ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN AMERICA.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2048, 28 July 1875, Page 3

ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN AMERICA.

The ceremony of " imposing the her'retta" upon the newly-created Cardinal M'Closkey, at New York, is described at great length in the"American papers. The New York Herald, in a leading article on Homan Catholicism in America, ■ays: — There is no sound reason why any citizen should object even to a Pope, much less to a Cardinal; on American soil our .people have become too enlightened to think liberty is endangered by the Catholic faith. That great "keystone in the arch of freedom," Magna Charta was- extorted by Catholic subjects from a Catholic king. All the great safeguards of liberty which we have inherited from the mother country date their origin from the time when England was' Catholic. Catholic Trance assisted us to achieve our independence, and then overthrew monarchy and. aristocracy at home. Even the Catholics of Spain revolted against Charles the fifth, in the name of popular liberty. The Italian republics of the Middle Ages were established by Catholics. The Catholic colonies of South America set up republican Governments when they threw off their allegiance to Spain. The Catholic immigrants to this country from Ireland detest monarchy with as hearty a sincerity as any class of American citizens. The Catholic population of Louisiana oppose Casarism with intenser hatred than the people of any other American State. Tiie' wonderful growth of Catholicism m the United States should convince every" Catholic that nothing is so favorable to the propagation of a religion as national institutions which forbid favor or hostility to any sect. There is no country in the' world where Catholicism has advanced with such gigantic strides as it has in the United States since the full establishment of our great principle of perfect religious equality. One hundred years.ago the Catholics formed but oneeighth even of the .population of Maryland, and were a mere handful in the other Stated. Now they rank as the third,, or, -at-least,, the fourth,- of our Christian denominations • in point of numbers, and next to the first in the value of their Church property. But all our Protestant sects together so greatly outnumber the Catholics that the latter are in a,minority of seven or eight to one, and nothing could be more chimerical than fears that they will ever- control the government. No such fear is entertained by the great body of our intelligent! . Protestants, who regard proceedings at the Cathedral the other day as a pleasing addition to the variety of American life.