The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-01-11

BILE. Yet that reverend gentleman fur
nished his critics with materials fo1
thought at every turn and 1t is difficult tc
say what a consensus of their opinions
might be-, they are SO diversified, lncon-
sequential, irrational and illogical. One
newspaper admitted that in order to cope
with Father Cleary it would be necessary
to, employ an expert and although the
statement was made with flavor Of sal-
casm still 1t embodied the truth.
1t would seem that any one who had
ever read a book purporting to be treat"
Use on theology, written by whom it mat
tered not, that person was certain to pin
his faith to the auhor's utterances and Ot
course completely analihdlate Father
Cleary. And then statistics of crime in
nearly all ages were gathered together
for the purpose of showing that people OF
a religious mind commit more crimes
than those who are devoid of religion.
Pagan writer's were held up as the su
perIprs OF Christian authors, thinkers and
orators and the most prominent OF those
who had either denied or doubted the ex-
istence of God and scoffed at religion
among these being Voltaire and Paine
were praised as lofty ideals, for man to
initiate.
One of the peculiar features Of the dis
cussion was the number OF people with
argumentative minds It enlisted. Every
one who thought he had an idea wanted
to see it in print for the glory of HIM
self, the enlightenment Of the people and
the defeat of Father Clearys position.
Longing for the virtue of pagan days
seemed to be the unanimous feeling.
That Christianity ever dawmed upon the
earth seemed to be regretted and the ar
gllment was that as the followers of the
meek and lowly had not wholly eradi-
Gated crime that the mission of Christ was
a failure. That sin and Christianity could
remain in the world together was some
thing incompre Father Cleary
had said that Harry Hayward's case was
the logical fruit of irrelgion. That was
enough. He must be argued down at
whatever cost to reason and experience.
If Talnage had said this it would have
been treasured as gem and even if any
Of our local lights had conceived the idea
he would have considered himself entitled
to call-divine, of course, with an addi-
tional stipend attached.
There is nothing here said for the pur-
pose OF defending Father Cleary. He is
amply able to do that himself. Atten-
ton is only drawn to it to Illustrate that
if a Catholic priest takes a radical ground
in his teachings, and as proof of his as
sertions points to dreadful examples in
cnfrmation, he is almost certain to be
attacked by those who have an Unborn,
unreasoning hatred of the Catholic
Church. If a Catholic preacher would
glide along in the meaningless platitudes
couched in fowery rhetoric, or discuss
the tendencies of the newest novel, as
was done in the case of Robert Else
mere,'' or become liberal in painting the
sensational, or lash himself into holy rap
ture in wild emdeavor to prove that God
is too merciful to provide hell for
those who deserve tiff he would follow
any or all of these courses and pursue the
even tenor of his way so that no one may
be offended, no ones ease disturbed, and
all made certain that they were predes-
tined to be numbered with the elect, then
the preaching of the man would remain
ed. But those are not the ways of Faith
er Cleary, hence the present adverse the
illogical cyclone. ..,