The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-30
FATHER FERGUSON TALKS,
The Pastor of ST. PatriCk'S
Church Makes Reply to
A, P. A. Charges.
Says the Stability Of the Republic
Is MenaCed by Religious
Intolerance.

Rev. Father James P. Ferguson delivered
a sermon at st. Patrick's Church yester-
day morning in which he responded to
some accusations recently made against
the Catholic church by speakers at Metro
politan Temple.
1.-The evils which menace the stability
of the Republic from intolerance" said
Father Ferguson, ARE becoming more and
more apparent. Conservative men of all
shades of belief are awakening to the
danger. National prosperity is threatened
when intolerance is introduced. The mar
Vicious advance which America has made
along all the lines OF progress in the short
space of hundred years is avowedly due
to the absence of religious dlscord.
president Eliot Of Harvard in late
issue of the Forum asserts that while the
benefcent principle of liberation continues
in force we may look for the Republic to
attain permanency never before attained.
The A. P. A. would put the dial of time
back two hundred years. 1t would set
citizen against citizen and renew once
more the religious wars and prosecutions
from which the race has been happily de-
liyered.
Bryce, in his great work, the American
Commonwealth says that Catholics and
Protestants in America have agreed better
than the Episcopalians and non-con-
formists in England. The A. ?. A. would
change all this. These conspirators
against the public peace have contrived to
eDkindle hate, passion and discord in COM
munities where, formerly, only good will,
mutual respect and friendly intercourse
prevailed. Already they have almost de-
populated whole towns by the antago-
nisms they arouse, real estate has depre-
ciated and embarrassing religious distinc-
tons have been created"
Continuing in this review of what he
considers an unhappy state of affairs the
speaker said:
The harmony which should exist between
citizens is jeopardized. This is not patriotism,
for it violates the first principles of patriotism.
1t is neither manly nor American. The relig-
ious bigot has no place under the flag of free
dom. Like the anarchist, he plots to ruin men
who have earned their right to citizenship on
every field of battle and in every avenue of
human endeavor. What is their object? To
raise race and religious feuds that the mon
of this society are nearly all from Canada and
the north of Ireland There monopoly enjoys
full swing. Religious dissensions, kept alive
by bigots, render concerted action for redress
of grievances impossible A short time ago, in
their own land, these men were the most fran
tic adherents of British and Canadian Tory
ism. They were shouting themselves hoarse
in favor of seal smuggling and cursing the
Paris Court of Arbitration for its decision in
favor of the United States. Now, on this side
of the line, they are bowling, America for
Amer1caQSl'' rev Oh IQ6m value American
citizenship enough to cast off their foreign
allegiance.
Father Ferguson intimated his belief that
the ma iority of those on the other side are
descendants of United Empire Loyalists,
who something over century ago found
the air of Boston harbor too hot for them.
He said:
These men, whose only argument is unquali-
fed abuse and monstrous lies, owe it to Catho-
lies that they have a country. AZ always voted
against you, general" said q person on being
introduced to old General jackson when he
was ex-President.
The only reply the old hero of New Orleans
made to this person, who thought his brutal
bluffness was commendable candor, was "And
/, sir, fought the battles of my country that
you might enjoy that privilege"
We Catholics might say we discovered this
country; settled the greater part of it; strove
IN common with our fellow-citizens to build
up and develop its resources; first proclaimed
religious liberty to the prosecuted of all sects
shed our blood in revolutionary days to up
hold aud defend its liberties against foreign
domination. We did this that horde of howl
ing Dervishes might have the privilege of L url-
ing, in their own peculiar billingsgate, dia-
tribes and false accusations against an old his
toric church which, in the words OF Macaulay,
saw the commencement OF all the Govern
ments and all the ecclesiastical establishments
that now exist in the world" and which, he
felt every assurance, was destined to see the
end of them all.