Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-10-15
CATHOLICS IN MAINE.
r,oauept Address by Hon. L.. II.
Deasy, ef Bar Habor.


the state Of Maine has reason to con-
rrstulate itself upon this anniversary OF
~ FAR beginning. II has especial reason
~ congratulate its citizens Of the Roman
Cs,bolIc faith, because il was priests and
,eopIe Of that faith who, 80 years ago,
i.;d its cornerstone as Christian state;
andn is 10 the initiative and energy OF
nr,ssts and people OF that faith that is due
tbls splendid and appropriate celebration.
cannot speak officially for the State.
h,,, feel sure that voice the sentiments
~ its government and all OF its people
whose opinions are worth quoting when
ssv that the message which our mother
s,ste sends to-day to her Catholic child
ron i a message OF love, OF gratitude and
~ confidence. the State recognizes the
Roman Catholic church as primarily a
mighty spiritual force, but as secondarily
a great temporal institution, and that a.
spch IL is one OF the chief bulwarks OF es-
,sblished order. In so far as the Catholic
laity reflect the influence OF the Church.
they are among the staunchest defenders
n, law and order, seldom found retressinR
uuder the white flag and never found
Gathering under the red flag of anarchy.
In speaking OF the Roman Catholic
clergy, cannot forbesr to offer my small
tribute 10 my friend, the prizes, OF this
Parish. would not undertake to say that
Father o'Brien IL faultless. My expert
euce may have been unusual and unfortu-
nate, bu, in my going about the world
never have happened TO fall in with
fauitiess man. / boast Hibermian an
cestry myself, and so, without fear of Civ
Ina offence, can say that ! never expect
TO meet fauisiess Irishmsn.
Father otBrien possesses the imagina-
ton. the humor, the optimism, the al
,ruism that spring like shamrock from
the old soil. and with these be combines
ealvanic energy that Is characteristic OF
America.
When be came to this little local church
be ionnd II wood, and has made II stone;
be found II In the circumference and has
moved 1t up 10 the center; he found it
branch, il 9. now trunk; he found II
eialdently counting iis age Ia years,
while now, wlth the present and past
linked together, IL confidently measures
is history in centuries.
Tomorrow many of as will visit the
scene OF the frs, white settlement Ia New
England. Little Is left now TO mark the
spot, but he must be stolid and phlegmstic
indeed who Is not thrilled with emotions
a. be looks upon the spot where that little
band landed 30 years ago; whore they er-
eetcd tho cross and where they knclt
about IL and dedicated themselves TO the
work which they had been sent here to do
and untold hardships.
But his vision is impericc; and incon-
plete who DOES not see through and be-
You'd that scene it's background; who
with his minds eye fails TO see through
and beyond it Father Marquette trsvers-
Ing the Mississippi in his frsil canoe,
Xavier penetrating with the cross the
hostile ast1udtes, and all OF that wide
spread missionary movement Of the six
tenth and seventeenth centuries, so lu-
mlnous WITH concentration, so pregnant
with consequences as TO elicit from great
Protestant historian that splendid tribute
which is 70 appropriate that cannot for
bear to repeat it:
at" said Lord Macaulay, speaking OF
these nth century Catholic missionaries
o. whom they who settled Mount Desert
were part, ali they we're wanted at Lima,
they were on the Atlantic In the next
feet; II they were needed at Bagdsd, they
were toiling through the dersert with the
neSt caravan; II their mission was re-
qulred In some country where II was a
crime 10 harbor them, where their Lives
were more insecure than that OF a wolf,
they went without yemonstrance and
without hesitation to their doom. And
~asn, in later years, new and terrible
pcstilence swept around the earth; when
fear had dissolved every tile that binds So
eiety together; when the secular clergy had
torsaken their fioeks; when medical sue
cor was not TO be purchased for gold, even
then they were found standing by
stricken pallets that bishop and curate,
physician and nurse, father and mother
to catch the last faint accents OF confess
sion and holding up TO the last, before the
expiring penltent. the image OF the ex-
piring Redeemer."
When the first white settlement was
made on Mount Desert 800 years ago, the
relations between Catholics and Protest
ants throughout the world was character
lied by raneorous hatred and relentless
intolerance. The hatred Is now thing OF
the past. Intolerance still remains, but 1t
spends itself in words that find no echo in
the human heart.
Not long ago heard clergyman from
his pulpit utter these words: 'This' is
Protestant country The statement went
anchallenged. It Is one OF the handicaps
we laymen labor under in both Cath
Ollie and Protestant churches, that we can
not answer back. But we can think, and
the thoughts that coursed through my
mind were something like this:
III this is Protestant country, at what