The Irish standard., 1894-02-03
CITIZENS.
The Independent Says Catholics
Have Proved Their Loyalty
in Peace and War. II
A CHAMPION OF CATHOLlCiTY.

IA CHAMPION OF CATHOLICiTY. Y.
The Great Protestant Journal Con-
demns the A. r. A. Out Of
It's Own Mouth.
The New York Independent is recog-
nized as one of the leading Protestant
papers of the country. It is edited by
honest, large minded, conscientious and
God-fearing mon, who desire to give the
truth as they see 1t, and do unto others
as they would wish others to do unto
them. In g recent issue this great Pro-
testant journal, in spirit Of fair play,
printed q communication from Charles
T. Beatty, the supreme secretary Of the
A. P A., making an official statement OF
the character and purposes of the organi-
zation he represents Mr.. Beatty makes
no attempt to conceal his hostility to the
Catholic Church. To justify this, hove
ever, he has recourse to 1nisrepresenta.
ton of all things Catholic that would be
ludicrous, were it not also mischievous.
The Independent comments on the A.
p, A. in the following plain language:
The American Protective Association
is the leading one of several secret So
cietles In this country to which only na-
tive Americans and Protestants are ad-
mitted, and whose chief purposes are to
prevent the immigration of "Papists,' =
and to exclude all adherents of the "Ro-
m1sh" Church from public office. Its
members believe that the Roman Catho~
lie Church is an enemy to our institu-
tions, bent On destroying our public
school system: and that it is the design
of the Pope to gain the temporal as we'll
as the spiritual control over the affairs of
this country. II is 81 revival Of the
Knownothing movement OF forty years
ago.
Last week Wa gave our readers the
views of the leading ecclesiastical author:
ties Of The Roman Catholic Church on
the American school system. This week
we are glad to give, from the supreme
secretary of the A. P. A., an equally
official statement OF the purposes of that
society. We advise that this article be
read carefully, and that our readers then
refer to our last weeks issue and COM
pare the statements made by Supreme
Secretary Beatty with tho statements of
the Archbiehops and the Bishops of the
Catholic Church.
Mr.. Beatty begins by statement Of
the purposes Of the American Protective
Association. These purposes are all
right. We have not word to say against
any one of them, nor will any one else
who has any patriotic instincts. The
principles enunciated ought to be primary
postulates of free government. We only
criticise the Interpretation of one of those
principles, which reads:
'To oppose the election to Offices Of re.
sponsibility of men who owe supreme al.
legisnce to any foreign king, prince, po.
tentate or ecclesiastical power, or who
are sworn to obey them"
That is right of course. It is part oi
the oath of allegiance which every alien
takes when he is naturalized. But the
A. P. A. makes the assumption that nc
Roman Catholic honestly takes the oath
of allegiance, and that no Roman Catho.
lie can take the oath and be a loyal citi.
zen. Therefore it is the purpose of the
order, and this IS it's central purpose, to
exclude all Roman Catholics from ali
public offices on the ground that they
are disloyal and reasonable citizens
For such an extraordinary charge we re.
qnire evidence.
Mr.. Beatty quotes number of Catho.
lie papers, selecting the paragraphs fol
his purpose, and then interprets them in
a way which conveys false impression
sometimes Of their meaning and utterly
OF the spirit of the Catholic press in this
country. It is part Of. our business to
read all the leading Catholic papers Of
this country, and we have never yet seen
anything in them indicating aisloyalty
Roman Catholics have proved thera
selves, in war and peace, to be loyal
citizens; and we have no right to assume
that Protestants represent all the patri-
otlem there is in the country and to deny
BIT to 8, ,Oo0,OcO Catholics. s'
I The defense for such prescription ie
that the Pope claims temporal ,sover.
eighty over all the world, and that Ro
man Catholics desire him to have it
There is absolutely no evidence for this
sweeping statement. It is true that the
Pope and small proportion Of the Cath:
|olics Of Italy andsa certain portion Of the
Catholics Of this country believe that the
Pope ought to have certain territory
perhaps ten miles square, over which he