The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-06-03
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
WAS. THE IRISH UPRISING JUST.
FlED7
70 the Editor Of The Catholic Bulletin:


Rev. and Dear Sir: Had your for
mer editorial made the faintest attempt
| to appraise and appreciate the char
acter and motives of the Irish patriots
who sacrificed their lives for their ma
tive land, and to sympathise with them
in the solemn hour when they had paid
the great price and had gone before
their God to answer for loving theil
beloved Ireland mot wisely int toe
WELL" | should not have trespassed on
the space of your valuable paper. But
when secular journals from Boston tc
Los Angeles, and from st. Paul tC
| New Orleans, and when men of letters
as eminent as William Dean Howells
all of professedly British propensi
lties-denOunced England's act oil
retaliation as "a bloody vengeance
and a colossal blunder" attesting that
she has learned nothing in the right
treatment of Ireland in the hundred
years that have elapsed since the
hanging of Emmett and when the halls
of Congress rang with eloquent words
OF similar protest, to find that oul
own Catholic Bulletin is dumb on all
aspects of the question except 'the
rabid, insane and criminal folly of the
rebels" was CALLING in the extreme
Sentiment provoked my comment, and
in matters of most intimate concern
such as love of country. love of par
ents, love of God, sentiment is perhaps
safer-or should I say truer?-guide
than cold reason, for apart from the
life-giVing emotion of sentiment would
ideals be aught else but bloodless ap
partitions?
This week you address yourself tC
the ethical aspect of the Dublin in
surrection, and you endeavor to prove
on theological principles that the act
was indefensible, and that it's partici
pators, abettors and defenders are
wrong" and "uniustifiable The
charge is serious and Iclaim the right
to champion the accused-whose name
is legion.
Your supreme test of a justifiable
rebellion is "the hope or probability
OF successful outcome" This is not
always required. An alternative jus
LITIGATION given by our ablest theo
logians (cf. Lehmkuhl |, no. 1877. Ed
SIXTH is the prudent fear of greater
public evils to follow: This is the
consideration which applies. Lest !
be suspected of indulging in vain
rhetoric allow me to invoke the logic
Of a distinguished American ecclesias
tic who because of his brilliant expo
sitlon and defence of Catholic truth
was decorated with d. d. or rare
dignity by the late illustrious Leo
XIII. Omitting his more pungent re.
marks as perhaps not up to the grave
dignity of The Catholic Bulletin, DR..
Yorke of San Francisco addresses
himself to those who argue as you
have done in your editorial in these
words: IF these writer's were more
familiar with their textbooks they
might learn that there is another and
an equally strong justifying cause for
resistance, namely, the prudent fear
of worse public evils coming on the
community We do not intend to
elaborate that argument here. Those
who have read Bishop O'DWyer's arti-
cles and Thomas Sections letter on
taxation have not a prudent fear but
an absolute certainty that after the
war, if the English connection is con-
tinued, the utter destruction of the
people will be completed in decade. .
And what is reasonable hope?
Hope does not depend on results. The
most reasonable hopes have crashed
to atoms, the most preposterous
hopes have been turned into reali-
ties. What hope did the three
hundred have at Thermopylae?
What hope had the Romans when
Hannibal camped at the gates of
Rome? Is it not the noblest tribute
OF all history to that old magistrate
quia non desperavit de republica, chat
he did not lose hope in the republic?"
What hope did Washington have, with
his ragged Continentals, with treason
in his own tent, pickering states,
an empty treasury and the bloody
footprints of his shoeless soldiers
on the snow?" | might add, what
hope had Belgium of successfully re-
sisting the organised might of Ger
many? Self-interest would counsel
submission to the demand for free
passage, but self-respect urged re-
sistance. Her act is proclaimed, and
deservedly so, heroic sacrifice. Is
Ireland alone forbidden to resist OPP
preston? or do invasion and oppres-
sion become acceptable and obligatory
because they are of long standing?
Think you that Belgium will ever sub
NIT to German rule, and if forcefully
kept in subsection will she not await
the first faint opportunity to cast off
the foreign yoke?" Such would be
conflict with some other powerful
nation. Yet this is the English crisis
for which Irishmen the world over
have hoped and prayed for, during
many generations. The Sim Fein
leaders believed it had arrived. Were
they mistaken? Perhaps not OF
course, these words have meaning only
for those of us who have not lost faith
in Ireland as distinct nation. To
those separated from the heart of Erin
by association and long distance of
time and place who regard with com
placency an Ireland that is a mere
province of Great Britain they must
sound as emptiest rhetoric
But a better defence and justifica-
ton Of tho Dublin ,aatrints, thor, fear