Evening star., 1896-10-09

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scribed, gifts for the poor. Jealous eyes
look upon all these ARRANGEMENTS as SO
much machinery for indirectly building UP
the Catholic Church. Exception is taken
that the spiritual instruction and consola-
ton given in hospitals and asylums are Of
the Catholic type. But Catholicism Is
Christianity, and Christianity is the law of
the land. And how can we, who every Sun
day sing Bishop Newman's
LEAD kindly Light amid the encircling
gloom"
or Father Faber's
'Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are
swelling
and who when we recite the Apostles
Greed, embrace all believers in the phrase.
I believe in the holy Catholic Church..
withhold our approval and sympathy from
such labors of love? 1t is not recorded that
infidelity ever established asyiums or hos
pitals. And If government he driven from
assisting eleemosynary institutions because
the daily devotions, or the consultations TO
the sick and dying are Christian, of what
ever type, in order to be consistent, 1t must
forego Christian services in it's own halls OF
legisa atioE, in the army and navy; 1t must
bury it's dead heroes without word of
prayer. l believe 1t should extend the aegis
80 t., ,rtr$ av,if n
| whatever the type, as England does. treat
| ing Christianity as a part Of the common
| law of the land
keane, the American Catholic.
Bishop Keane was a Catholic, and yet
| loved him none the less for that. 1
| think 1t was SO with all non-Catholics. In
himself and in his way Of dong his work
he seemed to constitute truce Of God
where all such differences might be waived
or forgotten. 1 think Bishop keane gave
me my first conception of an American
| Catholic. l had heard Of the Roman Catho-
| lie all my lifetime; of the man with for
J eign and medieval ideas Of personal and
| national freedom, such that he could only
| look at American institutions askance or
| as something to be grasped and appro-
| priated. But here was a man with the
| genuine American spirit; who could talk
| of our own Washington and could rev.
| erently quote 'our own Washington" VINO
l ,
| also to have and hold q transient all that
| is noble and precious in our heritage. He
| was not a man to be Jealous Of; he was a
| man to conide in and to love. You saw
| that he would keep that which was COM
| mitted to him.
And it was his philanthropic spirit
that made Bishop Keane prize our free
| institutions. Here was a country that
| loved the people, that educated the poor.
| How bravely have l heard him defend our
| common school! He was thus pleading the
cause of the poor; pleading that every poor
| boy and poor girl might have a chance to
| rise. This was his irresistible logic: Free
| institutions are ours; they to dominate
the world; they are impossible without
| free speech, without free schools. We must
have free speech and free schools With
such a man a nonCatholic could not diff
fer as to the particular method in VIII ch
| religious instruction should be impair -eG
to the children: provided it were done ir
such a way as to satisfy the parents
Fight free schools? Not he. He stood fol
them. He knew that even the great in
stitution whose growth he had seen mus
often reach down its roots into the soil ct
the free school; and that within the hall.
where he presided, and amid the teachers
and libraries and adornments which hi:
administrative genius had gathered to
| gether, the work of the free school mus
| culmnate, and that thus must be educ tee
/ ture.
} keane's Americanism.
"It is the Americanism of this maj
which we all love- 1t had been his to Sc,
planted. within sight of the dome of hi
nations capital, an institution which n
knew might be the glory of American
Catholicism. He knew the genius of Amer
lean institutions. He had taken his lif
as citizen up from its very soil. Ever!
pulse of his heart was American; ever,
| thought and aspiration. If he might nov
by this university give to the system o
| Christian faith in which was educa ted an
which he believed from God, an America
| type, an American unfolding, so that
should no longer seem to any one allie
here, then was he ready to say, Now let
test Thou Thy servant depart in peace; TO
mine eyes have seen Thy salvation
II may misinterpret the thought of thi
noble man. But this is my Interpretation
He felt that Catholicism and Americanisr
must be brought into harmonious citations
, and that it should be the mission of tn
| university to do it,
1.-The character and work Of such ma
| as Bishop Keane shows us that in lines
, | moral and civic reform, where civilizati
} has to be reached in human conduct whel
men have to be saved from themselve
3 | there is no opportunity or occasion fl
entering into denominational differences.
The American Catholic Church.
IT have great faith in the American Catl
e olic Church. said Dr. Rankin in concl,
sion. II believe 1t is coming. America
the new world. And all things America
e take on the new world type; why n,
e Christ's kingdom? 1t was in 1916 that Lol
Baltimore and his associates passed laws
favor of liberty Of conscience. And In tn,
they ante-dated the great William Pen
In 1895 it was my privilege one Sunday
:, attend early morning worship in Cathol
Church in Pdttsfield, Mass. / heard the
an argument on the Importance of Il
. . weekly religious newspaper. which to n
i was delightful. 1t was a discussion, whic
held up the Independent as the kind of o
t per the Catholics needed; paper where 9
the great questions Of the day could be di
. cussed by mastery minds; where educat
= thought should be brought into direct co
. ts ct with the young men and women of II
:, Catholic community, and a medium throu,
= which the Catholic world could keep
:. touch with the great movements of Il
:. worlds history. So, 1 say, that the Anne
. lean Catholic Church is coming. And
= pray that it may come with larger al
- larger supply of such men as Bsh,
~ | Keane."
" Gen. A. w. Greedy briefly spoke of Bis
> op Keane's value as scientific thinker
~ the liberal extension of scientific studis
~ ard a very complimentary letter. full
ID deep sentiment and teeming with wal
~ rafarancaS tn the MANY qualities of RiSh