San Francisco

New Zealand Tablet, 12 July 1906, Page 9

San Francisco

' Where there is no hope,' said Johnson in the 4 Rambler, 1 ' there can be no endeavor.' Our spiritual kith and kin in San Francisco have in their hearts the spirit of self-reliance, of hope undaunted, and of faith which knows that ' A sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched 1 ; That what l>egan best, can't end worst' Nor what God blessed once prove accurst.' And so they have girt their loins to noble endeavorto restoration of the dire havoc wrought by earthquake and fire upon the material machinery of their religion. Our bright contemporary, the ' Monitor,' has emerged from the wreck (in which it lost e\erything), and its first note is one of hope and high resolve. ' Though the Church in this city and diocese,' it says, 'has suffered a tremendous material loss, there is no discouragement among Catholics, and no reason for any. What was accomplished in brick and mortar during the last fifty years, and in a great measure blotted out in two days, will be restored in even better and more enduring form in a generation. The faith of the people is strong, and their generosity equal to their faith. The work of rebuilding will commence at once on the ruins, and will be carried along without serious interruption. In a short time everybody in San Francisco who wants worlc will be profitably employed. The high degree of material prosperity enjoyed here before the earthquake will return with the resumption of our trade and industries, which nothing short of the extinction of the peninsula itself can -destroy. The Church will have its , share in the common revival of good times, and the rehabilitation of ruined and dismantled churchea, schools, and institutions, will proceed with. the general upbuilding, cf

— * ' k • « i ■ a new and greater San Francisco on the ashes" of '"the old. The stfritual benefits of the chastening which the community has experienced by convulsion and flames can not be exaggerated unless all si^ns fail. Not only will the city of the future be a more solid and beautiful creation materially, but it is destined to be a better one religiously and. spiritually.'