The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-11-02

Sidney (Australia) Catholic Press.)
With perhaps more desire to ingrati.
! ate themselves with their Protestant
| friends than to crafty their appetites,
there are. it is sad to relate, a large
number of Catholics VINO break the law
of Holy Church by eating meat on
Friday. 1t is a phase or shoneenism
fortunately found little among the
poorer people, who make the majority
of the Church in this country. but af-
fecting chiefly those well-to-do and
fairly-to-do who benefit so little by
prosperity that as they get on in the
world they begin to think more of the
approval of man than of heaven. By
ordering a steak in a public restaurant
on Friday they hope to give the i'm
preston that they are broad minded,
that there is no bigotry about them,
and that they belong to altogether
superior class to those benighted CO.
religionists of theirs who scrupulouSly
order fish. This type of Catholic is to
be found we'll represented in Sydney,
and in the various eating houses we
have seen them in numbers aping this
false liberalism in religion. But if they
only knew it, instead of creating a
good impression on Protestants, whose
opinion they would appear to hold
dearer than that of God. His Church
and their fellow Catholics, they are
earning contempt and derision, for, GU
riously enough, the Protestant mind
can no more be reconciled to a Catho-
lie eating meat on a Friday than the
Christian mind to a pork-eating Jew.
Instead of impressing his Protestant
friends with the idea that he is a de-
cent fellow with no nonsense about
him. they regard him with a vague
distrust, and among themselves talk
OF him as a bad Catholic. His action
savors of hypocrisy, especially whsA
they know that he goes to Mass, and
they are rather inclined to dislike than
like him for his laxity.
s. o. Is
We are at present treating this sub
ject from a purely world point of view,
and we can assure Catholics who are
SO very anxious to stand well with
Protestants that they will never lose
their friends by remaining faithful to
the precepts of their religion. The
Catholic servant who enters a Protest
ant household and hopes to secure her
position by eating mutton on Friday,
at once becomes an object of suspicion,
and her mistress is far more likely to
count the spoons daily than raise her
wages. 1t has been observed that
when a Catholic girl has descended to
petty peculation she has grown care
less of her Church, and one of the first
signs of Catholic Indifference is the
non-observance of the law regarding
Friday. In society the same feeling
obtains. The Catholic young man
who happens along on Friday to take
pot luck with a Protestant family, and
with an affection of liberality, and
says nothing when he is helped to beef
incurs the suspicion of his hosts. HE
is ashamed of his religion" they whis-
per, and they regard him as a poor
fellow, a Weakened sycophant, who
cannot be trusted. On the other hand,
respect and esteem is the portion of the
man who quietly declines the meat and
reminds them that it is day of alb
stinence with him. 1t is just what
they would expect, and he wins that
additional regard which any man of
any denomination inspires by unaf-
fected adherence to his principles. 1t
is just the difference between the sho-
neen and the gentleman, and Protest
ants are quick to appreciate it. DR..
Corbett, Bishop of Sale, once met a
Protestant gentleman who sought to
pose as a liberal man in religious mat
tiers, half limiting that he was ready to
become a convert. For" said he, II
am afraid that I am a bad Protest
ant" Therefore" observed the bish-
op, Jelly, ct am afraid you would make
an equally bad Catholic" Just as un-
desirable to Protestants is the meat
eating Catholic, In fact, they would
prefer even a pork-eating Jew.
But this meat-eating practice is not
confined to public restaurants and
chance dinners where silly and coward