The Irish standard., 1901-04-27
The Average Educated Protestant Thinks
Ridiculous Things About
the Vatican.
A Mistaken Idea Prevails That a Convert
to the Ancient Faith is
Foreigner.

Henry Austin Adams, the former
Episcopalian minister who sacrificed
so much when he decided to become Il
Catholic, gave remarkably able and
interesting lecture in Worcester, Mass,
recently OH "Thc Debt America Owes
to the Catholic Church" lie spoke in
part as follows:
~ fear sometimes that when this
lecture is advertised there may be
some Catholics so mean and small as
to come to the hall and pay their good
money with the idea am to provide
for them an attack on Protcstants. l
never allow myself that luxury. Thank
God, am not an ex-pricst. ! have
so many good friends among the Prot
estants that can never forget them
enough to enter into an attack on
them. There is q difference between
opposing n system and attacking with
vituperation those who are so unfor-
tunate as to be Il part of that system
through no fault of their own.
II am here to attack somebody.
am here to attack. those little mllk-and-
water dude Catholics that this country
possesses in some places. am here
to prove by four hundred years of his
tory that our beloved republic owes II
debt it cannot cXtingulsh in eternity
to the members Of the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church. The reason
have come from home to do this is that
after my conversion to the Catholic
faith my friends among the Protest
ants seemed to think l had ceased to
be good American, that 1 had be-
come foreigner. l noticed that they
did not care to catch my eye, and
when l met them on the street they
saw more attractive things in the store
windows. 1 had tramplcd on their
convictions and had disgraced them in
way by throwing over their belief.
l don't blame them for that. Suppose
some of your ncighbors were to forge
check next week. Your chivalry
would prompt you not to talk it over
with them IL you met them Oh the
street. AS time went on found they
were willing to speak to me, and after
n while they showed a desire to talk
over with me my change in faith, but
the remarkable thing about this was
that not one in a hundred seemed to
care to have me explain the doctrines
Of my new religion.
"Ninety-ninc out Of one hundred
seemed to think that 1 had ceased to
be good American, that had Joined
a foreign institution, that 1 had sub
mittcd my conscience to moth eaten,
cobwebby institution that was foreign
to our country. If they asked me to
explain the doctrines of my new found
religion would have sent them to my
pastor or to my bishop, but when they
said that in trying to become q good
member Of the Catholic church l could
not be broad d-gauged, thorough
American citizen, 1t was up to me, and
l took Off my coat. It amounted to
this, l was in the basic foundation of
my makeup false. They seemed to
say: You were faced to the twentieth
century, but you have turned round
and put your eyes on the fifteenth or
the tenth century, and have accepted
the worn-out, repudiatcd doctrines of
an ignorant class
ut is amazing to find that even
among the most intelligent Protest
ants there is a sort Of sncaking, un-
confessed idea that you can't be a
good Catholic and a good American,
and that as soon as you become a Cath
olic you must become foreigner.
You talk to a Protestant of the doc
trincs of the Catholic faith and in
stantly you will find his mind is
blank. am here tonight to prove that
this belief Of our nom Catholic friends
is entirely without foundation. You
cannot be an American in the larg-
est way unless you are in an humble
way a member of the Catholic church.
You say there is Washington, Jeffer-