The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1912-03-25
FATHER VAUGHAN
URGES CATHOLICS
FIGHT SOCIALISM
NOTED JESUIT SEES 1T RISING AS
A GREAT WAVE AND THREAT
ENING CHRISTIANITY.
NOT ROOM ENOUGH FOR BOTH.
Men, He Says, Cannot Be Made
Equal by Rule When God Himself
Has Made Them Unequal.

AIdS NlCuc lncm Unequal.
New York, March 25.-For all the
dismal day without st. Patrick's
Cathedral was packed yesterday when
Father Bernard Vaughan, the English
Jesuit, preached the fifth of his Len
ten Conferences on Socialism. With
Socialism and Religion as his topic
he reached the focal point of his SER
les when he pointed out that real
Socialism and real Christianity can
pot exist in the same man at the
same time; that between Socia ism as
taught by its men of light and lead
ing on the one hand and revealed re-
ligion on the other there can be no
truce. With this as his argument he
urged the Catholics Of New York to
call Socialism out into the open and
fight it to the end.
I'm origin and in destiny" said
Father Vaughan, "men are born
equal, and in nothing else. Those
who talk of equality of opportunity
as the great panacea are talking bal
derdash. Not even twins, asleep in
the same cradle, reared in the same
nursery, taught at the same school,
and following the same profession,
are equal. You cannot make men
equal when God makes them unequal.
instruct God.
Life here is life of probation.
and it would be blasphemy to God to
say it is not. 1t is puzzle. God
has the key to the puzzle. He has
put us to work. Oh. give Him eight
give Him time, my brethren, and he
I will give you eternity. Not a bad
z! change; not bad change. But If you
give time to Socialism it will give
you rather a bad time. 1t Is giving
my country a bad time. Over there
the forces of Socialism are loose, and
my country cannot control them.
Stand on your own feet over here, un-
der your own hat, and working with
your own hands until you batter In
the gates of Heaven.
Sees Great Wave Threatening.
1T would speak to you of the atti-
tude of Socialism toward revealed re-
ligion, toward Christianity, and in
particular toward the Catholic
to prove that I take not the utter
ances of social reformers, of hangers
on, nor of the weak-minded Social
| lists who do nots count, I go to the
F, teachings of Marx and Engels. Even
so well informed and so thoroughly
] respectable an authority as H. G.
! Wells says that the Socialism of Marx
and Engels is very anti-Christian in
tone. 1t must be. Real Socialism fills
man brimful, as an eggshell is full
of meat, as a bottle is full of wine.
There is no room inside for anything
| else. There is no room in the So
cialist for Christianity.
According to Bernstein, MarxiaL-
ism. had anti-Chrfstian principles for
it's very foundation, and Marx him
self feltTthat it was the mission. of
Socialism to expel from the minds of
nd q
spectre of religion They, the COM
rades, are taught to look upon re-
vealed religion as a ghost got up to
frighten children into being good and
money. If this is their theory, then
they ought to sweep Christianity out
of existence. John Spargo says that
the founders of Socialism held up all
dogmas to ridicule and scorn. That
is what Socialists ought to do, or else
quit Socialism,
BY such invitations he urged the
Socialist to come out into the open.
By such contrasts he urged the Cath
Ollie to abandon all notion that he
could be both Catholic and Socialist.
Then he went on:
"Oh. my, brethen, do not flirt with
this thing. Do not caress it. Grid
up your Ioins and fight. I have re-
ceived letter in which / am told
that Christianity in this country is
dodo. When His Eminence returned
to these shores from Rome there was
accorded to him, I think, full proof
that the Christianity of Christ is no
dodo. But Socialism, the thing that
threatens, is growing all the time. A
great tidal wave, it has swept and
nearly swamped my country, and it
seems to me l see a great Atlantic
wave rising and bearing down upon
us. Meet it, Catholics, Hold your
ground.
"Bebel says that Socialism has re-
duced the Catholic church to ashes
Why, when Socialism is in the limbo
of the greenroom the church will
stand in the centre of the stage,
young and fresh for the drama she
has to play, till the curtain shall fall
upon the Day of Doom.
Issue That Must Be Met.
.'They say that the church has been
deluding the poor old Irish. The poor
Irish!. The Irish with no sense Of
them! Oh, Cardinal, you have a
splendid Irish following here Let me
set them to meet Socialism. For it
must be met. Socialism is all or
nothing. Catholicism is all or moth
ing And there will be this fight to
the old religion of Jewry and the
newer religion of Christianity.
John. Spargo may be right in tell
ing us that Socialism will fit with the
new Christianity, with the Christian
ity of the evolutionist and the mod
ernist; but II this we are sure, that
Social ism does not fit n with the old
Christianity. Let me remind John
Spargo that the church of Christ is
immutable, unchanged, and unchange-
able, the same today as it was 1000
years ago. The Catholic church is a
living energizing thing. She is asl
fair and as beautiful as on the day
when she first stepped forth from the
Pentacostal Chamber. She takes all
the new discoveries of science to-
throw light upon her dogmas, but she
can no more change them than she
can change the rose.
THE Socialists say they do not care
about our star land. We tell them
we do not care about their mud land
They hold that this world is no drill
place, but plea sure ground, with
no rose with a briar They would
pluck the fruits and believe there is
no forbidden fruit. Poor little third
rate planet, You're making too much !
of it, my friends You cannot stop
sin and death, my brethren and of
what use is Socialism on a deathbed, |
which for the Catholic is the begin
ming of life and for the Socialist the
end of life?
"Oh. let us try to tear out of this
country this poisonous thing called
Socialism Let us try to win it's fol-
lowers With all our energy let us
try to win them from this petty thing
that offers them no home no well |