Daily globe., 1883-08-13

OAu1OA Wcho ul10O W ON6IuOW-
ing at an early hour last evening to listen
to Father O'Conner, prominent leader in
the independent Catholic church move
ment in New York city, and many were
obliged to go away not being able to OBJ
tain either seat or standing room. Rev.
DR.. Dana opened the services with read
ing the scriptures and prayer and intro
duced the speaker, remarking that he
came here not in the character of a con.
versionalist, but to let the Protestant
churches know what was being done by
him and his co-workers in the establish
ment of this Independent mission work In
New York City.
Father OConnor opened with symbolic
ing the church of Christ as pure and
spotless pillar OF swhite marble in the
recognizarce of all spiritually minded
men. AS time moved on one set of man.
kind drove nail into it, then another.
and then another, and hung their own gar.
ments upon these nails until the pillar was
hidden by these garments and the people
fell to worshipping them instead of the
original church. At such times God called
men like Martin Luther from out the
ranks of these worshippers themselves to
pull out these nails, that the pillar of
truth might be visible to the whole world
for their regeneration.
There was greater reformation in the
sixteenth century than for the whole ff.
teen centuries previous. The council
of Trent formulated the Roman Catholic
church 300 years previous to 1854, and in
all that time nothing was added to its
articles. Then the bishops were summon
ed to Rome and at the suggestion of the
papal authorities a new article or garment
was added-the immaculate conception of
the Virgin Maryland afterwards the
Vicegerentship of the Pope for Jesus
Christ. In 1859, vatican council added
another article or garment-the infalIi-
bility of the Pope.
For space of many years there had
been no detection from the church of
England, but soon after the addition of
the last article to the Roman Catholic faith
there was such going over on the part of
prominent mother church personages to
that faith, accepting the old tenets aud the
newer manufactured ones, that it was at
one time thought that the former would be
entirely absorbed in the latter.
But for the last year the tide has been
setting the other way and more than fifty
prominent noblemen and clergymen,
among others a nephew of one of the car
dinals have gone back to the mother church
Men are beginning, inside of the Ro-
man Catholic church to
think for themselves instead
of delegating their thinking to others, and
while respecting true Catholicism, have
grown to disbelieve that the Roman Cath
olic church is the only door through which
mankind can reach God, that the Italian
pope is the vicegerent of Jesus Christ and
a successor of the apostle Peter, who was
the first pope, the latter of which claim
for century after century have been be-
lieved and accepted. While there were
comparatively but few thinking and in
quiring minds in the days of the Luther
reformation owing to the ignorance of the
period, in these days of general education
and Intelligence there is a great multitude
of questiones as to the divine right of DO
tween the people and their God.
Here the speaker alluded to an article,
appearing N recent issue of the North
western Chronicle, stating that he was a
"bad man," by saying that he preached
every Sabbath evening from October to
April, at hall in New York to an audi
ence of 1000 Irish people, and that he
should have to leave it to his parishioners
to say whether he spent the remaining six
days OF the week in the penitentiary, in
other disreputable places, or in any q1es
tionable occupation.
He then proceeded to give a brief his
tory OF himself. He was born, he said. a
good square lrishman, in Killarney, on the
shores of the beautiful lakes of that name.
He was of family of nine children, and
though the fifth in the number, as is usual
in many such cases, he was chosen by his
parents for the priesthood, and received
partial education therefor in
the Catholic schools and col
leges of his native land. Under the advice
of an old parish priest, whose name he
still holds dear, he was advised to come to
America and finish his education, which he
did, and was ordained priest by Bishop
Foley in Chicago in 1872 Of his old pro-
fessors and teachers in the Catholic semi
naries, he said that they tried to influence
his heart, that Jesus might enter in, and
that he ever should hold them in endeared
remem brance.
He then went on to describe that he en-.
tered the labor of the priesthood with a
pure and innocent heart, and feeling the
responsibility upon him of taking the sim
ner by the hand and leading him to Jesus.
Chicago was a fruitful field for labor, and
he soon found that the Irish people with
whom he was as it were a missionary
could only be reached through their emo
tions and affections, and that his Iabors
among them were mostly rewarded with
success at the confessional This he
described in vivid manner, showing how
Ill it the person is brought face to face
with his sins before a human presence.
rather than Gods. The methods of the
holy fathers of the Catholic church in
bringing the people to confession was
described by their spcial wants to the
churches where they preached an eternal
truth, the enormitg of sin, the last
judgment and the beauty and peace of
religion, and called upon them to search
their hearts for the sin hidden there,
Men and women longing for peace from
unquiet consciences, and believing if they
did not obtain pardon through this medi-
um, accepted it as their only alternative
The speaker claimed in connection with
this subject that the reYivals of religion in
the protestant churches had their origin
from this custom of confessing inaugu-