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Show nd 1 1 " - i ; J A MAKER OF HISTORY, ; 1 I j pr Maurice Francis Egan, professor T? ' i r.f Eir lit-" h literature in the Catholic j J-nivorsiiy of Washington, D. C, writ-! writ-! j.JtT 'of Archbishop Ireland in the Pil- gnm. --ays. in part: S f -julm Ireland, Archbishop of St ' Paul llie makers oi American ' history. What he stands for is so I vital and so important that only those ?; vv'l Vf !.(! in the sources of the T pi-o'wtli this new republic can un-I un-I acisiaii'l it. History never repeats I jtt-i I . but the essential forces that ' a-Ke' history are the same now as j, j lt'ov vufo in tue age of Alexander, j -i ause Archbishop Ireland sees more deeply into the hidden springs f of our national life than most men, he f nas ini-n hailed by a majority of the American people as a patriot of the I first order, and by a minority consist-i consist-i ii:g alike of a number of persons of I uis own church and of those who hate i his church as a "Liberal" and a "Jes-f "Jes-f uit i disguise." For once, we see the I ultra-bigoted Protestant joining hands in distrust for even doubt has a cohesive co-hesive quality against an American, who. because he is a Roman prelate, is more than ever a friend of the re- I public. -In France, Ireland is the best known of Americans. And there is no member of a foreign hierarchy better Known. As in this country, the unthinking un-thinking who borrow second-hand I phrases compare him to Richelieu, the i. narrow royalists in France have I, called him Lomenie de Brienne why, nobody knows and this same coterie t; has not hesitated to hope that Leo XIII, who refused to recognize the j. Duke of Orleans at the expense of "the I rcpii". ,::, might be quickly translated io the -society of angels." The cause I f ul t.hcnse which both the present Pope I I and ;lie present Archbishop of St. Paul f 1 seem io have given to the "reaction- isis" is the consistent application of I ihe principles of the pontiff's encycli-I encycli-I cal. "Liaturnum," which Archbishop h-eland expresses in "The Catholic I Church and Civil Society," the most inii-'Tiant of his works: -'You ask," he says, 'what is the attitude at-titude of the Catholic church toward a republican form of government. The churdi teaches that the choice of constitutions con-stitutions and of rulers lies with the people. Whether they shall have an empire, a monarchy or a republic, it is I their privilege to decide, according as their needs may suggest or their de-i de-i sires may lead. In this matter the I church from her principles is without j avuk'e-' I THE PATKlUT-CHUKUtiMAIS. T -In "Church and Modern Society' I Archbishop Ireland says: " The times are solemn. In no other I j . epoch of history since the beginning f : of the Christian era did changes so profound and far-reaching take place. I i Discoveries and inventions have op- I cned to us a new material world. Soli So-li cial and political conditions have been II trai.tiurnied. Let all things I be r.cw is the watchword of humanity I today, and to make all things new is I humanity's strong resolve. To this I end are pledged its most fierce activi- I lies, which, wherever in this realm of I I nj.'n they ere put forth, are exempli- lini iu the steam and electricity of the if 'w material creation. With f the i.jv order have come new needs, I new hopes, new aspirations. To cons'.; con-s'.; cue;- the new world to Christ, the 'h;::-, h must herself be new, adapting l le ielf in manner of life and in metfl- od ,,; action to the conditions of the f i ew order, thus proving herself, while j v. ; ancient, to be ever new, as truth I Irovj heaven is and ever must be.' I "St. Augustine's great apostrophe to f1 ih' Catholic church is not more pious or mure sincere than this, and it rep- F r.-s.-nts the essential principles of l Ai-f-nbishop Ireland's action. His Eu- rop- an education following his Amer- iean training had taught him not to tear old shadows in a new land. But wL'-n he spoke and not only spoke, i but acted, as if there could be a free : (hutch in a free land he produced f the .'fleet on some of his well-meaning ; b.v hren that Cotton Maher would i ka'-'e produced, had be informed his I f-d! .--agues that the witches had ceased ' ''j b,J worth burning. i 1 The fatal result, among other fatal I I remits of the conflict between church aui state in Europe, was the conclu-i conclu-i iou on one side that the church had !; hit rights which anybody was bound to I respect, and on the other, that the s 'a'e had no rights at all, unless the i ..; eiiurcli granted them. This condition ! i " mind was artificial and un-Christian I ':' both sides; it had grown through ! I 'le1 existence of constant and abnor- I I mal war. and it explains much, in the j -; a: us of European countries, which 1 1 Americans take too little trouble to s. ""demand. I Archbishop Ireland, if one may f , Jvi'ke his resolves by his course of I I a-: ion. had determined that the Eu-; Eu-; ; ropean mistakes should not be repeat-II repeat-II ed here. The chart was unsullied; 1 1 'bete was a clear field; there was a j tabula rosa. Old abuses need not 8. f 1 weary the energy of the man of good will; there was no Bastile; no privileges; privi-leges; no base compromises between the human side of the church and the evil of the world. He was keen to see the source of social evils. One source of innumerable ills in the future fu-ture would be the importation of foreign for-eign ideas inapplicable to the conditions condi-tions of a new country. It is plain to the observer of European social life