Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1910-05-17
TAKE:
UP CUDGEL IN
DEFENSE
STAND ON RECORD or
METH0DlSTS IN ROME
Board Declares Catho-
lie Attacks Are Unwaranted
by the History of Italian
Propaganda,

BY Morning journal special Ieaeed Wire
Philadelphia, May 16-The hoard
nt bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
church. through It's secretary Bishop
l.. H. Wilson. tonight issued an official
statement which had been prepared
by the board at It's meeting In Chica-
80 on May Q relative TO the Italian
mission. The statement is the out
come of the recent controversy in
Rome caused by the visit of colonel
Roosevelt
The statement follows.
"Doploring and at all times seeking
to avoid nter-denominationa contro-
Ncrsy we are nevertheless compelled
to recognize occasions when personal
preference must yield 10 proper
sense Of official duty.
We cannot allow To pass unnotic-
ed the recent Dprovoked and unwar-
ranted attempt to discredit one Of our
NOSE useful missions by widely pub
lished accusations which, If based up
on truth would bring .dishonor upon
the church which supports that mis-
sion.
we regret that after repeated chal-
lenges for details of the specific acts
supposed e. Justify these charges they
stll remain In such general terms that
their validity can not be tested before
the Judgment of the world. We can
only observe.
II. That ordinarily the use ot ops
probrious adieetiycs is suggestive of
anger rather than of reason.
-. THAT the methods Of our mis-
sion in Italy now for the first time
thus publicly. condemned are the
same that haze been pursued from the
beginning, almost forty years ago.
"3. The tho same methods name-
lv. preaching the gospel in its sim
plicitv and conducting schools whore
they are needed. schools which recog-
nize the plain teaching of the New
Testament as a supreme authority in
religion ana ethics, have long been
followed by our missions in South
America and Mexico as well as in
Rome. ANA no such indictment has
been brought against those missions
even to this day, so far as we know.
"a. From these facts the inference
appears to BE irresistible thut other
consideration than the methods Of
our mission la Rome must have been
the real cause of this sudden outcry
Had there been any other way to
avoid certain Issues Of etiquette ana
precedence created by coincident cir
cumstances of public nature. the
Methodist mission might have oscap-
ca cAiunlnN dllu liuS iuSi llle NNiuNlit
recognition of its success
Under such circumstances We enter
upon no defense OF our work i'm italy
ana make no plea for abatement IN
the Judgment Of the world
we decline at the present time to
enter upon any counter-attack upon
the Roman Catholic churches,
We only ask that all fair men in
tcrested i'm the situation, study for
themselves, its methods of propaganda
ism and traditional attitude of that
church toward other Christian faiths.
We believe that there are standards
of equity ana moral rcctitudc by
which in the estimate Of all progress
siVe peoples All religions ana All meth-
ods must he rated by what they con-
tribute To Intelligence and moral char
lctcr.
We now content our selves with af-
firming our entire confidence in the
moral integrity of our missionaries
and methods in italy. and against the
denunciations OF their accuscrs we
place the wide open record Of the
Methodist Episcopal church. both as
to teaching and method In America
and throughout the world