The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-20
ACCUSED BUT IMPENETENT.
(Catholic Transcript.)

(CathOlic TranScript.)
 The anti-Catholic meetings recently ! held in Hartford have given inspira- ton to more than one pulpit of this city. So far as the writer is aware, no Catholic priest has made reference i Fl his Sunday sermon to the advent l of the seinterlopers' who came here l to SOW the seeds of religious strife. The Transcript has given some at- 1 tention to the work of these disturb CTS because it believes that it is part 1 of it's function to defend the church and to show forth it's defamers in their true character. Last Sunday the Rev. A. C. Diefenbachi preached relig- ious Controversy and during the course of his sermon, which was given to the press entire he made use of these words: 't1o good Acan come of the cheap and nasty mess (which even some of the priesthood and Romanist editors took altogether too seriously) our press. and which made us feel for a season that we were citizens of a mean city,
 Why "a reproach to our, press?'' Was it a reproach to ftThe Courant'' that discovered the nest of Cock sought to get the expressions of cer- tain of the clergy of the town, or to sThe Transcript that undertook to hold the interlopers up to the ridlcule and repudiation of the saner portion of the community? If there is a re- ing as to make the good Doctor Dief- fenbach feel for a season that he was a citizen of a mean city, then we supp pose that the lions share of the blame rests upon our shoulders.
 The Courant, in our opinion, did a splendid service to the community by discovering the nest of Cock reaches. for had their plot had time to hatch it would undoubtedly have stirred up lots of fstrife-strifes at once unnecessary and disgraceful.
 So far as we have been able to note. the Catholic clergy of Hartford have taken no part whatever in creating the nasty mess" The blame so far as Catholics are concerned must be charged up entirely against The Transcript, and The Transcript re- mains impeniteIt and unabashed. It has no blushes for what it has done and no apologies to make to any man Wh ether CocRroach or critical divine.
 The Transcript does not presume even to repeat the Rev. Doctor Dief fenbacl1's criticism of the conduct of Him whom the great part of Chris tendon adores as the Wisdom Incar- nate. Somehow we cannot escape the impression that such criticism trenches, dangerously upon the prov= Itnce which is proper to the bIas- pllemer Neither do we care to place St Paul under Doctor Dieffenbach's undiscrininating b1undgeon.
 If there is set of men in the city of Hartford who are out of politics and who keep severely within their proper field, that set of men is the ECatho.;c priesthood of the city. A man comes here from Philadelphia. and sEaneIessly and ignorantly as- serts that the Bishop and priests of the town are directing things at the city hall. An infamous slander. Yet, not altogether harmless. since such al wise man as Doctor Diffenbach is not entireIiy persuaded that the charge is not true, for he refers to it in guarded phrase and in the language Of doubt.
 He is speaking of their good peo7. pIev-nean ming the Catho1ics-and he says: If there be darkness in their ways, tIle light of democracy will de- stroy1 it, for darkness, of course. cam not come to light. If they really seek offices as a concerted church pro- gram, they are bound to be undone, as certainly as we would be or any other church following such as ab- surd prograhn.,s
 The doctors mind is not settled We may have a .'concerted church program whereby we seek political power and political offices. or we may not.s He does not know and if his language is to be taken as it reads, he certainly inclines to believe that we have. He does not fear us, not because we are not plotting against the state, but because our efforts are so absurd that they are bound to prove abortive.
 But we are not plotting for political power. When a, man comes to town and asserts with all the solennity that attends the learned divine in ecclesiastical surroundings that we are plotting for power and that we are determined to rule the state. what are we going to do? Remain silent, and lay to our soul the. flatter- ing junction that the calumny is too sranIx for sensible men But here is Rev. pr. Dieffenbach. a leader of the. people. plunged in the profoundest' doubt. And it is just such men as this preacher that made it necessary for "Romanic editors to come out and attack the nasty sIander, even at the risk of stirring up "a nasty ness
 Why do not men like Dr Dieffen- bach come out and brand the lie with its proper label, and so. dismiss it from the public mind? He will not do it, or at any rate. he does not4 do it. He will juggle with it and it will furnish forth a theme for his Sunday discourse The Catholic pulpit takes not notic9 Of the islander, for the people who assemble in Catholic churches do so to worship God and give him the official homage which is, his due. And so 1t remains for the Catholic press to treat the slander before the same public that has been invited to believe it.
 But how is the Catholic press to meet such calumny? Call it a base islander and let it pass? That will not do, for there are those that believe it sincerely and cordially, and. there are those that believe it reluctantly. and there are others who would like to believe it if they could. and others FstiII who doubt. It. therefore, be- comes imperative for someone Sto come forward and grapple with the