The Irish standard., 1902-03-15
ERlN's NATIONAL FESTIVAL.


usual it will be celebrated with reli-
gious fervor and patriotic enthusiasm
by the Irish people throughout the
world. Here in Minneapolis, 1850
miles away from the island that St.
Patrick converted to Christianity, his
children in the faith will assemble by
the thousands in the spacious EXPOSE
ton building to listen to eulogy on
the holy man from the eloquent lips Of
Hon. Bourke Cochran, of New York,
one of the most distinguished sons of
Erin in the United States, whose fame
as an orator is international.
In every part Of the globe to which
1rishmen have been driven by British
oppression, the name Of st. Patrick
will be honored on his glorious anni-
versary. In veal or in woe, in pros
pcrity Or in adversely, in slavery OF in
freedom, the people of the Emerald
Isle and their descendants in other
lands will never forget to reverence
the memory Of the holy apostle who
brought the light of the Gospel to
their pagan forefathers in A. D. 432.
10 the faith brought by st. Patrick in
the remote past, the Irish people have
adhered with marvellous tenacity; and
today, in their island home and in ev-
cry cline they inhabit, that faith, pure
and undcliled is as fresh and Green
in their hearts as the shamrock upon
the hillsides and in the valleys of
Erin.
They have made many sacrifices for
that faith, both in the land of their
nativity and in exile; they have suf-
fcrcd untold prosecutions for it at
home and in foreign lands; and though
some of them have abandoned it for
selfish motives, they are but few in
comparison with renegadcs in other
countries where Catllolicity was plant
cd by other apostles from Rome
No Catholics on earth were subject
ed to such persecution for the faith as
the Irish. According to DR.. Johnson,
an honest English Protestant, the
Catholics of Ireland suffered more for
their religion in the penal days than
the early Christians under the pagan
Roman cmpcrors. "By the laws. of
William and Anne" says Bancroft,
the American historian, "St. Patrick
himself, in Ireland, in the 18th CEN
t,lry would have been IL felon." 1t
was Il crime under British law for an
lrishman to worship God in his own
land. a price of fifty pounds was
placed on a bishops head, and of
twenty pounds OH Il priests head.
Thousands fled the island to save their
lives from their mcrclcss prosecutors
ana thousands ditd for the faith of
st. Patrick.
70 the present day, some of these
odious laws against Irish Catholics re-
main unrepealed OH THE statute looks
of England, and ut the coronation next
June, King Edward, the libertine, will
solemny swear that the Catholic re-
ligion not only in Ireland, but through
out the United Kingdom and in his
empire beyond the seas, is "damnable
and idolatrous."
Catholic Ireland today is governed
by Protestants, and the natives of the
island are barred from official positions
because of protesting the ancient faith
which England cast off at the behcst
of lccllerous monarcls. Not only did
English Professionals prosecute the Irish
at home, but they prescribed them in
new countries where they sought ref
uge. "A law was passed in Virginia
for the Punishment of Irish Catholics
from that British colony, and in New
England, laws were passed to deprive
them Of the rights Of citizenship Gen.
B. Il. Butler, in dis autobiography,
refers to the discrimination against
Irish Catholics in New Hampshire,
where his forefathers from Ireland
had settled. The descendants of the
British in America have not vet di-
vested themselves of their prejudiccs
against Irish Catholics, and wherever
they are in the ascendancy ''no Irish
need apply" for common Justice at
their hands. 1t is the same in Can
ada and Australia. The Anglo-Saxons
and the Cells will never pull together
until Ireland is free from British DOM
nation and takes it's place among free
nations.
In modern times. the cry has gone
forth that st. Patrick was Protest
ant and that the early Irish Catholic
church was not in communion with
Rome. Undoubtedly some Protestant
preachers of English extraction will
repeat the cry from their pulpits to-
morrow. But their utterances will be
in vain. The facts of history are
against them. 1t is enough to say that
the doctrine taught by st. Patrick be-
fore King Laogare and the nobility, at
Tara, 141O years ago, is the same as
that taught throughout the Catholic
world at the present day. The Holy
Sacrifice Of the Mass was celebrated
then as now, and the Sacraments of
the Church We're administered as now
by st. Patrick and his disciples.
. There is no valid foundation for