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VOL. BL RICHI
"The Reliffi
I
(A discourse delivered In Lafayette Presbyterian
Church, New Orleans, on Sunday, June 18th, 1911, by
Rev. Juan Orts Y Gonzalez, and substantially published
in the New Orleans Picayune and TimesDemocrat
of June 19, 1911. Dr Orts was for many
years a Roman Catholic Priest and a Franciscan
Friar in Spain. On August 1, 1909, he united with
the Lafayette Presbyterian Church and has since
been pursuing his studies at Union Theological Seminary,
Richmond, Va., with a view to returning to
Spain as a missionary. This summer he will work
principally among the Mexicans in Texas.)
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glance to a foreigner to be a materialistic nation
which stands merely for material affairs, material
business, material improvements, and material
comfort. The foreigner sees so many material
enterprises, he hears the American people
speaking so constantly about business and
money, that he is apt to conclude that nothing
impresses public opinion in America but money
and that nothing awakes the American
mind but business. "When I came to America
and after my first introduction to English, I
was deeply impressed to see a religious inscription
stamped upon your silver and gold coins,
viz., "In God We Trust." An American citizen
laughed at my surprise and said, "There
is a word misspelled in the inscription. Instead
of being "In God We Trust," it should
be, In (Jold we Trust, because tne only uocl
the Americans really worship is gold."
But my friend was wrong. Ideals, great
ideals, touch, move and guide North America
more than business and money. And among
such great ideals religion has a large and
prominent place. Not long ago a German
writer after a thorough examination of
American institutions, customs, and literature,
proclaimed emphatically. "The North
American people are the most religious people
on the face of the earth. And every one well
acquainted with American religious enterprises,
both at home and abroad, requiring
millions of money and the highest grade of ~
manhood and womanhood, knows that this
German writer is correct and also that Religion
in America is not in decay.
I will not therefore discuss this morning
whether North America will, or will not remain
religious in the future. I take for
granted, and to me it is unquestionable that
the United States will continue religious. But
?QV
wnat religion will preaommate in tne iuturei
o c? k \ Will America remain largely Protestant as in
the past or will she become Catholic T
Were we to give our answer to this question
>/, 3 from the Roman Catholic standpoint, we would
say that America will become Roman Catholic,
and that very soon.
Let us hear the Romanists first:
Less than one year ago a famous English
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WOND, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA. JU
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priest Rev. Bernard Vaughn addressed the
Roman Catholic "Eucharistic Congress" in
Canada and in the presence of the papal delegate,
several cardinals, hundreds of archbishops,
and bishops, and thousands of priests, and hundred
of thousands of prominent American Catholics
said, "Protestantism is passing away, and
if there is any hope for America to be Christian
such hope belongs to the Roman Catholic
Church." A slight perusal of daily, weekly,
and monthly Roman Catholic literature, a mere
glance at the official text books used in their
parochial schools, colleges, academies and universities
will nnnnno/. s~i " '
vuuwiiw auj uue mat uauoiiC8
speak of the disintegration and disappearance of
Protestanism as a plain fact already accomplishConftbetice
"I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive. What time, what circuit first,
I ask not; hut unless God send his hail,
Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird. In his good time.
"If I stoop
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
It is but for a time; I press God's lamp
Close to my breast; its splendor soon or late
Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.
It's wiser being good than bad;
It's safer being meek than fierce;
It's fitter being sane than mad.
'' My own hope is, a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud ever earth stretched;
That after Last, returns the First,
Tno' a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nor what God blest once, prove accurst."
?Browning.
ed, or, at least, as an event that will take place
in the very near future.
Even a prelate so prominent, so liberal, and so
enlightened an American, as the archbishop of
St. Paul, Rev. John Ireland is reported as having
said, "Protestanism as a doctrinal system
is in hopeless dissolution, therefore, if America
is to remain Christian, she must become Catholic."
Now, certainly, when you compare Protestant
organization with Roman Catholic organization,
you feel almost bound, humanly speaking,
to believe that all chances are in favor of Catholics.
Protestantism appears at the first glance
to a superficial examiner like an army withont a
general; as a set of countless religions of conflicting
creeds, of discordant methods of wor
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vesternppes&^p/afla
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3
LY 12. 1911. NO. 28
f America."
ship, of quarrelsome societies (1 say to the superficial
examiner, because, to the careful one
who has a fair inside knowledge of both Romanism
and Protestanism, it is well known that Protestants
enjoy a much closer union, better doctrinal
harmony and much truer spiritual communion
among themselves than the 230 different
Roman Catholic religious orders or denominations
with their many and conflicting doctrinal
systems). Moreover, the Roman Catholic
Church appears to be a powerful organization
moving as an army going forward to certain
and easy victory, under the command of the
Pope. The Pope gives the word, and straightway
cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, and
friars, nuns and laymen, fulfil a well arranged
and calculated plan. The Pope commands and
churches, schools, teachers, confessors, preachers,
representatives, senators, supreme judges,
Knights of Columbus, and all Catholics hasten
to obey and to enforce the Pope's commands.
When I say we compare the apparent lack of
organization among the Protestants with the
poweriui Human Catholic machine, we do not
see any cliance for the Protestants. All chances
seem to be in favor of the Catholics.
But what do the real facts say ? Do they encourage
Roman Catholic expectations and
predictions ?
First of all, taking into account Roman
Catholic statistics and comparing them with
government statistics, in the matter of immigration,
we are authorized to state that the
Roman Catholic Church in America instead
of advancing is a tremendous failure. According
to official Roman Catholic statistics, there
are in the United States between 17 and 18
millions of Catholics. But the official figures
of the United States census rate the Catholics
as numbering only between 13 and 14 millions.
According to the immigration received,
had the Romanists held their own without
counting their natural gains among their
American followers, there should now be more
i.1 ~ -
iiitui zd minions of Catholics in the United
States.
Let us illustrate this point by considering
conditions in New York state, where undoubtedly
Catholic influence is stronger than in any
other State of the Union and where Catholic
forces are better qualified and equipped to
handle Catholic immigration and retain it for
the Roman Church. Of the nine millions of
foreigners received into New York in the last
ten years, more than 1,500,000 which were
Catholics, remained in that State. ITow many
Catholics, therefore, do you suppose are in that
commonwealth, since throuerh immierrntiori nlnn<>
c -v,
1,500.000 were received? Well they number less
than 1,300,000. Therefore instead of enjoying
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