The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-03-13
ST. P4TRICK'S DAY.

Next Wednesday, March Il the scattered
of the Gael in the United States Australia Can
ada and, indeed, all over the English-spealing
world in cathedral, chapel and public hall will
honor the memory Of the great saint who sixteen
hundred years ago, laid deep and truly the foun-
dations of the Christian religion in Ireland. BY
these religious and secular celebrations the Irish
at home and abroad will proclaim to the world the
indomitable national tenacity. the strength ana
marvellous perpetuity Of the Irish Celts. whon
Freeman, the historian, signalizes as an "uncon-
querable race"
1t is a honorable characteristic of the members
of the Irish race to which are proud to belong,
that, scatter them wherever you will the sur
face of the globe they never can be prevailed upon
10 forget their mother land. The forces operating
against the Irish people at home were and are very
great and if it not for the help of the scat
tered sons Of the Gael in Australia and America
do not think the Irish at home would be able
to struggle successfully against these forces. Con-
tending with all the resources and all the might of
of the greatest empires the sun has ever shone
upon, they have been able to make steady and
irresistible progress in asserting the rights and
liberties of the Irish nation
Then men of Irish blood in America Canada,
South Africa III Australia and far-away New Yea
land the exiles in England and Scotland, have I'M
grudgingly and with admirable generosity support
ed the Irish at home in their constitutional battles
for justice and fair play. They have time and
again stood by the Irish parliamentary party and
held up their arms when the sky was overcast with
clouds. and as a result of their encouragement and
financial aid the Irish at home are coming into
their own
If it were possible for the church Of God to be
indebted to any race that debt would be due to the
Irish people. and we have no hesitation in assert
ing that the greatest of all Catholic interests is
the protection and preservation of the Irish race
in Ireland 1t Is the glory of that race that its
sons and daughters are today the right arm of the
Catholic church throughout the world-the most
vital, the most enlightened of all the great di-
visions Of that imperishable church. and the most
progressive Withdraw the Irish from the Catho-
lie church in every English-speazing land through
out the world and where would the Catholic church
be!
The Catholic church of ireland. wherever it
goes. spreads. and is a living faitll-no fossilized
and Anticipated form of Catholicity. but living
religion, whose members are always ready and will
ing to fight and suffer for their faith, and when
called upon to make the great choice-which all
Irishmen have been called upon 10 make more than
once-have never hesitated
The Irish people have never lesitated to risk
and to sacrifice where necessary, every temporal
advantage rather than part with the faith Of their
fathers. They held that faith against the might
Of the British empire through two centuries Of
blood and persecution and
Were faithful 10 their Holy Church. is direst
straits amo2g.
To one another faithful still those priests and geo-
pie ciuiic."
through Gods special mercy The IRISH race
passed for Two hundred years through Inc fires Of
persecution and caac out refined as silver is re-
fined and med ees gold is tried The irish Cells.
to their cte.nal credit were faithful 10 one an
other aud loyal to their faith to degree hat
amazed and defeated their oppressors, and that
bord OF union, consecrated and strengthened by