The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-12-24
Hbbof Gasquef on Church in Hmerica

The Catholics of the United States
will be deeply interested to learn of
the impressions gained by the Ri. Rev.
Albert Gasquet, the distinguished Eng
lish Benedictine, during his recent visit
to this country. Dom Gasquet landed
in Liverpool, Nov. "a, and was promptly
interviewed by the Catholic Times of
| London.
AS to your Impressions, said the
interviewer what do you think of
the condition of the church in the Unit
ed States?"
ut is simply wonderful to me-" The
abbot as he said this seemed to be
animated by a feeling of the most
hearty admiration Il refer" he con-
vigor of the church but to the enthu-
siasm of the Catholics. A most nota-
| BILE sign of their Catholic spirit is their
readiness to sink all kinds of differences
as long as they can look upon them
| selves as Catholics. The churches We're
perfect reTela tions. They were crowd
ed with people. Mass after Mass you
saw the vast congregations pouring
! in"
Struck by Large Proportion of Men.
Were the men we'll represented"
Quite as well as the women. That
is point that struck me. The large
proportion of men struck me great
deal more than the attendance of the
women. What is at the bottom of it e?
This-that their pastors have got them
to be proud of belonging to and being
practical members of the Catholic
church"
Are they, in your opinion equal to
the Catholics at, home in the observ-
ance of religion?"
AS far as one can Judge from the
outside, they are quite as good In
deed in regard to the keeping of the
Commandments. l should say that they
are certainly ahead of us in many
ways. OF course, some people say that
there is not the same spirituality there
But If spirituality is to be estimated
by what they do-and surely is-they
can bear COMPARISON with Catholics
anywhere. They are most practical
Catholics, and speaking of them from
the devotional side, | have seen them
joining in the services in a way which
was almost, you would say, enthuSi-
astic. Personally, l was astonished at
places l visited to see not only the
crowds in the churches, but also the
eager desire of the people to join in
the Catholic. services. This was
common experience. | was in the west
great deal-in the big cities-and i'm
one and all the same earnest DISPOSE
ton was found. When / was going
from Chicago to St. Paul on d Friday
an official came up TO me and said: I
suppose you want Friday dinner,
father? l was going to have merely
some fish. but he told me-he was not
himself a Catholic-that the railway
authorities had so many Catholic pas
sengers who wished to keep the Friday
observance that they had to be pre-
pared for it, and to provide regular
maigre' dinners. That, to my mind, is
a most remarkable indication of the
practices of the people. They. are,
every one told me, really practical
Catholics. They go to the sacraments
regularly. The proportion of Catholics
in a parish who do not receive the
sacraments at least once a year is
very small indeed
Praise For Knights of Columbus.
And their organizations. Are they
doing good work 2''
Most admirable work. The knights
OF Columbus, for instance, give SPLEEN
did support to the church. 1t is
benefit society, and one of the condi-
tons of membership is that one must
be a practical Catholic. They have an
enormous number of members. All the