The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-30
NO COLOR LINE IN 1T.
The Catholic Church Looks to the
Soul and Not to the Skin.

Soul and Not to the Skin.
The Rev. John Henry Dorsey. q
young colored priest, recently ordained
in Baltimore by Cardinal Gibbons, has
lust spent a week in Boston, the guest
of several of his brother priests. F'a-
ther Dorsey's visit has been of deep
interest and significance to the colored
citizens of Boston, without regard to
religious dividing lines, as was evil
dent by the great numbers who at
tended the high mass celebrated by
him last Sunday morning at the ca
thedral, and the reception later in the
day.
Father Dorsey is not the first col
ored priest to visit Boston. Fully ten
years ago. the late Rev. Augustine
Tolton of Quincy, Ills, made a brief
stay. But Father Dorsey is the first
to remain long enough to meet the peo-
pie of his race in their intimate life,
and to have the opportunity to judge
for himself of their business, social and
intellectual advance in the center of
the grand old abolition movement. He
must have seen much to crafty him
from the racial standpoint, for un-
doubtedly the colored people of Boston
have improved their opportunities; and
are creditably represented in all the
in Boston and its neighbor, University
city's activities. Nowhere more than
City, is there more practical apprecia-
ton of the possibilities of a race,
which. not yet four decades out of
slavery, has given our country such
men as Booker T. Washington, Paul
Laurence Dunbar, and Charles w.
Chestnut. Twice within a few years
has Harvard had colored class-orators,
Clement Garnett Morgan and Roscoe
F. Conkling Bruce.
From the priests standpoint, Father
Dorsey must also have seen much to
give him JOY and hope. If the colored
Catholic congregation is small as yet,
it is fervent, intelligent and jealous;
and the on-Catholic colored people
look upon the church, not with sus-
picion or fear, but with respect and
confidence.
In you our cause is advanced 100
years. said a prominent colored
teacher to Father Dorsey. THE hope
of our race is in the Catholic church,
said another intelligent young colored
man.
They realize that the priesthood of
the Catholic church means vastly more
than the ministerial office in any other
religious body; and that when the
church lifts man of their race to this
height she gives the greatest object
lesson that the world can get in the
unity of the human race and the equal
ity of all men before God; treading
down with solemn scorn all those
petty castles and class lines which are
the shame of poor humanity.
Indian and Negro, Saxon and Celt, Teu-
ton and Latin and Gaul-
Mere surface shadow and sunshine; while
the sounding unifies all
One hope. one love, one duty theirSi No
In L
There never was separate heart beat in
all the races of men!
So wrote John Boyle O'Reilly. whose
memory is as venerated among the
colored people of our land as among
the people of Irish blood. In his own
life he was an example of the true
Catholic attitude on the race question,
and it is not the least of his work to
have helped to make other Catholics
square their practice with their pro-
fession in this matter.
The church cares nothing for the
skin. She looks to the soul. Evangel-
izing new nations, she is ready to ad-
nit their representatives among her
priests and teachers at the earliest
moment possible There are hundreds
of Chinese priests, hundreds of Fill
pino priests, hundreds of priests with
plenty of Indian and negro blood in
their veins in all the Latin-American
countries.
She will be happy when she can
count her colored priests in America |
by the hundred. But as yet the total |
Catholic colored population is but
quarter of a million, nearly half of |
which is in Maryland and louisiana
St. Joseph's seminary for negro mis- !
sions, Baltimore, has been a fountain |
of beneficent influence throughout the |
south. St. Joseph's college for colored |
catechists. at Montgomery, Ala
whittier Father Dorsey is missioned-
is an offshoot of it. Its purpose is to |
train young colored laymen to go /
among their people imparting religi- |
Gus instruction, and preparing the way |
for the priest. Many priestly vocations |
will doubtless be developed among |
these catechiStS.
For many years, even before the abo- |
lition of slavery, colored Catholic sis |
terhoods have existed in Maryland and |
Louisiana. In later times these have |
spread to other of the southern and |
some of the western states. White sis
terhoods. like the Franciscan Nuns |
from England, the Mission Helpers of /
Baltimore, etc, devote themselves to |
the colored schools, orphanages and /
hospitals.
~AONAfilllt fNdlutTlHe DIe8elS s great l.
foundation, the Sisters of the Blessed |
Sacrament, are bound by vow to the
exclusive service of the negro and In
dian, and for obvious reasons must |
find their larger field among the for
mer.
All the heads OF Catholic missionary /
effort among the negroes are ardent !
promoters of industrial education. On |
this point, Booker Washington is not |
more earnest than are Father John
n Slattery and Mother Katherine
Drexel.
1t is good to know that there are I
fifty Catholic students in Tuskegee In
stitute, Alabama, and that Father Dor
sey will minister to their spiritual
needs once a month.
This young priests visit to Boston has
benefited all classes, and hearty god
speeds follow him to his lifework from
the city Of Wendell Phillips and John
Boyle O'Reilly.
OBLIGATION OF THE INDEX.