that the American republic was very much distrusted in Italy, France, Spain and even among the higher classes in England. The Italians, who learn all things from history, fancied that they had the key to the future of the United States in the past of the Venetian and Florentine republics, and the separation of church and state, leaving each entire freedom, was to them, knowing how Cavour's maxim had been interpreted, impossible. Catholics in France were inclined to judge the American republic by the vagaries of their own series of systems, sys-tems, the work of experimentalist "doctrinaries," and Spain, politically uneducated, looked with doubt and scorn on the crude collection of states across the sea. The late war has somewhat changed the attitude of Europe; Eu-rope; it has, with its result, the acquisition acqui-sition of the Philippines, changed the point of view of the court of Rome to the United States and altered to a great extent the position of the United Unit-ed States in the eyes of Europe and Rome itself, the very center of the most delicate diplomacy. There are some American Catholics who see in this reciprocal change a misfortune, and many others, not Catholics, who imagine that it has dangers. However. How-ever. Archbishop Ireland was one of the first to perceive what President 1 McKinley and his advisers did not perceive that, when the Philippines were acquired, Rome, as a diplomatic and economical factor, must be considered. con-sidered. It was another evidence of the broad view, deep insight and constant con-stant devotion to the best interests of religion and civic virtue that has marked his career. "Archbishop Ireland has done more for the creation of a sentiment against what was called the "saloon interest" than any other Catholic, except Archbishop Arch-bishop Keane. And in this process, he made many enemies in the Christian sense even in his own fold, and he undertook a difficult work; but who, comparing the condition of Catholic sentiment on the "liquor" question with what it was in the sixties, can doubt that Archbishop Ireland and Archbishop Keane have succeeded.' "It is with dislike that a Catholic alludes al-ludes to the wretched disputes on the school question, in which the late Archbishop of New York and Archbishop Arch-bishop of St. Paul occupied opposite ;.jdes. It is c ie of the m -st unpleas-art unpleas-art episodes in the history of the Cath olic church :a tnis country a history which hitherto had no page which a reasonable man could deside to blotf; but honesty requires the statement that the difference of opinion brought out all the malice and uncharitable-ness uncharitable-ness from which theologians are supposed, sup-posed, except in moments of great crisis, to be free. This was a moment of great crisis, if one may judge it by the hatred of the two parties. THE APOSTOLIC LEGATION. "Nobody who looks below the surface imagines that the Apostolic Legation, represented at first by Cardinal Sa-tolli, Sa-tolli, was welcomed unreservedly by the Catholics of the United States. It is said tha the establishment of this legation was made possible by the dis union of the bishops, and that Archbishop Arch-bishop Ireland threw himself on the side of the legation, in order to strengthen his position. But, as there are public documents in the case, this assumption may be dismissed for lack of evidence. There are no Catholics in the world more devoted to the Holy Father or the unity of the church than the Catholics of the United States. The school question was at its height when the apostolic delegate came. His reception in some quarters, usu-j usu-j ally esteemed most orthodox, was marked by extreme coldness, while in those quarters looked on by the ultra-orthodox ultra-orthodox as "liberal," it was most enthusiastic. en-thusiastic. The west was troubled perhaps more than any other part of the country by two questions: Might Catholics send their children to the public schools without fear of excommunication, excom-munication, and what secret societies were really condemned? The Catholic Catho-lic church had not legislated against secret societies merely as secret societies, soci-eties, but against societies which demanded de-manded absolute obedience under an unnecessary oath. It seemed to many as if these questions had, been answered an-swered by some bishops from a foreign point of view; hence the coming of Cardinal Satolli, rumored to be sympathetic sympa-thetic with what was called the "American" opinions, was looked on as hopeful. "Cardinal Satolli stopped the practice of excommunicating parents who sent their children to public schools where i there were no other schools of equal merit, and prudent distinctions were made in the matter of the secret societies. so-cieties. And tacit support was given to the Archbishop of St. Paul's opinion that a compromise between the religious, re-ligious, formation of mind and character charac-ter of the young, which every Catholic devoutly accepts, and the local public school systems might be made. Such compromises had been made in various vari-ous parts of the country without much disturbance, though McMaster, in his time foremost of the supporters of parochial schools, had found fault, in "The Freeman's Journal," with it as practiced at Poughkeepsie, in the archdiocese of New York. It was asserted as-serted that the admission of the theory the-ory of this compromise, which was merely tolerated as an accepted principle prin-ciple of Rome, would ruin the work of years and destroy the great parochial systems, the result of so much labor and expense. Hard-working