CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 217, 22 June 1877, Page 7

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

By John O'Kane Murray, B.S.

[From the Dublin Review.'] In the early days of the American Union, which Catholics had a large share in founding, the cruel bigotry of the English was 'repudiated as equally stupid and ungrateful, by the first rulers of the Republic, and notably by Washington . Mr. Murray pertinently remarks that " General Washington's Life Guard, a most choice body of men, was composed largely of Catholics." They were selected " with special reference to their physical, moral, and intellectual character," and "it was considered a mark of peculiar distinction to belong to the Commander-in-Chief's Guard." (Page 167.) It was not till a later date that firebrands from England and Scotland kindled the flames of a* gross and unpatriotic fanaticism, aad strove to suppress the liberty which they had ostensibly quitted their own land of penal enactments to secure and perpetuate. It was not till party spirit, violent and unscrupulous, had made all weapons acceptable as a tool of political warfare that the same fanaticism was craftily appealed to in our own day by men who do not share it, being indifferent to all religion; and there is reason to believe that the candid and generous temper of the people of the United States has already detected and condemned ! the sordid imposture. Meanwhile, the progress of tho Catholic 'faith in the New World, by its own inherent life, is one of fie most consoling facts of our age. Macaulay shrewdly remarked that as , the ablest and most acute minds had, in all times, lovingly professed that faith, it was hard to see what it had to fear from the progress of so-called knowledge and enlightenment. The world is not likely to be adorned with more sublime genius in the | future than in the past, and the noblest specimens of our race, morally and intellectually, have been, as Macuulay observed, devout and exulting Catholics. The peculiar and composite structure of , American society, and its local traditions and usages, have been no ' impediment to the peaceful victories of their holy faith. Sixty years ago the number of Catholics in the t->w Sta-tcs vf New Yyrk

and New Jersey was only 13,000; at this moment it is 1,500,000. In the year 1800 there was in the whole American Union only one Catholic diocese, one bishop, and fifty priests. There are now eighty-six dioceses, including apostolic vicariates, about saventy archbishops and bishops, and more than five thousand priests. Mr. Murray adds : "It is the opinion of many, well-informed and thoughtful men that there are between eight and ten millions of baptized Catholics in the United States" (p. 3.1G). However impressive these facts may be, there is one which is still more hopeful and encouraging, and which suggests a deeper motive of gratitude to God for the favours which H«» has conferred on this youthful but mighty nation. Not only are American Catholics conspicuous for solid virtue, generous enthusiasm, and filial devotion to the Holy See, but these qualities are displayed in an eminent degree by converts from every rank and class, and notably those who were fed in their younger days on the sour nutriment of that effete Puritanism which once Btrove to suppress, by harbarous cruelty, the Catholic religion, but only to succumb, especially in the cradle land of New England, in that unequal combat which the human wages with the divine. A " liberal " Catholic is as rare in the American Republic as a black swan. They are all, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, what the slang of the day calls " Ultramontanes "—" — i.e., inseparably united with the Vicar of Christ, ani in harmony with the mind of the Church. It is this, together with their practical devotion and piety, which is the secret of their triumphs in the past and the guarantee of their success in the future. We cai oordially recommend Mr. Murray's volume to all wlio wish to see the proof of the one and to estimate the prospects oi" the other.