Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-08-11

! High Mass at the Cathedral of the
| Holy Cross at A. M. today preceded
the formal opening of the convention
of the National Catholic Total Absti-
hence Union. The Cathedral was
crowded by the delegates and citizens.
The service with it's wealth of music
and ritual and participated in by lead
ing prelates, was an imposing specta-
| Gle. The celcbrant of the mass was the
Rt. Rev. Mgr. NJ. j. Spaline of Boston.
In a powerful sermon Most Rev.
William II. OConnell, archbishop of
| Boston. deplored the evils of intem-
| perGnce.
| THE cause of temperance he said,
ito which you are to dedicate these
days of counsel and deliheration. is a
most sacred one. The vice of intempcr-
ancc against which you wage a holy
war. is both in itself and it's conse-
| quences at the root of most of the evils
| of our day.
The worker in the cause of temper
ancc is therefore an apostle and a sol
| der. An apostle, because by preaching
| ChriSt'S truth, which is law ordan-
| ing all things toward their true end
| he condemns abuse OF any gift of God
| and of all created things as crime
/ against the creator: and he is sol
| der armed for his country's good be
cause the curse of drunkenness when
! il lies upon a land works destruction
md devastation.
"Tne priest whose mission in life is
to save souls sees in the vice of in
temperance and drunkenness the very
devil himself. inspiring against all vir-
.ue and even religion itself, and the
citizen whose desire it is to build up
4 republic of strong men. healthy of
body and sound of mind, realizes well
the menace which drink is to soul
mind and body The man who loves his
fellow man, who far sheer love of his
kind. if for no higher motive. heholds
the utter wreck and ruin, the crime
the unhappinesS which excessive drink
always brings in it's train. In a word,
every man of every creed or no creed
at all. who knows naught of human
life in all it's varied relations toward
church, toward country. in the family.
in the workshop, in the city streets,
in word everywhere where man
meets man, must come to this certain
conclusion. neither exaggerated nor
iiStot leu. tiidt ttIIlOiS tiit cN IL
which bring an obvious curse upon
those addicted to them, the habit of
drunkenness. the vice of drink is at
the very mead of the list and is gener-
ally responsible for nearly every other
form of crime.
at is hard in the face of all the
devilsh ruin which liquor has
wrought to deal with this question
calmly and dispassionately. And the
priest who. day after day and year
after year. is brought face to face
with the awful blight which this dia-
bolical habit has brought sometimes
into the very best of the families of
his flock. may we'll be pardoned if from
the housetops he cries the bitterness
of his anger in language. which TO
those living apart from the ruin which
h secs deem excessive.
/ "The churchs Divine doctrine. and
the churchs Divine sacraments are in
this question as in every other one,
touching human nature. the only per
manent key to the cause of the evil
and its radical cure"
At the close of the service the dele
gates escorted by the Catholic Total
Abstinence Union regiment of Wilkes
barre. Pa. marched to FaneuiI hall
where addresses of welcome were Civ
en- by state and city officials