The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-04-11

opened TO receive i've Bishops and more thar
fourteen hundred priests, for the sole crime O
fidelity to Holy Church. Similar events have
come to pass in Brazil also, though in differ
emf degrees, in Portugal and Spain. This mania
for persecuting has even seized upon the Grand
Turk himself, whose janizaries, sabre in hand
have just PEELED from their Sees and churches
both at Constantinople and Cairo, faithful Arr
menian Patriarchs, Bishops and Priests, and
su bstitnted for them apostase monks and crea-
lures of his own. Even here, beneath the folds
of the starry flag that floats over the White
| House, banner that formerly gave protection
and asylum to the oppressed of all lauds-by a
| dash of his pen, and because it SO pleased him,
the Executive has just torn eighty thousand
| children of Jesus Christ from their mothers
arms-eighty thousand Indian Catholics, be-
gotten by our Divine Redeemer through q cen
| fury of labors, trials and ufferings-moreover
they have been delivered up, body and soul, to
the cupidity, ignorance and fanaticism of Pro-
| testant preachers. The priests, sole friends of
those unfortunates, have been arbitrarily ex-
PEELED, and their schools, wherein youth was
| initiated into true civilization virtue and the
practice of Christian life, have been closed.
To the indignant wall that burst from the deep
chests of the children of the forest, to the
energetic protests of their Bishops to appeals
made in the name OF a viola ted constitution
the Executive has turned a deaf ear What do
such men care for the rights God over souls
redeemed by the blood of His Son What care
they for the right of Bishops to fulfil the mis-.
sion imposed on them by God of preaching the
Gospel to every creature! Have not such men
learned, through ukases Of the Gear of Russia,
and laws written with Russian sabres and the
hruans of the Grand Turk, that over defence
less people and the Church of the living God,
whose arms are those only of prayer, speech
and CHARITY, might supercedes right I And are
not such Governments armed with the triple
armor of hatred, money and, if need be, bayo-
netsf
Another means which this general persecu
ton makes use of in order to accomplish it's
desired object is the destruction of religious
communities of either sex. Why the world is
opposed to them be easily understood. The
doctrine of Christ, as contained in the ms PRED
writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, is
the sublime ideal of perfection to which human
nature, redeemed from the profound abyss of
its original fall, is invited and which it can
attain with the assistance of divine grace |
Christianity has always more or less existed, |
appeal to the animal passions, which appeal |
has been responded to by the Sophists whose |
sole philosophy can be summed up as follows
Negation of Gods rights upon mans mind and |
affections, dedication of nature, glorfcstion of |
matter, worship of the flesh. This hostility,
when made wider by fanaticism, has at certain
epochs displayed itself into ferocious hatred,
carrying with it destruction like q tornado
when it sweeps over onr old forests. Not thus
does the spirit of impiety proceed in our days
1t has organized destruction upon q more uni
form plan it has legalisedit. For the sake of
public usefnlpess, in the interest of order, for
the maintenance of peace, through measure
Of political economy. We have seen onr modern
governments appropriate the possessions of
thousands Of religions of both sexes, either
declaring hundreds of churches and converts
TO be State property, or appropriating these
20 themselves OF" selling them; confiscatng
hose venerable asy lums, the works of piety
md munifcence of our ancestors, the asylum
If science, prayer and the most exalted virtues,
nto gymnasiums, theatres, barracks, stables
md places of debauchery.
And for the last five years we have seen
hose great preachers of human progress and
liberty of conscience, unremitting in their de- | =
unciations of royal tyranny and of clerical =
espotism, give to the world the awful specta-
le of thousands of of every age =
ioently snatched from heavenly state of 7
fe vouu tarily chosen, bTutally thrown upon '
be public highways and given mp to want and
,isery. They have more particularly directed 8
heir attacks against the religious whoee voca- A
ion is the preaching of the word of God, the a
ERECTION of souls and the consolation of the u
oor and afflicted. They have driven away en- A
Gsss the worthy sons of St. Benedict, St. v
rancis, st. Ignatius and St. Alphonsus. "
Those who have given to the world this a
,andal, worthy of the worst days of Elizabeth =
nd of Cromwell, are not only the revolu- r
onary despots of Spain, Italy, Switzerland
nd Germany. These have also their imitators a
our small Republics of South America, who W
ave sought by dint of impiety to make up for A