Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1906-12-22
CARDINAL
Makes Strong and Emphatic
Plea For Church in
France.
Says Treatment of Catholics
Shows Hatred of Officials
For Religion.
Declares JacObinite Doctrines
Prevail as They Did Many
Years Ago.
AMERICANS DON'T UNDERSTAND CRISIS

''nhe American public does not UNI
derstand the present crisis in
France" said Cardinal Gibbons when
asked for his opinion on the French
situation. He continued: 81 am get
ting to be an old man now, and ]
think know my countrymen. They
love fair play; they love liberty; they
love to see human dealings of man
with man, and the late years have
shown how cordially they hate in
justice, tyranny and inhumanity. And
yet France has treated her nobl IS
and citizens with injustice and in
humanity, and America, which has
sympathy for the oppressed of all
nations, has raised no protest nor
uttered a word of sympathy.
"If 1 believed that my countrymcn
would knowingly see great and
beneficent organization unjustly de-
prived of its property and the means
of continued usefulness; would
knowingly see tens of thousands of
honest men and noble women robbed
of their just income and means of
support; would knowingly see hun
dreds of thousands, and even
several millions, of people brutally
wounded in what they hold
dearest and most sacred;
would knowingly see a majority in
the Chambers utterly disregard and
trample upon the rights of millions
of their countrymen, in the name of
liberty; would knowingly see tens
of thousands of men and women who
happen to be priests and nuns turned
out of their homes for no crime but
that of loving God, 1 say, if any
countrymen can see and recognize all
this injustice, and tyranny and
cruelty, and refuse genuine sympa-
thy, then i will leave life without
that faith of American love of liberty
and humanity which has been my
comfort and support and hope.
But the American people have not
had these things put fairly before
them. Our own press has been to
a considerable extent the reflex Of
the Partisan anti-clerical press. Most
people over here have little concep-
tion of the French anti-clericals.
They look on the leaders of this
party as enlightened statesmen seek
ing to preserve the republic from
the attacks of an aggressive clergy.
There have been honest and sincere
lovers of republican government
among anti-clericals / admit; but the
majority of them have far less love
of the republic than they have hatred
of religion. am weighing my words,
and / say with deliberate conviction
that the leaders of the present
French Government are actuated by
nothing less than hatred IF religion.
We have no spirit akin to theirs in
this country. We have here much
indifference to religion. but we have
no body of men, no great party, that
makes il a chief aim to weaken the
power of religion, and IL possible
utterly to destroy il out of the land.
"But in France the Jacobia party
is not dead. Their spirit is as living
today as it was in the last decade
of the eighteenth century. They hate
God, they hate Christ, they hate re-
ligion as much as ever their fathers
hated them. But they have learned
more prudent and measured
method of attack. They arc almost
scientific in the means they take to
suppress Christianity. AND yet the
utterances of such men are received
as unsuspectingly by MANI Ameri-
cans as would be a discourse by Mr..
Cleveland or Mr.. Roosevelt or Mr..
Taft-men who recognize the power
fus influence that religion has in pro-
noting the welfare of society. II is
easy to show that I sm not oiisrepre-