The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-30
WAGON WHEAT, 91C
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AMERICA FIRST OF ALL
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND URGES CATH
OLICS TO BE PATRIOTIC.
Foreigners May Worship in Their
Mother Tongue, but Must Cherish
America as the First Nation.

ST. PAUL, Sept. 29.-At the installation
of Bishop Trobec in the See of ST. Cloud
yesterday Archbishop ireland discussed in
his address the use of foreign languages
by the Catholics. Speaking preliminarily on
"The Bishops, Priests and People Here As
sembled in America" he said:
ITO America is fullest allegiance given.
There is the most generous love offered;
to her life and prosperity our lives are
ready to be sacrificed. From many coun-
tries of the world have we come--the nation
of all, the home of all, the country of all,
is America. This morning there are here
no Englishmen, no Irishmen; there are
here no Gemans there are here no French
men; we are all Americans by every fiber
of the heart and by every thought of the
mind
Concerning the use of foreign languages
the archbishop said: "Is it forbidden to use
the language which our fathers spoke in
other countries? Far be it from us. The
more languages we know the better, and
it were unnatural to believe that could
at once forget the music of other languages
and that our tongues should not lisp their
words All such things America. permits.
She is the land of liberty and Of common
sense But meanwhile America is our own
country; her honor and our life are to be
always preferred, and memories of other
lands are to swell up within our bosoms
only when no harm from them can come
to. America, and only on condition that
America is always supreme.
THE church certainly will be as free
dom-loving and as freedom-giving as
America herself, and no one in the Cath
olic Church will say, or has the right to
say, that children of the church or citi-
zens of America must not remember with
pleasure olden traditions. and must not
lisp with JOY whenever they SO choose the
accents and languages of other civiliza-
tions
"It has sometimes been said that there is
among Catholics in America a diversity of
opinion as to the use within the Catholic
Church of foreign languages. There is no
diversity OF opinion. American Catholics
sert that men are free to speak what Ian
Euage they will, to retain what memories
they will, providing that always American
institutions obtain their best loyalty.
Catholics in America may kneel before
their God and pray in the language that
guage which, spoken in the fullness Of their
soul, will with deeper meaning reach the
throne of Almighty God. They are free to
pray, TO receive the sacrament in the Ger
man, in the French, in the Slavonian-in
whatever language they willard no man
has the right to say to them, stop.
'The Holy Roman Church within recent
times, has promulgated in this regard the
law Of liberty by sending a message from
the Eternal City that Catholics in America
may speak and practice their religious du-
ties in the language they may choose. The
decree of Rome proclaims that immigrants
and their children at liberty, if they
so will, to join parishes where the English
language is spoken. BY implication the de-
cree allows 70 them the liberty to speak
and practice their religious duties in other
languages if they prefer these languages.
The law of the Catholic Church which
bishops and priests will follow is the law
of liberty.
THE cross above the altar tells who is
the divine founder of our religion; the papal
flag at my right tells who is the living
visible chieftain Of that religion the stars
and stripes before me tell that America is
our nation. We are all one-I proclaim it
before the altar-one in faith, one in ma
tionality"