The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-02
THE FRIDAY MEAT SANDWICH AFFAIR.

"a Catholic priest at Tarrytown has put Miss
Goud's sewing school under the ban of the Church.
At recent picnic, held ON Friday, the children
were given sandwiches, which constitutes the Of
Tense. The priest is consistent however bigoted
his action may ear."-Presbyterian Journal
1t is the duty of priest who is placed by the
Church authorities parish or congregation,
to see that those under his charge comply with the
laws and regulations of the Church. We think our
esteemed Presbyterian contemporary will say that
the ssaIne duty is imposed on every Presbyterian
minister in charge of a congregation. Every So
ciety places restrictions its members. 1t could
not be society without doing so. The benefits
derived from membership imply duties of mem
bership The most imperative of those duties is
compliance with the laws of the society. If the
society is not worthy of this obedience it is not
worth belonging to.
There. can be no organization or religious
without order and subordination and these two
essential conditions make laws and OBEDIENCE to
them necessary
This that is true of civil and all other secular
societies is true in higher sense of the Church of
God. To him who sincerely believes the church
he belongs to is ,the Church of God. obedience to
its laws is of a higher obligation than obedience to
any other society earth for st. Paul tells us
that the Church of the living God is the pillar and
ground of truth and our Lord has said 'He that
will not hear the Church let him be to thee as
the heather and the publican"
Our contemporary is therefore right in saying
that the priest of Tarrytown is consistent; but it IS
wrong in limiting that he is bigoted, unless 1t
means that insistence on duty is bigotry
Miss Gould is an admirable woman, conspicuous
for her good works, That is her. character. and,
therefore, it is difficult to believe that in offering
meat to the Catholic children of her sewing school
on Friday she was inspired by the spirit of the
proselytizers in Ireland, who placed before the
starving victims of famine tempting meal of
meat Friday-leaving to them the alternative
of starving or breaking the law of their church.
We would require very strong evidence to be-
lieve that Miss Gould influenced by I'M
worthy purpose, for her character compes the as
sumption that her motives are worthy and noble,
until convincing evidence proves the contrary.
1t is easy and quite natural to suppose that in
making her arrangements, the Catholic association
or rather dsassociation of meat and Friday never
occurred to her. This supposition however, could
hardly have place if the selection of Friday Cor the
childrens party had grown into custom, and the
children had only the alternative of eating the for
hidden meat or attracting the annoying observa-
ton and gibes of their non-Catholic companions.
In this case the influence of the school would
be bad for Catholic children and the prisets duty
would be clear and unavoidable. And we must as
sumo that the priest, being on the ground, under
stands the situation with all its lights and shades,
better than his outside critics.ANew York Free
mans Journal