The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-14
THE CHURCH AND CIVILIZATION.
LECTURE BY F. h. o'DoNNELL NJ. P, FOR
DUNGARvAN.

LECTURE BY F. Il. o'DoNNELL NJ. P FOR
DUNGARvAN.
Ulster Examiner.
Mr.. ODonnell, M. P, delivered a lectare
on "The Church and Civilization" in the
City Hall, Glasgow, on June 18Th. His
Grace, Archbishop Eyre presided, and there
was a numerous audience, including the
leading Catholics, clerical aud lay, of the
city.
His Grace, who was received with loud
and prolonged cheering, in introducing
the hon. gentleman, said it often happened
that when lecture was to be given the
lecturer was gentleman from distance,
whom nobody had ever seen before, and of
whom they knew nothing except his name.
However, in this case they had one who
was we'll known to them all, who had
already proved himself a great favorite
with Glasgow audiences-one who, he felt
quite sure, was as happy to be present on
that occasion as they were to have him
amongst them (cheers.) The people of
well-known face, and their excellent friend
the hon. member fer DuDgarvan had
already won bis spurs-in that city Of theirs,
30 that any lecture from him was cure to
be q success bnt there was another ee-
ment of success in that case, and it was
the exceedingly interesting subject upon
which he had come to lecture to them
(cbeers.} 1t was we'll for then to be con-
versant With such an important subjeet as
the effect OF the Church lpOn European
civilis alton, and he felt certain, before Mr..
O'Donnell commenced, thst they had a
of their friend. There was a7 old proverb
that 'rgood wine needs no bosh," and if
that was pat into still palmer Euglish, it
meant that q good lecturer required 30
Advertisement (laughteI); so that without
saying anything farther he would ask their
excellent friend at once to commence bis
lecture Qoud cheers
Mr.. O'DoDnell, who was honcFea with
perfect ovation, the entire audience risisg
TO their feet and cheering him lUseily, waV-
ing hate and handkeTchiefs the while, OBJ
served that in attempting to ceaa with the
Church and European eivilisation in TIE
presence of go many eminent eccles'astics
and distinguished scholars, he feis that if
he were to do more than treat ts.s great
subject in general and popular way he
would altogether Overtask his email re-
Sources but be relied upon their great
kindness and great indulgence while he
ventured to lay before them some general
observaSions upon the leading heads into
which the topic perhaps naturally divided
itself, and he would leave it to the ecclesl
astics themselves To- deal with the more
purely eeciesiasticsl side of such questions,
while he endeavored to look upon the
whole group of facts which were eompre-
hepded under the title of European civil
isation in that light in which such facts
must naturally appear to the lay observer
of the coarse OF history, and to the lay
critic of the laws which regulate the devel-
human society. The great difficulty which
was felt by one who tOught to lecture upon
the relatiOns of she Church to European civil
lisation was to get Christian audience
In the nineteenth century to realise, even
dimly, the nature of those corruptions and
4 kl-A H. IL 6, ks4h Nh-.,
tianity rescued human society. They knew
what society was to- day, but if they went
went back nineteen hundred years to the
outset of the influence of Christianity upon
the world what would they find What
was the character of the Greek and Roman
civilizations and the other civilizations of
antiquity that preceded Christian civiiiza-
tion Z Where was the honor paid to useful
labor Where was the eanctity of human
life and freedom, OF even the recognition of
sense of common humanity itselff AT
Athens or at Rome there was to be found,
indeed, group of men, often distinguished,
often highly cultivated, presenting iBstan-
ces of individual development, genius,
culture, and polish such as no subsequent
age has excelled, but that group of cultured
and highly polished men were nothing
more than group amidst millions of ab-
ject slaves. They had heard of "the glory
that was Greece and the grandeur that waS
Rome" but what did it amount tot Why,
the freemen in these countries would be
hardly more than one in fifteen or twenty,
and beneath these there were tens of mil
lions of men who groaned as slaves without
protection, without rights, aud without
hope, except Such poor hope as arose in
few of them from being the transient favo-
rites of capricious masters (cheersl. Why,
at that time if the master of 500 slaves had
been assassinated, the whole 500 might be
legally put to death on the bare chance of
Furnishing the unknown assassin, and Tac-
tus actually records an instance of the
kind. Out of $50 millions of men in the old
| Roman world, l30 millions were slaves, de-
prived of all human rights and denied the
equality of a common origin with the mas
| ter who ruled over them. Even Plato and
Aristotle wrote learned treaties to prove
that II ere MaR no common humanity ha.