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4 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
WHY A GEORGIA METHODIST MINISTER ENTERED THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
By MR. F. X. FARMER, S. J.
This is the sixth and last of a series of articles on
the conversion of Rev. Mr. F. X. Farmer, a native of
Conyers, Ga., a former Methodist minister in China,
and now a student for the priesthood at Hastings,
England. The account was first sent to Bishop Keiley
by Mr. Farmer and later appeared in The Missionary,
the editor of which has given The Bulletin permission
to reproduce it.
Mr. Farmer was born at Conyers, Ga., the son of
a prosperous merchant. Later his family moved to
Covington, Ga. He was educated at Emory Univer
sity, graduating as a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1898,
while Dr. Candler, now Methodist Bishop of Atlanta,
was president.
After a course in theology at Vanderbilt Univer
sity, Mr. Farmer entered a missionary training school
in New York state, going to the Orient in 1901. There
he spent the better part of the last score of years.
After the death of his wife, Mr. Farmer plunged
into Church History. Although formerly so opposed
to the Catholic Church that he refused to assist at an
audience with Pope Pius, X, he now began to doubt
the position of his church in many matters, and finally,
in 1914, after a long struggle with himself, he went
to visit a Jesuit priest, Father Bornand, in Shanghai.
Father Bornand solved the difficulties of Mr. Farmer,
thereby strengthening the minister’s conviction that
the Catholic Church is the Church of Christ.
Returning to Huchow, Mr. Farmer learned that he
was being considered by his church as a possible rep
resentative as a professor at the Protestant University
at Nanking, an announcement which formerly would
have pleased him, but which now only added to his
burden. Letters from his family in America, express
ing alarm at the change he was undergoing, increased
his difficulty.
After a conference with his Bishop, who suggest
ed that a year in America would be the best thing
for him, he returned home in company with the Bishop
and his wife, where he found his family set against his
proposed change from Protestantism. Often during
this vacation, he would slip away to Sacred Heart
Church on Ivy Street and the Immaculate Conception
A REVIEW OF THE YEAR’S WORK
(Continued from page 3.)
olic Men, and Mr. Justin Magrath, editor of the N. C.
W. C. News Service, the Laymen’s Association was able
to give wide publicity in every state in the Union to
the objectional conduct of the Junior Senator from
Georgia.
After the last convention, the finance committee of
the Laymen’s Association appropriated $15,000 to run
the publicity bureau for the year. The publicity com
mittee finished with $2,353.3 7 to spare. It must be
remembered that The Buletin was published monthly
this year, instead of quarterly, as in former years. The
Columbia Sentinel matter also boosted our expenses.
We also published during August a new issue of
Catholics and the Pope,” 10,000 copies, as well as
circulars in the Columbia Sentinel Matter.
A big year looms ahead of the Laymen’s Association.
The Bulletin must be built up. The libel by the Junior
Senator from Georgia must be dealt with further.
Misunderstanding of the attitude of Catholics toward
public schools in certain parts of the state must be cor
rected through education. Most of our non-Catholic
fellow-citizens are fair, and have only to be shown.
The publicity committee in its report expresses its
thanks to Rt. Rev. Benjamin J. Keiley, D. D., Bishop of
Savannah, for his unfailing interest and assistance dur
ing the year; to President Rice, who helped it over
many a rough spot; to Vice-President J. J. Haverty
and the other state officials as well as the officers and
members of the local associations, whose constant and
Church on East Hunter Street, Atlanta, for a few
moments in prayer in the presence of the Blessed
Sacrament.
In my home with my dear mother and sisters I tried
to rest as much as possible, but at the same time I con
tinued to read and investigate a subject which I knew
was of greater importance than anything else in this
present life. I found some books in the Carnegie li
brary which also helped me. Finding there some of
the works of Dr. Schaff, I was notably impressed by
the quotations he gives taken from early Christian
Apologists, Fathers of the Church, Creeds, etc., as
they showed so clearly that the faith and practice of
the first Christians was the same as that taught and
believed by Rome today.
Once or twice I went to see a friend whom I had
known for years and in whose learning and piety I
had great confidence; and not wishing to “leave a
stone unturned,” as we say, and above all, not to be
hasty, I opened my heart and mind most freely to
him; and in answer to some of the most serious dif
ficulties I received only sarcasm and ridicule. Now,
ridicule stings, but it only dodges the issue; it does not
solve the problem. After a painful conversation of
that kind I parted with him saying that unless I saw
matters otherwise, there was nothing to do but enter
the Catholic Church; for everything showed that She,
and She alone, was the true Church of Christ. I re
turned home realizing how true it is, that a man can be
wise and learned in many things, and yet be an ignor
amus and bigot as far as knowledge of the Catholic
Church is concerned. And truly as I consider the
knowledge, zeal and piety of my former co-religionists,
“I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge.”
Towards the close of the winter the Secretary of
the Board of Missions came to Atlanta; I told him
frankly that my “Catholic ideas” instead of vanishing
were more confirmed than ever. I realized that the
time had arrived for me to sever my relations with
the mission, and I did so. The officers and members
had been most kind to me in every way; they had
continued my salary even beyond the time when I
prompt cooperation made failure in its undertakings
impossible. To them the committee refers any credit
that might come as a result of the work of the year.
THE SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
(Continued from page 2.)
serving law and order and developing and cultivating
respect for the constitution of our country.
We deplore all lawlessness and all alleged attempts
to enforce law and order except through the courts by
the methods provided by the law of the land, and earn
estly insist that no individual, no organization, has any
right to act above or outside the law impartially and
openly administered.
We earnestly urge all Catholics to support and pa
tronize the parochial schools as the one sure method
of teaching our children that morality which is in
dispensable to good citizenship, and notwithstanding
that they shall pay their taxes for the support of the
public schools, that they do not fail to fully support
and maintain their parochial schools.
As taxpayers and citizens we have the full right to
patronize the public schools the same as all other
taxpayers and citizens, regardless of religious belief.
There is nothing in the teachings of the Catholic
Church that prohibits or impairs in the slightest de
gree, the efficiency of any Catholic teaching in the
public school; that our position in this matter is to
render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and
£o God the things that are God’s.