The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-24
so SAYS The ARCHBISHOP
And Lauds the Pre-. id, mt For His Re.
ligious Tolerance
THE POPE GREATLY PLEASED WITH TAFT
The Politician Hearing Ireland Would Say That
if the President is Playing For the
Irish Vote He Has an Able
Coadiutor.
BY the Associated Press.)


st. Paul. Mimi, July 22.-Archbishop
John Ireland, in an interview with rep
resentative of the Associated Press to-
day, reviewed at some length the pro-
gress of the negotiations conducted be-
tween Judge Taft and the Vatican. and
took to task certain Catholic organiza-
tions that had assumed to question the
fairness of the administration toward
their co-religionists. The archbishop
said:
THE sovereign pentiff and other Ro-
man authorities are delighted with Gov
ernor Taft personally and with the nego-
tiations in course of progress between
him and the Vatican.
"The Vatican and Governor Taft came
easily and quickly to a substantial
agreement: the question for the Vatican
is what practical methods are to be
adopted to put the agreement into ex-
ecution. With little time certain mat
tiers, now seeming to offer great difficult
ties, will be made, by quiet, skillful
touches of pontifical diplomacy to work
themselves out without friction or eX-
citement; and 50, when in Manila, final
conclusions are to be reached, things
will have been ripe, and will turn out
all right. This is the Vatican method of
proceeding; it is a wise and prudent
method. Mr. Taft understands the mat
ter and leaves Rome thoroughly satisfied
and hopeful. He carries away with him
the pOntiff'S statement that the negotia-
tions begun in Rome will prove to have
been the starting point of a complete and
satisfactory solution of the questions
at issue, and that much he considers to
be quite sufficient for the moment There
can be no doubt that active cooperation
of the Vatican is now secured to the |
American government in it's task of
pacification in the Philippines and that
in the results to come the administration
at Washington will have ample reason
to felcitate Itself for having sent Gov
ernor Taft to Rome.
"And now it is to be hoped there will
be among certain classes of Catholics in
America a cessation OF movements and
declarations such as we have had recent
occasion to hear of regarding religious
matters in the Philippines. The Pope
teaches those Catholics to trust the
American Government as they seemingly |
have been heretofore unwilling to do |
In his conversation with Governor Taft |
he expressed the highest esteem for |
American methods of treating church
matters, and remarked that he had more
than once pointed towards the United |
States as setting an example we'll worth |
copying. His words ought to signify |
something to those who profess to take |
him as their leader and guide. At any |
rate the direction of Catholic affairs is
his business, not of irresponsible chur eli |
societies or newspaper editors and when |
he informs Catholics that any one mat
ter is in his hands, they ought promptly |
to step aside, and allow him 10 have i
charge of it. The question of religion in |
the Philippines is now formally and off, |
cially his own and it should be con-
sidered as such.
THAT in the vast alterations made in |
the Philippines by the transfer of the |
islands from Spain to American |
sovereignty serious complications were |
sure to arise in religious matters, as
they did in social and civil matters, was |
naturally to be expected; as it was, also, |
to be expected that time would be re-
quired to regulate things properly and
that meanwhile suffering in one form or
another was to come to interests most |
secret and vital. Patience, then having
been to lay blame upon the Government |
which was doing it's best to bring order !
out of chaos, and, above all, no charges |
should have been made against the in
tentions of the government 1t was |
rankest rashness and rankest Injustice |
to intimate that the government in
tended to proselyte in the Philippines. |
or to do aught to detach the inhabitants |
from the Catholic faith. To know in |
the slightest degree Mr.. Roosevelt, Mr.. |
Root or Mr. Taft, is to be certain that |
nothing of the kind could have been
thought of or could have been tolerated |
Never did there reside in the White
House man more fair minded and i'm
partial, in religious matters more reso-
lutte to give all classes of citizens the |
religious rights granted them by the Con-
stitution and to protect them in those
rights, than Theodore Roosevelt. During
his administration it is unqualifedly abb
surd to imagine that governmental acts
could be such as to deny or impair the
religious rights of any people, or tribe
over whom floats the American flag
AS to Mr.. Taft, l quote from a letter
which / received but yesterday from
Catholic priest, living in the Arch Epis- |
copal palace in Manila, Rev. w. D. Nc
kinnon:
i can assure you nothing could be
more unjust than the criticisms of Gov
ernor Taft appearing in some Catholic
papers. Governor Taft has not particle
of bigotry in his make up. In all his
acts here, defy any one to say he has
shown himself prejudiced in the least
"All this does not mean that here and
there individuals concerned in one way or
another with the government of the is
lands, lid not say or do things unfair to
Catholics. What / wish to emphasize is
that such individuals, so far as men of
the kind may have been found, did not, |
in what they were saying or doing, rep
resent the government and that if their |
wrong doing had been duly reported to
Cnvernmnnt If would have been sum-