The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-12-26
A Dying Church.

The Rev. G. L. Cady of Dorchester,
Mass, has sounded a note of warning
which his co-religionists would do well
to heed. In a sermon he plainly told his
congregation that what is known as
race suicide is rapidly exterminat-
ing the Puritan church in Massachu-
sets and New England. After giving
figures to substantiate this statement
he said:
Congregational families have ceased
to perpetuate themselves. The days
when the family came to church and
filled one or two pews, as in our youth,
are gone, and in their place we look in
vain for the children in the church or
in the house.
We have in these words an impressive
reminded Of the penalties that are paid
for the violation of Gods laws.
The sacredness Of marriage. as taught
by the Catholic church, is an effective
safeguard against the crimes which
have produced the results which threat
en- such dire consequences to the de-
scendants of New England Puritans.
The crimes, to which we have referred,
mean the commission of murder Catho-
lie husbands and wives have been
taught this. Moreover they have learned
that one of the chief ends of matrimony
is to bring forth children, who, after
serving God in this world, will enjoy the
beatific vision throughout all eternity.
When this view of marriage does not
exist, marriage degenerates into a spe-
cies Of concubinage in which the hus-
band and wife are governor more by
selfish motives than by a sense of the
solemn obligations they entered into
when they pledged their solemn trotr
to each other.
In this connection too much insist
ence cannot be placed upon the sacra-
mental character of Catholic marriages
as differentiating them from the Pro-
testants marriages. which, deprived of
the Sacramental sanction, are in the
last analysis contracts dissolvable for
various reasons. Catholics, when they
assume the duties and responsibilities
of matrimony, know that death alone
can dissolve the relations established
between them at the foot of Gods al
tar. Viewing marriage as a sacrament
they necessarily have greater reverence
for 1t, and consequently shun the COM
mission of crimes which produce such
disastrous results as those described by
the Rev. G. /. Cady, who draws the
following suggestive parallel between
the condition of things in the Catholic
churches of Massachusetts and the Con-
BTeSdIlOIldI cnurCneS OF the same state:
THE Catholic church has q great
army of children coming up each year,
native born, and the priest knows just
what he can count upon for confirma-
ton each year. and he knows that next
year there will be just as large crop
to harvest.
81 have no doubt that, things being
equal, If there were as many children
born in Congregational as in Catholic
families, we would today witness as
great proportionate native growth
and front the future with calm face
when the Puritan stock commits
race suicide the Puritan church must
also follow the path of involutary hari-
kari
In these words is embodied sad con-
fession. The Rev. G. L. Cady plainly |
tells US that the members of the Pro- |
testant sect of which he is a minister |
have violated persistently the sanctities |
of the married state, and that conse- |
quently there is every prospect Of the |
Congregational church dying by what |
he calls ''involutary harikari. New /
York F'reeman's Journal