Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1914-07-02
Address of
Father Conroy
AZ the Commencement Exss-
eises st Leonard Hall.
june IS. 1914.

is at all acquainted with the history OF
st. Mary's County TO come into your
midst and address you on an occasion
like the present without sentiments of
awe and admiration, not only for its
people but also for the soil on which
he stands, haliowed by the memories
of a glorious past, and buoyant with
hope of a glorious future: hallowed
also by the footsteps of your fore
fathers, just men when God had raised
up and called upon to leave their
fathers house and go into an unknown
and unchartered land and there bear
witness to his revelation and be q tes-
timony to bis covenant with his people.
Through their heroic self sacrifice
and devotion to- the cause of God the
same doctrine that Christ preached to
his apostles, that they preached up
and down through barbarian Europe
setting the world on fire, the same that
inspired the great St. Greagory To ex-
claim when he saw the Anglo youths
exposed for sale in the slave marts of
Rome, mon Angli sed Angelli" and
also inspired him later on 10 send to
the shores OF Brittan the wonderful st.
Augustine. that he might impait to
them the new faith which would give
them q new conception of life and all
its consequences. The same docrtine
and sacrifices that 81. Gregory COM
missioned Augustine To preach in
Britain was carried across the broad
Atlantic and planted by the sanity
Father White on the ground where we
now stand. How well it has been
watered and nourished ever since by
his long line of sanity and apostolic
brothers we can Judge by the incr ease
that God has given. Through the
heroisIn and self sacrifice of these
strong men you are today able to trace
without interruption, your faith, from
Father Kelly to Father White, to st.
Augustine, TO st. Gregory the Pope,
from Gregory to Peter, and thence to
Christ and to God.
No doubt Southern Maryland value
and appreciate the antiquite of their
faith. the evidence of its Divinity, the
internal forces of life within that en-
ables it 10 bloom perpetually in ver-
dant splendor and fruitful harvest,
ard though crowned with the dignity
of age still manifest the vigor of youth
defying all-eyidence or indications OF
decay and dissolution There is only
one thing that they ought to value and
appreciate as much as this, and that
is, the devotion, the love, the sell
sacrifice, the care shown by the good
Jesuit Fathers from the day that
Fathers White and Altman, and Bro.
Gervase first raised the standard oi
the cross on st. Clements Island, un.
til the present day; for the people oi
this land, white and colored, indian
and negro, bond or free man have
been the object of their paternal So
licitude without distinction or measure
/ y
without the Fathers would be Hamle
without Hamlet. While the Arch
diocese of Baltimore can boast o
having the greatest percentage of cath
olicS among her colored population
of any diocese in the world, she mus
give credit to the Catholic slave owner
of this part of Maryland, but ultimate
ly credit must be given to the patien
priests who baptised and instructed
them in the faith, while warning tn,
owners of the dignity of that blaci
man as a citizen of the kingdom O
; Jesus Christ and His church, wher
all possess equal rights irrespective O
the color of his skin, or the density O
his intellect.
These are but few facts that make
the stranger having slight knOwl
edge of your history deem the groun
on which We stand sacred and holy
When We turn from the purely religion
side of your history to the more polit
cal, though it may he impossible I
separate them clearly, we have sti
much to excite our admiration an
respect. II today hen boast Of libert
of conscience and religious federation
| they must always and forever pa
| homage to your catholic forefathers {
st. Mary's county, as the apostles {
religious equality in the modern worl
| its only home in the wide worlds
the time. says Bancroft.
| Not since the days of Constantir
the Great, thirteen hundred years b
fore, had this doctrine been preache
or experienced, and never that ] kno
of in the history of the world has
been carried our with so much GOO
faith and magnanimity as by yOt
| Catholic forefathers, and by yourselv'
up tn the present day. No man {
citizen of these parts can ever say thi
he was Disseminated against by u
Catholics of Southern Maryland G
account of his religious convictions {
| profession of faith, while q candida
for any Office at the disposal of h
people, national or local. AS long
he respected the laws and gave all
glance TO the properly constitute
| authority they gave him their vot
without consideration of his religion
convictions. This Is il ought TO
and may il ever remain so.
II When the revolution broke O
against the tyrany of England q
staunchest defenders of the infant I
public were found among the Catholi
of the country from Barry and Sui
/ van and Meylan TO Charles Carr
j and his followers of Southern Mar
land.
In every battle of the Republic fro
Lexington to Vera Cruz catholic m
u and boys have been second TO none
deviation and self sacrifice for the eau
of the Stars and Stripes. From Jol
Barry the father of the Americ,