The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-23
SaTOLLI,S DECISION.

I
 | The temperance movement in the
 Roman Catholic Church in this country
 has for long time been exceedingly
 useful. It has helped to make many
 thousands of good church members
 and good citizens.a and 1t is now proceed
 ing with more vigor and promise than
 ever. It's latest development the deci-
 sion of Monsignor Satolli. is very i'm
 portant and significant, even if 1t does
 not have all the meaning that some
 ascribe to 1t. The decision is in line with some other things that have been done. A determined effort was made
 in 1885 by Cardinal Gibbons and others
 to have the Third Plenary council at | Baltimore make an emphatic decree on the subject of the liquor traffic. A strong opposition developed and the
 result was that the council put itself on record, declaring the traffic unbecom- | ing and calling upon pastors who had in their churches persons engaged in the sale of liquors to induce them to abandon the trade and embrace a more becoming way of making a living. At the congress of the Catholic laity in Chicago last year the subject was taken up, and Catholics everywhere urged to leave the business. And now comes Satollis decision indorsing the action of Bishop Watterson in regard to liquor sellers in Catholic societies.
 How far Bishop Watterson's action will be initiated remains to be seen.. He has made a bold move, and has taken the perfectly defensible stand that the rum power must give way be- fore the power of the Church. Of course he is right, and of course Satolli is right when he declares that the bishops have the right and duty to guard faith and morals within the lim- it's of their dioceses, that temporal loss must give way to spiritual good, that the liquor traffic as conducted in the United State is the source of much evil and hence bishops are right in seeking to restrict it. It will be decided | ly interesting to notice what the bishops do. For instance, in New York, | where a great many of the liquor deal
 CTS and saloon keepers are Catholics.
 If Bishop Watterson's example Is fol-
 lowed there there will be a big stir. l Some pi the liquor dealers in New York are l,'pprted as saying that the Church | is too dependent on them to interfere l with their business. If this is true the sooner the Church becomes independent the better for the Church. Father Lavelle,a member of Archbishop Cor rigan's council, thinks that no hard and | fast rules can be laid down in New
 York. T want it understood" he says,
 that the Catholic church, during the past twenty years or so, has made
 every effort to stamp out the liquor traf-
 fc in this city. This decision of the arch
 bishop will have big moral effect at
 least. I know for fact that Catholics
 have been gradually getting out of the
 business because they thought that a
 stigma was attached to it."
 Perhaps no such action as that of
 Bishop Watterson will be taken in
 New York. New Haven. and some
 other places where it is needed. But if
 there is not the fact will remain that
 Bishop Watterson and Monsignor Satol-
 Ii have bravely attacked a great and
 growing evil. And while it may not seem
 wise to some other bishops to do as
 Bishop Watterson has done it does seem
 as if the bishop and the delegate had
 planted themselves on solid ground.