The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-09-13
CARDINAL GIBBONS POINTS OUT
THE NECESSITY OF cooPERA-
TIoN BETWEEN THE CLERGY
AND THE LAITY AND HOW THE
LATTER CAN MOST EFFECTIVE
LY PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF
THE CHURCH.

In the course of an address deliv
cred at the convention of the Ameri
can Federation of Catholic Societies
His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons dwelt
on the value Of intelligent coopera
tion on the part Of the laity in foster.
ing the spread of Catholicity. He
said in part:
An enlightened and Jealous laity is
the glory of the Christian church. The
most luminous periods of the Church g
history have been epochs conspicuous
for laymen who have vindicated the
cause of Christianity by their elo-
quence and their writings as well as
by the sanctity of their lives. The
golden age of Christendom gave birth
to a long line of learned and intrepid
apologists of the gospel. Among them
might mention Justin Martyr, Minu-
thus Felix, Athanasius, Arnobius and
Lactantius, who is styled the Christian
Cicero.
Among the noble defenders Of the
Catholic religion in the Nineteenth
century, l mention Chateaubriand,
Montalembert, the Count de Maistre
and Frederick Ozanam in France;
CORES, Wihdhorst, Mallinckrodt in
Germany; Donoso Cortes in Spain; Sir
Kenelm Digby, Allies, William G..
Ward and Frederick Lucas in Eng
land; the peerless O'Connell in Ire
land; Brownson and many other lights
in the United States.
Let us indulge the hope that God
will raise up in our own country and
in our own day a formidable number
of champions of Christ, who will be a
light to the revelation of the Gen
tiles, and the glory of the people OF
Israel.
When the laity are united with the
bishop and the clergy in the cause Of
religion and humanity, then there is
no such word as fail. We are bound
to succeed, for God is with us, and if
God is with us who can be against us ?
Ii, where two or three are gathered
together in the name Of Christ, He
declares that He is with them, surely
His influence is paramount and ir-
resistible when the voice Of the bishop
and clergy is re-echoed by the null
titude of earnest workers assembled
before me today. Then, indeed, we
form "a triple cord which cannot be
broken We establish triple al
lance far more formidable and endur-
ing than the triple alliance of earthly
potentates, for theirs is an alliance
only Of flesh and blood, but ours is a
confederation cemented by the divine
virtues of faith, hope and charity.
"And, why, my brethren, should you
not cooperate with us? Are we not all,
clergy and laity, children Of the same
heavenly Fathers? We are
all in the same bark of Peter, tossed
about by the same storms and sharing
the same sunshine. Your interests
are our interests. We are all steering
our course toward the same eternal
shores. We are all heirs prospective
of the same heavenly kingdom. There
is not one reward for the priest and
another for the laity. There is not
one kind of crown for the Pope and
another for the peasant. The tiara of
the Pope and the bishops mitre will
not shine more brightly than the
widows hood in the kingdom Of
heaven unless they are adorned with
the jewels Of righteousness.
Brethren Of the laity, we of the
clergy need your help. We learn from
the history or the primitive Church
what valuable aid the early Christians
rendered to the apostles In the propa'