The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1888-05-26

orr reputation; they plun6ered US O.
Oh property, they confscated oul
es ates: they demolished our homes, ex
tl7guisbed our hearts, and drove II!
m'arcllessiy as helpless Impoverished
exiles into every land under heaven
'Pe lost everything we possessed on this
earth save the precious jewel OF the
faith, exactly the very thing which
ab0ye all others they longed and labored
most tc wrest from us. And yet all the
time we never once Wavered or vacil.
lated in our loyalty Or allegiance to the
See Of Peter. Our sufferings only
served to inyjgorsate aud t. confirm our
faith; and. what was If possible more
important still, to elevate, to strengthen
and consolidate the religious feelings.
sympathies. and affections in which
faith itself is ultimately rooted, and
from which it derives all its merit and
value. The larger, the severer, the
mere painful the sacrifices exacted from
us for our faith in tine prerogatives and
supremacy Of Peter the dearer. the
tenderer, and the better beloved by us,
became the divine doctrinal truths for
which we bled and suffered. The pei
fsotion Of a nations faith and it's pres
erTation, too, are Influenced immensely
by the religious feelings, sy1apathies.
and atfectiOnate leanings which 1t cher
ishes for the Holy See. a nations
faith, like the faith Of the individual, is
fostered, nourished, and stimulated into
the fulness of maturity and perfection,
principally by the feelings and SYM
pathies from which it first sprang, and
for which it must ALWAYS grow.
''To extinguish. therefore, the faith Of
a nation, you must first extirpate and
tear out of the nations heart all
the religious sympathies and feelings
that nourish and preserve it. In the
fierce and terrible persistent effort
made to wrest it's faith from the Irish
nation by brute force and bloodshed, it
must be admitted that the enemy as.
sailed Us exactly ON the side on which
the national character was strongest,
iilstisltg, Vii which our faith was invinci~
BILE. But though ANONYMOUSLY van.
quished, he has managed to acquire
from his very defeats and failure dan
gerous and formidable experience. For
if there be an undoubtedly strong side
% our natioual character there is an
undoubtedly weak side to it too, and it
S against this he now threatens to di-
rect bis vast and terrible energi S. Let
us consider the situations carefully, es-
pecially its most disagreeable features.
1t would be nothing less than dangerous
self-deception to question the fact that
we Irishmen are naturally naughty and
excessively sensitive. We are awfully
impressionable to insult, contempt, and
scorn. A sneer, an afr0nt, a we'll
barbed sarcasm sinks into the very
depths of our souls, and at once begins
to tester and ferment there. We foster
it, we nourish it, and brood over it, till
it has not only soured and spoiled our
feelings, but until it las to some extent
infuriated them. Smarting and wrlth-
ing under the anguish of wounded or
lacerated feelings, we surrender our
selyes up to feelings Of aversion, Of ab-
horrence and hatred; and we look out
ilnpatiently for opportunities for retail
alton and vengeance. It is very hard
for the Christian feelings Of charity,
mercy and forgiveness Of injuries, to
make head against paroxysnls Of pas.
sion which somtimes deprive us OF the
full use of reason, and which render US
partially delirious and demented. Ex-
cept under the influence of such violent
bursts Of indignant feeling, all Irish
man never has renounced and never
can renounce his faith; whilst the num-
ber Of those who, to ayenge an affront
or to retaliate on an enemy, have base
ly apostatised from their religion, is
painfully large. The lessons taught by
the experience Of several years past
plainly show that. in the present ex-
cited and suspicious state Of public
feeling, grave aud dangerous complica-
tions and misunderstanding might, at
any moment, crop up between the Irish
nation and the Holy See; and no one
could calculate or fix limit to the de-
plorable consequences that might re-
suit from them. And enemies would
never at any time be wanting who
would labor might and main to widen
the breaches and aggravate the mis,ln-
derstanding5 that would then arise.
In the excitement inseparable from
such controversies. it would be easy to
persuade jealous and credulous race
like ours that the Pope had acted on er-
roneous, prejudiced, or one-sided in
formation. Considering how desper-
ately bent our nation always seems to
be to secure all the social and political
ameliorations of its conditions that are
within it's grasp, a fatal misconception
of this kind would be quite enough to
driye it into an attitude Of dogged and
sullen disobedience. The consequences