The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-13
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Replies to MT. Durant
To the Editor of The Age-Herald:

Although I really and truly believe that the envenomed tone and the undignified style of the Rev. MT. Durant's latest It. erary venture would justify me in keep ing a dignified silence and letting the truth seeking and fair-play loving readers of your paper draw their own conciu- sions as to the merits of the contro- versy, still believe a brief rejoinder, kept however on higher plane than the reverend gentleman seems capable of reaching, will not be amiss.
 As can be seen he does not, as the Rev. MT. Lewis in yesterdays paper expected him to do, either prove or retract his statement with regard to the Knights of Columbus. Judge Hundley's denial (my denial, in view of the flattering epithet he greets mo with today, is rightly dis countenanced) apparently carries no weight whatever, and the utter absurdity that in America today 250,O00 trained sol- diers stand ready at 8 word from the Vatican to seize the reins of government does not impress his sense of the ridicu- lous. Well, to quote a proverb this time: .'He that's convinced against his will, Is of the same opinion still.''
 The interference of the church in pofi- tics is his great bugaboo. He would evil dently have us Catholics, as an inferior caste, bow down before lordly masters and tamely submit to all manner of in- justice and never exercise the right Of the franchise. The Rev. MT. Durant must surely know that the old "Know Nothing spirit, that in the middle of the last century burned convents and dam aged Catholic property, that the A. F. A. spirit of the latter part of that century that discrimnated against citizens pro- fessing Catholicity, is by no means dead today. Shall we then tamely submit to be trampled on because We worship God according to the dictates of our own con- sciences? Shall life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness that the constitution we helped to win assures us, be, as far as we are concerned empty words? Not if we know it.
 We Catholics in the past have been trampled on, denied our rights solely be- cause we were Catholics. It is high time that such things should cease. If we gre assailed on this count our reifgfous belief. we will be forced to combine to see to it with the weapons the constitu- tion gives us, not "Krags" but votes. not bullets but ballots, that such disabilities and unfair discrimination be forever done away with.
 Pope Leo XIITs advice to influence legislation according to the principles of the true church is excellent. Take for instance marriage legislation. The facll- ity of divorce is one of the greatest biots on the statute books of every state save one Would to heaven the Catholic posi- tion on marriage were as it is in South Carolina. alone of all the states today. mart and parcel of the law of the land.
 All our large cities in the north and west have Catholic majorities today, and there, and all through the country, as statistics show the number Of adherents to the faith is increasing. New England, once solidly Puritan, is leavened with a strong Catholic element today, and is all the better for it. I do not hear of any bitter complaints on the part of the non Catholic minority in these places, nor do know that any secret organization ex- ists there among Catholics with the ob- feet of depriving their fellow citizens on religious grounds of any of the rights free men should enjoy.
 With regard to the question of nom Catholic marriage and the decree of Plus VII quoted by the Rev. MT. Durant. I must frankly say that this was the first time have heard of or read the same. made pretty thorough search through my library in vain effort to hunt it to earth, but failed completely. I must say that on the race or II, IL pears many marks of spuriousness and without doubt ing in the least the fact that the Rev. MT. Durant regards it as an authentic document, am from Missouri, and would require greater proof than has been pro- duced. Not once or twice have bulls and briefs and documents of various kinds been attributed to the pontiff of Rome that never were sealed with the fisher mans ring. Non-Catholic books of a certain class, of the class that should be debarred from the United States mails. are filled with such papal forgeries.
 Speaking of Plus VII. who that has even a smattering of history. does not know of his difficulties with the then master of Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte The pope. despite all pressure brought to bear on him. upheld the validity of the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine. and