The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-06-28

| III ESy pt. LIE HlloSAOAie'iAS |iiClO
pointed it out I found it in Ceylon.
where there are five million people, and
less than $4,000 Christians.
Perhaps there is quite mud bank
here in our own land, since reliable
statistics, not given to untruth, tell''us
that there are 53,0O0,000 people in this
country with no church relations.
''I have penchant for getting at the
core of things, and so with great inter-
est and care 1 studied the religious
problem both in Cuba and the Phillips
pines AS a chaplain 1 enjoyed excep-
tional opportunities for doing it.
ct has been stated that the best in
tellect and the best conscience among
these people show increasingly hostile
to Roman Christianity. I made it a
point of study.
Il found the natives in Cuba, intelli
| gent and ignorant, in rebellion not
against the Catholic church or the
Catholic faith, but against the Spanish
priests, who, under Spanish rule, were
intolerant to a degree beyond the APP
prehension of our people. The profit
| gate vices of these Spanish priests
brought their authority into hatred and
contempt, and in their dealings with
the people they usurped all authority.
Hence the churches We're abandoned.
| When America came in as a factor,
then Spanish priests quit the island
with the Spanish army, the bond be-
tween the church and state was broken,
the churches were supplied with Cuban
or American priests, and the arch
bishop in a pastoral letter made it
clear to the natives that thepceforth
| they would have the same religious
| status as the American members of this
| Catholic church. With what result?
| There was at once a rehabilitation of
| the churches and tn oeople; intelli-
| gent End ignorant thronged these
| churches; that, too, with what to me
was a significant heartiness and en-
| thusiasm. In Santiago and several
! other large towns and villages 1 found
| the better class as regular in church
attendance as the commoner class. The
| intelligent minds had rebelled against
the Spanish priests and the masses fol-
! lowed. The intelligent returned and
| the masses followed"
There is no rebellion against church
doctrine. If the human side of the
church has not been all it should be,
and that reformation is needed, who
knows but in the designs of Provi-
dence the means now used are the
best. In the old law when the Jews
stepped aside from the observance of
the law, God permitted their punish
ment by His enemies. Both in Cuba
and the Philippines the great
majority of the people are Cath
olics and will remain so to the
end. This Rev. Mr.. Carlisle tells.
Fully SO per cent of all the people in
Cuba are Roman Catholic, and it is
my belief that they will remain Cath
Ole to the end. Making an estimate,
and of church attendance, and coming
| into personal contact with each class,
as 1 did, in the pursuance of my du-
ties, am assured that fully 50 per
cent of all these people are active
communicates of the Catholic church.
The passive Catholic holds to his faith.
| In the presence of the great churches
in the Philippines, churches whose bells
are scarcely ever silent; churches
whose great doorsteps are worn thin
| by the will nigh continuous pressure
of the naked feet of devotees; churches
in which there is always the voice of
! intoning and the pungent odor of burn
It.x, h. ,frrl,t ~
pedigree of this faith, but in the spec
| tacle of the entire population, almost
/ of towns and villages eagerly passing
| into these places of worship, twice of
| Sunday, several times during week
days, and on half a hundred feast or
saint days in the year, you realize how
! deeply and firmly this faith and love
| of the Catholic church is mortised into
the being of these Filipinos. They are
| Catholic to a man. 1t has been their
faith always. 1t is their religion to-
day, and, as 1 believe, will be their
religion in all the future. In the Phil
ippines you see Catholicism at its high
est point of influence; the middle age
idea of loyalty and enthusiasm"
He does not regret this fact. He ad-
mits that people devoted to their
faith should not be disturbed. If they
are satisfied, and violate no law, what
right have others to interfere with their
sacred right? In the following story
related by Rev. Mr.. Carlisle, all fair
minded persons will find food for re-
Election:
But here 1 am tempted to repeat
what an English-speaking Buddhist
churchman at Colombo, Ceylon, said to
me in an interview. 1t may serve a
purpose. He said: why should our
people of Ceylon desire what your mis-
sionaries here call Christianity? They
have religion that is adapted to and
meets their necessities and capabilities.
1t fits into their lives. They have never
! known any other religion. Have no
wish in that direction. If our people
will follow out in daily life, and tens of
thousands of them do, the teaching of
our temples they will be good men and
good women These teachings will ele-
vate them to as high moral plane as
any people occupy. L think the percent
age of our people who make an every
| day application of the teachings of our
religion is fully as large as the percent
/ rrva