The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1917-07-21
Catholics Died on
Every Battlefield
Allegiance to Flag and Country, Love
Of Liberty and Equality, Taught
Them by Their Church.
Stirring serman Preached to Over Two
Thousand Knights Of Columbus by
Washington Pastor.

Proving that the Church is the tru-
est defender of this great republic
since liberty and equality, the key
notes of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and the Constitution of the
United States, whence has sprung the
democracy of the nation, are the sac
[ red Inheritance of Catholic teaching,
the Rev. Eugene Del. Mcdonnell, S.
j., rector of Holy Trinity Church,
Washington, addressed more than
1000 knights of Columbus at their
last annual vesper service which was
held in the beautiful Dominican church
in the National Capital.
The instructive discourse of the elo-
quent Jesuit was in part as follows
when we gaze out over this fair
land, blessed as it is beyond other
countries with beauty and natural re-
sources; with great oceans to the east
and west defending us from our enc
mics; with it's inland seas and cours-
ing rivers, teeming with food, its tow
ering mountains, piled high with the
riches of the earth, it's fertile fields
world; when we behold scattered
throughout the length and breadth of
this beautiful rich country cities and
towns all throbbing with human life
and industry, what Christian man but
must feel grateful to God, who has so
blessed this great land, and thankful
to the noble men who laid down their
lives that we might possess it.
Yet right and beautiful as it is, this
is not the real reason why this coun'
try is so dear to us Americans, since
few indeed possess or can ever nope
to possess it's wealth. We love Amer
lea because it is the land of the free.
Here every man, no matter how loWly,
is a free man in free land Ii we are
grateful to those who won this lana
for us, we should be more grateful still
to those who framed the laws and
Constitution that have made it for
millions refuge from tyranny and OPP
preston and for all land of liberty
and equality.
Liberty and equality! These two
words, the foundation of our Declara-
ton of Independence as we'll as OF
our Constitution, are the keynotes OF
our democracy, and, my friends, they
are the sacred inheritance Of Catholic
teaching. Why, the very language of
that Declaration reads like transla-
ton from the prince of Catholic
theologians, the great Dominican, st.
Thomas Aquinas.
tu0
so grievously abused, so grossly mis-
interpreted. What, then, is that self
evident truth that all men are created
equal? Equal in what? In bodily
beauty or strength? That is not so.
Equal in powers of intellect, in. gifts
of soul? They are not-at least it is
not self-evident Equal in individual
opportunities, personal advantages?
No. In none of these things are men
equal. AS no two blades of grass are
equal, so there are probably no two
men equal in strength or perfection of
body, in intellectual gifts, or in oppor-
tunities. 1t is a self-evident, truth that
in this sense men are not created
equal, and we realize it.
in what sense, then, are men Great
ed equal? In far higher and nobler
sense it is evident that all are created
equal Equal before God, all alike the
object of His overshadowing love and
Providence, for He is no respecter OF
persons. Equal in nature, and there
fore one and the same before all just
law and in the sight of that civil au
thority which comes down from God
Equal iIr the sense that no man is
bondman to another by nature or by
faint of blood. Equal in the sense thai
no portion of the body polite shall
be oppressed or wronged to benefit
another Equal in the full protection
and safeguarding of personal right:
that just laws have guaranteed. Equa
in the right, if not in the opportunity
for the full and free development o
all his God-given faculties.
Let us remember that any libert!
of speech or anything else that trans
crosses the law of God is license, no
liberty; that any liberty which mill
tates against the common good, agains
the just laws of the land, which In
jures the civil rights of citizens II
their character or property is gros
license and not liberty and should no
be tolerated Such is Catholic teach
ing regarding liberty, and 1t is ea
clusively Catholic, and this teaching i
not only not found outside of tn
Church, but the very opposite teach
ing is prevalent in theory.
Atheism, agnosticism, evolutiona
" ism, cannot admit any liberty that doe
not throw wide open the door to ever
form of license. Professionalism rep,
dated all liberty, through original sill
All these, therefore, on principle ar
4 and must be sworn enemies of demo-
ss racy.
n "In the face of all this, then, who
the enemy and who is the only tru
friend of democracy? The principle
sc of Catholic teaching are clean and tru
and strong, and her practice of thel
has won the admiration of eve