The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-03-10
Objections.

important to be started without bringing
forth many objections on the part Of those
who are not acquainted with its real char
the railroad, the telegraph, were each and
all unanimously pronounced impracticable
when first announced. Christianity itself
had to pass through several centuries OF
obloquy and scorn on the part of the most
elegant and polished the worlds inhab-
itants before its real principles were under
stood by them. 1t cannot then be won
undertakings of q minor Importance and OF
less evident merit.
Thus the Catholic Militant Union has
already found very powerful opponents
among those who ought to be it's friends
but have no just conception of it's princi-
pies. Let us look at few of their difficult
ties. Some find it very strange that
non-practical Catholics should be ad-
mitted into Catholic association. Others
fear that it is intended to absorb all
the practical Catholics and break up every
otherl Catholic society; others, among
them some of our most Jealous clergymen,
are alarmed at the Misrepresentation that
great additional labor is to be imposed on
the parish priest in~keeping up this new
work when he already has his hands too full,
aud finally some are indignant that there is
to be king, as they say, and he layman,
at the head of an order which must obey
his commands implicitly. These are all
misapprehensions except the first objection,
and therefore we will take them in their
inverse order.
/. The head of the association in this
diocese is layman. and that will still
be the case if an expansion of the work
should extend the area of its organization.
1t is also true that the action Of the Union
will be dictated from above, and will not
be subject to adoption by the vote of men,
bers, but that dictation will not rest upon
the caprice of any layman, even checked
by the provisions of the constitution and
by the voice of his Council. The ordinary
of the Church will control him, for he is
appointed by that power and can be at any
moment deposed by it. Thus, while con-
fined to this diocese, the Archbishop names
and can unmake the President, and there
fore controls him. If the Union should be-
come universal, the Pope himself will ex-
ercise that power as regards the supreme
President. Therefore the organization,
though a lay one, is strictly under ecclesi-
astical control. Besides which the consti
tuition clearly provides that no action
whatever shall be taken without the ap-
prevail, tacit or actual if necessary, of the
Pope.
2. No parish priest is required or ex-
pected to do anything for the Union except
to give it his countenance and approval.
On the contrary, it proposes to be the
right arm of the pastor in aiding him to
carry out his most cherished objects. 1t
will protect his schools, combat the danger
GUS influence of bad literature and abusive
newspapers and sustain Catholic publica-
lions.
3. It does not propose to absorb Catholic
societies aud will not do 80. Its earnest
effort will be to keep alive and reanimate
all such bodies. 1t does not come in COM
petition with them in any respect. 1t has
neither the piety of sodality nor the
charity of q conference of st. Vincent of
Paul as its object. 1t simply intends to
defend the rights of the Church and the
Holy Father. In doing so it must, neces-
early, arouse the zeal of it's members,
thereby infasipg new life into all their
actions as Catholics and members of Catho-
lie societies.
4. The foregoing objections are all based
as we see on Misrepresentation, but the
fourth is not liable to that imputation. 1t
attacks an actual principle of the Uniop,
in fact its vital one. The Union is Catho-
lie, that is, it embraces all Catholics. In
deed, it must do SO to be Catholic. 1t is
not the Society of st. Vincent of Paul, nor
the Sons of st. Patrick, nor the Daughters
Of St. Joseph, nor even the sodality of the
Blessed Virgin. 1t is Catholic Union-
simply Catholic and nothing else. 1t is
just as wide as the Church itself and no
wider. Whoever is in the Church is in the