The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-12-19
Continued from Page ID
SOUTH AMERICA.

make the SANDER colorado and plausi-
BILE. 1t is strange that the patriots"
do not send for a few of these priests
who live vile lives" according to
DR.. Ross; they would make fine Eek
priests" and they could quote Dr. Ross
TO show that the men they were unfit
o associate with were just the kind
Ghey are themselves.
AS to the doctor" who told DR.. Ross
about the immortality of the young
men, it is pity we did not get his
name. For South America is big
place and this doctor must be a busy
man if he is qualified to speak for the
young men of the whole continent
lie must have strange notions of pro-
fess;onal honor and etiquette. He
must have been rather innocent and
child-like, too, for the average edu-
Gated South American has a keen
scent for theprofessional maligners of
lis race and country and religion, and
does not easily supply ammunition to
them. Whatever vice there is, is
mostly of foreign origin, and it pre-
walls in precisely those circles in
which religion has been made IAN
open question" by foreign influences.
Morals too become IAN open ques-
.ion," when the foundations of faith
are undermined; DR.. Ross need not
nave gone to South America to find
put that. And the South Americans
could have told him of places nearer
lome where his criticism would be in
better taste and infinitely more de-
served. This Anglo-Saxon Pharisee-
ism is one of the things that make
it SO hard for people of other races
to esteem or to like some English and
American tourists. Many English
writer's from the time of Dickens and
Of Thackeray have pointed out this
fact, and complained about the seri-
GUS injury that ill-mannered travellers
10 to their own country by the bad
impression they make abroad.
The wild SANDER against the priests
refutes itself. 1t is too late in the
lay for any man to expect to get seri.
GUS and intelligent people to accept
sweeping statements of that kind
without the fullest and the clearest
evidence. The percentage of illegiti
mates is just another invention
There are no regular statistics avail
able for most of the South American
countries, ON such matters. DR.. Ross
probably got the figures from some
imaginative Anglo-Saxon missionary
Or some enemy of the Church who has
earned that religion is an open
question:
Favourable Testimony.
1t is relief to turn from the flip
pant rhetoric of this representative Of
Wisconsin culture, to the views Of re
sponsible men who weigh their words
and try to make sure of their facts
Mr.. Percy F. Martin, +. r. G. S..
| writing on South America, and speak
ing as a mon Catholic in belief" ant
as having no religious prejudices
whatever, comments as follows on the
work of Protestant missionary socie
ties in PERU
"In spite of the fact that clause
in the Constitution Of the Republic
| maintains that the nation professe.
the Apostolic Roman Catholic relig
| ion; the State protects it and does
| not permit the worship of any other,
under no Latin-American Republic il
there greater freedom for, and license
accorded to, alien religions, than il
Peru. This is all the more remark
able in view of the fact that the Peru
VANS still maintain the most complete
adhesion to Rome, and in spite of thu
wholly aggressive and Objectionable
| manner in which certain Protestan
| missionaries have come to the cOun
| try to stir up revolt and rebellion
| among the poor and ignorant Indian!
| against the teaching and the influence
of the Church, offering them nothing
in substitution but rhetorical confu
sion of thought, paralysing doubt al
to their ultimate salvation, and +;
yelled distrust of their best, their onl.
friends, the priests"
Priests Protect The Native Indians
And this is what another Protestant
Sir William Haggard, for many years
British Minister to various Soutl
American Governments, writing in thu
Times" of London, Eng, says of the
Catholic clergy, after experiences il
Ecuador
81 may mention that my observation
there, and, indeed, in Brazil, where
it has been my lot lately to have t.
do indirectly with the Putumayo afro
cities, has shown me that the mos
earnest, the most genuine, and thu
most effectual agents, both for civil
izing the Indians and for protecting
them from the atrocities, which, fear
are by no means confined to the Putu
mayo district, but common to othe
rubber bearing regions in the wilder
ness of the upper waters of the Anna
zon, are the Roman Catholic clergy.
In the Review of Reviews, for No
vember, 1906, Mr.. L. Barrett says: III
every capital of Latin America Their
is a greater proportion of highly edu
1 IN @1,n n