priests who had built schools and were struggling strug-gling to improve them, who had pleaded plead-ed for them, in season and out of season, sea-son, protested as if their life blood was being drawn. The arguments with which it was asserted the Archbishop had softened Rome, were ex parte. He had hypnotized the pope, it is said and no greater tribute has ever been paid to the forceful character of this prelate than the readiness with which his opponents agreed that even the venerable successor of St. Peter could not resist him even when he was j wrong. j FOREIGN BISHOPS. "In a country less free than the United States, the question of the appointment ap-pointment of foreign bishops, speaking speak-ing a foreign langauge to peoples who had become Americn citizens, would have been a matter for state consideration. con-sideration. With us, any interference on the part of the state would have occasioned indignation and resentment. resent-ment. And, now the question has been quietly settled, it seems strange that Archbishop Ireland should have been ; so misunderstood. Who will not agree with him when he says: i " 'No encouragement must be given to social and political organizations or methods which perpetuate in this country foreign ideas or customs. An Irish-American, a German-American or a French-American vote is an intolerable in-tolerable anomaly. We receive from America the right to vote as Americans, Ameri-cans, for America's weal, and, if we cannot use our privilege as Americans, Ameri-cans, we should surrender it. Efforts to concentrate immigrants in social groups and to retard their Americanization American-ization should be steadily, frowned down. There are in America self-constituted leaders of foreign-born citizens citi-zens who speak of Americanization as a term of reproach; with such men public opinion should deal severely. FREE SCHOOLS. "Archbishop Ireland protested most earnestly against the charge that Catholics are opposed to the system of free schools. "Not one stone of the wondrous edifice which Americans have reared in their devotion to education educa-tion would Catholics remove or permit to be removed. They would fain add to its splendor and majesty by putting side by side religious and secular institution, in-stitution, neither influencing with the other, each of them borrowing from the other aid and dignity.' "We know how violently the compromise com-promise was opposed by some Catholics. Catho-lics. The plan of giving religious Instruction In-struction at certain hours had long been in force in Ireland; and, as we have said, in certain parts of the United States, but it was an expedient and temporay adjustment. When it was proposed as a general plan, Archbishop Arch-bishop Ireland, though received with extraordinary kindness by the Holy Father, discerned that tnere were too many difficulties in the way; and he, the most splendid and persistent op timist of the century, was obliged to admit sadly that "it must be confessed con-fessed that the American people view with but little favor any measure to impart religious instruction in connection con-nection with state schools, and the problem of the moral and religious instruction in-struction of the masses of the people still remains to be faced." THE PHILIPPINES. "One of the most courageous acts of President Roosevelt has been the attempt at-tempt to deal, in a broad spirit, with conditions in the Philippines. It must be admitted that President McKinley's commissioners had made a mess of matters in the Philippines because they tried to apply American methols very good, in their way, for peoples capable of receiving them, but out of the question under the circumstances. Secretary Root's first letter concerning concern-ing the status of the friars in the Philippines Phil-ippines would have been regarded as a very stupid performance if Secretary Root had never done a stupid thing before. be-fore. As it was. President Roosevelt and Archbishop Ireland quiely saved the situation. The insular and local sectarians ignorant rather than malignantmight ma-lignantmight fancy that the Scarlet Lady could be driven out of the Philippines Phil-ippines by the Bible, the flag and the chicken-pie social. The lands of the friars might be confiscated and they driven from the country they had cul- '-'. - . . ,.; tivated and made to blossom. That these bodies of priests had vested rights, that the most delicate questions ques-tions of law entered into the affair, that the pope had certain claims and privileges which the new government of the Philippines must admit, amazed the great majority of people whose train of . thought had never carried them beyond the narrow conditions they knew. And it is greatly to the credit of many of the American people to whom the relations of church and state in Latin countries are incomprehensible, incompre-hensible, that they saw, perhaps as through a glass darkly, that a new era had opened and that the part played by the archbishop in regard to the negotiations ne-gotiations with Rome was the part of a patriot, deploring the circumstances that forced us into foreign entanglements, entangle-ments, but seeing and acting as no other man saw and acted. "The archbishop of St. Paul is one of the foremost of Americans, and one of the few Americans whose name has a thundering echo in Europs. It would be too much to tell here what he has done in the interests of peace for the French republic. May it be long before be-fore the eulogy, which it would be in bad taste to write of a living man, is emblazoned over his great head and heart by a grateful people." |