The Irish standard., 1891-01-31
THE CATHOLICS NO ALIENS.
No Patriot Can surpass the Catholic
in Love for the Country Of His
Birth or Adoption.
THE MOTHER OF THE NATIONS.
The Catholic Church the Mother Of
Liberty and Not Opposed to Free
institutions.

| institutions.
| At a recent banquet Of the Catholic
Knights of America held at Covington
KY, the Rev. II. Calnaer, S. J. in res
pondlng to the toast 1.-The Catholic
Citizen del1veredthe following address
Need I reply to the strange statemen
sometimes mace that the Catholic is al
alien, and cannot, therefore, be a true
and loyal citizen. having neither right
to Office nor voice in the direction OF
affairsa
Aliens! We aliens! Why my dis
tlngulshed friend, Governor Bryan, who
in the course Of his eloquent address
was hailed by you as the next governor
OF Kentucky. was speaking. [ thought
can this loyal and eloquent citizen, this
true Kentuckian-can he be an alienl
We aliens! Ten millions of people,
citizens OF this fair land-God bless 1t
aliensl
The statement NAV be the hue and
cry of the bigot, whose party creed has
been correctly styled Nnownotningism;
of the unprincipled politician, who by
1t strives to rouse certain class OF his
fellows to impotent fury against an
opponent; it is not the expression OF
the instinct of the fair minded Amer
ican people, it is not She verdict of the
historian WHO has studied the land
marks. which Cathollcity has left.
according to the testimony OF Bancroft,
from one end of the land to the other.
From San Salvador, where the great
Catholic Genoese first landed ON his
voyage of discovery; from the green
and towering giades Of Florida, where
the Catholic Ponce dc Leon sought for
the perennial fountain OF youth, TO the
pine forests Of Northern Maine and
ths beautiful valley where the Mohawk
glides in its gentle course to the sea-:
from the great Northern lakes down
through primeval Western Forests to
where Marquette discovered the Father
OF Waters, the cross upllfted IN the
hand of Catholic missionaries led She
onward march to civilization, and when
the star of empire went westward was
il NOT the Catholic priest and pioneer
who moved forward the bonds Of ciYili-
cation until the cross planted On the
heights that form the Golden Gate Is
kissed with reverence at morn and noon
and eve by the orb OF the day, while at
night, the clear. bright stars, weaving
for it coronet of glory, circle round it
in splendor.
From where Atlantic breakers roar to
where Pacific laves golden sands, there
is no exaggeration in the statement
that Catholicity has left her landmarks,
and are we aliens in this land? And
can we be recreant to our love for the
land thus consecrated bY our Catholic
forefathers? No! We NAV challenge
any patriot to surpass the Catholic in
love for the country Of his birth or
adoption; and love of country is the
first requisite of good citizenship. In
the next place, we hear it asserted that
Catholicity is opposed to the nature of
our,free institutions. Is there an asser.
tiou farther removed from the truth
than this? Who that has read the his
tory of the past, lit up by the torch of
truth, can say that che Catholic Church
is not the mother Of treedom-of liberty
that is not license, but mother Of free
dom in the true sense of the word?
Is she not the Mother Of the Nations,
and is it not her distinctive glory to
have fused all nationallcies into one?
She is Catholic, that is universal; with
her there is no difference between bond
man and free. as St. Paul could say
even in his day; no distinction between
race or color, cline or time; rich and
poor. king and beggar are her loved
children; she is truly democratic. and
our country seems to have caught the
spirit of Ter Catholiclty by welding
heterogeneous elements into an homo
genaous mass ana by uniting all the
people of the earth into one grand, au-
tonomous nation, OF il you prefer. into
one grand confederation Of united
sovereign states.
Need I ask, who granted Magma
Charta. that grand charter of the peo-
ple's liberties? Who gave us our COM
mon law? The Catholic Church. Who
gave us our elective system and the
great bulwark of our liberties, the trial
by juryl Who conferred upon the
people the right Of self taxation. and
fixed, if he did not create, their repre-
sentative system, Catholic Alfred.
Catholic Edward, i and Ill, imbued
with the spirit Of the Church. 1T is
false, foully. UNANIMOUSLY false SAYS