New-York tribune., 1906-12-17
ATTACK ON ROM ANISM
DR.. MacArthW Objects to Defence
of Congo.


A remarkable attack on the Roman Catholic
Church was made at the Calvary Baptist Church.
West 57th street, by the Rev. DIR. A. S. Mac
Arthur. the pastor, and the Rev j. Milton
Greene a missionary. In part, DR.. Macarthur
said:
These are stirring times France is throwing
off the Roman yoke and Spain is awakening
from the sleep of centuries. Cardinal Gibbons.
one of the foremost representatives of the
Roman Church. appeared the other day as an
apologist for King Leopold, the greatest whole
sale murderer in the world to-day. There is no
other such man in the world to-day as Leopold
and yet Cardinal Gibbons comes out as his de-
fender
The Roman Church is trying to get hold of
the schools here We have only to look at the
result of their work in the countries we have
been told about tonight to see its effect
Men and women when they go into public
life if they Romanists, forget themselves
and their duty, not only to their own country,
but to the country to which they are sent, IN
their wild endeavor to get red hat for a TREND
of theirs. | don't wonder that the President
wrote them the letters that he did I'd ike 10
have seen the Storers when they read them. but
1 feel q great deal more on this subject than
speak.
The regular sermon had been dispensed with
in order to hear the reports of the American
Tract Society. DR.. Greene has been for the last
seventeen years engaged in missionary work in
Mexico Porto Rico and Cuba. Since the Span
ish-American War he has been superintendent
of missions in Cuba. After explaining the con-
dtions on the island and the causes of the insur-
rection which called for the visit of Secretaries
Taft and Bacon, DR.. Greene said:
The United States police the island; it can
make new laws and can administer justice, but
it cannot change the moral character of the
people and change the abuses which result from
that. 1t is for the American church to do this
work
The remedy must come from the Christian
church, l repeat, the Christian church l was
very sorry to hear that one of the speakers at
the recent Mohonk Conference decried the work
of evangeliZation of the Protestant Church and
eXtolled the magnificent organization of the
Catholic Church. We hear a good deal about
trusts in these days. There is trust earth to
compare with the Roman Church. They claim
a monopoly of grace, and dispense it on their
own terms, and those terms are always exorbi-
tant.
They have a superb organization. It is a
superb organization for perpetuating ignorance.
for diScrediting civilization. The priests in
Cuba. Mexico and all those countries are the
objects of ridicue. They are not to be trusted.
There is no class of people in those countries
treated with more disdain than the priesthood.
We have seen it and know it well, and have had
enough of ii.
Speaking the recent insurrection in Cuba
and its causes DR.. Greene said that in his
judgment the trouble was the natural and
necessary outcome of the moral status of the
Cuban people 1t was the moral outcome of
four hundred years of Spanish rule led and
directed by Roman Catholic superstition and
tyranny.
There were five characteristics of the Cuban
people, DR. Greene said, that he had observed
in the course of his seventeen years residence
there They are illiteracy. unsound morality,
lack of industrial good faith. lack of public
faith public confidence, and domestic OF fam
lily degradation. He added:
1t must be acknowledged that the extent of
intellectual stagnation is almost incredible Not
than n a
and among the women not more than five in
one hundred. They do not know how to re-
ceive and appropriate innovations, however
much they may benefit by them. Their intel
lects are dwarfed, stunted paralyzed espe-
cialy so among the women. There is so much
lnsincerity, dishonesty. .untruthfuness and SEN
suality that the moral law is almost unknown
In regard TO domestic degradation, there is a
heavy tax levied by the priesthood in case of
baptism. marriage and death, and the natural
result Is that the poor ignore the sanction of
the Church in family matters There to-
day in Cuba 81 900 families without the sane
ton Of the Church and 1OS,O0O iegitimate chill
dTen
The causes of the recent nsurrection in Cuba
be summed up under four heads. First
frauds committed in the last elections: second
refusal of the government to permit the people
TO elect their municipal officials third, preva-
lence Of graft. and fourth, the great injustice
done TO the men had fought In the war against
spain by putting in office the men who had
done most TO injure the new republic. There
mas been great Indignation among the veterans
of that war over the men whom President
Palma selected for office.
Graft. said Dr. Greene. existed in Cuba from
the highest to the lowest In one case he knew
Of, whore the taxes for a whole province had
been collected. only 5000 was expended for
municipal improvements AZ the close of the
Spanish American War he said, the Cuban gov
ernment had appropriated $50,00O000 to pay
the soldiers. They were given certificates and
Immediately companies were organized to buy
up these certificates from the ignorant soldiers
by misrepresenting their value. Out of that
S50,00o,000 only S15,00oO0O was actually paid
to soldiers. Men high in authority were mem
bers of these companies.