The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-03-21

| tent upon the moral lives and living
example of the Catholic laity. for in
asmuch as Americans, to start with
were indisposed toward Catholicity
it was only through the evidence
of Catholic teaching, as material.
lied in real life that American!
| could be induced to lay aside
their prejudice and study the thing OF
its own merits. This opportunity was
given them by the migration hither OF
Irish and German Catholics, which
the growing needs of country necessi-
tated ana its prosperity invited, and
we are reaping its fruits today Cath
olicity was no longer a thing to be mis-
i trusted and avoided, but thing to be
| studied, and its study has brought con-
viction to many a doubling heart. Hav-
ing thus explained the wonderful sue
cess of CathoIicity on its own merits,
Father John proceeds this week to ex-
plain its success from another cause:
| CONVERSATION IV.-(Continued)
The undeniable failure of Protest
antism has also its influence with the
more serious and better disposed por-
ton of Protestants.. There is a feeling
in all Protestant sects that Protestant
ism has not as yet fulfilled its prom
Use, is not all that one asks of religion,
and that man has wants it does not
| meet. There is d secret misgiving that
| it is not all that it processes to be. 1t
cannot be denied that spiritual things
are fostered less by a Protestant peo-
pie than material things, and this ex-
cites reflection. 1t is seen. too, that
the old church stands, that she has
survived Luther and his associates;
that she has survived the revolutionary
horrors of the last century and the
present; that she is making new con-
quests and every day chronicles a new
martyr; that she f1ourishes in free
states even more than in despotic
states, and can prosper when discon-
nected from the state and deprived of
all state patronage. Seek to disguise
or explain the fact as they may, they
are Forced to admit that the church
is living today, is as vigorous and per-
haps even more powerful, has even a
stronger hold on mems convictions and
consciences than she had III the six
teenth century, when Luther, amid the
shoutings of his pupils, burned the
papal bull condemning his heresies.
This wonderful tenacity of life, this
ever-renewed youth and vigor of the
old church, leads the thoughtful and
earnest Protestant to reflect on his
Professionalism, which extends itself
only by colonization or the sword, and
lives only a spasmodic life. At one
time, under Peter l. Professionalism
seemed likely to invade Russia, and
gain a footing in the Greek schismatic
world; but during the last thirty years
the Russian church has resisted the
Protestant tendencies which threatened
its destruction, returned to orthodoxy
and become less indisposed to a recon-
Citation with. Rome. What hope for
Professionalism? What hope that it is
to constitute the religious future of
mankind?" $50
.li"There is in every Protestant com
added Diefenbach, IAN inter-
tor doubt of the future of Protestant
ism. In Germany it has gone to seed;
there is no life in its root, and its pow
er is preserved far more as a political
and social than as a religious institu-
ton 80 10
while in France" added De Bonne
vile, "Protestantsah dwindled down
to less than a million, to 100000 souls. 4
In Geneva, the Rome of the reformed,
Catholicity has Been reintroduced, an
other church was added the other
day, and a very notable portion of the
population processes the old religion. 1t
is true, Piedmont has given Protestants
full liberty of worship, and they have
erected a temple. at Turin, but they
make few proselytes and are already
divided and fighting one another. ltal-
ians may become infidels and reject all
but they. will never become
Protestants."
"These facts" continued Father
John, will impress themselves more
and more on the minds of our Protest
ant countrymen, and dispose them
more and more to listen to what we
have to say for ourselves. Gradually,
their prejudices will soften and they |
will learn somewhat of the Catholic
system. Their vigilance will relax,
they will begin to read Catholic books
With an honest intention, one after an
other will be converted, till at length |
he horror of Catholicity will in a |
great measure be lost, and Catholics |
De recognized as standing on the foot
ng of social equality, and placed in a
position to exert their legitimate inffu-.
.nce. The exterior obstacles to con-
7ersion will then be removed and di-
'ect efforts to persuade the mass OF
to embrace willingly our
loly faith may then be made with fair
prospect of success. But till then our
most practical and effective method of
endering the country Catholic will be
o confine ourselves in our direct labors
o our own population, to the work of
living them that high character for
and piety, for wisdom and
obriety, for principle and manly con-
uct, which cannot fail to command the
aspect and win the confidence of all
oyal hearts and good citizens
CONVERSATION V.
st seems. to me-" remarked O'Flan-
in Eaf Jnlar hot
here is a quiet assumption that the
atholic body in this country is want
lg in intelligence and virtue, and that
must be elevated in a worldly point
f view, before it can exert its proper
lfluence on the noD-Catholic mind and
cart I cannot help thinking that he
not only unjust to our existing Cath
lie population, but disposed to attach :
ndue Importance to worldly position
nd responsibility and to rely beyond
leasure on mere humansag encies. The
population of the United States
ave, undoubtedly. their faults, and {
Lults which are the more marked be- (
iuse they are very different from those ]
the Puritan world; but they are at
asst equal in intelligence and virtue to
ny other class of American citizens. l
is mistake to suppose that they !
e all poor, low, ignorant, VICIOUS,
ithout position or influence in the
merican community. 1t is not wealth,
orldly position or worldly respeeta- {
lily that renders Catholics especially
f1uential in extending or sustaining I
ligion. The poor have always been c
firmest adherents, its most efficient
and its brightest orna- G
epts. The rich, the noble, the great.
e respectable, have always been the 3
st to abandon the church, or to be- t
ay her to the mercy of her enemies.
1at ireland is Catholic today is due. Z
der God, almost exclusively to her n
or and downtrodden peasantry and to ,