The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-09-17
AND FIGURES
CONCERNING SPAIN
His Eminence, Cardinal Moran, Re-
flutes False Charges That Have
Been Made.
Spaniards Distinguished for Perfect
Manners and Nobility of
Character.
Failure to Proselyte a People the
Real Secret of Their Abuse
and Obloquy.

Real Secret of Their Abuse
and Obloquy.
In an address recently in Sydney His
Eminence, Cardinal Moran, gave some
important facts and figures in reply
to the attacks, and refuting the false
charges for some time being made, on
the Spanish clergy and people by the
anti-Catholic press of Europe, says
the Freemans Journal
His Eminence said: During the past
few weeks he had seen in the daily
press very violent attacks upon the
Church in Spain. He wished to reply
to those attacks. They seemed to be
ligion rather than as showing matters
in their true light. 1t was said that
| IS per cent of the Spanish population
was illiterate, the whole people being
benighted and ignorant, the clergy rs
bad as the people, and wholly intent
upon shutting out from their flocks the
light Of evangelical truth, and depriv-
ing them Of the blessings of modern
ism. There was hardly a particle Of
truth in all this. His Eminence said
that he took an interest in the Spanish
people, for they were a noble race. It
was from the coast Of Spain came the
Celtic race and during the terrible era
Of the Penal Laws it was in the sunny
land Of the peninsula that very many
Of the suffering exiles Of Erin found
a secure refuge and home. The
fame of Spain for chivalry and, pa
triotism was unsurpassed. When over
whelmed by Moorish invasion the peo-
pie kept the national flag. unfurled in
the mountains and in the Basque prov
inces. For 800 years they never re-
laxed the struggle, till at length every
trace of Moorish dominion was ban
ished.
Spain's literature surpassed that of
many other countries Of Europe; her
school of painting rivalled that of
Raphael itself; her cathedrals and 9TH
er medieval monuments were unriv-
allied in the splendor Of their archi-
lecture. The people Of Spain were dis
tinguisled for their perfect manners,
for nobility of character, and a culti-
waited taste for the fine arts.
If for time her people were illit-
crate the reason was not far to seek.
During great part of the past CEN
tury the country was overwhelmed with
all the ruins and miseries Of civil war,
and became prey to revolutionary
factors; Church property was confis-
Gated, religious bodies exiled or scat
tered, the clergy were reduced to alb
solute penury and oppressed in every
of persecution the Church kept alive
the lamp of knowledge and preserved
to the people the blessings Of religion
A report presented to the United
States in 1900 gave the illiterates as
80 per cent; but in that very year the
illiterates of North Carolina were set
down as % per cent, and yet North
Carolina was not an ignorant state
Referring to the latest educational re-
turns, the Cardinal said he had learned
that the average attendance in the
primary schools Of Spain was 10s per
thousand of the population. In Can
ada, the average attendance was only
100 per thousand, and in Mexico still
less. Mulhall stated that the number
of university students in Spain sur
passed almost that Of every other coun-
ltry in Europe. The United States COM
missioner reported the number of stu
dents in the Spanish universities al
10000. In England, with double the
population, the number of university
students was 9,802. Assuredly the
ISpanish were not an ignorant race
Honesty and morality held their owr
in Spain.
i Sir Hiram Maxim, Of Maxim CUR
flame, has made public the results OF
his observations during tour in Spain
He has an English factory near Lon.
don, and Spanish one in the Basque
the most thoroughly Catholic province
in Spain. In the heart Of that entire.
ly Catholic country such thing. as q
lock was unnecessary. by night ant