The San Francisco call., 1895-12-23
Animated Addresses Made by
Rev. F. K. Baker and
NJ. 7. Brewer.
REFERENCES TO FATHER Y0RKE
a Listener at the Good.CitizenShiI
Meeting Rises to Question a
Speaker.

grow In the Good C1U1ZenShlp meetings al
the Metropolitan Temple. The hall was
filed yesterday afternoon with listeners
on the qui vive for some developments in
the controversy that is now in progress
between Father Yorke and Rev. Donald
NJ. Ross.
Addresses were made more or less con-
cernlng this issue by DR.. w. w. Case,
NJ. T. Brewer and Rev. F. K. Baker.
Chairman Quito said in making the
intro ductory remarks:
Let us not be Disconnected by the vain clat
ter we hear on the outside, but let US con-
tinue as we have done, bringing patriotism TO
the front and raising uD our voices mantully
in the utterance OF true American principles.
DR.. Case was late and when he entered
the room and stepped on the platform the
audience greeted him vociferously.
Il have heard that person has said,
said he preliminary TO his address, that
be wouldn't train with such a crowd as
congregates in Metropolitan Temple every
Sunday afternoon, but l have made a
study of faces for thirty-hve years and l
think that most OF you can write your
own name and read your own ballot. l
venture to say that when you landed in
Castle Garden you did not say 4 am agin'
the Government!
The doctor then entered into the subject
matter of his address on Political Roman
ISM" which follows in full:
How things change The Catholics have turned
Protestant and are protesting most loudly
against any insinustion that they are disloyal.
Why so many meetings held in this hall and
elsewhere to declaim about their loyalty to
this Government? In their addresses they
make a great show OF love for this land. Has any
one ever said that the Catholics did not love
this country? l never knew any one TO claim
that the Romanists were not dead in love with
America.
Srb +ori
fight to the very death. They love it so much
that they want to take care of it for US in their
own peculiar way. Like the man who loved
his new wife so much he first six months that
he wanted TO eat her up, and after that he was
always sorry that he had not done it. So the
Catholics love this country so much that they
want TO devour it, and they never will be salts
fed until they swallow it up They love it so
well that they want it preserved in Romanism.
You would think, TO hear them talk for the
public ear that they were the most meek and
hum bic and the most abused cherubS that
ever livedi
They always use the cuttlefsh method in
controversy. That fish has an ink-bag from
which, when he is pursued, 1t throws out
dark fluid that clouds the waters, enabling it
to escape observation. So the Romanlst in
controversy always covers up the main oues-
ton with side issues. With a cloud OF words
he befogs the matter so that many unthinking
people entirely lose sight OF the issue involved.
We have no grudge against the Catholics;
no ill-WiQ toward them as immortal souls. We
will go as far to do them q favor and show
them kindness as we will for any one else.
We are dealing with Romanlsm as a system
an institution. That there is great deal of
good in Catholicism cannot be denied. So
there is much that is good in Mohammedan-
ism and in Buddhism; but as system Roman
ism is execrable IN the extreme. AS an 1nsti.
tuition it is a monstrosity, growing out OF per-
Verted human nature.
All denominations are more or less in
huenced by human considerations, but none
SO much as the Papacy, which bears the mark
OF pagan statecraft and earthborn diplomacy.
The whole tide OF human history would have
been changed had not Constantine proclaimed
the union of church and state. Wars might
have been averted-Europe had peace and
Asia and Africa the Bible, but for that unholy
alliance.
Romanism exists not because it is holy but
because it is partly divine and partly devilish.
The claim to temporal power on the part of the
church OF Rome is pure fiction, and has no
authority from the Bible or from God. The
only thing on which this claim is based is the
antiquity of Rome, but Jerusalem, Antioch and
Alexandria and many other cities can claim
supremacy on the score of age.
Romanism main tains the delusion of divine
right'to temporal power by any means which
the exigency OF the time may demand to keep
the people in subsection and perpetuate the
power of those ID authority in the church.
Popery will scTuple at nothing; it will tram
pie both God and man beneath its feet to reach
It's ends. 1t is mere willfulness, the one evil
thing in the world which has no mitigating
features. 1t has no justification in reason, no
authority from the Bible, no sufficient end for
its existence or action.
Where Romanism has the power she compels
submission We hear about liberty of con-
science in Spain, but missionary reports from
that country sweep away such delusion. Re-
Gently on one of the Romlsh feast days pro-
cession slowly wended its way through the
streets of Spanish town and before them was
carried a huge wooden construction draped
with blue silk around a lifeless image of the
Virgin Mary in recumbent position, borne
by several women wearing white wells and lit
tie girls dressed as angels walking alongside |
Naval officers of the port in fact all OF the
Government employees. were Obliged (many
against their will) to walk and kneel In the
procession on penalty of eight years in q con-
Yict prison.
1t seems incredible that such intolerance
should be manifested in this progressive and
enlightened age, but the fact of its existence in
Spain is vouched for by well known and reli- |
able authority. This is the kind of liberty in a
country where the papacy can still tyrannize, |
and this is the kind that Satolli represents and
that Ryan and Gibbons and Corrigan and John |
Ireland would be delighted to see in the
United States. Spain IS still low in the scale |
of the nations and all on account of the |
tyranny OF the Romish system. The papscy
would transform TINS Government and de- |
grade 1t 10 like low level If il could get con-
troll.
do not say that individual Catholics. with !
human and kind hearts like our own yron1d |
do this, but do say that an institution whose |
principle is that Romanism is an end to itself |
and is therefore above the Bible and above |
God, will do this, and logically must do this or |
give up its principle
The priests are in politics; they have been |
in our politics for many years. They are a |
dangerous element III politics, for they are |
monarchists and must be So so long as they
bow down first OF all before the scepter OF that |
seli-constituted monarch, the Pope of Rome
Fifty years ago Archbishop Hughes was |
head and ears in politics. He did ali in his |
power at that early stage of our history to |
destroy the public school system in tins coun-
try. He was fortunately defeated in his nefa-
rious schemes, but ROmanism has been |
powerful and wicked element in the politics |
OF New York City ever since.
During the eleven years preceding 1880 /
$l2,000OO0 was given by the government to |
the Roman Catholics. W
Fifty years ago Pope Gregory XVII. said. !