The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-09-17
AIDING SOULS BY GAMBLING.

from Mexico to Il church organ in st.
Louis saying that on the door of Cath
Ole church in that bcnishled country he
saw placard announcing a rattle for the
relief CT the souls i'll pursatory. The
disciple of Wesley said that he copied
the notice on the door and that it gave
the names Of persons whose souls had
been released from pursatory and usl-
cred into heavenly joys" through the
success of the lottery by their friends
on earlh.
The letter Of Rev. Barton-for that is
his name-was extensively copied by the
Protestant press of this country, aad a
Catholic priest of Pine Bluff, Ark. sent
a paper containing it to the bishop of
Pueba and asked him what truth there
was in the story. The bishop promptly
replied that the Methodist minister had
not the least foundation to warrant the
statement he had made and that, as q
rule. all statements made by American
missionaries of the Protestant denomin-
l
made out of the whole clol,l.
The bishops denial, however, does
not stop the circulation OF the false
hood in the Protestant church organs,
and, OF course The readers of these or
gans are never tod that the story has
been contradic-ed by the resident bishop
of the Mexican tow, in which the ria.
| card is said to have been placed on the
church door.
An Episcopl;ian sheet, which calls
itself the Catholic Champion is quot
| Ell by an exchange as saying that Rev,
| II. Thurston, S. j.. admits in the "Ro
man catholic Times that lotteries to
benefit the holy souls: d. take place in
Mexico, and, | believe, in some other
| Spanish speaking countries The WIN
| ner of the first prize in such a rattle
mas usually at his disposal a tren,al of
masses, which he is free TO apply as suf-
frages for his deceased relatives and
friends"
FIR. Thurstcn," says the Catholic
champion, does not express an opinion
, on the practice. but his candid admis-
sion that such form of mass traffic ex-
lists sufficiently answers the writer's. edi
torial and otherwise, who vent their
anger on anyone who points out the
abuses. The Mexican lottery, horrible
as 1t is. is only the natural outcome of
a system which permits the widest ex-
travagances in religion provided they do
not interfere with Papal claims of s,l-
! premacy. 1t is to be hoped that Roman
lists living in the healthier atmosphere
OF English thought may have sufficient
influence with their foreign brethren to
put down the modern and unlovely
practice of spiritual gambling"
who FIR. Thurston. S. j., is we do not
know. but we are inclined to think he
is myth. for his name does not an
pear in the list of Catholic priests in
the United States or Canada. Neither
40 we know any paper called the "Ro-
man Catholic Times" and therefore we
are forced to the conclusion that the
reverend editor of the Catholic Cham
! pion is as big liar as the Methodist
preacher, Barton. who invented the
story.
The charge of spiritual gambling"
was brought against the Catholics of
Minneapolis some ten years ago when
they were conducting a fair for the benc-
III OF the orphan asylum for boys. A
newspaper editor, who had no more re-
'lslon than Choctaw, said he observed
on booth in the hall the strange device
HOLY Angels Lottery" and then he
wrote IN his paper long tlisquisition
on the evils of church gambling. A
Baptist minister took the EDITORS re-
marks for text and preached violent
TRADE against the Catholic church for
allowing gambling to he carried on in
the cause of charity The secretary of
the asylum association replied to the
structures OF the two worthless and ex-
planned to the public that the words on
the booth were Holy Angels Sodality."
and that the editor being near-sighted
II.
are sure that Barton. the Methodist mis-
sionary twhO probably cannot read
Spanish correctly. drew upon his i'm
aginaton like the Minneapolis editor.
and now his brethren are circulating his
yarn as an argument against the Catho-
lie church In Mexico.
The Catholic doctrine of purgatory is
perplexing to the Protestant mind es.
pecially If imbued with prejudice against
the ancient church. 1t is a rational doc
trine, however, and Protestants OF emf
nence have believed in it, According to
the dictionary 'pursatory is place or
state after death, in which souls are
purified from venial sins, and in which
the result is in great part ascribed to the
prayers of the faithful and the sacri-
flee of the mass" Catholics believe in
three places or states after death
heaven, purgatory and hell, while ortho-