The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-21


feeling of nationality" interpose
l y Flanagan. and is d little impatien
: when he hears foreigners tell even tn
4 truth OF his cOuntrymen: let him par
don then the sensitiveness of my coun
trymen, when they hear foreigners say
ing not what is true, but what is false
of Ireland and the Irish.'
, Let US have no more of that" in
terposed Father John. Truth is truth
let who will speak it, and he who re-
/, coils from it is no true man. The
shield has its reverse side. The writer
in the Civilta CattOlica has, possibly
not given the whole truth, and he may
have given too favorable d picture OF
the American people: but he has raised
n voice in favor of his countrymen
where few voices have been raised but
in their disparagement. He has done
well in presenting q picture of the
bright side of the country, and in tell
ing those things favorable to US, which
are not usually told in the Catholic
press of Europe. Catholic Europe has
hardly yet learned to do us justice. and
| is very far from estimating us accord
| ing to our real Importance as nation,
/ 1t is only a few years since this same
! CtVilta CattOliCa represented American
society as a mixture OF Indians, ne
groes and the descendants of European
settlers; and the devout people of
France and Italy still, very generally,
when they hear talk of Americans,
suppose the savage or Indian tribes are
meant. They have not yet learned that
| there is Il great and independent nation
here. originally of European descent
civilized nation, with pOlity, laws,
institutions and q national character of
its OWn-with a larger population than
England. Scotland and Ireland, and al
most as large as the population of
France or that of the empire of Aus
tria, and in trade and commerce rank
ing as second only to Great Britain
and surprising even her in tonnage.
Moreover, Catholic Europe has not
been alive to the influence this Ameri-
can nation is likely in the future to
exert on European thought and insti-
buttons, especially through England,
and still more from its position on the
Pacific, on Japan, China and the whole
of eastern Asia and Oceanica. The two
great conquests for the church now to
make are Russia and this same Amer1-
can nation. Russia is not heretical.
Nothing in her case is needed but her
reconciliation with the chair of Peter.
That reconciliation, if not opposed for
political reasons by France and Aus
tria. | regard as neither difficult nor
distant. That reconciliation, once eff |
fected, secures the destruction of the |
MahOmetan power, and the conversion !
of old Asia. The conversion of this |
American nation secures this continent |
and it's islands to the church. the faith |
and worship of Christopher Columbus |
and Americas Vespucius. To the Cath |
Ollie after the restoration of Russia to |
unity there is no conquest to the faith /
so important as the conversion of the
people of the United States. I am,
therefore. pleased that our friend at
Rome has done what he could to call |
the attention of Catholics abroad to its |
'All that is very WE'LL" replied Wins
low, but 1 canOnt understand how
Rome can infer the feasibility of the
of the country from such
as those of Brook Farm
and Fruitlands, inspired by so
cialistic, not a Christian spirit, and
heaven on earth, |
through qualification of the senses or
passions, not heaven hereafter
through supernatural elevation of man
20 union with God"
Every man." answered Father John,
has his own point of view and his own
The movements our
friend alleges are not in my view rep
'esentative movements, and to me they
nave very little significance, for they
we're not indigenous and did not spring
from the American mind
ind heart. All the movements of the
ort amongst US have been produced by
oreign speculationS, or by foreigners
coming here for the purpose of realiz-
ng their dreams. Even the Valley of
he Cross movement in North Carolina
vas only an echo of the Puseyite
movement in Great Britain. l never
ould attach to these things the inn
,ortance attached to them by the au-
hor of the Questions of the Soul. They
re important, however. in so far as
hey indicate that our people are not
with the forms of Protestant
SIN they now have"
ct seems to me-" interposed Diefen-
ach. that they are something more.
hey indicate a tendency on the part
f the American people to get rid of
hams. to dispense with cant and to fall
ack on simple nature and yield them
elves to its pure instincts and lofty
SEPARATIONS. Men cannot remain con-
anted with pure nature, for it aSplres
D something more than itself; it tends
to Catholicity. 1t is cas-
ar to convert a man from pure nature
nan it is from Calvinism. Hence | see
favorable sign in the very tendency
f the American people to unbellet-to
ure nature"
IT cannot agree with Herr Diefen-
a oh in that - remarked O'Flanagan,
and it seems to me a bit of bull TO
oppose men are brought nearer the
1urch by being removed further from
err. 1t is no easy matter to make an
npression upon a mind that has re-
cted all belief in the supernatural,
nd has succeeded in persuading itself
lat there is and can be nothing on
hich to rely but nature alone. Men
no have lost all belief in Christianity
nd have fallen back on simple nature,
sually seek their good from nature
one, that is, from the natural order
nd become selfish and sensual. They
vote themselves to temporal and SEN
BILE goods, and become deaf to all re- a
gious appeals blind to all spiritual
nth and dead to all moral convie-
ons. Let a nation lose all trace of
Ipernatural life, the last remnant OF
: belief IN a supernatural order, and
has IL all public and private virtue
id has and will acknowledge no COD
1t the world, no good but sensible 6
,od. Instead of following pure in '"
incts and yielding to lofty aspirations
becomes the slave of consupiscence
Id bears as its fruits covetousness,
urder, contention. wrath, hatred, SEN
ality and all manner of vice and
ime. 1t follows the lower instincts,
e senses, the corrupt desires and be-
mes a Sodom or a Gomorrha."
Mr.. O'Flanagan is right in the
aim replied Father John. mo man
brought nearer the church by being
moved further from her. and a seri-
s, earnest Protestant people are pref
able to a purely infidel people. They
e. too, in my judgment, more easily
inverted. Sincere and earnest Prot
tants have always some elements of
tholic truth. and that truth forms
basis on which you can construct
ur argument. They mean to be