The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-12
CARDINAL VAUGHN'S LETTER
CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ENGLAND
WAS NOT PREJUDICED.
Unjust to Identify the Church With
the Injustice Whereby Dreyfus
Was Condemned.

SUBJECT, which we take from the LOH-
don Times, to which the Cardinal sent
it. is timely and instructive:
Sir-The unprecedented tornado OF
feeling which in the name of justice
has not unnaturally been sweeping
through the English press like all hur-
ricanes. is apt to be discriminating and
to destroy much that should be left
standing. 1t may perhaps be vain to
speak in the midst of a storm; never
theless, L offer the following observa-
tons:
First, it is unjust to identify the
Catholic Church with the act of inJus-
tice whereby Dreyfus was condemned
at Rennes without clear evidence OF
guilt.
The Catholic Church has had nothing
to do with the various trials that have
taken place; and [ learn on reliable
authority that all, or nearly all, the
generals and persons concerned in the
trials had not been pupils of the jesuit
or Catholic colleges. as has been said,
but of the state lycees, and that | was
in error when l spoke even of Colonel
Picquart as a Catholic. 1t has been,
from beginning to end. a state affair
an affair of military interests and of
state treason in which the Church has
had no place. The bishops, therefore,
rightly made no attempt to interfere
III al matter JDdI DtlOHSGNl ~ LIN SCCu-
lar power. But is urged that they did |
not control the opinions of the clergy |
and faithful, and are therefore deserv-
ing of censure But for years the case !
was at least doubtful, and there was |
prima facie presumption of guilt |
against Dreyfus. Men of undoubted !
candor and intelligence were found on |
either side, and nothing was certain |
until the full evidence was published. |
What hn cal En- GLAND if ]
debatable matter of great interest,
the bishops sought to impose silence /
or their own opinion upon a people |
pTiding themselves on their freedom OF |
opinion? And where is the freedom
of opinion if a man is to be branded
with ignominy unless he adopt the
judgment prescribed for him by an
either? The French people are as free
as we are to hold what opinion they /
think right or the most likely to be
right. That on one side or the other
there should have been violent and
passionate feelings is only to say that
the French are formed of the same clay
as ourselves and are swayed by feeling
as well as by reason But when there
was a danger of disturbance. as at
Rennes, we see that the Church spoke
the Cardinal Archbishop,
counseling calm and moderation.
An attempt has been made to drag
in the Holy See. But the Holy See has
taken no side and 1 say of my own
knowledge that the Holy See declined
to intervene IN a matter that fell so
clearly within the competence of the
state. If the Holy Father had advice
to offer to the government, he has his
accredited representative in Paris and
would have spoken through him, not
through the press.
One cannot help wondering sometimes
how it happens, if all this Indignation
be but the virtuous result of love of
justice, that no public protest has been
raised in England against the
unjust and penal measures that have
been passed in France against null
titude Of men and women because they
exercise their natural right to live to-
gether in association and to spend their
own money on good works.
The other point on which l would
say word is that the Catholic church
condemns the persecution of the Jews,
and of every other race. If Jews or
Christians practice usury and eXtOr
ton or do any other hurtful thing, let
laws be passed, not against Jews, but
against the malpracticeS complained
Of and let the laws strike Jew or Cen
tile with equal severity when guilty.
And if in one country or another Jews
are prosecuted by Christians, this must
no more ne put QOWH DIS d CIlol &c !
against the Catholic church than drunk
enness, rioting or any of the crimes
that disgrace Christian communities.
The Catholic church may here or there
Jail in her miSSiOn-SOmetimeS by the
human frailties from which churchmen
ire not always exempt, sometimes by
he fact that her free action is impeded,
and that she has to work, as Arch
bishop Whately said of himself. with
hot he hos in6 lN0-
lind her But 1 say fearlessly that the :
oopeS and the Catholic church have
leen the defenders of the race of Is :
,ael. and that whatever inter-racial
may arise, the church will
llWayS seek to moderate and in the end I
ubdue them.
| do not wish one word 1 write to be
aiken as an approval of the Rennes YER
Iict. On the contrary, I share the in
Iignation expressed against it because
t was unjustified by the evidence; and
t is within the right of any man, in
nv country, to say that upon the evil
ence before him verdict is infamous.
But having denounced the Judgment
pronounced by the five officers, it is
imply monstrouS that foreigners
hould at once rush in and. befCHe the
Judgment has been considered by the 1
upreme authority of the state, should -
enounce a whole nation as savages,
utside the pale of civilization, and T
over them with dishonOr and abuse,
proposing to punish so Odious
people by sending no English cottons
I, chemicals to their exhibition. 1t has
cen even proposed through the press
S a righteous expression of indigna-
ION to Danish, not indeed, all French
ubiects. but all French Catholics en-
aged in works of mercy and charity 4
us-bands of heroic souls who
pend themselves and their French
loney in nursing and succoring our
estitute classes, with a generosity and
self-sacrifice no words can express or
yer repay Could the folly of passion
o to stranger or more unseemly
myth? &
The Guardian newspaper pointed out
ery well last week that France is our =
ext door neighbor in Asia and Africa
: well as in Europe, and that not only
but self-interest demands
Re cultivation of friendly relations. But
iese will be rendered simply impos-
BILE if we sting highly sensitive peo-
lie in their honor and cover them un-
lstly with righteous scorn and
OuSe.
It seems to me that, whether we re-
ard the history and character of the
-eat nation which is our next door c.
eighbor, the interests of the unfortun 81
e man whose cause we have espoused, d
lie self-respect due to ourselves as a
,ople, or the law and spirit of the
hristian commonwealth, we are bound F.
a greater measure of self-restraint
I'd discrimination than some of US
I'VE hitherto shown.
How He Lost Her -
(St Louis Post-Dispatch.)
did her father throw you out?''
mo; it was her gTeat-great-great-