The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-18
Principles Count, Father OHara
 Stresses Ln Address Last Night

For q, long time past, for many
 years before our Holy Father is- sued his first appeal for Catholic Action, I have reflected on just the problem presented by that ap- peal. l have tried to analyZe the failure of our people to partici-
 pate with the hierarchy in the full- ness of Catholic life; I have won- dered what has kept us from ap- preciating what we have; and from time to time I have been amazed that it~has remained for non Cath olics to point to Catholics the truth and the beauty of the. Cath olic church. And after years of reflection and study and observa- ton of this problem, 1t is my con-
 viction that, if the Holy Father has
 found 1t necessary to beg Catholics to participate in Catholic Action,
 to bring into every department of
 life the Catholic principles that
 govern every walk of life. 1t is be-
 cause through ignorance and timidity Catholics have, until now,
 been unmindful of their glorious
 birthright.
 Catholics Not Timid
 have mentioned both ignorance
 and timidity. It seems hard to &C.,
 cuse of tirnidity people who have
 battled for their constitutional
 rights as have American Catholics
 and I come from one of the bat tlefields, for. only decade ago In-
 diana was, politically at least, in the coils of the Ku Klux Klan;- it is hard to accuse of timidity people who have, by tremendous sacrifices and by voluntary double | taxation, buih up for themselves school system, from kindergarten to university, which ministers an- | nually to two and 0 half million children; it is hard to accuse of timidity q people who have, some- times in the first generation from unlettered peasantry, brought forth statesmen and jurists and scientists and artists and generals who de-
 serve to rank with the best our
 country has produced. It Is hard. I say, to accuse such q people of timidity, and yet I feel forced to
 make the accusation, for feel that
 the great majority of our people,
 while they may have battled for
 certain rights, have had a feeling of inferiority which was bred of | ignorance, an ignorance prolonged
 and confirmed by this same feel
 ing of inferiority.
 Mind, am not charging them with wilful ignorance nor with craven timidity. For such rights as they knew were theirs, they bat tied stoutly. However, they had
 many rights of which they were in ignorance through no fault of their own. If we, their sons con- tinue to ignore those same rights, and refuse to battle for them. ours will be . wilful ignorance and a craven timidity.
 If my grandmother in County
 Clare and her ancestors for three hundred years before her were
 kept by penal laws from learning
 to read, that did not prevent her
 from encouraging my father to get
 all the schooling possible iii the
 poorly equipped district schools of | the farming community where she
 lived; it did not prevent her from urging him to put second patch ! on his clothes to save money for such books us were to be had. And | if my father, whose struggle for | existence kept pace with his strug- gle for knowledge and culture, had adopted the Elizabethan standard | of material prosperity as the meas
 ure of divine favor, you might
 blame him, but you could under-
 stand.
 Wealth Not 6 Measure
 Thank God he didn't--but there
 were those who did. Thers- arc
 still Catholics who measure great
 ness by wealth. There arc those
 who are always q bit apologetic
 about the Catholic church--who feel that the church has duty
 to minister. but no right to teach
 or to rule; who feel that the church Is out of her element if sho
 speaks her mind on public ques. tions; who condemn tho church as
 behind the times when she cons demns divorce and sterilization ana birth control, when she defends the rights Of tho wOrkingIaaD to col.
 lective bargaining, to decent hours and conditions of labor, to q llvink wage, and t0 insurance against lhe unceFfaiHties Of income under th0 modern industrial syetnnl. There
 are those apOiOgetlG Caih0ilcs. ! say; they save been faithful dlss elploA 0f fhe world and not the IfOly Father their eyes are eieson te fhe strength ef Catholic phlIess Iepby and gile fuli beauty of cash'