The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-04-20

rick's Day celebration in Liverpool on
March 10:
One of the most marked and proud
est characteristics of the Irish race is
the fidelity, unparalleled so far as my
reading tells me in the annals of any
other people, with which our race has
adhered through storm and sorrow to
the faith which was brought to Ire
land by ST. Patrick, and has preserved
misfortunes that treasure OF the
spiritual life embodies in that faith
for them. During these years, as I
once heard a great orator describe for
the Irish people, religion was stripped
of all these exercises which surround
ed in the past in Europe. Mighty
cathedrals, and all the romp and
majesty of the glorious music of our
Church, and the art of Christianity,
surrounded for other peoples their
acts of worship and helped them to
elevate their souls to their Creator.
But for the Irish people, religion
had to be maintained in this hut,
where he sheltered his hunted priest,
or on the mountainside with watch
men on guard for the soldiery who
might at any moment interrupt his
worship; and for generations and CEN
turtles under circumstances like that,
unparalleled in the history of any
other race, the holy flame of religion
and spiritual life, given to the Irish
people by ST. Patrick, was maintained
and kept alive in Ireland when most
other people would have allowed it to
perish. When the chivalry of our race
was broken, slaughtered or banished.
when those who remained, educated
men or men of position had bowed
their neck to the yoke of the stranger
and been false, many of them, to the
faith of their fathers in the hut of the
peasant it was that their priesthood
found their refuge, and that the sa-
cred flame was kept alive and handed
down from generation to generation
to be the redemption and salvation of
their race.
Only Consolation in Persecution.
And that faith has been to us not
through periods Of terror and perse-
cution, but it has served as the COL
umn of flame served to the children
of Israel, as beacon to guide us all
the centuries and rallying point for
our scattered race, SO that today, after
all these centuries of persecution, we
still remain great people and Ma
ton. Seeing as 1--WE do the peculiar
position, tho strength of vitality and
progress which the Catholic Church
and the Christian religion holds
among the Irish race today. it is a
matter of some interest to inquire
what are the causes why the Catholic
religion is SO much stronger. SO much
more progressive, SO much fuller Of
vitality amongst the Irish people than
1t is amongst the other peoples
Of Europe today?
That is one of the most Interesting
subjects of inquiry that can engage
the attention of man, assembled as
You are to celebrate this great ami
versary-to inquire and ask ourselves
how does it come that the Christian
religion is in SO unsatisfactory a po-
sition in most of the countries of Eu-
rope today as compared with that
which it occupies amongst the people
Of Ireland, whether they are scattered
throughout the other centcrs of the
world. To my mind it has to be ac-
counted for by two great reasons.
Bond Created in Common SUFFERING,
In the first place because the people
and the priests of Ireland have come
through generations and centuries of
persecution together; because together
they have suffered sorrow. and to-
gether they have struggled for liberty,
SO there has been created that pecu-
know of in the world-Whicn binds the
Irish priest to his Irish flock, which is
bond created and annealed in COM
mon suffering, that has followed our
people and their priesthood through
out the world, till today, in all the
countries to which the Irish race has
been scattered, whether it be to the
United States or Canada, or New
Zealand, through all of which I have
travelled, it is no exaggeration to say
that the position of the Irish priest is
the source of envy to the priesthood
of every other Nationality. That is
one reason of the great power and
strength of the Catholic Church and
Of the Christian religion in ireland and
amongst the Irish people.
Another reason I may cay is this
that T fhtnk tho roI;t;oo1 1,a.s