The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-01-30
AN IDEAL CATHOLIC.
Gabriel Garcia Morena, Regeneration
of Ecuador.

Gabriel Garcia Morena, Regeneration
of Ecuador.
1t is now about twenty-five years
since Lady Herbert first introduced to
the English reading world the career of
a man who has been unique in all the
annals of modern history. The interest
aroused at that date in the life of Car
cia Morena has gone on growing apace,
until today he is known to all the Cath
Ollie world as the type of true manhood,
the ideal statesman, the knight with
out fear or reproach.
The present book contains little that
is not already we'll known in that re-
gard. though it has the merit of placing
its matter in clearer and more read
able setting than usual.
The Ideal Christian Layman.
The young Catholic man about to en-
bark upon his career in the world has
need of ideals. made concrete in the
rush and hurry OF modern life; nor is
he at a loss to find such either in his
own country or in those more sorely
tried fields of Catholic activity across
the ocean.
France itself the very prison house of
Catholic hope. has produced legion of
men who rose to eminence even in the
face of appalling evidences of hostility,
and by their very loyalty to the princi-
pies which reflected their faith have
compelled the admiration of an unbe-
Iieving world Such were OZanan,
Montalembert, Vieullot, the Count de
Nun.
Germany presents ardent spirits like
Overlook. and his companions, and
later Maliucrodt and Windhorst. Ire
land has her O'Connell and her Lord
Russell of Killowen. America her Taw-
neys. Bronsons. O'Reillys. South Amer
lea possessed that one who if not the
prince of them all, possessed qualities
that so to make up the Catholic ideal.
The Qualities of the Ideal Catholic.
At the very foundation of all true
Catholic life lies the spirit of living
faith. This faith Morena possessed in
a heroic degree. In the midst of honors
and triumphs that might have turned
the heads of lesser characters, he pos
sessed his faith in all the simplicity and
candor of childhood. There was mo-
ment when he seemed to have wavered;
it was during his stay in Paris, in 1859,
when the atmosphere of that capital
was heavily laden with the soporific of
his soul slept for while: but when the
honor of his beloved faith was ques-
toned, his soul awoke, and his faith
remained bright and living until the
very moment of death.
To a childlike faith he added a deep
knowledge of the theology, thus giving
"a form and substance to his belief that
called for the respect and reverence of
all who came under its influence. Nor
was he one who trusted in slothful SUI
pineness to justification through the
mere possession of faith; for as God
had given him a strong body and pow
erful mind. he believed it a duty to use
them to their utmost extent in those
good works wherebS that faith might
be diffused and made operative for
Gods honor and the welfare of the
church.
He was one we'll fitted to meet any an
tagonism that a hostile world might
bring against him in his capacity as a
Catholic gentleman His education gave
him a peculiar refinement that i'm
pressed an opposition continually decry-
ing the church as the mother of ignor-
ance: he was a man of scientific Gull
ture, and an adept I'm the art of liter
allure, besides possessed of a magnetic
gift which gave to his oratory a power
for conviction.
In word, to form himself as true
Catholic gentleman, he embellished all
the subtle qualities of his faith with
those accomplishments which would
make it possible for him to command
the respect of the world.
His Activities.
The state of Ecuador, which Moreno
found just emerging from a barbaric
servitude, owes to him more than to
any other among men. In political
way he found her harassed by the NAL
administration of politicians of the bri-
gand order, who had reduced their
country to a condition similar to that
which afflicts the unhappy land of
Hayti. Revolution was the order of the
day; anarchy took the place of rightful
authority. Religion was prosecuted;
laws were trampled under foot. and the
people were taught to tremble at the
very mention of the word government
1t was to Morena that Ecuador owed
the final establishment of a government
inspiring confidence, of laws that pro-
tected the humble as we'll as the pow-
erful, of an educa tional system where
the forces of modernism had permit
ted the blacklist ignorance, of good
roads, where his predecessors and op-
ponents were content with impossible
boys. Quagmires, forests or mountains.
1t was to him the country owed the
beauty of its cities, and the safety of
its harbor at Guayaquil. Before his adj
vent congress was only a name for
gathering of Adventures who plum
dered the people and murdered their
protectors Moreno made ii a govern
mental body engaged in questions of
public finance, power for economy in
state expenditures, and a bulWark for
popular liberty
And these services the state recog-
nized publicly not only during his life
time. when it called him again and
again, despite his own protestations, to
office, but also in the great time of ma
tional calamity, when the hero-.Was
stricken down by the hands of his cow
ardly enemies.
But it is in his services as Catholic
champion that we are most interested.
Ecuador was. and is today, distinct
lively Catholic country. AS such. her
only salvation from anarchy and social
disorder lies in her complete acceptance
of Catholic life not only in the private
home, but also, and especially in the
public and political order of her exist
ence.
We cannot judge of such a country
by the standards of land like our own
wherein the religious idea is varied in
the Llost multiplied and divergent
forms.