaz j to start a movement having for its ; I object the protection of young girls f i j thrown out on their own resources. It I l was at Fribourg, in Switzerland, that ' , the society was first established, and ' hence its name; the "Catholic Inter- t national Work of Fribourg." Branch establishments were formed in various j ; parts of Switzerland and also in Turin - ,' j : and Milan, in Italy. 11 ' Two Strangely Divided Lives. Two Ftrangely divided lives, says a London paper, are brought into contrast con-trast by the appointment of Mgr. Stan-j Stan-j , ley, house prelate of His Holiness and ' protonotary apostolic, to be auxiliary 1 bishop under Cardinal Vaughan, for the i ! new assistant of the head of the Cath- ' olics in England, was a pupil at Rug- i v.,r if Arrhhishon Temnle. the head of I- the Anglicans. The monsignor is a ' ; younger brother of Lord Stanley of Alderley. After leaving Rugby he i graduated at Trinity college, Cam- bridge, and was ordaned in the Church f of England. He was for some years 1 a curate of. the. High Church of St. I' Marv, Soho. It is to his honor that he declined the valuable family living of Alderlev in order to work among the . ' poor. At that time he used to ride I . , , MHy ' nrrrmm I third-class, and was very fond of his pipe. The Church ami-Cremation. In the church of the-Immaculate Conception, Con-ception, Boston, on Sunday, the Rev. Thomas J. Gasson, S. J- teacher of ethics in the Jesuit college there, discussed dis-cussed the attitude of the Catholic church toward cremation.-" Father Gasson showed that Pope Leo XIII, hy a decree of May 19, 18SG, has forbidden Catholics to adopt, under ordinary or-dinary circumstances, this method of flisnnsins- nf tho Haari "It must be borne in mind," said Father Gasson. "that this decree is not one of faith, but simply of discipline, that is, the church, for wise reasons, judges it ill advised and contrary to Christian tradition to thrust the body of the departed into a crematory. "If experience should show that public pub-lic health demands cremation, there is no doubt that the church will accommodate accom-modate legislation so as to sanction any reverent manner of carrying it out. "To say that cremation would interfere inter-fere with the resurrection of the body is a puerile statement. Is it any more of a miracle for the divine power to resurrect the body from the ashes which are. the result of cremation than to resurrect the body from the dust which is the result of burial? Both are equally possible to divine omnipotence." |