The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-11-09

of this month. regret keenly not
to know English and to be obliged to
reply in French to the two important
questions which YOU have been kind
enough to ask me.
The first, concerning Catholic
bishop who is said to be in relation
with the founders Of Christianity, St.
Jean, the Queen of Sheba, and the
deacon Philippe, etc, is a most i'm
aginative fiction. There are in Hayti
Catholic bishops, all of them men of
common sense. The article of the pa.
per is more than calumny; it is
stupidity l defy the author of the
article to give the name of the pre-
tended Roman Catholic bishop who
used such language. l do not believe
that any sensible man can be found
willing to believe that a Roman Cath
olic bishop, in constant relation with
Rome and with France, should be cap
able of such fantastic statements.
There has, however, been here a GER
tain bishop, Msgr. Holly, an American
from Mobile, negro, representing
the High Church of England and call
ing himself Catholic but not Ro-
man Catholic-a man affiliated to the
sect of the Adventists, etc. Perchance
this is the bishop to whom the writer
of that article alludes; but the Cath
olic clergy has nothing to do with this
protestant.
Second question concerning the
superstition; / equally deny and
equally defy the author of the article
to name the Roman Catholic bishop;
who could have spoken to him in the
terms alleged concerning the super
stitions of Hayti. In the first place
no Roman Catholic bishop of Hayti
knows enough about English to keep
up a conversation. Again the death
of President Hippolyte occurred at
Port-au-Prince and not at Jacmei,
few minutes after he had mounted his
horse, and moreover everybody knows
that this President died of heart-fail-
ure, brought on by fit of anger at
the news that Jacmel was about to
revolt.
AS to the hosts and other objects
found on the body of the President, a
rumor to this effect has in fact gaind
currency among the people. This ru-
NOR has been contradicted. A Roman
Catholic bishop still living, DESTROYS
of receiving information from the
physicians who examined the body
these latter cried scandal, national
outrage" The affair was taken up
by the Legislative Chamber and the
bishop simply because he wished to
have the correct information came
near being exiled from the country.
Moreover it is readily understood
that in a country, subject to constant
military revolutions, the chances of
war sometimes PLACE an ignorant, nay,
even a superstitious man in power,
but 1t is a calumny to say that the
leaders and the men of integrity are
devoted to superstition. It is just
the contrary which is true. A great
number of our statesmen and of our
principal citizens, educated in France
in atheistic literature have no relig-
ion. They are almost all Roman Cath
olics by baptism, have made their
first Communion, then they drifted
away. affirm that if there be any
superstition among them, it is the
American superstition of spiritism
and not the African superstition.
AS far as the people are concerned,
wish to remark that it is only since
1861 that there is in Hayti regular
Roman Catholic clergy; that Hayti is
a mountainous country of two million
inhabitants and that it has not yet
been possible to the Catholic clergy
to purge a country, subject to con.
slant civil wars, of every trace of
superstition.
thank Your Lordship for having
furnished me an occasion to refute an
unjust accusation against the Catholic
clergy of Hayti, all of them French
men with two or three exceptions-a
clergy to whose worth. honorable Mr..
Furnis, United States Minister at
Hayti, intimately acquainted with this
clergy, is ready to testify as he has
always done. AS to the bishops of
Hayti, 1t does not become me to
sound their praises, but I beg Your
Lordship to believe that they have
not lost their common sense.
take pleasure in sending YOU by
mail the statistics of the Catholic
Church of Hayti. Kindly accept, dear
and esteemed confrere, the most de-