The Irish standard., 1911-02-18

of advanced education amongst the
people, though there are drawbacks,
but trust these will disappear.
Conservative Influence.
do not think there are any emf
grants in the world that are SO truly
attached to the mother country as
are the Irish emigrants. 1t is seen
in the amount of money sent home to
Ireland from them in America. It is
seen in their generosity toward col
lectors from Ireland. I may say in
passing with regard to the young
girls living out in America, most OF
them respectable farmers daughters,
whose fathers ought to be proprietors
of properties on which they are only
tenants, that those young girls are ex-
amples of Irish purity, Irish honesty,
Irish loyalty to God, Irish patriotism,
and they have been the means, as l
know, after fifty years experience,
that they have been the means used
by Almighty God for some of those
valuable conversions to Catholicity
which have taken place throughout
the entire of the American continent
There example has had deep and
effective results. Often have l heard
people who were sceptics about reli-
gion, people who did not know par
ticularly we'll what their minds were,
often have l heard such people say:
How much would not l give for that
certainty of faith that those Irish
girls have-absolute certainty and
conviction" They are beginning to
recognize in America the great con-
servative influence and elements in
the Catholic Church. They acknowl-
edge now that we are right on the
subject of matrimonial divorces. There
was no less than sixty thousand di-
vorces in the United States within this
past year, and the fact is appalling to
the minds of intelligent people.
They feel that the marriage tie is
WCdhCIcu ctI1u ll1Oy SCS CuoC CAS AAAoA1
are united in the marriage tie. that
even the poorest Of them, with large
-''ilies, invariably put their trust in
God, and do not, like others, go about
trembling and despairing of help and
sustenance for the future. They see
that with regard to our position as to
otyi,, al rioht
and with regard to another divorce,
the divorce of religion from education,
they are beginning to see that we are
also right. They notice how in Ire,
land and in American Ireland, where
education is combined with religion
and Influenced by the fear of God that
religion inspires, crimes are few and
the law is observed.
What impresses the Americans
| most in regard to the Irish is the cor
tainty of faith, the purity of the mar.
riage relation, the indissolubility OF
marriage that characterize our people
They see those qualities of the Irish
in their homes, in the remarkable pr
| itv of their girls, in the conduct OF
their young mer. In my own diocese
there are ten thousand of these YOUR 9
men between sixteen and seventeen
and the years of mature manhood
who go to Communion four times in
the year, who are perfectly temper
ate, who are masters of their passions
who are pure though unmarried young
men. This spectacle is before the
American people every day. The
American people have great sense
of fair play. They are silent, think
irg people, but they are just anc
straight according to their lights, ant
they know that it is the rnen Of the
Irish race who have preserved tht
purity, the soundness, the inst stit,;tions
OF all that is noble in the great Am
erican Republic.
I will bring your message to th<
Irish race in America. l shall tel
them of what | have seen and expert
enced. I shall tell them of the kline
words you have spoken of them, an(
of the manner in which your observa
tions were received by this great gath
ering of priests representing the vari
GUS dioceses of Ireland. know hoV
they love their old priesthood and thu
old affairs before which they received
their first Communions. l know thei
virtues as I know their faults, and
am convinced that they ever will b.
loyal to the old Church and to thei
glorious old country.
Thomas Bowling, an Old Resident
E~l,,cbino 1ia1 at hic home