The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-19

Dy pEnat iaWS because they refused
 t0 give up their Catholic faith,
 either they or their fathers lost
 their opportunities ct home, and res
 duced to poverty, they came to
 America with empty hands but with
 heart full of faith, to become slaves
 -the cooks, the buffers, the house.
 maids and the iaborers--i norder
 that they might worship God as
 they knew God should be wog-
 shipped.
 "A WRETCHED LITTLE
 CATHOLIC CHAPEL"
 John L. stoddard in the story of
 his conversion, Rebuilding a Lost
 Faith" relates the following in-
 cident told him by Catholic friend.
 "Once, when q young girl, she
 was visiting at . palatial residence
 on the Hudson, and asked her
 hostess where she could find a
 Catholic Church in the neighbor-
 hood. There is wretched little
 Catholic chapel three miles away she replied, but you can't go there. Only poor Irish servants and Itali- ans attend service there "Well' answered my friend with spirit, that Is where [ shall go; for the religion ! belong to began in a stable and I don't care if 1t ends in a stable l have been told that this reply of the ardent Catholic was never for gotten by those who heard it.. Tn fact it is not, amazing that any genuine Christian can condemn a church for being the one great Christian body that welcomes and retains the poor! To do so is to show spiritual snohhishneSs, sur- passing that of the PhariSees. T.
 Tn Catholic Churches rich and poor, poet and peasant, kneel, wor- ship and partake of Holy Com munion together, side by side with out distinction. Before their altars all are equal. The Catholic Church is e-emincntly the Church of the poor, and thus fulfills one of the principal conditions laid down by our Saviour to convince St. John the Baptist of His Messiahship: The poor have the Gospel preached to them"
 SLAVES THAT THEIR CHILDREN MIGHT NOT BE SLAVES
 Today to their everlasting glory it may be said that never in his- tory has any people advanced in culture as rapidly as have the Cath olic immigrants who were the foundation of the Church in Amer ica. Deprived of education them selves they slaved that their chil- dren might not have to be slaves, and today no other class of people in our country have so many in- stitutions of higher learning. Not so many years ago the Catholic professional man was the exception; today they more than represent, and worthIiy represent, their peo- pie in the professions.
 We Catholics may carry our hearts high. We have the poor; Christ loved the poor. The Church will cease to be the Church of Christ when it ceases to have and to love the poor. We have the uncultured and the llneducated, the butler, the cook and the laborer. We have the good and the bad, the sinner and the saint, because Christ would have it so. Christ established his Church not only for the cultured and the educated and the wealthy, but on the contrary He established 1t as the one means under Heaven by which all men should be saved.
 Are my cook and butler right and I wrong?" the Boston man asked. Are they wrong because they are butler and cook? Centuries ago the proud and noble Romans drew back in diSdain from the uncouth preach CTS of this new gospel. Could the noble Roman be wrong and these peasants right? But they were wrong and the peasants right. Herod laughed Christ to scorn and paraded him as Q fool through the streets of Jerusalem. But Herod was wrong ard Christ was right.
 A half century ago 8 New York | in the ribald manner of the day pictured huge hole in the ground with Irish servant girls throwing their pennies into it and titled the cartoon "St. Patrick,s | Cathedral Today the sons and grandsons of these same domestics, some in silk hats, and some in shabby felrs-and one we hope oc- casionally wearing his brown derby pass in and out of the portals of | the magnificent edifice, proud of Inc fall GnkInin fannarr of ln,,o flat