Blue-grass blade., 1891-01-03

| IiaHiIy.
Catholics and Prohibition.
From the Quest.
beg now to repeat IL, the Catholi
church has never been and is not i
favor Of Prohibition. On that subject
az well as on other merely politica
issues, she keeps the silence OF tin
Egyptian Sphinx But IL Prohibitionist
have any desire to see their Catholic fe
low citizens, swell their ranks, in orde
to coax them to do so, they will have :,
choose means a little different from
those which they have so far resorted to
"In this land Of liberty we shall not b,
whipped n."-Card OF Rev. A. Boulton
in Marshall and 'Netzel News.
The above was written in 6
long letter in reply to some re.
marks supposed to have beer
made in a recent speech of Rev
F. Lynch, at Cameron We will
merely say for the latter gentle
man that he was misquoted and
did not make the remarks that
some one has told Rev. Boulton
he did.
As regards the Catholic church.
however, this much can be said
it is stronger in temperance
sentiment to-day than ever be
fore, and its total abstinence
societies are stronger than at any
previous time in the history oil
the church, while the Pope him
self has pronounced a benedict
ion upon them. Further, some
of our noblest and strongest advo-
Gates of Prohibition and even OF
the Prohibition party, are to be
found in the Catholic church.
Among them is that grand man,
Father Mahony, of Minnesota,
who has given hundreds of dol
lars to the Prohibition party and
who confined himself to the
barest necessities of life to save
money for this great work. In
1888 he wrote the following.
cat every turn l am coming
on priests--.he very foremost
among US. the men who will be
bishops by-and-by-who declare
themselves converted to Prohi-
bition and going to vote the Pro-
hibition party ticket; for instance,
the President of Archbishop Ire
lands Theological Seminary and
College, the Professor of Theo-
logy there, and pastors of some
of the principal parishes OF the
archdiocese. They recognize that
the Prohibition party is just the
thing, the only thing to bring to
a full stop the drink evil-and
they recognize this as the worst
foe of the Catholic church. The
church only wants to save souls,
and in doing this it has already
to meet unavoidably, plenty of
in the natural and
ineradicable passions, the temp
tations common to man. So the
good priests, those who want
above all things to cooperate
with God and the Church to bene-
fit mems souls-are delighted to
think of this worst bar to the
work of the Holy Ghost as
Cardinal Manning calls the drink
traffic, ettectually put out of the
way.
And it is not only Irish Ameri-
can and American priests that
feel 80, but the piOus German
priests and laymen, also, are conf
ing over to US, and will be, by
'92 a great force.
Only let the claims of Prohi-
bition be put before the Irish
Americans and the other Catho-
lies in a way worthy of it and OF
them, and all their tender feelings
for the old land, and their enthu-
siasm for the glory of America.
all their unequalled combining OF
the largest tolerance and even
tenderness for the beliefs OF Others
with the strictest devotedness to
their own, all their chivalrousness,
purity and loyalty to God and to
all power that is from God, truly,
will make them be not only
voters for Prohibition. but its
most earnest and effective guard
ians."
Archbishop Ireland, too, who
is to-day recognized as one OF the
greatest, if not the greatest orator
of the Catholic church in
America, spoke the following
burning words which have rarely
been surpassed in eloquence;
foremost among social ques-
tons demanding our attention |
place temperance; for l am not
afraid to say there are few other
questions relating to social well
fare as important as this, or
which are more intimately allied
with it, and need not for their
own solution seek from it counte-
nance and aid.
Alcohol damns to hcrrid misery
innumerable victims. 1t tiatters
4 A