The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-29

these attacks? If the things that are
said against Catholics, their priests
and nuns, are not true, cannot the
law be brought to bear upon the liars
and slanderers? Seeing that Catho-
lies do not stop this sort of thing,
don't they seem to admit that it is
all true? Why not do something to
protect from constant insult the Cath
oIics who are scattered, few and far
between, among intensely hostile non-
Catholics? 2. Who are these ex-nuns
that travel around abusing converts,
priests, etc.? Why do not Catholics
have the law punish them if they
violate the law?
and 2. Catholics protect their own
) religion, when they live up to it, and
so prove to honest men that it is
not what the professional slanderers
say it is. They also try to be ready
to answer the well-meant questions
of deluded people, the greater part
of whose religious instruction con-
Sists of lies against the Church of
God. In both these ways we meet
with some success as the testimonies
of Professionals quoted every week in
another column of The Catholic Bulle-
tin will tell you, as also will the
steady stream of conversions, which
Is bringing to the truth so many men
of goodwill. Catholics who neglect
to know and to practise their re-
ligion, of course, do not guard it but
betray it. AS to the gang of bigots
and traders in bigotry who avow their
contempt for truth, decency and the
elementary courtesies of civilized life,
many Catholics think it better to let
them howl themselves hoarse, that to
notice them is to advertise them, that
the American people are not so far
gone in religious and moral decadence,
SO utterly lost to the primary instinct
of civilized intercourse as to give per-
manent encouragement to this attack
upon civilization. Christ Himself was
told He had a devil; and He said
that persecution will be always the
mark of His faithful followers, and
that we are blessed when we are
blRhuCISN IOA WILLS ~ w IllAll. AZ
a fact, this campaign of hate and in
decency is rapidly disgusting all de-
cent nOn-Catholics. 1t is compelling
them to inquire. The language, the
manner, the tone, the spirit of the
slanderers, amply convince decent
men and women that the father Of
lies is their master Repealed by the
blind hate, the scorn for truth and
decency, displayed by our enemies,
they come to US to get the facts;
and in many cases the facts, by Gods
grace, win them to the truth. The
whole campaign is a disgrace to this
country and to Professionalism. Decent
Professionals have said this over and
over again; some of them ask the
same question as you do, and are
making it their business to try to
remove this stain upon American
civilization. Their task is not easy.
They have to influence makers and
administrators of law who in some
cases think more Of votes than they
do of justice, fair-play, and the good
name Of their country. Other decent
Protestants beg of us to pay as little
attention to the bigots and slanderers
as we pay to the profanity and OBJ
scenity of a drunken ruffian at a
street corner. They point out that
many people in this country think
far more of their alleged right to
say what they like than of their duty
to say only what is true and just
and fair, and that any attempt to
law so as to make it possible to
punish them, would rouse a new out
burst of hate. The "eX-nuns" you
mention, if they were ever in a con-
vent, were never nuns in the true
sense of the word. They are, as a
rule, fallen women rescued by nuns,
who tried to restore them to virtue
and to self-respect. While in the in
titutions provided for that purpose
they come to know little about
nuns and converts. Tue few who are
not reformed by the kindness and the
good example of the nuns know that
they will be welcomed by their own
class among non-Catholics; that their
residence among nuns may give some
color to the lies that are put into
their mouth as part of the anti
Catholic propaganda; that their foul
language will draw and appeal to
the dregs OF the population, who
never hear religion, morality or de-
cency mentioned except to be out
ragged. Among their hearers are
many who agree with Martin Luther
that pure life is an impossible
dream. and who have Luther's excuse
for believing that it is hard to be
pure anyhow. These persons gloat
over the pretended revelations. When
they learn who and what the So
called "ex-nuns" are, they do not
change their views. This attitude of
mind and heart among section of
our population, including some pro-
fessional preachers of the Gospel, is
one of the symptoms of barbarism
which startles true Americans. 1t
shows the complete decay of decency,
chivalry, manhood, cleanness of mind,
which Christ's Church has been labor
iously forming in the human heart
since the beginning. 1t also bears
out the statement of the president of
the National Education Association
at the recent meeting in st. Paul,
when he said that the ridiculous ease