The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-12-17

THlNkERS-lRlSH c A T n 0 / G
FAITH FIRM.
Surrounded by the Bishops of Ire-l
land, Mr.. Timothy Healy, the renown-
ed lawyer and publicist, stood before
the Catholic Truth Conference at Dub
lin to tell "Why the Catholic Church |
is Hated" Apart from his profession
al work in the courts, it was his first |
public appearance for several years |
The occasion was one of extreme in |
terest.
Answer to Protestant Contentious.
when l was foundering for sub. !
ject l read in the great Protestant
organ of Dublin review of book on
the Lives Of the Saints 1t contained
such a complete syllabus Of errors
that I thought could not do better
than regard myself as counsel for the
plaintiff in libel against the Cath
Ollie Church. The review appeared
on May 81, 1921. In the article there
was statement that the modern child
had not long left the nursery when
he questioned the stories of the super
natural. Life to him, it was said, was
so full of wonders that he had no use
for the pious fancies of mediaevalism.
The child of today was not ready to
swallow the miraculous conversion of
the Irish chieftains at Tara. l said
to myself, when / read this, that it
was not St. Patrick who was being at
| tackled. 1t was Moses. 1t was not
the scene in County Meath that was
being desecrated. 1t was Mount Sinai
and the Ten Commandments. For if
| it were the case that God had ceased
| his workings in this world, why should
anyone believe that they had ever
commenced?"
| Mr.. Healy showed with what syste-
matte repetition the press of all coun-
tries gave forth such views. He quot
ed this statement made in a daily
paper week later:
| ''The microscope is a great
emancipation of the human mind.
| 1t has revealed to us data in geol-
ogy, astronomy, biology, and en-
| bryology, as we'll as in the indus
trial arts and sciences, without
| which we would still be wallow-
ing in the muck of superstition
and dogmatic ignorance"
He cited an extract from an Irish
| journal which some days previously
had reproduced an American paper S
account of the creation of man. 1t
represented man as having sprung
from a monkey.
"Such teaching" Mr.. Healy assert
ed, "leads straight to Paganism, and it
is because the Catholic Church says
so, and says it boldly, that She is
hated"
Humbug Scientists.
There are no greater humbugs
than the so-called scientists of modern
| times, they are continually putting one
another. One fellow at Oxford lately
said he had discovered the beginning
of life-though he could not start the
hind-leg of flea. There are no great
Ter bubble-blowers than these reputeo
philosophers.
Il will admit" said Mr.. Healy, "the
many advantages of paganism. A mar
could rob his ,neighbor's till, covet his
wife, and divorce his own. He coulC
also keep a harem. Free thought
gives right to loose living and loose
thinking. You may box the compass
of unbelief in any way you like. Yor
| 10 xrYitI hn
human liberty. But in the end il
comes down to nothing else than the
license to defraud ones neighbor ant
dishonor his wife 1t is better thai
these sham scientists should have tha
fact put down their Threats occasion
ally"
Free Thinkers and Freedom.
In a passage of corrosive irony Mr.
Healy made it clear that the free
thinkers were never genuinely on the
side of democratic freedom. They saw
Ireland taxed out of existence, We
they never tried to save her from thu
exactions of the State. When the poo
Irish people were able to put up de
cent church somewhere, as in Letter
kenny, the scientists and professor
wrote sonnets against it. When thei
people emerged from their thatchet
cabins and mountain caves and erect
led some shrine in Gods honor, thes'
men were struck with horrors that thu
poor Irish peasantry should be so ble'
, by it's voracious priests.
In sentences of deep emotion MI
, Healy mentioned the services they re
| ceived from their priests. He dwell
: on the action of the clergy during tn
: recent warfare in Ireland-hurryin
to the side of stricken and dying
risking their lives from bullets, stra
, or intentional, and doing Gods wor
, day and night without counting tn
/ dangers That calm and pertinaciou
7 zeal was, in his opinion, one of tn
larger reasons why the Church wa
hated
Pope Adrian's Last Bull"
. With considerable humor he dwell
lon the touching faith evinced by ant
lCatholics in Pope Adrian's Bull--th
Bull which is alleged to have ordere
England to conquer Ireland. He wa
lin a museum recently, and they show
. | ed him Magma Charta, signed and sea
ed by King John. Then he asked t
see the famous Bull issued by Pop
Adrian to King Johns father, Henr
< the Second. But the Bull couldn't b