Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-09-06
Only a Knave or Fool Persists
in Charging DislOyalty to
Catholics.
Catholic Civil Allegiance Exem-
plified On Every Battle
field.
STRONG LETTER TO A BIGOT

Charles Cummings, NJ. D., Of
Williamsport, Pa, whose three
challenges to the Menace and it's
editor, REV" Theodore Walker, and
Tom Watson still remain unan-
swered, in a letter to one Mr..
DeWald in Branns Iconclast sends
a broadside into the bigoted crew,
from which we extract the follow
ing:
And Catholics and patriotism, Mr..
DeWald? Now here is canineship
from Aurora, just "eats 'em alive"
Caught with the goods" Walker
says. Catholics owe allegiance 10
the Pope, and therefore can not be
loyal to the Stars and Stripes2"
He sure does have some hard time
to keep the Pope from gobbling up
this country. Wrong again, Ted;
awfully wrong. Open up the lid Of
your intelligence box, you American
| bigot, and let a little sunshine in.
The twin evils of invincible ignor-
ance and villainous bigotry are re-
sponsible for this twaddle about the
| disloyalty of Catholics. Let us once
for all make an attempt to drive
this thing into these dense minds
Suppose Plus X, who is spiritual
head of the Catholic church, was at
the same time the political head or
King of Italy. Suppose that Italy
was in war with the United States,
Now by operation of this principle
of Catholic loyalty and civil
allegiance the italian Catholic
would be obliged to defend his
country, and incidentally thereby
would be fighting for the Pope. The
Catholics in the United States, by
operation of exactly the same prin-
ciple, would be obliged to fight in
defense of their country, and there
fore against the Pope. We think
this ought to be clear to all intelli-
gent minds. A truly genuine Cath
| o1ic can be nothing else than a pure
patriot. II he were disloyal to his
church it would follow as surely as
night the day he would not be loyal
to country or to friend.
What could give you clearer
proof of the principle of Catholic
civil allegiance as contradis-
tinguished from his spiritual affilia-
ton than was so heroically exempli-
fled on every battlefield of the
American rebellion? The Catholic
who wore the blue, as he who wore
the gray, held exactly the same
spiritual relation to the Pope, and
| yet. schooled by their church that
they must defend the flag of their
allegiance. they freely marched to
| battle and to death in defense of
the blue or gray, according as their
civil allegiance dictated Just so has
this principle been attested to by
the blood of Catholics upon every
battlefield of every war in every
land since the dawn of Christendom.
He. whp, knowing these facts, per-
sists in charging disloyalty to Cath
olics is either knave or fool, or
both.
And as to Catholics loyalty TO
the Stars and Stripes? If standing
| by those lonely twin slabs at beau
tiful and historic Mount Vernon the
spirit of the father of his country
could speak 10 you he would tell
you Carroll, Conway, Barry, a
DeKalbe, a Montgomery, a Pulaski,
Moylan, a Wayne, a Lafayette, q
Molly Pitcher and thousands Of
other Catholics gave freely of their
money and their lives that the
United States might take its place
among the nations of the world. He
would tell you that this glorious
triumph never could have been
achieved without this Catholic
sacrifice. II this does not convince
you OF Catholic loyalty, go yonder to
the tomb of the gallant hero Of
Appomsttox. His spirit would sum-
mon around him Sheridan, Rose
Grams, Meade, Buell., Ord, Dahlgran,
Cochran, Kearney, Harvey, Crogan,
Keenan,, Meagher, Dougherty, Ryan,
, and two hundred and fifty thousand
other Catholics who calamity wore
the blue and fought to preserve the
Union on every battlefield from
Sumter to Appomattox. He would
hurl the lie back into your teeth
and would tell you that II II were
not for the heroic sacrifice of money
and lives OF these patriotic Catholics
| this country, born at Lexington and
baptized by the blood of Catholic
heroes, would have been rent In
twain and the Stars and Stripes
would not today float in peace and
triumph over all this happy and
united land. -
The Catholics assassinated the
Presidents? Why, sir. that lie is the
foulest lie ever uttered, black as
hell itself. II is one of the slimiest
that ever "crawled out of the dis
eased brain" OF the unfrocked
preacher from Aurora Borealis.
am not concerned as TO how these
assassins died. AS they were facing
the awful eternity they may have
embraced the Catholic faith. Muir
derers have embraced other faiths
when confronted with death.
wonder what this Aurora criminal
will do when that terrible moment
OF retrIbution comes. One thing Is