The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-05-16

nr Maurice Francis Egan, professor
,f English literature in the Catholic
DIVERSITY of Washington, D. c., writ
30 of Archbishop Ireland in the Pill
grim. says, in part:
John Ireland, Archbishop of st.
pouI is one Of the makers of American
history What he stands for is so
-,ital and so important that only those
,-ou versed in the sources of the
growth Of this new republic can un-
Serstand it, History never repeats
Itself but the essential forces that
maize history are the same now as
they were in the age Of Alexander.
because Archbishop Ireland sees
rore deeply into the hidden springs
of our national life than most men, he
has been hailed by a majority of the
American people as a patriot of the
first order. and by minority consist
inc alike Of a number Of persons of
his own church and OF those who hate
his cburch-as a Liberal and a "Jes-
nit in disguise" For once, we see the
utra-bigoted Protestant joining hands
in distrust-for even doubt has a CO.
hesiye quality against an American,
who. because he is a Roman prelate,
is more than ever a friend of the re-
public.
In France, Ireland is the best
known of Americans And there is no
member of a foreign hierarchy better
known. AS in this country, the I'M
thinking who borrow secondhand
phrases compare him to Richelieu, the
narrow royalists in France have
called him Lomenie de Brienne- why,
nobody knows-and this same coterie
mas not hesitated to hope that Leo
XIII. who refused to recognize the
Duke OF Orleans at the expense Of the
republic. might be quickly translated
TO the society Of angels The cause
OF ofense which both the present Pope
and the present Archbishop of st. Paul
seem TO have given to the reaction
lists" is the consistent application of
the principles Of the pontiff's encycli-
cal 'Liaurnum," which Archbishop
Ireland expresses in The Catholic
Church and Civil Society,"" the most
important of his works:
You ask, he says, what is the at
titude cf the Catholic church toward
a republican form Of government. The
church teaches that the choice Of con-
stitutiOns and Of rulers lies with the
people Whether they shall have an
empire, a monarchy or republic, 1t is
their privilege TO decide, according as
their needs may suggest or their de-
sires may lead. In this matter the
church from her principles is without
voice.
THE PATRIOT-CHURCH
In Church and Modern Society
Archbishop Ireland says:
The times are solemn. In no other
epoch of history since the beginning
OF the Christian era did changes so
profound and far-reaching take place.
Discoveries and inventions have OPP
ened to us a new material world. So
cial and political conditions have been
transformed. Let all things
be new is the watchword Of humanity
today. and to make all things new is
humanity's strong resolve. To this
end are pledged its most fierce activi-
ties. which. wherever in this realm of
men they are put forth, are exempli-
fed In the steam and electricity of the
new material creation. With
the new order have come new needs,
new hopes, new aspirations. To con-
Quer the new world to Christ, the
church must herself be new, adapting
herself in manner Of life and in METH
Cd OF action to the conditions OF the
new order, thus proving herself, while
ever ancient, to be ever new, as truth
from heaven is and ever must be-.
st Augustine's great apostrophe to
the Catholic church is not more plous
or more sincere than this, and 1t rep
resents the essential principles OF
Archbishop Ireland's action. His Eu-
ropean Observation-Disclosures his Amer
lean training-had taught him not to
fear old shadows in new land. But
when he spoke-and not only spoke,
but acted, as if there could be a free
church in a free land-he produced
The effect on some of his well-meanlng
brethren that Cotton Maher would
have produced, had be informed his
colleagues that the witches had ceased
TO be worth burning.
The fatal result, among other fatal
--'sAlAo VI lIC COulllNI DCINCSAA (AA~~ -
and state in Europe, was the conclu-
sion on one side that the church had
no rights which anybody was bound TO
respect, and on the other, that the
state had no rights at all, unless the
church granted them. This condition
OF mind was artificial and un-Christian
on both sides; it had grown through
the existence of constant and abnor'
mai war. and it explains much, in the
status Of European countries, which
Americans take too little trouble to
understand
Archbishop Ireland, if one may
judge his resolves by his course OF
action, had determined that the Eu'
roDean mistakes should not be repeat
ed here The chart was unsull1ed;
there was a clear field; there was a
tabula rosa. Old abuses need moi