The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-07-17
Americans Always Look for Best"

Cardinal Merry del VAL papal secre-
tary of state, in his address at the re-
cent golden jubilee celebration of the
American college, spoke interestingly
and suggestively of The church In Amer
lea and of the great loyalty of Amer
lean Catholics to the holy see.
LAS l listened to the speakers on
Thursday" he said, 81 endeavored to
find an explanation for what would ap-
pear to be what I would call kind of
natural impulse in Americans to be so
full of love and loyalty toward the holy
see and toward the Catholic church;
and 1 tried to discover a reason why
they are eagerly prompt to accept the
decisions of the holy father, why Amer
! lea offers so rich and so fertile a soil
for the extension of the aCtholic religion
and for the influence of ChriSts church.
And / think that 1 have found an
answer. 1t is for you to judge whether
l am right. I am speaking from a hu-
man standpoint. 1 know full well that
the great progress of the Catholic
| church in America is due above all
things to divine grace, that God can
overcome every obstacle and, if neces-
sary, from the very stones raise up chill
dren to Abraham. know how much is
to be attributed to the labors and en-
in the United States, to the energy and
apostolic spirit of the clergy, to the in
itiatiYe and devotion of many noble
members of the laity. But, still, consid-
ering the matter in a different way, is
not another explanation of this progress
to be found in one of the prominent fea-
lures of the American character?
''It strikes me that the true Ameri-
can always looks for the best in every
direction. He wants what is thorough,
what is true, what is real, and just as
he seeks the best in every path of life,
in commerce and industry and practica!
affairs, so when he comes to consider
the interests of his immortal soul and
his eternal salvation, he wants what is
genuine and true, he wants the best
again. He seeks for a faith that really
comes from heaven and somebody who
can unerringly communicate that faith
to him. He is not satisfied with mere
opinions and clever theories, no matter
how respectable those opinions and the
cries may be.
THE true American wants the GER
tainty of divine faith and the security
of a teaching that is really supernatural
and safe means of reaching his eter-
nal destiny. And this he finds in the
authoritative and infallible teaching
which comes from the see of Peter, from
the Vicar of Christ on earth. He seeks
for virtue, not in its outward appear
ances, but real and solid virtue with a
supernatural principle and a super
natural object. And here again Rome
with centuries at her back shows him
that virtue and the way to practice it.
The American requires discipline and
an authority which is not tyranny but
compatible with legitimate freedom.
whilst able when necessary to curb and
quell disorder. This, too, he finds in
the Catholic church. Hence it is that
all Americans worthy of the name, |
when once they know now the church |
as she really is and not as she is often |
represented to be, are naturally inclined |
to love the apostolic see and to hold |
themselves faithful and loyal to it."