The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-09-14
CHARLES j. BONAPARTE.
Eloquent Address of Welcome to Car
dinal Gibbons.

dinal Gibbons.
On his arrival at Baltimore from
Europe, Cardinal Gibbons was well
coined by Charles ]. Bonapartc on he
half of the Catholics of the city.
Mr.. Bonapartc sketched with clear
ness the duties of citizens when con-
fronted with the new conditions that
recent events have formed. He said
in part:
Needed in all times and all co,ln-
tries, the Catholic Church is, or at
least to us she seems, needed most OF
I'LL in our day and our country, for
to-day Americans are learning what
burdens. what dangers, what tempta-
tons wait on national greatness. In
our youth of weakness and solitude, set
apart from the world by oceans and will
derncss, we looked calmly on the sins
and follles of our brethren, wondered
sagely at A,aleful passions which took
shape in war and conquest and op
preston and thanked God with unc-
ton that we were not as other men.
"The time Of trial came-the time
which should teach us how vain and
presumptuous We're our day-dreamS;
how little beneath the surface our COM
mon human nature is changed by in
tellectual training or material sur
roundings, by customs or forms Of
government; how surely
GIVE are the same our fathers have
been.
We drink the same stream, and we
see the same sun,
And run the same course our fathers
have rum
"Thc Catholic church can tell us,
and tell us as one speaking with au-
thority, that If God has given us pow
err over distant lands and strange men,
we hold it but to serve those we thus
rule; that government, whatever its
shape or name. seeking other ends
than the good of the governed is n
tyranny-a tyranny all the more odious
and bancful if millions share it's guilt.
"Finally she can say to us, what
too many called to speak yet fear to
say, or say plainly, that a people Or
dained of God to uplift brethren who
have Jagged behind is doubly bound
to so guard and order it's national life
that this may fit it's mission. She can
warn us that If we suffer blind preju-
dices, narrow selfshncss or unworthy
fears to battle the honest fulnllment
Of our civic duties; If we tolerate and
even reward in our public servants
dishonor and breach of trust, pcrfidy to
our organic law and sacrilegc in their
oaths of office; If, in short, we lazily
endure disgrace and danger to Chris
tian civilization in our government at
home, then our sway abroad can
bring but wrong and suffering on those
we rule, but shame and future VEN
geance on us and our children.
eve must learn to accept these
truths, to accept them not as vague
cold fruits of curious speculation, but
as vital principles of our national be-
ing. as perpetual beacons to guide our
thoughts and lives as citizens. 1t is a
matter of life and death to our coun-
try that we learn; but who else shall
teach us? Does anyone still ask this
office Of culture or progress or
humanity or any other Of those fe-
fishes of modern thought in whose
names we were once promised SO
much? They have all been tried, tried
and found wanting; we know them
now for mere mirrored images of man,
fair reflections of his fairer features,
gazed ON with rapture by the dreamer
in love with his kind, but dead idols,
with sightless eyes, dumb lips, ears
that hear not. hands that do no toll.
"Will any vet fancy that the very
increase Of wealth and material pros
perity, the widened knowledge Of Ma
lures secrets, the greater subjugation
Of natural forces to mans will, may