The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-05-02
A FREE CHURCH IN A FREE COUNTRY.

The opening of the centenary celebration of the
Catholic church in the city of New York last Sun
day was not only magnificent and imposing as a
! religious ceremony, but full of associations and
suggestions of the most interesting character At
the very moment when the position of the Supreme
Pontif in the imperial center of Catholic pilgri-
mage and worship is threatened by a conspiracy of
anti Christian governments the Church of which
he is the head is developing this new continent
and among the northern of Europe an influ-
ence and power which bring to memory the palm
lest days of its spiritual ascendancy
When the temporal sceptre of the successor of
st. Peter was wrested from his grAsp thirty odd
years ago the wise of the world prophesed the
downfall of the papacy, yet contrary to human *
pectation, the Supreme Pontif is today the only
commanding and authoritative influence over the
world The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore the
third of the great Basiicas of Rome, had been
Christian temple more than eleven hundred years
before the genius of Columbus unveiled this west
ern world. The gold, which adorns the splendid
carvings of its roof was the gift of Ferdinand and
Isabella from the first treasures of their new-found
empire.
1t is not yet old enough to have its luster
dnlmed by time, but, already, the incense which is
daily burned beneath it, burns at the same moment
in the solemn rites of the same faith before thou
sands of affairs and amid the prayers of millions of
worshlppers all over the grand hemisphere which
was heather from shore to mountain when that gold
was found upon its hills And here before bril-
liant representation of but part of the Catholic
Church III America, in country discovered and ex-
plored by Catholics, but afterwards and chiefly.
colonized by Professionals there is now assembled in
New York host of priests and prelates, Cardi-
nals Archbishops, Bishops and mtred Abbots with
the same splendor of vestment ritual and pageant
and the music of the chantings, which shone
and echoed through the yet stately streets of ancient
Rome when Santa Maria Maggore was consecrated |
a thousand years before the dream of Columbus be-
came a reality.
The imagination of ordinary men is hardly !
equal to the conception of such an actualtv and
o do justice to the reflections which belong TO #
would task the eloquence of Chryostem. and more
han his philosophy. In all the proud annals of the
mperlshable Church of God, there are few chap
ers OF Its history more wonderful and edifvinp
Aan that which records the growth and expansion
II the Catholic Church in the city of New York.
While we do not propose to enter upon theme
o nearly boundess and involving so much. that
admirable and edifying, it is but appropriate to
he occasion, and it certainly is pleasure to us.
say that the history of the Catholic Church in
Jew ork city and that of the Irish hosts who
inded at Castle Garden are indssolubv united
he Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and priests
nd the SIX thousand of Independent and free born
tlzens, who filed the great Cathedral on the OPEN
lg day of the centenary, the sons and grand
ms of the splendid men and women who fled from
,hglous persecution and famine in their own coun-
y to land of liberty of worship of generous hos
tally and boundless possibilities