The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-05-24

rem of the 4p0eC0hc ministry throughout tn
Rome the anniversary Of tie martyrdom
eighteen hundred years ago, of Saint Pete
and Saint Paul, and to join with him in tn
exaitatlon OF naartyrs4asvho, like them
though in far distant lands, we're " faithful
unto death ~ They respond with eager 10!
go send on the wings Of the wind thei
words Of lowing veAeration. -
To soy not = word of the spiritual claim
OF the man who sent forth the invitation, s.
eagerly and widely accepted, there is in til,
fact just stated glowing evidence that
even in these days of triumphant and inso.
lent materialism, moral. power has not en-.
tirely lost ascendency. Though millions OF
knees are bent in honor of the Dagon of ma.
terlaiism, in some one or other of it's myriad
forms of degrading dolatry, yet millions OF
hearts also recognize the gift of God as
present evermore in His holy Church Never
before has the Catholic Church heheld so
great Q multitude, from SO distant places,
assembled at her call at the central city OF
the faith 80 - ~
The enemies of Catholicity have again
and again referred to the great inventions
OF modern times as sure destrOyeIs of the
claims of the Catholic Church and of her
hold upon her millions of members; but lo
these very inventions are brought into the
service of the Church. The printing press,
which was going to anniLilatc the Catholic
Church, has proved one of her most etfectual
bulwarks; millions of printed pages inspire
the devotion of her children, and make
known her claims to reading men, until
many who were even her enemies and re-
vilers from Ignorance and prejudice, ac-
knowledge their error, and make haste to
go to their fathers house." Steam, in the
view OF many, was about SO to change the
structure of society that the old and decrepid
Church of Rome, the great obstacle on the
railroad-of materialism, was about to be
run over and cast to the roadside, q weak
and useless wreck but 10 the power of
steam enables hundreds and thousands more
to go up to the sacred city, as the tribes of
Israel were wont to visit Jerusalem, than
could otherwise attend the festivals of the
faith in st. Peters Church. Of the manifold |
uses OF steam, large proportion is in the !
service of Catholic truth. And then the |
telegraph that, surely, was to show an adj |
vanced state of civilization which could not |
tolerate the slow and ancient ways of Cath
olicity but 10! here, again, the event has
contradicted the prophecy for, by means
of the telegraph, the assemblage of the vast
host at Rome was known throughout the
world ON the very day of it's occurrence
and almost literally, in all parts of Chris
tendon, thousands of devout worst,ipers
could turn their faces reverently toward the
altar of God in Rome at the very instant
when those i'll its immediate presence were
bending before it, and could join in the
same prayers and anthems, as though the
world itself were one vast St. Peters Church,
and the strains of penitence and hymns of
Joy could reverberate across oceans and
mountains, among distant nations and
islands of the sea, as among the corridors
and arches of one great temple sacred to the
triune God.
AS in these instances, so in many others,
the Church has extended her sway and {
deepened her power by the very forces
which many supposed would work her ruin.
The history of the Church has shown in the ,
otto 4 l.,
in the service of infdelity and disorder, as 4
in the field of human passion, that God will i
make the wrath of man to praise Him, and t
turn weapons designed to attack His holy Il
Church into her consecrated armOr of de- v
tense. The grace of God SO overrules the t
Inventions of man and the powers of nature, e
hat even the terrible lightning becomes the c
vivid messenger to convey to the ends of e
he earth the benediction OF. the Vicar of d
Christ. a
What is the chief lesson of the recent t
at Rome 7 1t is this, that the
Church Of God, so often, in the view of her a
enemies, destroyed, will not stay destroyed; Ii
hat after every destruction she renews II
ler invincible youth, and rises to pursue u
Ter career of conquest over sin, prejudice, Ii
md wrong; that, though she may bend c
while to the storm that beats upon her W
acred head, she has never been wholly h
that, notwithstanding all that h
Mortal enmity, detection, outrage, have fl
lone or can do, she yet lifts her forehead to II
he sky to be anew baptized with light from tt
he sun of truth above; and, strong in the b
aith and promise of the Eternal God, she b
alters not in her endeavors, patient and a
persistent, to subdne the world to Christ. il
The history ofthe Catholic Church abounds h
With instances like the Roman gathering in nj
une, which prove that her hours of Attic II
ion are those very ones when her faithful II
hildren gather to her side, to assure her of it
heir prayers and support, and to discern tt
lpon her sanity face those ''smiles through p
ears, which, in times of trial, arc the b.
wa-mest and most touching acknowledge d
m'nts of tilial generation. al
Inc commemorative assemblagc at the II,
opltai OF Christendom, signifies that the e!