The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-28
TAKEN TO TASK
PROTEsTANTs RESENT THE ARCH
BISHOPS RECENT STATEMENTS.
They Claim 10 Have Converted Many
Catholics, and VIII Continue TO
Fight the Roman Church.


Special to the indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK, Aug. 2.-Officers of the
various church mission boards in this city,
and especially Of those which are planning
TO send missionaries TO Cuba. Porto Rico
and the Philippines. are not a little irri-
tated by the statements reported to have
been made by Archbishop Ireland, of st.
Paul. in which he was alleged to have said
that the ten or twelve millions OF Catholics
resident in the new American territory
added so much to the Catholic strength of
the United States. and that Protestant mis-
sionary societies have no more reason to
send workers 10 Cuba than to Washington
10 convert Catholics.
The amusing point Of the second of the
archbishop's affirmations is that we do send
missionaries 10 convert the Catholics of
Washington" says Gen. Thomas j. Morgan,
secretary of the Baptist Home Mission So
ciety. And we do succeed in converting
them. Our society has successful missions
among the French Canadian Catholics of
New England, the Poles of Buffalo and
Catholics in many sections and a very
large number of Catholics, especially young
men, are being converted. If Archbishop
Ireland is correctly reported, he commits
himself to two rather startling propositions.
are thoroughly and irrevocably committed
10 Roman Catholicism. / am very glad the
warning that they are to be regarded as
adding so much strength to the Roman
Church in America has been given. 1t will
certainly be taken as warning,
and it will arouse a sentiment in
this country that will be distinct
ively Protestant, protesting against any
such wholesale increase of Roman Catholic
power in America. Second. the archbishop
gives notice that Protestant missionary
work among these people will be offensive
10 the Roman Church. l surely think he
mist have been misquoted, because he has
been posing before the American public for
the last few years as a liberal Catholic
thoroughly Americanzed. whereas one of
the cardinal and vital principles of our
whole civilization is religious liberty, the
right of free speech.
"Protestants have been doing missionary
work among the Roman Catholics of this
country for many years and the ranks Of
their churches are largely recruited by con-
Vcrts from Roman Catholic families. The
American BAPTIST Home Mission Society
maintains missions in Mexico which is a
Catholic country. and among almost all of
the foreign populations OF the United States,
Il ,
Bohemians. Some of our most prosper Gus
missions are among these people and the
work Of enlightenment among them is Cf
inestimable advantage to them and TO the
country at large. There is scarcely a promi-
nent- Baptist Church in the United States
which does not include in it's membership
converted Roman Catholics and children
from Catholic families. What is true of the
Baptists is true also. i think. of all Protes-
tant denominations. A case in point: Last
winter the Rev. DR.. Pentecost, pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church of Yonkers,
held a series of public services in the prom
inent amusement hall of the city and at
their close invited his hearers to worship
with his people in the Presbyterian Church
On the first night of the new series at least
twenty-five Roman Catholics were among
those who accepted his invitation.
If Archbishop Ireland supposes that one
result Of the recent war is to be a cessation
of all Protestant missionary work among
Roman Catholics he will find himself Woe
fully mistaken. The truth is that the papacy
has received. incidentally. as a result of
this war. blow scarcely inferior to that
administered by Martin Luther in the refor-
nation of the sixteenth century, and great
religious changes are to come out of it,
las long as the Catholic Church does not
itself evangelize its baptized heather we
are compelled to evangelize them for it,
says Robert f. Speer, one of the secretaries
of the Presbyterian Foreign Board II sup
pose that our board has more mission sta
tons in nominally Catholic countries than
any other in America. Now, if the Catholic
Church in America will itself send mission
aries TO these heather, will send, for ex-
ample, such men as Archbishop Ireland we
Will gladly draw out and go to Africa. Or
If the Paulist fathers will go to Cuba, the
Philippines, and preach the gospel that they
preach here in America, we will be glad
to retire. The challenge applies to South
American countries. to Mexico and all other
places wher we have missions at work.
One of the strongest reasons why we are
planning to senc missionaries to the Phil
ippnes is because our missionaries are not
wanted there If the Catholics of these
countries were willing we should work be-
side them they would be so far liberalized
that we should not to that extent need to
go and hberalize them. If the archbishop
had himself invited US to Cuba We should
have felt less like going there with our
workers. But when he sage we are not
needed, meaning we are not wanted, then
We shall go. if not to Cuba, at least TO the
Philippines where the Catholics are
equally in control. and where We are just as
greatly needed. 4 concrete case: Chap
laIuS OF American vessels, having occasion
10 bury a dead sailor IN any of the Catho-
lie countries which the archbishop mentions
as having his church thoroughly organized
and not needing our missionaries, are not
permitted to employ hearse, but must
crowd the caSket into wagon and bury Ia
tie Poter'S field. And the chapaIns them
selves, either TO read the service at
other times. are not permitted on shore at
urea in a garb which might lead them to be
mistaken Tor priests but must go in lay
dress. Don't need missionaries more than
our national capital? We think they do un-
til they are comparable to American Cath
oucs. who have been wonderfully liberaiized,
in some degree, evangelical by Protes-
tants.
Archbishop Ireland has a thousand
times more reason to he ashamed of the
Catholicism OF Cuba Porto Rico and the
Philippines than he has to be praising it,
says the Rev. Dr. a. B. Leonard, the senior
secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Mis-
sionary Society. which proposes TO send
missionaries to Cuba and to the Philippines
The truth is ana it is terrible truth,
that the Roman Church has been the real
power in all these islands. and not Spain,
ana II IS the Roman Church, and not
Spain. that is responsible for conditions
which brought on first the Cuban and Phil
tppine instructions, and next the necessity
Tor our own interference, with all of IT'S
attendant loss of life and treasure. To take
Archbishop lrelanG'S advice no1v and loo %