The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-11-30
AND MASTERS.

aytVJtyNttvNAW1lJS9G StSSI gEfN4 NSfsSSt s.ssS
4 The Church Has Salutary and Lastlnl
Influence Over all Glasses Of
Society.
at the audience granted by His Holi
ness Leo XIII. to the first group of tha
pilgrimage of workingmen from France
to Rome recently. the Pontif delivered
one Of the most important dlsc0urses
that he has ever uttered. How much
he felt from it's import may be de-
.duced from the fact that he read it from
a written paper. 1t constitutes almost
q treatise on the social question which
.agltates the world at the present day,
and 1t furnishes the mode Of remed wing
the relations of worklngmen to masters,
if, that is to say, it's counsels are follow
ed Undoubtedly it Is destined to make
q great sensation in every country which
has to deal with the question it dis
cusses. After referring to recent Oc-
casion when French workingmen came
to Bone to visit the tombs Of the Apos-
ties and the Sovereign Pontiff, and after
most heartily welcoming those now
before him, TIolg Father said:
You have understood that only in
religion will you find strength and con-
ISOLATION in the midst Of your increasing
fatigues and miseries here below. Re-
ligion alone, in fact, will open your
souls to immortal hopes; it alone will
ennoble your labor, in elevating it to
the height Of human dignity and liberty.
In con6ding to religion then, your pres
ent and future dest1nies, you can not
perform an act Of higher wisdom. And
upon this point we are happy.to confirm
here the words pronounced by Us in
other circnmstan and which you
nave just called to mind. We wish
even to insist, once again, upon THESE
truths. persuaded as We are, that, for
you also, your safety will be the work
Of the Church and of its teachings re-
placed in society with honor.
''Paganism, as you are aware, had
pretended to resolve the social problem
IN despoiling the weak portion of hui
manity of it's rights. in sitting its aspi-
rations, in paralyzing its intellectual
and moral faculties, III reducing it to
the state of absolute Impotence That
was slavery. Christianity came to an
noupce to the world that the whole
human race, without distinction Of
mobiles and OF pleDians, was called to
enter into participation Of the divine
heritage; it declared that all, by the
same title, were the children Of the
Heavenly Father, and redeemed at the
Same price: it thought that, upon this
earth, labor Was the natural condition
OF man; that Ca accept it with courage
wa 4 fsy him an honor and proof OF
wisdom. that the desire to withdraw
fromsft was. at the same time, to show
voWardice and TO betray q sacred and
fundamental duty.
Is I'm ordert to give comfort still more
eficacionsly to laborers and to the poor,
the Divine Founder of Christianity
deigned to unite example with precept.
he had not where 70 Law His head; He
endured the rigors of hunger and Of
thirst; He passed His life, public as
well as private, in fatigue, anguish and
suffering. According to His doctrine,
the rich man, as Tertullian expresses it,
has been created to be the treasurer of
God upon earth; for him are the pre-
scriptions on the good use Of temporal
wealth; against him are the formidable
menaces Of the Saviour, il he should
shut his heart In presence Of misfortune
and povertyl B s1 5Sas 81.
s everthless, even that did not vet
suffice. 1t was necessary 90 bring the
two classes together, to establish be-
tween them . religious and indissoluble
bond This was the part OF charity; 4 it
created this social bond and gaYe it q
force and a sweetness hitherto un-
known; 1t invented lin multiplying it
self - remedy for all evils and ! con
5solatio in ali SORROWS; and it knew bYs
Its lnnumerable works and institutions,
how 10 raise up IL favor of the unhappE'
sanobls emu ulation Of szeal. J. generosity
and self sacrIi lex.
h 'Snch was the sole solution lllch.
5in the; ;iney able Inc lily of human
IN Il esaf.l Il a