The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-08-02
ARCHBISHOP RYAN
ATTACKS ELIOT'5
NEW RELIGION
"Paganism Under Another
Name" Prelate Says in
Article.
CIVILIZATION BASED ON
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
Take Away Faith and Infanticide
Will Begin Again, He
Declares.

Archbishop Ryan, in the current is
sue of the Catholic Standard and
Times. replies to the advocates of non
sectarianism. Although he mentions
lone of the persons whom he evidently
seeks to reproach, his paper seems to
be conceived as a counter argument to
every phrase of DR.. Eliot's recent dis
course on a progressive religion.
The archbishop calls his dissertation
Plagiarism Under d New Name" and
lrefaces his attack on the proposed ab-
clifton of sectarianism by declaring:
christian civilization is based on
and motiyed by great Christian doc
trines which, ii weakened or denied,
will weaken or ruin the great super
structure itself and send us pack, not
mercy to pagan civilization, but mucn
farther"
He further says:
one of the most fatal aud demoraliz-
ing superstltions of TINS country Is tins
IA separation OF morality from dot
lunal teaching Doctrines aIe as the
granite foundation TO the wnuIe euince OF
CHRISTIAN ethics, anu with them tnat edi-
nee must stand or ctulnble lnto ruins.
W nat underlleS the value OF molly child
hood but the doctrine tnat the child has
all immortal sou1Z Abolish TINS, look at
the enid only i'll the llgnt OF its utility
TO the State ana soon inIduticlde will COIL
mence again, and reformed children wlIl
be put To death when men snail have
lost the tenderness which Christianity mas
produced and Iostered.
Take away the doctrine of faith and
suicide, which Is becoming SO common, Is
the resort UI the child of misfortune N
the hour OF misery. And as taitn dHmin-
lshes suicide must increase. Statistics
SHOW us that III Zen wears IL lntlt;lSpl 20
per cent. IN Germany. 1t Is increasing iii
France, and Will increase in GOu
as faith loses Its hoid upon the children
VI men. One tlIng Is remarkable IN the
statistics Ot %sulclue, ana tnat is the dis
proportion OF women To men. Women
are supposed to believe more and trust
more deeply than men, and in one list
OF 1U6 cases where suicide was attributed
" WEAKNESS or life, there were found Dut
=&x women TO 100 men.
1t is known that among Germans who
fendeavor to act out their talth, as tue
catholics aid Lutherans. suicide Is al
most unknown. 80 that it Is not to be
attributed to u national temperament. but
10 loss OF talth and of hope. which makes
life Nearisome. 1t is remarked OF the
Irish who have faith that suicide is al
most unheard of amongst them, aud this
is to be attributed, at least TO Il great eX-
tent, TO the influence of that faith upon
them in the hour of their rylng af-
fflctlonS. Some have asserted that ii is
rather pugnacity than plety. An Irlshman
oCR' ~ INV 4 " " Il III q Bill GNthl
In the fight of life, and regards suicide
as an act of cowardice, when in truth 1t
Is. But this is not sufficient to account
for his victory over aftliction.
We must remember that though the
new religion of the future of when some
men dream may not be called paganism,
1t IS paganism under another name. we
occasionally hear OF the religion of hui
mainly. What is this but paganlsm, when
defined all that was true and beauti-
ful and good with all that Vas vile IN
a1- FanfFpa aud Ia11nI fAA-g hin -
various names, the delties of its ~religion.
II any one Whispered 10 the iutidel phil
osophers of France who sought the de-
struetlon Of the Christian religion that
the day world come when they would
ind themselves worshipping at a pagan
altar, they would have smiled in derislon.
But false principles soon act themselves
ont into institutions. Human reason was
deitied, and the, and the goddess of rea-
son-a dancing girl of Parls-sood on the
high altar OF Notre Dame, a fit symbol
Of the prostituted reason that ruled the
hour. But after a time some philosopher
might say: why not Il goddess of love,
a power stronger than reason and more
universal in its influence We will not
call her Venus, because that would sound
like. old paganlsm. We will call her glori-
Gus Human Love" But cries out
another. we should, after all, have "a god
of spotless French honor, and another of
military glory and so on through the
whole range of human passions. good and
bad. until the Pantheon should be COM
plete. Man is a religious being. If he
worship not God he will worship himself.
Deny the doctrines of faith and you try
to kill Christianity and establish some
form of paganism.
In the name of our Christian civiliza-
ton 1, bishop Of the Christian church,
lift up my voice to warn the representa-
tive men who hear me that the popular
modern system of teaching morality with
out the doctrines that motive it, whether
that system be called Christian ethics or
moral instruction, or unsectarian teaching,
Is sapping the very foundations Of Chris
tianity and Christian civilization.