The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-04-14
TORCH OF LIGHT
And Civilization the Catholic
Church Has Ever Been.
The Fashionor and uoulder of
Christian Society.

| In a recent address the Right Rev
John Gallagher, d. D., of Goulburn
Australia, told in the following elo-
quent and forcible words what the
Church has done for civilization. He
said:
The Catholic church remained not
a mere antique, not merely in the de-
crepitude of old age-not merely aus
strong as she was in the year of the
Hegirt., when Mahomet fled from Nee
ca to Medina, but having renewed her
youth like the eagle, went forth with
all the energy of her pristine vigor,
carrying together with the cross of
the Saviour and the Book of His Cos
pei, her other ten thousand instru-
ments of beneficence and enlighten-
ment, to the limits of the world.
Hardly had she appeared on earth,
when all at once, before the light of
her teaching vanished the dark clouds
of Grecian and Roman mythology en-
blazoned though they were by the
fancy of their poets, though art had
illumined them with countless forms
of beauty, though the pen of the his
torian had woven them into the records
OF those countries which We're loved
SO WE'LL She it was that dashed from
| their pedestals those idols, which by
falsities and lies had allowed the
greatest part of mankind to fors;lke:
| God, their Creator
| Having shown how the pagan phil
! osophers We're vanqushed by the SIM
pie teachings of Jesus Christ, Bishop
Gallagher said that for the first three
! centuries of her existence the Roman
emperors had, aided by the strength of
their thirty legions, striven to extin-
suish the light of her teaching in the
We're that already on one of their
seven hills. the Vatican, Il humble fish
erman had established q throne. and
that from this throne his successor
should. for all ages. rule over an en-
pire larger in extent. more docile in
obedience. more steadfast in it's loyalty
/ than had ever been subject to the
sword of imperial Rome.
! When the eagles OF the empire re-
! tired below, and blade of grass re-
fused to grow before the tread of Attila
and his Huns, was it not q successor
Of the tisherman-St. Leo the Great
worthy predecessor and namesoke of
the still greater Leo, who had just
! been taken from them-whose calm
dignity and heroic bravery stayed the
progress OF the barbarian and saved
from his fury, to be the seed plants
of new ages of progress. the last relies
of an expiring civilization? Let them
run their fingers down the pages of
history for six centuries more and
come to the year 1890.
I When, about these days, a successor
his race. had subjected to the obedi-
ence of the Koran and the sword every
nation outside Europe that was known
to the civilization of the Old World,
every knee that bent in profane hon.
age to Allah and his prophet from the
Pillars of Hercules to the walls of
Ccr6D RI f1,n C,,1$
ened to feed his war horse from the
oats Of the Vatican gardens on the
affairs Of st. Peter.
Was it not a priest and saint, Peter
the Hermit. who, at the bidding of an
other successor Of the fisherman, Ur-
ban II, made the churches and cathe-
dl@ls OF Europe ring with the thunders
Of an indignant and enthusiastic elo-
quence that reached to the very hearts
of the people and called forth their
faith and chivalry from the banks of
the Thames and the Seine. the Tibcr
and the Rhine to cross over baru;trOus
lands and dangerous seas to rescue
VIC ScpulCIlte where lQc DOOE Oh Their
Lord had been laid, and to save once
more the religion. the civilization and
the liberties of Europe?
And so one could so down the CEN
turtles. They would notice that in his
whole discourse he did not speak of
their Holy Mother, the Church, merely
as a divine institution founded by their
Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation OF
souls.
He did not speak of the Church only
in her doctrinal and sacramental sys-
tenn. as the guardian and infallible in
terpretcr Of revealed truth and sole
authorized dispenser of the mysteries
of God, for in that sense there was no
institution with which she could be
compared He merely spoke of her in
her external and mundane and secular
aspect. as the preserver of ancient
civilization, the defender of civil and
|