The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-24
CATHOLIC WOMEN.
The Long Expected Article
From the Pen of Card
inal Gibbons.
GLEANINGs FROM THE CHURCHES
Rev. Father Tighe to Lecture at
st. Michael's--St. Paul's Pastor
Improving.
GLEANINGs FROM THE CHURCHES

The long expected article on woman S
Influence" from the gifted pen of his
Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, has at last
been tgiven out for publication. In his
article Cardinal Gibbons in part says
1--WE judge the moral tanda of a ma
ton by the madels held up to it. The model
held up to Christian women is not the
Amazon glorying in martial deeds and
prowess. 1t is not the Spartan woman
who made female perfection consist in
the development of physical strength at
the expense of feminine decorum and
modesty. 1t not the goddess of impure
love like Venus. whose votarles regarded
beautysaf form and personal charms as
the highest type of female excellence.
The model held up to her is not the god
dess of imperial will like Juno. MOI! the
model presented for the imitation of
Christian woman is Mary, the Mother of
our Blessed Redeemer. She is the great
pattern of virtue alike to maiden, wife
and mother. She exhibits the virginia.
modesty becoming the maid. the con-
jugal love and fidelity of the wife and
the u~ntiring care and devotion Of the
mother.
WHAT SHE OWES TO THE CHURCH.
Every impartial student OF history is
forced to admit that woman is indebted
to the Catholic religion for the elevated
station she enjoys today in the social ana
family life. We all know IN what COB oh5
tempt and degradation woman was held
in Pagan times. She was in a state OF
perpetual bondage and perpetual tuteiage:
She was treated rather as the slave OF
man and the instrument of his passions
than as his equal and champion, and she
is still so regarded in all countries where
Christianity does not prevail.
1T is chiefly by vindicating the sanctity
of marriage that the Church has elevated
the female sex. The holiness of marriage
is the palladium of women's dignity;
while polygamy and divorce involve her
in bondage and degradation. The Church
has ever maintained the unity and in
di~ssolubility of the marriage tie she
has always declared that no man can
alone can sever the ties. What God has
Joined together let no man put asunder.
She has proclaimed this law TO prince
and peasant. She has upheld it against
the opposition of kings and the violence
OF human passions. Mothers and wives!
how sad and pitiable would your condi-
ton be today if your destiny were in
the hands Of the reformers Of the six
teenth century.
SUNSHINE TO THE HOME.
How many thousands of homes are
there throughout the land from which
God withholds His avenging hand and to
which He shows mercy on account OF
some righteous mother, just as He showed
mercy to the young man led out out TO
the tomb on account of the grief and
sebbing of mis- mother. the widow of
Main. How nan brothers there are who
have long been buried in the grave of
sin, and have been raised to a life of
grace At the intercession of q pious sister,
as Lazarus was raised to life at the
prayers and en%treaties of Mary and
hiartha. How many households are there
in which the lamp of religion would
have been e-xtinguished if it had not
been kept alive by some pious daughter
of the family. How nan women are
in the family circle angels of expiation,
who, by their prayers and modification,
are atoning for the sins of fathers, hus-
Esnds, sons and brothers. May the
Christian women of today go and do
TkevYise.' God has given them a sacred
mission to execute.
ut is true that women have not been
the authors of immortal poems like the
Iliad of Homer or The Aeneid of Virgil
They Fave not produced works equal to
those Of Shakespeare. Dante or Milton.
They have NOT invented the magnetic
needle, or the telescope, or the telegraph,
or the steam engine, or the sewing ma
chine. But it is at their knee that the
youth OF both sexes are instructed in
virtue and plety, and these are the grand
ozf E1-arI-S in tho vyOrl6