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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
anything nor dodge any historic or other difficulties
which I proposed to him. During the days that fol
lowed our first meeting, he loaned me books treating
of various dogmas of the Catholic faith. We also
studied the Catechism, which he explained article
after article. We had many and long talks together.
In a word he treated me just as I, a Protestant pas
tor, was in the habit of treating the many Chinese
who came to me at my chapels to inquire all about
the Christian faith as I taught it.
At the same time he was also unconsciously show
ing me the nobility, elevation, sincerity, learning,
self-abnegation, grandeur and holiness of the Catho
lic priesthood. How different from my deformed
and preconceived Protestant ideas! I profited well of
my opportunity, for, I think, during the course of
our conferences, I mentioned all the reasonable and
unreasonable objections I had ever known or could
think of against the Catholic Church. I was aston
ished to find how utterly false were all my hostile
conceptions of Catholicism, and how- ignorant I was
of what the Church believed, taught and practiced.
But how could it have been otherwise? I had never
had even a Catholic friend, and all I had heard and
learned in earlier days was through Protestant
sources. Now, at least, I was in a position to see
both sides of the question and judge impartially as
to which was right.
I knew the Holy Scriptures very well, and I saw
from that standpoint in reference to such important
questions as Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, the prom
ise of Infallibility made by Christ to St. Peter, the
power to absolve from sin, etc., that the Catholic
Church had the best of the argument, and that Prot
estant exegetes had warped and twisted the Scrip
tures to prove theories utterly foreign to primitive
Christianity. And if they treated the inspired word
of God thus, it is not surprising to find that they
garbled, misquoted, and rejected wholesale the Fath
ers of the Church. This so-called ‘’Reform” had re
sulted in an absolute denial of some of the most com
mon doctrines of the Christian faith! Indeed with
their preconceived theories and system of eclecticism,
those “Would-be Reformers” had set up a Church
which Christ and the Apostles had never known.
More clearly than ever was it borne in upon my
mind, that the Christian religion being a divine reve
lation, and not a system of human philosophy, was
bound to have but one meaning, and in order to pre
serve that message incorrupt, some official authority
was absolutely necessary. If God had confided the
preservation of the faith to numerous discordant
sects, it was a fact too evident to deny that one could
any longer know the contents and import of the
original revelation made by Christ.
(To be continued)
MISS MARY ANN DEIGNAN
The Catholic Church in Georgia has lost one of
her most devoted children in the recent death of Miss
Mary Ann Deignan, of Columbus, who was called to
her eternal reward on the 29th of June last.
Miss Deignan had been for forty-nine years a
teacher in the Columbus Public Schools, and was just
rounding out her golden jubilee year when God
called her home.
She was born in Columbus and spent her entire
life in that city, and entered the service of the Pub
lic School system in 1872—just ten years after it
was instituted in Columbus.
It is doubtful if any teacher was more capable
or more faithful ttmn she: and Columbus and other
places in the South number by the hundred those
who as her former pupils look back upon the years
spent in her class room with affection and gratitude
to the one who helped to guide them in the right
path of education. As one of these former pupils
of hers I can testify to her worth. Well do I remem
ber her firmness, mingled with kindness; her strict
discipline, nrrgled with a genial disposition which
took away all semblance of harshness; in short, the
perfect Teacher. 5
If there was anything which could surpass her
complete mastery of the art of training children, it
was her outspoken loyalty to what she knew and
believed to be right and true; and this in matters
of her religion no less than in matters of history or
general subjects of the day. Though not at that
time of the household of the faith—on the contrary
rather opposed to it than otherwise—even from my
self as from all other pupils, Catholic, Protestant or
Jewish—Miss Mary Ann Deignan was respected and
admired for her loyalty and devotion.
It is such. Catholics as these that have done most
for the cause of the Church in Georgia. Our preach
ing may reach the ears and hearts of the few; but
lives such as hers was are after all the greatest and
strongest argument.
J. D. M„ V. G.
JOHN C. HARTFELDER DEAD
John C. Hartfelder, one of the best known Knights
of Columbus in the Southeast, and recently appointed
district deputy of the order for the Southern District
of Georgia, by State Deputy John B. McCallum, died
suddenly Saturday evening, July 23, at his home in
Savannah.
The funeral was held Monday morning, July 25, at
the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah. The
Knights of Columbus attended in a body. Interment
was at Cathedral Cemetery.
A STATE ORGANIZATION OF CATHOLIC WOMEN
MRS. ELISE HEYWARD HOWKINS.
By
A State organization of Catholic women will be
a fine move on the part of our Georgia women. The
appeal for such an organization has been most strong
for a long while, but at the present time it seems
imperative. Woman’s power and strength in a com
munity are recognized fully, and the same unified
effort in the interest of our State seems most vital—
I might almost say necessary. This fact was most
pronounced during the World War—when the wom
en were being systematically grouped where best
suited to their efforts for all branchs of work, the
question was very naturally asked, to whom should
anpeal be made? Who was head of the Catholic
Women’s organization in Georgia? Of course the
answer was—there is none.. We women realized
then, and more fuly is that fact borne in upon us
now, that we should be united in a Georgia Catholic
Women’s organization with membership eligible to
all Catholic women individually as well as to Catho
lic Clubs. I am a firm believer in organization. The
power of the ballot is ours, woman’s influence is al
ways for the highest and best, her intuition depen
dable, in fact she makes a splendid citizen, and I do
not see how men ever accomplished half they did for
good in this world without her side by side' to help,
guide and counsel. We have seen the good results
from groups of men banded together, first in City,
second in State, and then in National societies.
Women’s clubs through federation do such excellent
work, for education, civics, child welfare, public
health, and reform legislation. What is expected
and what they can do is unlimited.
This Georgia organization of Catholic Women
would of course be affiliated with the Federation of