The Irish standard., 1899-12-16
Quotes Protestant Writers for
the Catholic Church.
PERSECUTION OF IRISH CATHOLICS
Backward Condition Of Some
Catholic Countries.

A correspondent of the London
Times, signing himself "Verax," as
serted that Catholicism is responsible
for the backward condition Of ireland,
Spain, and Italy, and "has always been
inimical to the highest civilization"
The following, taken from the Lit
erary Digest, is the reply of Cardinal
Vaughan in the November New Cen
tury Review:
when I assert that the Catholic
Church with free hand is we'll able
to promote the happiness of the peo-
pie, and to raise them from the pagan
to the Christian level OF thought and
action, my statement, believe, is amply
borne out by the history OF Christian
civilization. l need only appeal to such
names as Milman, Hallam, Froudc,
Lecky, Farrar, Guizot, and host OF
other witnesses who are above suspicio
But when I claim for the Catholic and
Roman Church now the same divine
power ard vitality she gave proof of in
England during thousand years of our
history, am confronted with the pres
e1it state of Ireland, France and Spain.
1t would be almost as reasonable to say
that the degraded condition of masses
of the English poor, and the causes that
have led to their misery, are attributable
to the Catholic Church; only that it is
too generally realized here that the
Catholic Church lay PROSTATE, bleeding
and dying under the harrow, for two or
three centuries in England, for even the
stanchest Protestant to cast the blame
for the state of the English poor upon
the Catholic Church.
"But we are bid to look at Ireland
where the people have remained Cath
olic. Now, the sufferings OF the Cath
olic Church in Ireland have been Sec
ond only to those of the Church in
England. Archbishop Wllateley, ac-
counting for his own want of success,
wrote that he had to fight the battle
(of Professionalism in Ireland) with one
hand, and that his best, tied behind
him.
"The Catholic Church in ireland has
had to carry out her divine mission,
not with one hand tied behind her.
but with both hands cut off. She was
stripped of her possessions, reduced TO
poverty, deprived Of the right to edu-
cate, the land taken from Catholics and
given to Protestants, fettered and per-
secuted in every possible way by Eng
land for centuries. And yet, even so,
she has maintained a peasantry that is
singularly pure and chaste, and in Or
dinary times freer from crime than that
of England; while, in spite OF every dis
advantage, she has preserved high
standard of virtue, faith, and piety
among her keenly intelligent and SYM
pathetic poor. Let any one contrast
the intellectual, moral and religious con-
dition of the poor OF Ireland with that
Of the lower classes in our great towns,
and then say, if he please, that the cause
OF the irrespective conditions is to be
found in the respective religions of the
two countries.
"But we are referred to France as
further proof against the character of
the Catholic Church. Has it been for
gotten that the Church in France was
drowned in a sea of blood a hundred
years ago; that religion, revelation, and
God Himself were publicly prescribed;
that the Church is not free to this day
in France; that her bishops may no.
where meet in synod; that her religious
orders are under ban; and that what
ever education the Church gives is un-
der distress and disadvantages? And
yet, in spite OF century of disabilities,
Catholic France produces at the present
day great multitude OF as noble exam
pies of generosity and devotedness as
the world has ever seen.
Again, we are referred to Spain; but
during the century Spain also has been
swept by the evil principles of the
French Revolution, her religious orders
have been again and again suppressed,
her seminaries closed, her property con-
fscated, and for years her episcopate
was actually extinguished. The Church
in Spain has had to fight with more
than 'one hand tied behind her. Yet
look at the Spanish poor, and you will
find in them an inbred gentility, noble
bearing, religious sense and courtesy,