The Irish standard., 1901-12-14

monwealth. This he owes as debt
to justice-as duty growing out of
his covenant with his fellow-men.
He has the right, Of course, within
the law to seek all just remedies for
mistakes or abuses which sometimes
creep into the best-regulated civil
code; and he has the right to demand
of the whole people, the common
wealth, that it fully and fairly keep
with him it's covenants, both in the
letter and in the spirit.
But there is a reason above all so
cial compacts, beyond all mere ques-
tions of policy or all petty suggestions
of self-interest, why the Catholic-the
practical Catholic-must be good
citizen. If he be Catholic in fact
and i'll truth, and not merely in name,
he will harken to the voice of that
teaching body, ever ancient and ever
new, which from the Apostles of
Christ to this day has taught and con-
tinues to teach man his duty to God.
to neighbor, to country, which speaks
with no uncertain voice, which
has neither "ifs' nor "maybes" in
her doctrine, which enforces her laws
by the sweet sacraments of penance
and of love-which is our Mother.
And the Catholic church commands
her children to respect all lawfully
constituted authority, to obey the law,
to be good citizens, because they are
children of God and for that reason
owe to Him and to their fellow-men
certain duties. She commands them
to be just and truthful and temperate
and merciful and chaste. She has not
one rule for the great and another for
the lowly. She closed the doors of her
cathedral to the emperor whose hands
were red with innocent blood, she sac
rificed England and all the vast posi-
bilities that meant rather than sane.
ton the lust of Henry Will, and she
stands today, as she has always, the
unalterable foe of the unutterable in
fanny of the divorce legislation.
In his masterful address delivered
at the fair grounds in st. Paul, Sept.
2, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, now
President Of the United States, said,
mo prosperity and no glory can save
a nation that is rotten at heart. We
must ever keep the core of our nation
al being sound, and see to it that not
only our citizens in private life, but
above all, our statesmen in public life,
practice the old commonplace virtues
which from time immemorial have lain
at the root of all true national we'll
being"
When the wonderful present and the
possibly more marvellous future of
these United States rises up before
the mind and no words can be fash
toned to fifty express them, may we'll
say how grand it is to be citizen of
such nation! But is it not grander
thing to be at the same time one of a
living body which insists that it's
members practice the ol6 common
place virtues by keeping the COM
mandments of God which alone can
preserve the nation great?
In this connection I would not be
true to myself and true to the truth
did not here record my earnest faith
in the great mass of our fellow-citi-
zcns who are separated from us in re-
ligious beliefs that they in their daily
lives do not forget those virtues we
all believe and feel. That this nation
is Christian though not written on the
law books, is evidenced to all who
care to see. When the assassin's cruel
act struck down our late President
Mckinley, from ocean to ocean, from
the lakes to the Gulf, among all the
many millions of our people not one
discordant voice was heard. But as
one people, before one altar, the
whole nation bowed and prayed the
God of Nations for deliverance from
this SORROW
Now understand me. do not claim
that all Catholics are saints, or ideal
citizens. None of us present will be
canonized, ut any rate, until we are
at least fifty years dead. Saints and
ideal citizens are rare. because ideal
men are scarce. What do mean is.
that, all things considered, the better
and more practical the Catholic, the
better the citizen.
This nation under God had a won.
dcrful beginning. The Catholic in
Maryland laid the foundation for re-
igious freedom. The Puritan in Mas
sachusetts declared the fundamental
truth in his town meeting that every
free man had voice in the law. The
American citizen, with his Catholic
faith. has not had Mt all times the
kindest treatment. He has been often
mnligned, and more often misunder-
stood. l refer to these things merely
to answer his critics who sometimes
say of him that he is behind in the
procession. Everything considered, in
all that makes for good citizenship
he stands in the front ranks of his
fellow-citizens-as brave as the bray
est, and as good as the best. He has
) been found good enough to govern
states: make laws for the state and
!; nation. interpret them from the bench
even from the most nyalto1 ~,