The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-09-10
sSrning Sta and Catholic messenger
NEW ORLEANS. SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER 10 1910
NEW ENGLAND TRANSFORMED INTO
YOUNG IRELAND.
PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE LAND OF
THE PURITAES.
tCorrospon aont \. Y. Ca.hollo Rev!e.

BOSTON, August 2lst-W ben yeaI
ago the Very Rev. Father Iecker delivere
a lecture in Chicago, in which he came
the conclusion that in thirty years tn
United states would be Catholic, / feel
while listening to him that his hopes, ra
ther than his facts, (Which were so liable t
interruption and opposition in tho future
had moro to do with bis conclusions thai
unalterable logic. But to. day am entire
~ satisfied, from what l have seen an'
learned during the pact month, that tn,
prediction will be verified, rs lar as tn,
New England States concerned, ir
much less than the time specified. Boston
Salem, Lawrence, and all the other places
of importance in Massachusetts,, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, aud Rhode Island
are on the average, fully one half Catholic
and every day is adding to their numbers,
increasing ln"ir il huence, ard removing
old time obstacles and prejudices to their
progress and social sta.us. Standing at a
Ghurch door yesterday, seven miles west of
Boston, the location of ak churches were
pointed out to me, not one of which was
three miles from its next door neighbor
And these are all solid substantial stone or
Dflck buildings designed for future genera
uons, as well as the present, while the rule
WIN frotestants is small wooden buildings
nicely painted. l was told that Protestants
cannot suppress their astunisllm eut at poor
Cathoiics building sucl costly churches
When wooden buildings would do them lust
ss well. Catholic education is being en-
arSeo more and more every year, but Ca
thoilc school houses do not keep up with Ca
tholic churches, but in a few Years the fine
puollc school houses will be held and used
oy Catholics, for there will be none else to
use them, indeed some of them are in this
condition already. am told by a friend |
WIN whom am spending q few days. who |
hVes seven miles from Boston, that when
ever the Catholic children absent them
serves on holy days for instruction, the pri-
mary and the grammar schools have to
DC smut up, as there are only twenty-five
or thirty left ont of over one hundred and
,swenty. III things be so now, when scarce
y one ntth OF the time required by Father
decker has come to pass, what will thew be
when the full time il expiredR WHY this
country will no longer be New England but
Young ireland.
visited new Salcm-witch craft Now
the old etern Puritaps hanged
so many for witch craft. 1t contains about
26, 600 iDhabitants, although they claim
30 coo. There are five Catholic churches
having on an average 5000, giving Is 600
Catholics ont of population, of % 600, or
nearly three tifths of the entire population.
l thought that with such n large number
all regularly sprinkled with holy water,
filing her streets, there was neither peace
nor quiet for witches any more. I in
quired for the home place of old Cotton
Mather but did not succeed in finding it,
but an old gentleman at the hotel under
took to show me the home of Roger Will
liams, that he built in 1890 and in which
he lived till 1886, when he was banished
for his private Interpretation of the Bible.
The house has three good sized rooms and
is now used as a paint and oil store at
tRched to drug store at the corner of two
streets, nearly in the centre of the city. 1t
is in fair preservation and shows that
Roger had Il fair sized purse. After the
banishmeut of Roger the governor lived in
it and 1t was in the front room that all the
witches had their preliminary examination
before being committed for final trial. My
informant was u well read man, aud be
came eloquent and minute In his praises of
Williams claiming that he was the first
man that ever proclaimed and practced re-
ligious and political liberty, and concluded
by saying that he presumed these facts
were ae we'll known to mo as they were to
him. Thus appealed to felt little en-
barrassed in being forced to reply that |
could not agree with his description of the
character of Roger Williams, for while |
regarded him as the most humane and libe-
raj man among his brother Puritans, facts
in his lie prevented my giving him credit
for either civil or religious liberation
When he wGs excommruicated and
driven out of the church 10 New
Salem, he expelled his wife, in this very
housc, because she stuck to the church,
from his presence and refused Indignantly
10 iSt heI pray Win MN, thn5 pTBctlclng IN
his own family what he denounced in others
towards himself Again, when he obtained
his charter from a professedly Protestant
king, who was a Catholic in his heart and
private practices, one of the clauses of that
charter secured by the kings direction
equal civil and religious rights to all the
inhabitants of the colony, and ct the very
irst legislature assembled under this char.
Ter and the presidency of Williams pass
ed an act dePriving Catholics of the right
TO vote or hold any Office under the govern
nent If Roger Williams were what he ia c
low claimed to have been this penal law
would not have been left on the statute Z
BOOKS to be repealed when the French fleet c
we're moOred before Providence, when very '
hame caused it's repeal. No, tho glory of I
laVing first proclaimed and established Ii e
,erty in America surrounds the brow of the
Catholic Baltimore, and the efforts of some c
ourtecn school histories will nevcr be }
bile to rob him of that honor.
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