The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-11
A ROMAN CATHOLIC ON PURGA
TORY.

SEVERAL weeks sincetbere occurred in
the Church of the Redeemer, Minneap
oils, an event which deserves more than
passing notice. Rev. Father Cleary,
pastor of the st. Charles Roman Catho-
lie church of Minneapolis and President
of the Roman Catholic Total Abstinence
Society of America. spoke before the
Young Peoples Association of this Uni
versalist church on the subject of ''Pur-
gatory." The night of the lecture was
attended with the most trying weather
seen during this very extraordinary
Minnesota winter; the mercury regis
tered 20 degrees below zero. and the
wind blew gale; but the fact that a
Catholic priest was to speak in Uni
versalist church, on a subject of such
peculiar interest to an ill informed but
questioning public, and las DR.. Shutter
announced) with the same freedom as
he would have in his own church, suf-
feed to attract an audience numbering
800 people, that crowded the spacious
vestry and compelled scores, including
the writer, to stand throughout the en-
tire discourse.
A word about the speaker. Father
Cleary is man of commanding presence.
over six feet in height. with a heavily
built but we'll knit frame and head and
countenance that would be striking any
where. To these outward attractions he
adds pleasing voice, graceful delivery
and effective speech. In spirit he rep
resents the same tendencies as his own
loved Archbishop Ireland and his popu-
larity is second only to that of this Justly
esteemed prelate.
Father Cleary's Americanism is pro-
nounced and aggressive. In all gather
inge that have for their end the improve
ment of our civic life, his is conspicu-
GUS figure, and both in work like this of
common interest and in his social rela
tions he has acquired the grace of fellow
shipping his Protestant brethren while
at the same time continuing good Cath
olic. A single trite incident will furnish
a good sample of the mans independence.
During holy week and other special
church seasons it is generally customary
for Catholic priests or parents to arrange
with the school authorities to allow their
children to be absent from many SEES
sions in order to attend the extra SER
vices; but Father Cleary. we are told,
departing from the traditional custom.
during the present holy week. that they
should go to school, as he much preferred
to have them there to hanging about the
church-with which opinion of Roman
Catholic priest. even our A. P. A. friends
will have to agree.
So much for the man; now as to the
lecture. In his Introductory remarks
Father Cleary made a statement that,
coming from the representative of a
church popularity supposed to be inter
ested in keeping the people ignorant and
subject, was equally surprising and re-
freshing. We must bear in mind, he
said, that heaven and hell were not
places capable of being localized as up
above or down below; they were rather
terms to designate the state or condition
into which the good on the one hand.
and the evil on the other lived. Purga-
fo.x l;lyar;sa moe fba a4ata ~ fba nan;
tent dead, in which there would be op-
portunity, as the etymology of the word
signified, for them to be purged of their
sins and ultimately be ushered into the
bliss of heaven.
The teaching of the Church on the
subject might be stated to be that,-(1)
There was purgatory and 81 That the
prayers of the relatives and friends of
the dead in purgatory availed much to
better the condition of these loved dead
The doctrine of a purgatorial state,
therefore, far from being the lugubrious
idea that it was popularity thought to be,
Father Cleary maintained, was the most
comforting in the whole Roman system.
1t led the people to hope the best for
their loved ones and to pray unselfshly
in their behalf. 1t was solacing to the
bereaved heart to believe that though
their departed loved ones we're not able
to receive supreme happiness immedi-
ately. they could yet help them to be
fitted for it.
In supporting this doctrine Father
Cleary appealed to a limited extent to
the teaching of the church and the
work of sacred Scripture, but rested his
argument largely on reason or common
sense" The Catholic Church made a
distinction between grievous sin and
venial sin. 1t stood to reason that God
would treat the sinner who died truly
repentant far differently from what he