The Irish standard., 1901-06-22

WIS IL struggle Ill lHlS COuulIy LUZ luc
man, who bore the name of Catholic,
n struggle to maintain his own,
struggle TO build his house where
his God might be worshiped,
struggle TO go out among men and
stand upon the same level as other men
stood. Catholic and Americana! A
glorious title you have! That means
to you as you look into the past n
time of sacrifice. times of struggle and
Of misunderstanding on the part of
those who came before you. and if no
other motive ought to make you true
to the church to which YOU belong, the
very fact that blood runs in your veins
of those who under all circumstances
were true to ii, ought to be sufficient
motive to hold you strong and loyal
Catholics?
What does it mean to he Il Catholic?
In the practical sense, standing rs man
to man, and asking ourselves that qucs-
tion. What does 1t mean to be loyal
Catholics? We know that the Catho-
lie church has the power to 90 out and
teach all mon. We know that It has
the divine commission to send forth it's
spirit to men and to move them In the
way to heaven, the right way. You
remember in the book Of Ezekiel how
the land was covered with dry bones
and how the prophet was ordered to 80
forth and call upon these dry bones to
rise up and become living men, and
when he Obeycd the voice to go and
send forth the call down through that
valley the inanimatc bones rose up and
took the form of strong, active living
men, ready to obey the command, send
them where 1t might. And the Cath
ollc church over its children has and
ought to have that power TO send
them where 1t will, to prophesy Mt any
time when necessary and to raise up
it's faithful children to obey its COM
mands. And the Catholic church, IL
It's the church of God, has also that
power to restrain, which all must re-
spect. q power that came to it from God
himself, whatsoever you shall bind
on earth, shall be bound in heaven"
and to the faithful children Of that
church we have to reckon with that
power to bind, to hold back and to
restrain. And so we see it down
through the ages, as 1t were a chariot
eer, reaching out when the members Of
the church were going too fast in the
wrong direction, reaching out like a
good charioteer and refining in those
who were going beyond what was right.
Again we have seen that church
through the ages urging them on to
great deeds. to mighty accomplish
ments; we have seen that church, as
the Church of God, exercising that
power even when 1t stood in front Of
the most terrible danger, commanding
it's children, when necessary to go forth
into danger, to go there; we have seen
It, no matter what was the hostility
against it, no matter how much the
danger, we have seen 1t ever urging on
It's loyal children to do the will of God
and to do it we'll, and that is the real
significance Of being good Catholics.
History tells us how on that last day
of the great fight at Gettysburg, the
world witnessed magnificent scene
that perhaps never was surpassed in
any country, when $4,000 men at the
command of him who was their leader
moved out in solid ranks before
bayonet charge to attack an army Of
10000 entrcnched and moved down
in solid column i'm front Of them and we
stand amazed to think that men could
do such thing. And when shot and
shell and destruction were hurled upon
these ranks, up and down rode gen.
eral after general and when dis
charge of artillery would speed a hum
dred into death, these commanders
would call, "Close up, boys, close up,
steady, forwardw And when that
final charge was repulsed it was re-
pulsed within the federal lines and