The Irish standard., 1917-04-14
reckless assaults upon all the rights
and virtues of Christian civilization.

reckless assaults upon all the rights
and virtues of a Christian civilization.
Catholicism the Same.
"The climax is reached by Rodolfo
Menendez Mena when he makes his
appeal to Catholics in the United
States, and dares, in speaking to them,
to institute distinction between Ca
tholicism in the United States and
Catholicism in Mexico. OF American
Catholics he writes: There is an
abyss of centuries and races between
their cultured, discreet, moderate Ca
tholicism, modified and modernized, If
we may call it so, and the Catholic
idolatry of the Mexican masses, medic
val and savage, taught, propagated and
applied by Spanish priests, etc., etc.
The Catholicism of American Catho-
lies, Catholicism modified and mod
ernized' so as to be acceptable to Ro-
dolfo Menendez Mena This the Ca
tholicism of Catholics in the United
States! Well, let me say in prompt
reply, the Catholicism Of Catholics in
the United States is the Catholicism
of the universal Church, which is ruled
and guided by the Bishop of Rome
the same Catholicism as that taught,
propagated and applied by the bishops
and priests of Mexico. The Catholi-
cism cultured, discreet and moderate
of the Catholics of the United States!
Catholicism in the United States, is,
indeed, Cultured as Catholicism any,
where and everywhere necessarily is;
but to say that it is discreet, moderate
is to belle it in it's belief and practice;
as much as it were to belle the Cathol-
icism of the Spanish bishops or priests
in Mexico to intimate that there Ca
tholicism is indiscreet and immoder-
ate. Catholicism in the United States,
if illuminated and blackened as is the
Catholicism of Mexico under the pen
of Senior Mena, would, indeed, stir to
horror the enlightened observer. But
such is not our Catholicism; and nei-
Their is it the Catholicism of Mexico.
To know the Catholicism preached in
the United States is to know the
Catholicism preached in Mexico. In
either country the justification of the
Catholic Church is the telling of the
truth, pure and unvarnished.
Il fling back into the face of Senior
Mena, with all the power Of my words,
the debasing insult he levels against
Cardinal Gibbons and myself when he
writes: "The great figures of Cardinal
Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland, the
illustrious pre-Catholic American prel-
ates can have no counter
part in Mexico What is meant by the
word pre- Catholic do not know; but
the merits or the dement's of Cardinal
Gibbons or of Archbishop Ireland,
neither will allow himself to be in.
voked to give heft to blow of lies
out against the bishops of Mexico,
whom both of them hold in high es-
TEEN and warm friendship.
Appeal for Truth and Justice.
""The Latin-American News Asso-
citation has made it's appeal to public
opinion in the United States; so to the
same public opinion make my appeal.
My appeal is for truth and Justice
for the honor of the American people
themselves. I do not ask that be be-
lieved on my word; I do ask that
Americans make due inquiry of re-
ligious conditions and occurrences in
Mexico before they pronounce judy
ment.
"The appeal of the 'Latin-American
News Association to American public
opinion should be accompanied with
the pledge that the dispositions of the
law in Mexico concerning the religion
of it's citizens should he the counter
part of what is found in the United
States. This were a compliment to
the United States, to which its people
could listen with sincere pleasure, and,
on the other hand, it would be alto
gether satisfactory to the Catholics of
Mexico. The Catholic Church in Mex
leo asks nothing beyond what is con-
! coded to it in the United States; the
conditions Of religion in the United
States once allowed to it, the Church
of Mexico will be perfectly satisfied,
and religious peace will be restored to
that unfortunate country.
"At the present time the so-called
'Constitutionalist Party under the
leadership of Venustiano Carranza, by
its prosecutions of the Catholic Church,
sounds in Mexico the death-knell Of the
principles of civil and religious lib.
erty, so dearly cherished by the Amer.