The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-05-04

her inner life, worthy of the country
with which are linked her temporal
destinies in which she moves, whose
momentous energies and ambitions her
own human elements should assimilate
and turn into profit in the accomplish
ment of her own spiritual purpose.
Those who are Of her fold demand
her first attention. They are her inn
mediate charge; their salvation is her
chief work: and from their ranks are
to come the soldiers who will fight her
battles and achieve her conuuests.
The Catholics of the future will no
longer be in large numbers immigrants
from foreign lands; they will be Amer
leans to the manner born. They will
mingle far from their fathers with
their non Catholic fellow-ci citizens; they
will have new aspirations and new du-
ties; they will be exposed to new per-
lis; they will in not a few respects re-
quire treatment different from what
might have sufficed in former times.
Those given to her. must she keep;
none rich or poor, learned or ignorant
can she afford to lose; and keeping
them within her fold, she must sedu-
lousy build up their souls into the life
Of Christ, that they be children of the
redemption and heirs of heaven.
| A more systematic and determined
effort is expected than was heretofore
possible, in spreading the faith among
our mono Catholic brethren. If so much
was done in this direction by the
church even in her days Of trial and
of poverty, how much more must be
done by her in the days Of her
strength? She is the depository of
truth and grace; why, then, not pour
out her blessings over the land? Her
Founders words must be hers: II
have come to send fire over the earth,
and what desire but that it be kim
dled" The American people love
truth, and wish to know it; if by
methods worthy of it we prove to them
that truth is with us, they will seek it
from us.
The Catholic church has her duties
to society and to country. She is the
living gospel Of Christ; she holds in
her doctrinal principles and her moral
precepts the key to the solution of So
cial problems, the means to social
health and happiness; she must unlock
her treasures, and work that they may
be made use Of in practical life.. Let
it be made evident that "piety is USE
full to all things, having the promise of
the life that is, and Of the life that is
to Gomez, that the religion of Christ,
as the Catholic church expounds it, is
the surest foundation and the most en-
during element of the social fabric;
that the teachings and the whole spirit
of the Catholic church go to beget and
to nurture the popular health and hap
piness, and the popular liberty, which
republic.
The Catholic church of America has
the worldwide duties which the world
wide influence Of America rests upon
her. Wherever goes Americas flag,
wherever goes the prestige of its pow
er and example, there should the Cath
Ole church of America be seen and
felt; there should our influence for
good be recognized.
And always this will be the special
mission of the Catholic church in
America-to thrive amid democratic in
stitutions, to show how congenial to
her spirit is democratic freedom, how
natural is the evolution of the demo-
cratic principles of liberty, equality
and brotherhood, from the germinal
teachings of Christ's religion. It is
because of this special mission that the
American Catholic church is SO anx-
iously watched by thinkers the world
over. Humanity, beyond doubt, is
entering upon new phase Of social
and political order, and to what degree
will the church of nineteen centuries
find herself at home in it is the ques-
ton that men cease not to put-to ask.
The reply is to come from America.
The planet of light shines not today
upon land where greater things are
within the reach of children of the
Catholic church, where nobler incen-
tives move them to spend themselves
and be spent for God and for humanity
thansin our own beloved America.
Remember the days of old; ask thy
father and he will declare to thee, thy
elders and they will tell thee" Let
us, above all else, retain the strong
faith, the ardent zeal, the deep piety,
the answering Observation-Disclosures of
our fathers in the faith. Spirit of Lo-
ras, spirit Of our pioneer Catholics, be
ever with US! There is need Of new
plans and new methods; but the old
virtues that have served the church
in the past are those that will serve
her in the future; these of their
own force will put on the new forms
that circumstances of other times de-
mand. Only where those virtues are,
is Gods help given, without which all
human labor is in vain. Only where