The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-06-04
AN ADDRESS BY A JESUIT BEFORE
A BAPTIST AUDIENCE.
IN COLGATE UNIVERSITY, UTICA, n. Y.
THE LECTURER WAS THE VERY
REV. T. j. CAMPBELL, s. J..
PRESIDENT OF ST. J)HA'S COLLEGE
PICTURES THE DIVORCE EVIL. AS A
DESTROYER OF NATIONS.

The following address recently deliv-
cred by Very Rev. 7. J. Campbell, S. j.,
president of st. Johns College, Fordham,
N. Y, on "Christian Marriage" is signi-
ficant from the fact that it was listened
to with rapt attention by an audience of
Protestants at the Baptist Divinity
School at Colgate University, an import
ant seat of learning near Utica, N. Y.
In commenting editorially upon the dis
course the Utica Observer said:
1.-The treatment the subject received
was Illustrative of the broad culture and
pure character of the orator. He held
his audience closely to the end, and at
the conclusion the venerable doctors Of
divinity present were the first to press
forward and express to DR.. Campbell
their gratified assent to his able and
scholarly utterances."
Owing to the great length of FIR. Camp
bells discourse we are only able to give
a few of the striking passages. Having
treated exhaustively Of pagan civiliza
lions, like those of Greece and Rome,a
showing the social degradation to which
woman was subjected, he came down to
modern times and drew a startling pict-
ure of France where marriage has been
degraded to civil contract, rescindable
like any other, and where successive gov
ernments, with what looks like diabolical
generalization, have Systematically and
successfully aimed at the destruction of
family life.
I'm seven years after divorce was per-
mitted in France, a thing undreamt OF
since the beginning of it's Christianity,
there were 10000 divorces-1OOO 600 house
holds disrupted and dishonored. When
we add to this that almost half of the
marriageable men are single, and that
large number of marriages are without
issue, we can appreciate the warning of
Jules Simon, one of it's ablest statesmen,
that If France has soldiers to defend it
now in few years it will have none.
France is without children. And the
glorious nation Of soldiers and saints
finds itself in the presence Of nationa!
disaster, because of it's national crime,
and with an unnameable stigma upon it's
once fair fame
What has been it's history ever since
it began this war upon family life? We
would willingly draw veil over it, for
the love we have for its past But here it
is in few words. Enthusiastically be-
ginning by enthroning courtesan upon
the very altar of Notre Dame, and inaug-
urating an orgy of blood that is unparal-
leled in the history of modern civiliza-
ton, it has ever since prosecuted the
name of Jesus Christ. 1t periodically
breaks out into its saturnalia of crime.
1t has murdered the three last archbish-
ops Of its greatest city as culrlinatic.l
Of its atrocitious slaughter Of multitudes
of priests and nuns and devout Christian
laymen; it has driven the sister of char
ity from the bedside of the dying, closed
up churches where God was worshiped
and torn the crucifix from the schools,
to take even from childhood anything
that reminds it of Christ. 1t is worse
prosecutor in some respects than the old
pagans, for it has the bitterness and
knowledge of an apostate, and its bitter
ness becomes greater as the nation be-
comes more decrepit. And decrepit it
u.s. Its history during the century has
been succession of tottering govern
ments, while the world looks OH and
jeers 1t counts for less every day in
the councils of Europe. In the possible
cataclysm that may come upon the ma
tions, it's only ally is relentless perse-
cutor of the old faith of France, and
there can be little doubt that as pagan
Rome fell before the German invader,
this once glorious nation, unless the
prayers of its former saints and the sup,
plication of some of it's still faithful
children avert the disaster, will pass
from among the nations. There are no
families. Why should she or how can
she remain nation?
Gin the light of all this, is there not a
genuine reason for apprehension in our
own country? We are proud of our
strength as a nation, but let us put the
question frankly: is not the same cause
that destroyed empires and kingdoms in
the past at work among us?' The Off
cial census declares that between 1866
and 1885 (and things have grown much
worse since) there were not less than
100000 applications for divorce. Can
you estimate what that means? 100000
families broken up in 20 years; and what
is most alarming, without reproach that
rested upon it only few years ago. So
ciety no longer shuts it's doors on di-
vorced parties as it used to do. The
divorce laws of the various states have
made marriage a farce, and the most
absurd pretexts, sometimes none at all,
are alleged for separation. Mere
children of 1G or II, it is said, have
been divorced two, or even three times,
and even ministers of the gospel, in face
OF Christ's injunction to the contrary,
come into court with their applications,
and strange to say, continue the work Of
the ministry after they nave flung aside
this most solemn mandate of Him they
call their Master