The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-02-01
ARcanlsuor punCELL's CASE.
The Movement Among Catholics to Pay
the Money.

New York Herald.
The Roman Catholics Of this country are
not easily discouraged because obstacles
are either great or many. They have be-
fore now succeeded in enterprises when the
obstacles in the way were both the one and
the other. To do what is difficult but pos.
sible seems TO be their daily task; to at
tempt to do what is apparently impossible,
what would certainly be impossible TO any
other religious body, is, to our mind, their
most imperative duty.
The millions which were intrusted 10
Archbishop Purcell for safe keeping, and
(which were invested in ecclesiastical build
inps OF various kinds or use for other re-
ligious purposes, ought to be paid back TO
the thousands OF creditors who, with singu-
lar confidence, placed their slender earn
ipgs in the priestly bankers hands. The
Catholic Church should not, and We are
sure will not, avail itself OF the difference
between legal and moral obligation. In
religion legal compusion is unneces-
sary when moral duty is clearly
SEEN. The hiding places which the
secular law affords are for the
benefit OF those who wish TO avoid re-
sponsibility, not for Church which
challenger criticism because criticism can
discover nothing that can be honestly
criticised. The Catholic Telegraph has very
boldly said that this debt should be paid
even II it becomes necessary TO sell every
church and to "melt down the chalices."
The Boston Pilot, a paper Of commanding
influence, has also counselled payment,
however great the effort required may be.
Within the last six weeks We have
noticed change OF opinion on this subject
which is very gratifying. During the heat
OF controversy concerning the relation Of
the church 10 the acts OF one OF its arch.
bishops the people were naturally divided.
The one party asserted with considerable
plausibiity that the debt was wholly oil
private and personal character, and that
the church, while deploring the calamity,
should not hold itselfinanyway responsible
for its payment. The other party took a
position which excluded the legal element
from the problem and declared that the
good name OF the Catholic Church OF this
country is seriously involved, and that the
church ought to hold itself morally re-
sponsible to rectify the mistakes which its
trusted officials have made while acting in
their official capacity. That this is the
higher view We believe that the number
Of those who are gradually coming TO this
position is largely increasing as the time
10 face the matter approaches We are con-
WINGED. In all business concerns the
Church must be without blemish. The
teacher must illustrate the lesson he teach
es by his own action. A legal compromise
with q moral obligation is not In accord
ance with the genius OF Christianity. In
these inhdel days 1t is more than ever i'm
portant for the Church 10 be as honorable
in its secular dealings as 1t is earnest in its
spiritual teaching.
The constituency Of the Catholic Church
is beginning TO realize that its present re-
sponsibility is the logical result its unique
organization. There is not another relig.
ious body in America which would feel
this responsibility to an equal extent. The
people Of the various Protestant sects do
not have the same degree OF confidence in
their officialswhich is fostered by the Catho-
lie Church; nor are their officials able TO i'm.
press the people with the feeling that they
are component and authoritative part OF
great whole, and that this great whole is
simply reservoir from which come imper-
ial advice and command. The Protestant
clergyman is regarded both as an indviid.
ual and pastor, and there lisa sharply de-
fined distinction between his acts as an
Individual and his acts as pastor, but the
Catholic priest is always priest and never
anything else.
The poor folk, therefore, who brought
their earnings and laid them at the feet Of
their beloved Archbishop and his Vicar
General brother did 1t undoubtedly with
the feeling that these officials were an in
tegral part Of Church that would never
see them wronged. Their view Of the case
may not have been strictly legal, but it was
certainly the result Of their reverence and
loyalty. It naturally seems hand, not to
say unfair, that their unbounded con-
fidencc should be the cause OF their tinan.
cial ruin. They knew no safer place in
which TO deposit the penny that was to
supply their wants when "the rainy day"
should come than the church officers who
had behind them an organization whose
resources are practically exhaustless, and
they were amply justified in their opinion.
To be smitten, then, by the church Is
scarcely less appalling than TO be betrayed
by ones dearest friend.
We have q strong hope that the public
o,,t.;o, ,,,b;ch has heretofore been dividad