The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-07-05
Address Of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union
to the Holy Father.

The Hon. A. NJ. Kelley, Mayor of Richmond
and President of the I. C. B. Union, sends us
his address to the Holy Father, for publication.
AS our readers must know, the societies rep
resented in this Union number at least 60, 900
men, all practical Catholics, and nearly all of
Irish birth or parentage. They all men
who proud of their glorious Faith, who
are not only ready tosdie for it, but also to live
for it, and in accordance with its teachings.
We regret the fact that outside of Virginia
very few Irish societies are affiliated with this
excellent Union
President keiley's address reads thus:
Holy Father:-As the presiding officer of the
Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, an organiza-
ton whose purposes are disclosed in it's title, 1
gladly avail myself of the opportunity fur
nished by the departure of the First American
Pilgrimage, to lay at the feet of Your Holiness
this feeble expression of the reverent homage
and profound sympathy of Your devoted child
rem of that body.
Almost cotemporaneously with the birth of
Your Holiness, Your illustrious predecessor
and name-sake in the midst of Affections I'M
happily recalled by the events of our own
time, turning his ear to the cry of this distant
benign partially permitted the scattered
priests of the infant Republic to choose from
among their number one, upon whom he
deigned to confer the honor, and impose the
Since that day the world has witnessed with
wonder the progress of our country in power,
population and material wealth, but we claim
! with pride that by the blessing of Almighty
God, Catholicity may boast, in that county, o
growth of even more surprising luxuriance.
Under the suspicious influences of civil lib
erty, the Church, vindicating her Divine ORR
gin by her perfect adaptation to this, as to
every form of human government, has -four
ished with such steady and unexainpled vigor,
that in the short space of single life the
number of American bishops has more than
doubled that of the priests who, converting
from every quarter of the Republic, presented
to Plus VI. the first candidate for our epsco-
pacy.- OF this happy growth the mistaken
people to the Holy See is at once an evidence
| and cause. No storm of schism or revolt has
ever, for a moment, weakened the bond OF
affectionate loyalty, which throughout these
eventful years, has united the Church in the
American Union to the Chair of Peter; and
the misfortunes with which its Divine Founder
| now permits it to be assaulted. serve only to
draw into closer union with Your Holiness the
hearts of the faithful, aud to surround You
with double portion of their prayers, their
sympathy. and their love.
In these feelings of respectful and unaltera-
BILE devotion the society, I unworthily repre-
sent, most sincerely Shares and utter the
unanimous voice of it's members in giving this
most inadequate expression to their ardent
| attachment to Your person, their .6lial rever-
! ence for Your august Office, their veneration
for Your illustrious virtues and their deep
| sympathy in the Universities which afhict Your
paternal heart-adversi which our Re-
deemer foretold should be not less the portion
of His true disciples than of Himself.
| May presume to beg that Your Holiness,
| for the sake of that Catholic Charity, for
| which alone our Union was founded, will deign
| to extend to us by the hands of our beloved
Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Baltimore.
Your benediction, that we may be strengthened
in our endeavors by that power and grace
which come alone from on hight
Yourdevoted child in Christ,
A. M. KELLEY,
President Irish Catholic Benevolent Union,
Richmond Va, u. s. A.
Feast of the Ascension, 1874.