The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-09-05

Keeping abreast of Catholic events almost daily
transporting, cast and west, one is amazed at the
marvellous development of the church in this
public And still the wonder grows as one reflects
that all has been accomplished within lifetime
Youth at the humble frame church OH the morning
of First Communion, youth turned now to middle
age, finding companions of youth among the priest
hood and cloisters, aye, some with croziers. Some
attached to female orders of religious at the head
of orphan asyllms and hospitals, bearing the invs
ible rod of authority with that Dious dignity and
cheerfulness which is not of this world. 1t seems
like magic as one grows reminiscent
What section of our country has made the most
astounding Catholic progress for it is astound-
ing reflect that the west of today is in adj
vance of the civilization of the east fifty years ago.
1t is less than quarter century that the Belgian
priests of this mountain country began where the
"black robes left off in their missions to the tribes
of Montana; less years than twenty-five that Brig
ham Young donated the lot in Salt Lake city for
Father" Scanlan's little brick church. Colorado
was trackless wilderness when the first bishop of
Denver began his labors there. SO was Idaho so
Wyoming. Look upon these dioceses today
Not chapes put together with adobe mud and scrub
pine but churches of modern architecture; cathe-
drals soon to be with lofty granite spires and
chimes of bells; schools, academies colleges asy-
lums and hospitals. All these things before the
traveller crosses the Sierra Nevadas and approaches
the civilization, and religion the Spaniards
planted in California. All, all within Efetimei
And yet within lifetime how marvellous the
change in the Atlantic states, most marked in the
one time commonwealth of religious intolerance
J.
paper part of a letter written by Bishop Flaget,
first bishop of Bardstown Ky, to his vicar general
The prelate wrote from Baltimore (which is more
than hundred leagues by land and three hun
drcd by water from Bardstown" These words in
quotations signify that distance in those days was
covered BY stage coach or on horseback or by
steamboat. Yet there are people living in
this country, not many perhaps, who remem-
Der Bishop Flagets journey over the coun-
try to his Kentucky diocese. There are many peo-
pie living N Buffalo, NY. who remember when
Bishop Tmon there in 1847, and few per-
haps survive to tell the story of Father Whelan's
first mass in Buffalo over an auction store on the
Terrace
What wonders lave taken place in that city
within lifetime. What bigotry existed then and
what tolerance now, if bigotry presents itself
now it is to inhict the wound upon itself like the
tarantulas act of self-destruction. In those first
years of Bishop Timon's mission Know Nothing
ism was rampant. The Catholic child in the public
school was assaulted by companions and insulted
by teachers The writer recalls a street preaching
to whom the name of ~John the Bap-
tist' was given by admirers, and who never alluded
to the bishop of Buffalo without applying insult and
calling him "Monkey-face John Timon, the papist
bishop" How times have changed!
The Catholic Union and Times is not at hand
at this writing. 1t certainly contains glowing ac
count of the grand parade and reception which the
Catholics of Buffalo gave their new bishop Never
mind, it is in the minds eye of the writer as
dearly if that long procession were counter
marching around Brigham Youngs statue right
nere in Salt Lake. -Four hundred thousand souls
i've in Buffalo and we read that nearly half are
Catholics. All this beginning with handful at
Father Whelans first mass over the auction store.
Nj this within lifetime. God be praised!
BLOODY CRESCENT IN THE BALKANS,