The Newtown bee., 1904-04-01

600 1850
Ten Pages.
TOWN TOPICS.
STROSE'S CHURCH.
FATHER DONOHUE'S LECTURE.

The following is a short summary of the lecture delivered in St Roses church to very attentive audience for an hour and five minutes, Thurs day evening, March 10. Father Dono- hue began with John l5:l6, where it reads, "You have not chosen me, but you, that you shouldlgo, and bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain. '' This text also shows what was the general plan of the discourse. Father Donohue showed how our blessed Sav- for providentiallybr ybroughtit about that St Patrick when only boy was brought to Ireland in the first place by sea-rov- ing pirates, and how he was made to serve as herdSman for six years on the mountains, thus acquiring know ledge of the language and customs of the people, a very good preparation for the future work among them. After several reflections of this and like nature showing how the words of the text, "YOu have not chosen me, but have chosen you, and have appointed you," very aptly applied to the case in hand, the speaker went on to show the application of further words of the text, to wit. "that you should go, and bring forth fruit" Father Dono- hue showed in this connection with what alacrity the Irish received the faith; that St Patrick not only planted the seed but had the incomparable hap piness of living to see it grown into a mighty tree and that all this tran spired without the shedding of a single drop of blood, fact unique in history. But the main part of the discourse was taken up with the ap- plication to Irish history of the last part of the text, "and your fruit should remain" The way in which the faith has remained and the way in which the Irish have clung to that faith originally received. with such alacrlGy, anu aii UniS n spite Of some pretty severe persecution, even to put it as mildly as possible, was a fact, said Father DOnohue, that made him Irishman, or descendant of lriShmen, proud of their Irish blood. Father Donohue then went from general con- sideratiOn to concrete illustration, re- viewing some of the prosecutions the
 Irish have gone through, especially the 200 years of Danish and afterwards the Elizabethan and Puritan persecu- tions. In this connection he instanc- ed among many other facts the setting of price upon priests heads,
 that it was treason to harbOr or aid a priest, and he also mentioned some il- luStriouS names of the brave Irish clergymen of those periods. Father
 DonOhue spoke of the confiscation and reconfiscation of whole sections of the island, and explained the meaning of such expressions as ito hell or to Connaught, and ''extirpate the Irish root and branch" He didn't forget
 to mention the confscatiOn of the 57O,- GOO acres of the estate of the Earl of Desmond; nor did he forget to instance
 DrOugheda and Wexford. He con- tended that policy of extermination was entered upon and the population of the island was at one time very much reduced in consequence; but
 that as soon as the rigor of the perse- cution relaxed, as there was no race suicide, such as President Roosevelt speaks of, the population increased again very rapidly. Mention was then made of the notorious Penal laws and stress was laid upon the fact that Catholics were allowed neither to hold or go to school. The conclusion was that we of our generation ought to be true and consistent with our glorious Irish past; not glorious from a matert- al standpoint, through no fault how ever, of Ireland or the Irish, but glori- ous from moral and religious, in re- ality the most, glorious, standpoint.
 Let us hand down to our latest poster ity the faith that has been so heroic ally handed down to us. AS Father Donohue is such a near neighbor of ours, being curate in New Milford, we'll not enter on any enconium of his work on the evening of St Patrick $ day; but will simply state that all though the price of admission was as high as 50 cents, we have not so far at least, been able to discover any indi- vidual who complains of not having received hiSor her moneys worth.