Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-07-08
For the Spy.
The CnlhOlieA.

The history of our country, shows that
Catholics were amongst the early emigrants,
Baltimore and other localities received large
numbers of them. They were in some cases
the majority of settlers, and managed affairs
to their own liking, but what has been the re-
sulti Has the Catholic religion spread abroad,
has it made converts, has it even held its own
relatively We believe not. We recollect
seeing, a few years since, document on
Catholic authority, which showed that the
Catholics lost no small share of their own
members. The children of Catholics often,
either neglected all religious observances, or
became Protestants. Such has doubtless been
the fact, and such must be the natural and in
eyitable tendency of things i'll this country.
Catholicism if let alone, cannot flourish. The
social and political atmosphere is unfavorable
to it. Even when men retain a nominal con-
nection with it, they soon lose, in this coun-
try, its spirit; and when its peculiar spirit is
gone, it is harmless. We have seen the fact
illustrated in Buffalo, st. Louis, New Orleans,
and other places, in which there are Catholic
Establishments, where, IN those instances in
which the Priests have endeavored to assert
and maintain their rights and prerogafives as
Catholic Priests, the people have revolted, and
successfully set them at defiance. The pow
or of the Priest, the great evil and danger of
Romanism is never successfully maintained
in this country, when brought in collision
with the will of the laity. This fact shows
in what direction our hope lies respecting the
introduction of the Papacy into this country.
1t is that the spirit of our institutions will
neutralize the despotic clements of the Cath
Ollie Church, and render it at least compare
lively harmless.
Such has been the tendency of things thus
far. Catholics have been let alone, and their
children, to great extent, have become Pro-
testants. 1t was natural and inevitable they
should do so, because they were tolerated.
and allowed all the rights and immunities of
citizens; they We're eligible to all places and
employments. They were American citizens,
and became imbued with American ideas.
But this happy state of things seems about
to be changed. Now the cry OF persecution
is raised. The Catholic is to be excluded from
employment and from Office, his religion is as
sailed his churches are demolished and par
ty organized to oppose him, and put him down
everywhere. Now, what may we expect
Why, as sure as man is man, so sure Cathol-
icsm will become power in the State. No
more detecting from the faith, no more loss OF
members from the church. All will stand as
united phalanx, and even Proestants will
be found to join their ranks. Violence and
crime will abound. The terrible spirit of re-
igious hate will be aroused, and wild and
reckless fanaticism will lead to scenes of an
archy and Dloodshed, at which the heart recoils.
If such be the prospect, what should be
done: Weanswer,
Let every good citizen set his face as flint
against any thing which has atendency to ex-
cite hostility against any religious sect, let him
give no countenance to any party or faction,
whose avowed object is to deprive the Catho-
lie of his civil or social rights and privileges !;
let him stand by the great doctrines Of tolera-
ton, and insist upon its fullest application, in
both its letter and spirit-and let him do all
in his power TO impress upon his fellow-citi-
zens the sublime truth, that the interests of
society, as well as the interests of Protestant
ism, require that he should treat his Catholic
fellow-citizen as a neighbor and friend.
w