The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-11
Cardinal O'Connell said:

AS the case was presented to me i it became clear to my mind that to 1 stay away would be tantamount to the evasion of 0 grave obligation to my faith, my country and my race.
 When the voice of that sacred trinity of motives calls, no man with a. Christian conscience can refuse to rise and follow it, no matter what the cost pr the sacrifice.
 q had to choose between conven- fence, conventionality and duty. I have made my choice, and here stand.
 "The Irish people through all the painful vicissitudes of their history have been faithful, as no other people in all the world, to the Christian faith. The most Christian country in all the world today, according to the testimony even of her enemies, is Ire- land.
 When her children, fleeing from an intolerable condition of servitude un- der a foreign domination hateful to the proud spirits of all freemen, came in pitiable exile to these shores of free America, they brought with them 1 the nOblest virtues of Christian souls 1 Where even today would the church 1 in America be---for that matter in the whole English world, Eng l land included---but for the fidelity, | the great-heartedness, the unquench- able devotion of the children of Erin?
 Is it possible than any of us Bish- ops or priests of America could ever be guilty of forgetting that to the he roic generosity of the Irish we owe l tr1n fa foif tho superbly beautiful Cathedral of the wonderful city, dedicated to Ire lands patron Saint and erected by the sacrifices of his faithful sons and daughters? What is true of this mo- DIest Christian shrine in Americas greatest city is equally true of thou sands and thousands of hunbler com nlunities all over the land.
 Future of Irish at Stake.
 Can any of us among the church's leaders ever remain silent and inac- tive when there is at stake the vel fare of the people to whom we owe our very daily bread and the roof thac shelters us?
 . Are we whose very lives are dedi- . Cated to the eternal principle for which Ireland has become a martyr SlAiAOlAES IAlC 4iCbt1OLlSJJ Sp NIGlSA Dy } worldly interests as to be mute in this l day when all the world of brutal might is summoned into court: God } forbid:
 3 Tn Gods name let us now speak i out fearleslessIy for Gods cause, fol l the cause of justice to all weak ant s strong, small and great, or let us bt D forever silent
 l If we look back upon what ha.
 happened during the last four year. e we shall see that conditions, hfther f to accepted as permanent and abso lutely unchangeable, have been st il completely and entirely transformed f that almost nothing remains of then o to remaind us of what once stood a ,, firm as Gibraltar.
 /, 'Tt is as if the elemental force " had suddenly asserted themselve
 earth. The kaleidoscope of the worlt II has been shaken and the bits of col o ored glass in the child's toy hay S rushed into new combinations yyhicl r. puzzle the eyes of our brain. On '- after another thrones have been over e turned and Empires have fallen. Dis
 order has broken loose upon the earth
 and unless some power greater tha,
 the forces of anarchy prevails, al
 Europe-all the world will be shake
 to the foundations of civilization. # WAR UNTIL JUSTICE REIGNS
 '"The great war is over now, but h
 who fancies that because the grea
 war is over universal peace will a j y pear on schedule time has 8 grea
 disillusion ahead of him. No, unles
 now that the war is over, justice be Il gins her rightful reign over the whol = earth, there may be momentary luI l. but enduring peace will not be attair
 ed. It was for justice that humanit
 fought. and humanity will still b n ready to go on with even fercer war e until justice Eolds full sway. st ''Be not deceived by false prophet
 Diplomacy which failed so utterly [
 preserve the peace of the world wi r. not succeed alone in bringing it bacl D. America is far away from the re;
 theatre of mighty changes. But eve
 America will not easily escape al movement so universal as now is wis CT ble on every horizon. What is thi " movement? It is the pent up Iongiu
 in the hearts of a dozen nations fC
 the right to rule themselves. ne AutocFacy Doomed. n- '"Tho doom of autocracy has a es ready sounded. The silent miIliol
 of Russia, patient for centuries, ha'
 rushed mAdly into the vortex of rev, ar lution. Even i'll Germany, WhiC he seemed so content with itself. nc ra force is pushing out the older forms. t- Obviously, therefore, we are at u
 end of period, and a new one
 beginning. It is strange that whe of Poland and Serbia and the Czechs ar hv the Slovaks and the Serbs and u ks Ukrainians are clamoring for nation th rights and national recognition tn
 Ireland for full seven centuries dom
 mated by g. foreign rule acquired on ter by force and even today exercised l ,at force, should now more than ever e ,rt upon the world, but most of all upt he America, as the bountiful mother ds. true freedom, to help her regain u
 treasure stolen from her, and rei lat state her in full possession of h he complete liberty?
 Ic- But ever and always every meth cid she adopted, every leader who spo of her cause, every victory won, eve
 defeat suffered, every weapon use
 every strategy designed, ever, a are ever, and ever, the same ultima er- purpose is clearly visible, and tt em purpose is the vindication of Irelan 1pe right to government only by conse es. of the governed.
 ''That is the principle which ul
 mateIy won AmeFica's freedom: a ion 1t is because America understaI er that principle, that Ireland today