OCR Text |
Show WHAT CATHOLIC FEDERATION OWES TO THE GERMANS. (Catholic Citizen.) It is fair to acknowledge that, with-put with-put the active co-operation of the Germans, Ger-mans, Catholic Federation would not get on. We are impressed with this, truth by gjancing over the official report re-port of the proceedings of the recent convention held at Chicago (Aug. 5-7).. We find therein a list of the accredited delegates reported by the committee on credentials. Nearly two-thirds of the delegates listed bear German narnes. Illinois is credited with 153 delegates, a majority of whom bear German, Polish or Bohemian Bo-hemian names. Ohio comes next with 100 delegates, sixty-six of whom bear German names. Wisconsin is third with sixty delegates, of whom only seven have Irish or American names: twenty of the thirty-two delegates from Indiana Indi-ana have German names; six of the 1 seven delegates from Iowa ana seven of the nine from Minnesota also have German names. Wisconsin, in this convention, had i more delegates than the combined dele- gations from Maine, New Hampshire, ' Vermont. Rhode Island. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania Pennsylva-nia Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. Mary-land. A fact like this, of course, affects af-fects the representative ' character of the convention, inasmuch as two-thirds of the Catholic population of the United States reside in the New England Eng-land and Middle states, and but one-twentieth one-twentieth in the state of Wisconsin. Looking over' the list of delegates, we find that thirty-six clergymen sat m the convention from Illinois. Ohio and Wisconsin- Of these thirty-six, but six bore Irish or American names. The deduction from these facts Is that Federation is largely in the keeping keep-ing of our German-American societies; I and that the movement is rather neglected neg-lected by the Irish-American element I in the American Catholic church, who fear that its political activity may. be pernicious. The abstemtion of the Irish-American clergy from the movement move-ment is both noteworthy aiV signin- CaUndoubtedly, Archbishop Ireland's ! Interview, given to the papers a few weeks before the meeting of the Federation Fed-eration at Chicago, greatly assisted the gathering in this manner: Federation was immediately commended to the pastors of the German congregations, because of the enemy it had made. They went to Chicago themselves and they brought delegates from their societies. so-cieties. Up to that time, as Mr. Min-ahan Min-ahan tells us, it looked as if the movement move-ment would fizzle out. We look for some good results, however, how-ever, from a federation of German societies, so-cieties, moving forward with the idea of representing the general Catholic body, and clothing Its proceedings in the .English language. It has merits in the eyes of those who would welcome wel-come a broadening of Catholic public spirit and a mutual accommodation of views. At the same time, it is well for both the federation itself and the Catholic public to understand that the body cannot be considered, in its present condition, an entirely representative aggregation. The facts above stated sufficiently show this. Whether it will come to represent more than one element ele-ment will depend upon the breadth and moderation of those composing it. The German-American clergy, who so largely participated in it, are recognized recog-nized as men of positive views, and those views much tinctured by national nation-al sympathies; but in positions of leadership, lead-ership, their attitude may be more considerate and fraternal. CATHOLIC FEDERATION NOTES. (By. the National Secretary.) Dear Sir: I wish every success to the Federation of Catholic Societies, and feel assured that under the guidance of Rt. Rev. Bishops of Trenton and Green Bay the Federation will tend to great good. JOHN S. FOLEY, Bishoa of Detroit. -?-- - The proceedings of the last convention, conven-tion, as well as the constitution adopted, will be mailed to all interested societies by applying for same. Address A. Matre, 612 East Pearl street, Cincinnati. Cin-cinnati. The good work of the Federation is receiving world-wide recognition, and demands for Federation literature have come from Ireland, Sandwich Islands, .Mexico, India, Canada and Australia. $ . . Several county Federations are making mak-ing a crusade against vile, immoral, unfair and offensive publications, and are using their good offices to have such works removed from the shelves of libraries. With the permission of Bishop Foley, a county Federation has now' been established es-tablished in Detroit and Wayne county. coun-ty. Eugene Reynold is the president. The Federation starts out with twenty-four twenty-four societies. Mr. F. W. Immekus is taking steps In federating all the counties coun-ties in the Pittsburg diocese. A county Federation has been permanently established es-tablished at Frostburg, Md. . Father Ganss ringing appeal for the "Support of our Catholic 1 Indian Schools" appears in the convention proceedings pro-ceedings and should be read in the meetings of .all Catholic societies. Father Ganss asserts that of the 270,-000 270,-000 American Indians 106,000 profess the Catholic faith. President T. B. Minahan's article on Federation, which appeared in the October Oc-tober issue of the Messenger of the Sacred Heart, has been reproduced in pamphlet form, and will be mailed to any address. The article is very highly high-ly commended as showing Federation in its true light. Since the publication of the last report re-port the following organizations have endorsed the Federation of Catholic So- cieties: Kentucky State Council Catholic Catho-lic Knights of America, Catholic Knights of Ohio, Young Men's Institutes Insti-tutes of the- states of Ohio, Virginia, West Virgina and Maryland, Roman Catholic Central . Verein (with 52,000 members). Young Men's ; National Union, Catholic Knights of Illinois, Bohemian Bo-hemian Federation. Our ' Porto Rican correspondent writes: "A great deal has been accomplished ac-complished in Porto Rico lately. . Associations As-sociations of Catholics are being formed in every town, their purpose being at present to sustain the expenses of priests in every parish. The church property question has not yet been settled, set-tled, and will likely be up for discussion discus-sion at the next session of the United States congress. We do still suffer the injustice of the appointment of American Protestant teachers. Of course native teachers are all Catholics, Catho-lics, but about 120 teachers are Protestants. Prot-estants. Some of them are great supporters sup-porters and workers for Protestant denominations. de-nominations. It would do us a great good if Catholic teachers should be appointed. ap-pointed. We are sorely, in need of Catholic schools for boys. We also need religious communities to settle here and erect a school or two. We are also . greatly in need of more clergy." |