Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-19
CARDINAL SEES
A NEW PAGAN|SM
BIames Professionalism for Folly
and Woman's Indecent
Dress.

BOSTON, Jan. 19.-In a sermon de-
livered at the Cathedral of the Holy
Cross Yesterday afternoon Cardinal
O'Connell called attention to what he
called decadence of the Protestant
faith, the disregard of decency by
women in regard to dress, the present
craze for new dances.
The cardinal contrasted the growth
of the Roman Catholic faith and the
decline of all other creeds. He also
drew contrasts between Catholic and
Protestant women, and took a covert
rap at DIR. Charles w. Eliot on ac-
count of the latters new religion"
The sermon was delivered at the
union service of the Holy Name So
ciety of all the parishes of Boston.
About 1000 men were in the congre-
cation. Cardinal O'Connell said:
What a spectacle to behold, this
vast cathedral thronged with the
hosts of Christian men of every walk
of life, of every nationality, of every
avocation. This is the true democ-
racy which the Christian faith alone
can plant and nourish.
Look abroad and behold the con-
trast. The temples of other creeds
are deserted and forsaken. Every day
we see new proofs of a disintegration
of sects and denominations once
numerous and influential.
"A mere handful sits in the chilly
| churches which once housed flourish
ing congregations. Millions are grow
| ing up without even an intelligent
knowledge of God, of Christ, of re-
| liglon, of spiritual life. The press, the
stage, the street are flooded with liv-
! ing proofs of spiritual decadence
which can bring only social and ma
| tional ruin.
| Disregard for Decency.
"The play, the magazine, the ball
room, all give evidence of an ever
| increasing disregard of even the ru-
diments of common decency of dress,
of department, of conversation and
| of conduct.
| Little by little the bars have been
lowered, letting out the few influences
which held society in restraint and
letting in a very flood of folly of in
satiate greed for amusement of any
and every kind, until what even a
few years ago would make a decent
woman blush to see in others has be-
come so common that even decent
women now accept as a matter of fact
|
Home and Family Endangered.
1--WE need be neither prude or Puri-
tan to see and to realize that some
thing is passing In the heart and the
mind of the women today which is
leaving them hard and unwoman1y,
and that year by year this transfer
nation goes on until, If 1t continues,
| there will be neither home nor family,
nor normal womanly nature left.
IF this is the new woman, then God
| spare us from any further develop
ments of an abnormal creature. Ger
| tainly this is not the Catholic woman
who is true to her faith and is not
easily influenced by these modern fads
of new paganism. She has her stan
dards and she stands by them I'M
| changed.
| "And what, In the last analysis, is
the cause of all this moral degeneracy,
evident on all sides? Why it is simply
the natural result of the decay of even
the external semblance of Christianity
outside the church. For fifty years we
have witnessed battle royal against
all these principles which held togeth-
err what was left of christianity among
those who had deserted the true faith.
Pulpit Controlled by Wealth.
1.-THE preacher was derided, his SER
mons plucKed TO pieces, the Bible was
dissected and torn page by page, until
nothing but the cloth cover Is now
left. The rich controlled the pulpit and
the sermon did not attract the poor,
and without the poor there never can
be a church.
"The minister was paid starvation
wages to preach sermons which ex-
tolled the virtues of coal barons and
steel kings and oil emperors. Even
royal salaries cannot produce SINGER
ity in preacher And no man could
go on for long leaving out of his ser
mon the only thing his soul longed
to say--that Christ came to bring
justice to the suffering and that riches
are oftentimes the result of injustice
to some one.
$50 the poor deserted these tenn
pies of cold respectable creed where
the pews were owned by stockholders
and the pulpit controlled by wealth.
without sincerity on the pulpit and
poor in the pews there never has been
there never can be any moral infiu.
ence in any church. And SO no won
der today they are empty. No wonder
1.-THE few sincere men doubtless In goot