The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-10-11
GIVE HONOR TO
 GOD AND FLAG

papers of yesterday morning to get the other side of the picture Head lines on every side proclaimed wan Ing reverence for all authority civil and religious. In one column Bolshe- i vism with its platform fNo God, No Country the Communists, not the people must rule.'' In the next col umn flared the account of the wave of immortality sweeping over great areas of Europe eliminating in the naked dance craze and other erot1c manifestations One had but to turn the pages to follow the lurid trail of men who had eft God behind and followed that b yarraying themselves against all duly constituted civil au- thority. And, like the infection Of war, this pestilence which has suruns up from the smoldering fires of the world war has 1eaped the Atlantic and is threatening Gods own country itself. @i i he spirit of unrest which sweep I ing Europe had a bloody manifesto | ton in Wall street, New York only a few days ago when in the opinion l of the authorities a misguided man who had lost faith in God and in | country was responsible for the terri l ble act winch resulted in the loss or thirty six lives
 1 Demonstrations such as yesterda" provide the best antidote to tnls | movement
 whose auspices the demonstration | was staged, takes it's name from the 1 fifth paragraph of the pledge which l all it's members take: "In honor of against perjury, blasphemy and ob- 1 scene speech" The parade disbanded in front of | the bandstand at Seaside Park. The 1 stand had been transformed into | temporary altar, and was draped in American flags. The exercises con. sisted of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, singing of the Tantum l Ergo, o Salutrris Hostia and the | Holy Name hymn by selected choir.
 This was followed by the admins tration of the pledge Of the Holy i Name Society to all present, and a i short discourse of Catholic Man. hood by Rev. George Donahue of St. i Augustine's church. At the conclusion
 of Father Donahue's remarks, the | Spangled Banner was sung by thirty marchers waving their American flags, and Father Donahue holding 1 Old Glory aloft from tho platform in front of the improvised altar. l Father Donahuet spoke as fol- i lows:
 ''The very first sermon of St. Paul to the people of Europe was when he came and talked to the people of PhiHppi and this ] is what he said: God hath ex- alted. Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that 1 every head should bow of those l JIldl are III I1SdNel or OH earth Or under the earth and that every tongue should confess that the i Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory l of God His Father
 | What Saint Paul preached 1 twenty centuries ago we are not | only preaching with tongue but
 with the louder voice of human l action. Every power we have of
 mind and body today is echoing back St. PauPs wonderful text | that the Lord Jesus Christ is a
 name above every other name.
 Tt is very refreshing to find l that we Catholics in the very commemoration and devotion of the day can go back twenty cen
 turies and link up absolutely and T literally our faith with the faith
 of St. Paul.
 "St. Paul presented the divin-
 ity. the holiness, the beauty of
 the name of Jesus to the first people that he met in Europe
 and today in Bridgeport under Gods fair skies and by the side 1 of mishty-voiced waters St. PauFs teaching--please God and thank God--is not only living, but liv- i ing with all the strength, all the beauty and all the power of old. There is no need to talk. This is religious poem today. For me to talk longer would be an l attempt to paint the lily and giId
 gold.
 T abjure you to keep your pledge that you made today, keep the faith that is in you, keep the resolve that you will always be clean of speech respecting God and Gods Holy Name, and the result will be that you will be | good men and good citizens.
 Every man that is true to God
 loves his flag. Every man who
 serves God serves the flag. The | best Americans under the Stars and Stripes are the men who love God and serve him and fear him, and that is what the church
 teaches; those are the kind of 1 men the Catholic church makes "1 hope God will bless you and send you His grace, His divine grace, as His Holy Name has
 made music in your ears today and fill your mouth with the honeycomb of the Scriptures, and that after'tllis earthly journey is
 over with it's sorrows and hard ships, you will look upon the | beautiful face Of the Son of God
 and have Him give you the re- ward of this days celebration, II which is Himself, not for time but for eternity
 address the Star Spangled Banner
 was sung by the multitude led by the
 choir and the six thousand march
 CTS waving their flags they sang
 in unison with Old Glory held aloft by Father Donahue standing in front
 of the improvised altar.