The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-05-26
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WHY HE BECAME A CATHOLIC.

DR.. De Costa, in an address delivered
in the Church of the TRANSPORTATION
in New York on May IA, said:
Il have really been a Catholic since
/ 1 was 4 years old, said the speaker,
Well, why, some of you will ask, did
( it take you so long to proclaim your
self? That, for me, is hard question
! 10 answer, but l may answer it in one
I way by saying that some minds reach
conclusions on great subjects slowly.
/ But I've come out at last, and, God
and Father Mclaughlin willing, I've
come to stay. cloud applause.) And
the conclusions that impelled me to
come were the conclusions not of boy
! just out of the theological seminary,
with a brand new degree of B. A. at
tached to him, but the conclusions of
an old man. And 1 claim that the con-
illusions of an old man on such sub
jectS are just as good as those of a
boy. (Applause.)
But l didn't come without pangs of
regret and bitter tears at leaving my
old friends. And now | would not
speak harshly of them. When 1 was a
boy l went one Sunday afternoon to
the service at old st. Johns Episcopal
Church in Charlestown, just outside
Boston. When l went home my mother
asked me where I had been. l told
her I'd been to the Episcopal meeting,
and she held UP her hands in horror
and exclaimed:
" The Episcopal meeting! Why,
don't you know that's next door to the
Catholic?'
IF il is next door to the Catholic
Church, why should 1 speak unkindly
of it? Why should l speak i'll of the
bridge which has carried me safely
over? But, my friends, l want to tell
you that the Catholic Church is the
Church because it knows where it's
at and isn't afraid to say so. If you
asked twenty clergymen over there in
my ward, the old Ninth, what Christ
meant when He said, This is my body
and this is my blood you'd get twenty
different answers, and every one of
those clergymen would accuse the other
nineteen of the rankest heresy. Ask
the same question of any Catholic
priest in any church in this city, in this
country, on this continent or in the
world, and you'll get one and only one
answer. The. Catholic Church knows
what it believes and isn't afraid of
hurting somebody's feelings by saying
so. loud and continued applause.)
Maybe you don't know it, but this
very church used to be an Episcopal
church. The Episcopalians gave it up
because they said the quarter got too
bad for them. l suppose they wanted
to call the righteous, not sinners, to
repentance, so they moved up among
the righteous. The Episcopal Church
has abandoned many other parishes be-
low Fourteenth street and in this city
has abandoned thirty in all. AS the
Episcopal Church moved out the Cath
Ollie moved in. Thirty battles fought
and lost By the Episcopal Church in
this cityi Thirty battles fought and
won by the Catholic Church! Is there
any doubt, my friends, which Church
is marching on? God willing, I mean
to be on the winning side. (Applause)
Il tell you, my friends, the Refor-
mationists are bankrupt They can
no longer hold their people together |
All of us have heard of Rip Van
Wrinkle and some of us have seen the |
play When he awoke from his sleep
he could not believe that Washington |
was president and that George was |
not king Some of these Reformation |
lists today believe that Henry VIII is |
king and that Cranmef is Archbishop |
of Canterbury. They think Henry is |
king and Cranmer is Archbishop be- |
cause they want to think so. But |
Henry and Cranmer are dead, and the |
system of divorce which they inaugu-
rated has left to this country alone a
legacy of $4,000 divorces. Is it any
men who believe in the sane
tity of marriage leave the Episcopal |
Church? The Catholic Church believes
that religion and education should go |
hand in hand. The other churches be-
ieve that religion should go as it
pleases and that all education should
be secular. I believe there can be no
true education without religion. There
fore I am a Catholic and a Catholic l
shall remain" (Applause)