The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-04-14
THE CHURCH IN MEXICO


exist another organization constituted
OF foreigners depending from the
Roman Pontiff." What remains of the
Catholic Church when cut off from it's
spiritual chieftaincy, when forbidden
to administer it's sacraments, shorn
CT all the means of temporal subsiSt-
ence, and bound hand and foot in
slavery to its prosecutors, may, if still
it so wills, call itself the Church; but
how much of the Catholic Church, as
it knows itself, this will be, we arc left
to be the judges.
The policy of the "Constitutionalist
| Party regarding the Church must be
| justified in the eyes of the people of
the United States; the effort to have
this done calls for stupendous lies;
the lies stupe1dous are dealt out with
an unsparing pen.
AS the short essay | am now writ.
| ing is only an introduction to papers
| intended as detailed replies to the
pamphlet of Rodolfo Menendez Mena,
| will not follow out, one by one, the
calumnies leveled by his pen against
are grotesque in the hugeness of their
mendacious daring; before all impair
tial readers they fall to the ground of
their weight of shameless prevarica-
ton.
| defend the Church in Mexico by
defending its Bishops, upon whom
rests the responsibility of ecclesiasti-
cal ministrations in that republic, the
characterization of whom, consequent
ly, is the characterization of the inter-
ests over which they preside. | am
personally, and in some instances
closely acquainted with several of the
Bishops of Mexico; about all of them
| have direct and circumstantial in
formation. This is my judgment of
the Bishops Of Mexico: they are, with
out an exception, men of high ideals,
men of irreproachable moral stand
ards, men of apostolic zeal in their
work of serving the spiritual and the
temporal interests of the people com
mitted to their charge. That the Cath
Olic Bishops in Mexico should tolerate
such degraded forms of worship as
Rodolfo Menendez Mena strives to de-
pict, it is not possible for one moment |
to imagine; that their word as TO con-
ditinns actually existing in Mexico is |
not to be accepted in absolute trust, is
thinkablc that they have not laboIed, |
intelligently and energetically, toward |
the continuous uplift of the people of
Mexico, SO far as they have been per-
mitted to do so by the native peculiar
tiles of the people themselves and of
the civil and political upheavals to
which those peculiarities have given
occasion. Against the lies, iterated
and reiterated, regarding the Church |
Of Mexico, | set up the testimony OF
the Bishops of Mexico, whose guaran-
tor | am and must be, in simplest JUS
tee to their high qualifications of |
mind and of heart.
The intention of Rodolfo MenendeZ |
Mena is to influence public opinion in
the United States. Hence his tribute |
of praise to the Protestant religion,
which is that, he says, of The i'm
mensc majority" Of the American peo-
pie, and which, lie continues to say, |
is a religion, economical, simple, |
based on the free examen." Going |
farther, he invites Protestant minis
ters to evangeliZe Mexico, promising |
on the part of the de facto govern |
ment the use of temples, formerly in |
possession Of the Catholic Church. |
The revolution lin McXic0) does not |
oppose he writes, "the religious idea |
Good proof of this is that no com
plants have been made by the Prot |
estant clergy and parishioners which,
although in a reduced number, exist |
in Mexico. Furthermore, the liberals |
in Mexico would be pleased to see that |
the directing centers of American
Professionalism would send good and |
numerous missionaries, which, no
doubt, would help to defanaticize the |
people. No doubt they could count |
on the moral and material help of the |
government, which would let them |
use, free of rent, many of the temples |
which to date have been used by the |
Catholics"