St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-25
SERMON BY CLEARY.
An Eloquent Talk on n Very Time
Iy Tonic.


Iy Topic.
Catholicism and the Republic"
was Father Cleary's topic last even
ing. He stated that this subject had
query found in the Question Box"
asking if the Catholic religion can
and will exist under our free govern
ment, and whether it needs foreign
blood to keep it alive. The principal
points of his discourse are here
given:
"Our best criterion of the pros
country is the record it has made in
the past The church Of all the
Christian ages is no experiment in
the world The faith that over
turned the affairs of paganism and
planted the standard of the cross
upon the ruins of idolatry does not
need to plead at the sunset of the
nineteenth century for the infusion
of any special kind of national life
to give it strength and youthful
Vigor. The church, beneath whose
sheltering wings the republics of the
middle ages were nouriShed, is no
novice in the life of the greatest and
most glorious of free republics.
1.-THE republics of Venice, of Genoa,
of Verona and of San Marine were
mere puny efforts on the part of a
Catholic people to establish the
grand principles of human rights
which the great republic of this
Western hemisphere has succeeded
in making the enduring foundation
of the grandeSt human government
the world has ever known. The i'm
mortal principles set forth in the
declaration of independence are but
the expression of the Catholic ideas
of human equality and of human
rights. The magma charta of hu-
man rights wrung from King John
by the barons of England, led by
the Catholic Archbishop of Canter-
bury, in 1915, on the plains of Runny-
mede, which is the corner stone of
our liberties, is but the voice of the
Catholic church proclaiming the in
allenable rights of the children of
COD. The Catholic church flourishes
pest where man enjoys the greatest
possible liberty. Its progress is re-
tarded wherever injustice casts her
dark shadow on mans social condi-
ton. In the bright sunlight of hu-
man freedom, the church of the liv
ing God, the devoted friend of lib
erty and justice, blossoms like the
rose.
The church has been the victim of
every form of injustice and wrong pos
slDle Tor demons to devise since her
DIVINE FOUNDER was nailed to the cross
she mas survived cruel despotisms. and
crlmsoned the arena with the innocent
blood OF her most devoted children TO
sratlfy the lnhuman savagery of her
flendish prosecutors. She subdued the
ignorance of the barbarians. and she
vanquished the sophistries of Pagan
philosophy. She was in the catacombs
of Rome, at Mars hill in Athens. and
gave inspiration to the great schools
OF the middle ages. She confronted
her hayward and disobedient children
IN the great religious rebellion Of the
sixteenth century, stayed the progress
Oh their wild revolution, and while 81
lenclng their vile calumnies she gained
by her conquests in the new world, far
more than she had lost in the old. With
her blessing upon his hazardous enter
prise, Columbus set sail for this then
unknown continent. The first Christ
ian worship offered to God upon Amer
lean soil was the sacrifice of the mass
The wealthiest signer of the Declara-
ton of Independence was a loyal Cath
oils, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
The true and trusted friend of Wash
fngton was Rev. John Carroll, the first
Catholic bishop of the United States
The Catholics of the struggling colo
MES in the dark days of the Reyolu-
tionary w2r were true to a man to the
sacred cause of human freedom. There
were no Benedict Arnolds found among
the G ltholic patriots, who freely gave
their lives that human liberty might
fin1 home ON tho generous soil of
America. One of the preteXts offered
by Benedict Arnold for basely betray-
ing his country was that too many
'Romanists" were the friends of the
Father of His Country
During the first half-century of our
country's life, the growth of the Cath
Ollie church was steady and constant,
and more than kept pace with the
country's progress. Giants ruled the
church of God in those days. The
horrors of the French Revolution had
sent to our shores, as fugitives from
the wild fury of irreligion, some of
the noblest sons of France Their
sanctity and learning contributed
largely in Strengthening the founda-
lions of the church in this country.
From 1920 to 1912 the brilliant genius of
John England, first bishop of Charles
ton, illumined the waste places of the
Carolinas, and compelled the church
to be respected and honored by the
intelligence of the South In 1926
Bishop England delivered a remark
able address, at the invitation of con-
gress, on the floor of the house of
representatives at Washington, in
which he clearly defined the loyal
friendship of the Catholic church for
free institutions. The great Arch
| bishop Hughes, orator, statesman, phil
anthropiSt and patriOt who bravaly