The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-04-07
NOT ANTAGONIzING
The CATHOLICS
Work Of the Methodists in Rome is
Not in the Nature Of an AS
sault Upon the
Vatican
ITALY NEEDS RELIGION
Prof. Riley Says that Rome Contains
More Infidels Than Any other
City Of its
Size.
Especial to The Gate City.l

MOUNT VERNON, iowa, April T.
In reply to Archbishop Ireland, who
alleges that "the Methodist propagan-
da in Rome is vile, calumnious and
dishonest, Professor E. G. Riley, OF
Cornell college who is intimately ac-
quainted with the work of the Meth
odist church from a long residence IN
Rome as q member of the American
School of Classical Studies, said to-
day:
It is not true, as know from lnti-
mate acquaintance with the Methodist
work and workers in Rome, that the
Methodist church is guilty of insult
ing agitation and offensive proselyt-
ism which constitute a real warfare
against the holy father and the Cath
olic religion The Methodists have
their hands more than full with those
who come to them believing nothing,
and seeking light. Crandon dall, IN
which | lived and taught for a year,
is patronized by daughters OF official
and leading families OF Italy. The
4 young ladies pay their own expenses.
and the school is SO overcrowded
that 1t has been obliged to seek more
cRpacious quarters outside Porta Ia
,1aria. Pope Leo XIII offered indul-
Eencies of no less than twenty-five
days to any one who would keep pu-
pills from tho school Although NO
proselyting has been done by the
school or its friends the attendance Is
between two and three hundred. Miss
Italia Garibaldi, granddaughter Of the
great general, has charge of the Carl
baldi school for poor girls, which is
also under Methodist control. She
says she has never sought pupil,
but she cannot begin to accommodate
all who come. keep in close touch
with our work there through letters
from friends and an italian paper pub
lished by the mission. The Methodist
church is doing great and needed
work in Italy and doing it under the
laws of United Italy, which guarantee
religious freedom.
The king recognizes the value Of all
agencies which make for the moral
betterment OF his people. He sent
warm words of welcome and apprecia-
ton to the first national convention of
the Y. Nj. C. A. when | attended five
years ago. He has in various ways
shown his approval of the work done
by our Methodist mission, and has
extended numerous courtesies to those
leading that work. Bishop Burt, while
the general superintendent of the
Methodist work in Italy, was knighted
by King Victor Emmanuel The king,
himself Catholic in name, is gener
Gus, progressive and intelligent and il
would seem that he wishes to save
his nation from irreligiousness, and
that he sees the Protestant church is
ready and able to minister to those
who have no faith in old beliefs.
The last census of Italy says that
of all the states of Europe Italy has
the largest number or men without
any religious profession. 1t is I'M
doubtedly true that Rome itself, the
center of Catholicism, contains in its
borders more skeptics and infidels
than any city of its size in the world :
The work of Professionalism IN ltaly
is not to assault Catholicism, but tc
minister to those outside the pale OF
her influence. and this the noble mer
and women of the Methodist mission
are doing.