The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-01-29
Pioneer Priests coIonizers and Civil
izers Of the WorId-Mission-
aries Led the Way.


aries Led the Way.
The world owes bigger debt to the
Catholic priesthood than the world is
willing to admit. To every civilized
nation priests were the first to bring
the blessings of Christian morality
and education, out of which science,
art and industry sprang into full
bloom. The countries about the Med
iterranean would have been over
whelmed by barbarism during the
epoch of the migrations of the nations
if popes, bishops and priests had not
tanned the Germanic hordes and con-
verified them to Christianity. Ireland
owes to Saint Patrick what England
owes to Saint Augustine, who, under
Pope Gregory the Great, brought to
the Island the Gospel of Christ, and
with it high morality and culture.
Bands of missionaries from the Islam
of Saints brought to the Continent the
message of salvation and established
new centers Of culture. Germany re-
ceived the light from Saint Boniface,
Switzerland from Saint Gall, Sweden
from Saint Ansgar; scarcely a nation,
Christian or pagan, that has not as
its Patron Saint Priest of God.
During the Middle Ages the Church
attained the fullness Of her power and
sent missionaries to propagate the
Gospel in pagan lands. Catholic mis-.
sionaries first brought to Europe news
of the existence of China. Three
F'ranciscans, commissioned by the
Pope in 1246, appeared in audience be.
fore the Emperor of the Mongols.
Less than a century after that the
first Christian church was built in
Pekin.
The Copernican theory, which was
received as a truth by the world,
stimulated discoveries. The great
discoveries Of the world were Catho.
lies, and on their journeys they car.
ried with them Catholic priests. AS
a consequence, from the Volga to the
desert of Cobb, the Franciscans and
Dominicans covered the land with
their missionary stations. After the
Reformation, the 'aeal of the Jesuits
gives them a place of honor. Their
achievements in the reduction of
Paraguay are as incontestable as
their great services in the United
States.
Since the days of Saint Paul, per.
haps. no greater missionary has ap
peared on earth than Saint Francis
Xavier. When he entered the King
dom of Travencore he found it entire
ly idolatrous, but after few months
he left it entirely Christian. Along
the coast he founded no fewer than
forty-five churches. In the Island OF
Moro he converted the whole city OF
Tolo, containing twenty-five thousand
souls, and at his death left no fewer
than Twenty-Five towns, villages and
hamlets added to the Kingdom OF
Christ. Along the two coasts from
Cape Comorin he converted more than
two hundred thousand souls.
The abolition of human slavery
owed its final triumph over the Afri
can slave-dealers to the crusade OF
Cardinal Lavigerie. He argued with
them from an economic and personal
viewpoint. He used the finest diplo
macy, knowing that bold proclama
ton of the rights of man would have
thrown millions of helpless slaves
breadless into the street.
The work of the pioneer priests
In America is the history of America
in her early days. Scores of
rivers, lakes and cities are by their
very names monuments to the work
of pioneer priests. The historian
Bancroft declares that no notable city
was founded, no river explored nor
cape circumnavigated without Jes.
nit showing the way. Even If
Buckles statement were true that cul.
ture is not the result of religion we
could point to the work of Catholic
missionaries who are striving to up.
lift the savages in pagan lands to a
higher state of morality and civiliza-
ton, thence to transform them into
Christians.
One of the most remarkable pio-
neers in the history of the Western
Continent is Bartolome de Las Casas.
The life of this great man is almost
summary of American history from
the discovery of San Domingo to the
colonization of the Philippines in the
year of his death. He sailed for San
Domingo as colonist in 1902, and
from that time until his death, at the
age of ninety-four, his activity never
seemed to flag. He was in succession
miner In San Domingo, military
leader with Velasquez in the Conquest
Of Cuba, a leading layman, the priest
OF parish. social reformer, the in
innate of kings and ministers, a legis-
lator in Spain, a colony promoter in
South America, and the official pro-
tector Of the Indians throughout all
the Spanish Colonies. He became a