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Show SPLENDID UNITY OF GERMAN CATHOLICS j Catholic Congress at Cologne Treated Public j Matters from Viewpoint of Catholic Doctrine and Morality. j The congress of German Catholics was held th!a I year at Cologne from Sunday, Aug. 23, till Tlrurs- j day, Aug. 27. It was the fiftieth of its kind. Spe- , I cial importance attaches, therefore, to this jubilee year of the great factor of Catholic; progress in 1 Germany. The first congress was held at Mayenco , in 1843. ; The congress touched upon all the more im- j portant topics of Catholic life. Public matters-i were considered and treated from the point of view: of Catholic doctrine and morality. In this way a sound public opinion is created, adjusted and fos- 1 tered among Catholics on these matters, the con-j gress leaving it to others, viz., to unions, societies. ; the press, or it may be to the Center, to carry out! in due course what has been rt solved upon. TIumJ congress is, then. only, as it were, the liead of tho 1 organization of Catholics, its very important members mem-bers being societies of all sorts, and newspapers off all kinds, without whose aid it never could have 1 obtained its present importance and usefulness. At first, and for a number of years, the congress j was even called the general meeting of Catholic j societies in Germany. But in the year 1871, at they assmbly at Mayenee. that name for practical and"' judicial reasons changed into the present title. "General Assembly of the Catholics of Germany."' I remember well the warm debate on this occasion; which gave signs of the coming Kulturkampf. But I though the name has been changed the connection ; between the societies and the congress continues as before. Some of these societies hold their own. metings throughout the year, others meet along with the congress, and others, again, are mentioned and recommended by the congress to the Catholic body. A recent review of the almost endless number of these societies divides them into six groups. First, there are the pious societies, including thoso for propagating the faith, counting seventeen various va-rious unions with so many branches each. Secondly, Second-ly, societies of charity, including those dealiug with temperance and emigration, eight unions of ; various kinds." " Thirdly, come the trade and labor societies, thirteen unions, including those of farmers, farm-ers, journeymen, workingmen. young workiugmen, j merchants, students and pressmen. The students alone comprise more than TOO branches in the various va-rious German university towns. Fourth in order are the societies for literature, science and art, five in number, including the Goerret society and the Society of St. Charles Borromaeus. which takes the place in Germany of the Catholic Truth society. so-ciety. The Borromaeus society last year counted 104,000 members, with an income of about 40.000 pounds. Fiftld.v. political, and lastly, the social societies. The most important of the political, and indeed of all these unions, is at the present time the Kath-olisohor Kath-olisohor Volksverein. the Catholic People's Union. It was founded by Windthorst, and was indeed the last great work of the great leader. Its object is to oppose and combat the errors and revolutionary revolution-ary movement of the Socialists and to promote the Christian order of society. This union holds meetings meet-ings throughout the country wherever Catholics are attacked or the policy of the Confer party is to be -defended and no local organization is as yet in existence. The number of met ting.-, held in March alone was no less than 192. The headquarters headquar-ters of this union are at Munohen-Galdbach, Rhine-land. Rhine-land. It was justly called by the late Dr. Lieber the ''permanent congress of Catholics." By its. meetings and millions of leaflets and pamphlets it ' has done admirable work, warding off the attacks of foes and uniting Catholics yherever opposing interests, as between industrial and agricultural laborers, la-borers, were threatening the harmony of action. Here indeed lies the strength of the Catholic body. They are a united army, bound together by Christian Chris-tian principles, by a sound and popular policy, and by the guidance of able leaders. To organize the Catholic young men and to ! make them acquainted with political life, to keep up the tradition of the great leaders and follow in I their steps, an association has been founded which rejoices in the excellent name of "Windthorstbund." This union did very good work at the last elections, elec-tions, and their organization has already been intimated in-timated by the Liberal party. . The most important class organizations are the Farmers' union and the Workingmen's societies. . The latter are increasing in number as well as in in the warfare against Socialism. Corresponding to BebeFs programme, which lays it down that Socialism So-cialism advocates atheism in religion, socialism in economics and republicanism in politics, these Catholic workmen's societies maintain among their members, and beyond them the profession and de-' de-' fense of religion and sound political economic views and measures, within the present order of things. These societies are very active, and many a workingman has bcome an excellent nublic debater de-bater against Socialists by following up the lectures lec-tures given at the meetings hh"J under their auspices, aus-pices, and attending to the different courses.. Moreover, More-over, many, perhaps most of the societies, havf joined Tegular trades unions, which have been founded in union with Protestant workingmen on Christian principles as onnosed to the so-called free trades unions of the Socialists. The number of members of these Christian trades unions amounted in the year 1002 to S2:,S('4, and the total income to more than 40,000 pounds. Besides this, there are many local friendly and insurance societies amongst Catholic workingmen, one of the latest being named, in honor of the great Pontiff of workingmen. the Leo Insurance societr. I It promises to be a success, having already sixty branches in the archdiocese of Cologne. j |