The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1917-03-31
"CATHOLIClTY" in SOUTH AMERICA
BY HON. NEII, NJ CRONIN

BY HON. NEIL M. c

One of the most interesting lectures
that the people who reside in the st.
| Marks Catholic Church in Merriam
Park have had the good fortune of
hearing, was that delivered by Mr.. Gro
min some few weeks ago. The hall
was packed and everyone present was
| pleased and delighted with what he
heard about our southern sister repub-
lies.
In the course of his talk, Mr.. Cronin
said: -
Some years ago, partly by accident,
| l became very much interested in the
| country to the south of us. No matter
! what theme or subject regarding that
country you take up it yields the keen
est interest, whether it's history, geog-
| raphy, it's mountains, it's lakes, it's riv-
ers or it's people, and as interesting,
perhaps more interesting, than any
other subject is "Catholicity in South
America" The history of the Catholic
Church is in fact practically the his
tory of South America; the two are
inseparable. During the reign of Fer
| dinand and Isabella the South Amer
lean continent was brought under
Spanish dominion. Daring adventur
| ers, valiant soldiers and priests car
ried the banners of Spain and the
standard of the cross from the Rio
Grande to Cape Horn. At the same
time an AnglO-Saxon civilization was
being established in part of the con-
tinent of North America. Cortez and
Pizarro and other brave and daring
soldiers you are familiar with estab-
lished the dominion of Spain in larg-
er part Of South America, ard with
them went at the same time Spanish
priests and missionaries. Soldiers
were cruel, sometimes lustful of gold
and treasure, but in spite of it the fact
remains they preserved the nations
people they conquered and brought to
them the blessings of civilization.
True, Spanish soldiers subdued South
but they did not destroy the people,
as was done on the continent of North
America. Soldiers of Spain may have
carried away the wealth of the coun-
try, but the missionaries gave them
the blessings of civilization and the
priceless gift of the Catholic Faith.
We read of the discovery of rivers
and unknown lands in South America.
Ex-President Roosevelt discovered a
few years ago what was called the
River Of Doubt, but a search of the
archives Of America and Spain dis
closes that over two hundred years
ago that same river and a number of
other rivers in South America had
been explored by priests in small, frail
canoes. Long before our own Revolu-
tionary War a Spanish priest had
gone 500 miles from the Pacific coast
beyond the Andes and stopped there
among the Indians. Mind you, this
was before our Revolutionary War,
and there he settled while teaching
them the Gospel and wrote diction-
airy in the Aymara language, put it in
book form with crude printing press.
That was over 200 years ago. The
printing press had not been introduced
then into this country. Before Har-
ward was founded there was univer-
sity in Peru having 1000 students,
teaching all the subjects taught in
great universities. That indicates
what was done by the Church in that
vast continent long before the largest
parts of the United States had been
settled. We find the Catholic people
taking a very decisive part in the de-
vel6bment of that continent. In the
short time can take, could not
touch upon many topics of history, but
l can tell you about one, the most
prominent and the richest country of
South America, Argentina. About
1910, few years after our Revolu-
tionary War, the people of the sew
eral provinces selected delegates just
as we do and sent them to Argentina
to draw up a declaration of indepen-
dence. There were 20 chosen by the
people from the respective districts;
they met at Tucuman, and of the 20,
16 were Roman Catholic priests who
sat in the congress and signed the dec
laration of independence. More than
that, when the delegates gathered,
there was strong sentiment for
monarchy, most of the delegates be-
lieved in selecting king instead of
the republican form of government
such as had been determined upon by
the colony of North America. One
man in that group took the position
that Argentina should be a republic.
BY his eloQuence and his influence he