| Title: | Christian Work to The Armagh Guardian. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3415 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Work, Christian/5 |
| Year | 1864 |
| Sender | Work, Christian |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | New York, USA |
| Destination | Armagh, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | The Armagh Guardian |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | writes letter to newspapers regarding |
| Source | The Armagh Guardian, 12 February 1864. |
| Archive | The Central Library, Belfast. |
| Doc. No. | 9410017 |
| Date | 12/02/1864 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 06:10:1994. |
| Word Count | 1190 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | In a former communication I referred to the well-as-certained fact that of the very large number of Roman Catholic emigrants that have found their way to this country, a startling proportion have been irrecoverably lost to the Papal Church, in the sparsely inhabited regions of the west more particularly, whither the industrious are wont to remove, and where churches of this faith are rarer, and the more restive portion can escape the extraction of the clergy with greater ease. But my attention has, within a day or two, been drawn to an editorial article in a Roman Catholic journal of Philadelphia, which discloses the fact that the priesthood stand aghast at the losses which their Church has sustained even in our eastern cities, in which, if anywhere, it ought to be practicable to control the superstitious multitude and prevent any serious defection. The editor addresses himself to the Irish, who he tells us, in the main compose the Church; and he asks: "What has come over ye? Where is the resplendent Catholic spirit that distinguished ye in Ireland? In that country, ye have suffered ten thousand martyrdoms rather than collude with the enemies of the faith. But in America that loftiness of heart expires, and your own sons and daughters degenerate from St. Patrick and St. Bridget. Have ye forgotten that the most glorious ornament in the crown of old Ireland is its supernatural firmness to the faith, in spite of the dreadful sanguinary despotism of England for three hundred years? Are the Protestant schools there frequented by Catholic children? But what are, in the eyes of the editor, the manifest tokens of the degeneracy? "Go into St. John's Church: who occupy it's pews? Not the descendants of the Irish people who built it. The same thing is true of St. Mary's, of St. Augustine's of every Catholic church in the city, nay, of every Catholic church in the land. In the great main, it is new emigrants that keep up the Church in America. Why is this? Where are the children of the early emigrants - of the builders of the churches? They are lost to Rome!" And in conformation of this general assertion, the writer states it as the result of calculation, that had the Irish who have come to Philadelphia during the last eighty years "preserved in their own hearts the sublime Catholicity that marked them at home", and instilled into the hearts of their children, that single city would now possess twenty-five more Catholic churches than it now does, and 10,000 more adherents of that system of belief. "Well might the illustrious Archbishop Kenrick sorrowfully exclaim that the church in America has lost more than it has gained!" And this fearful state of things, the editor of the Catholic Herald attributes to the influence of the "common schools", from which it implores parents to remove their children and to place them in the "parochial schools". Of the former he writes: "The Holy Fathers fear them. The bishops fear them. The Church has lost - irretrievably lost - tens of thousands of children by them." No testimony could be more satisfactory to us than this respecting the calcuable good that has been effected in this country by the thorough and well-adjusted common-school systems of the various Northern States. For if many of those who renounce Romanism assume no other religion, the greater part of their children at least are sooner or later drawn into Protestant churches. I may add in illustration of this general defection of native Roman Catholics, that in a suburban village of about 10,000 inhabitants, in which a large number of merchants and other gentlemen doing business in New York reside, although the Roman Catholic church is thronged with Irish worshippers the domestic servants, the labourers and artisans of our manufactories, there are not, I believe, more than two or three families of good social position which are composed of native-born Roman Catholics. The past month has witnessed the holding of a number of very extensive fairs in various parts of the loyal States in support of the great sanitary commmission. All classes of persons have united on these occasions, and receive large contributions, which it richly merits, and which are indispensable to the prosection of it's work of mercy. The work exploring each State, and accurately ascertaining the amount of destitution of the Holy Scriptures which prevails, was undertaken upwards of thirty years ago. It was the State of New Jersey that set the example of making an effort, which proved successful. to supply every family that would receive it with the Word of God. Other States followed, and a general effort was even made to furnish the Bible to every family throughout the United States. But even had the movement been fully carried out, it is evident that only constant exertion could preclude the recurrence of similar destitution in a few years, especially in the newer States and Territories. Accordingly, we find that in spite of all that has been done to circulate the Bible, an exploration of the State of Iowa, under the auspices of the Iowa Bible Society, has revealed the fact that in eighty-seven out of its about one hundred countries, there were 17,799 families which did not is one which, by immigration, increased its population from 192,000 in 1850, to 674,000 in 1860. Archbishop Hughes, decidedly the most influential prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in this country died in this city, on Sunday, the 3rd inst. He was a man of remarkable engery of character, a great disputant, and more frequently involved in disputes with clergymen of Protestant churches than any of his especially that with "Kirwan", the late Nicholas Murray, D.D., have given him a notoriety which he might otherwise never have attained. Both of these controversies but the latter in particular, led numbers to examine the claims of the Papacy, and brought some candid minds to the knowledge of the truth. His extraordinary irascibilty conduced not a little to his ill success. Yet he was by no means a contemptible opponent. An Irishman by birth, he entered the priesthood not long after his advent to America, and by his abilities he gradually rose until he became, in 1850 the recipient from the Pope's hands of the archiepiscopal pallium. He signalised his connexion with the Roman Catholics of the eastern part of the State of New York, by an attempt to compel the trustees of all churches to place the titles of the ecclesiastical poverty in his name. In this endeavour he was unsuccessful. The trustees in many instances were refractory, and the alarm of other denominations of Christians, as well as of mere politicians, at power that he was gaining, gave rise to agitation, the result of which was the passage of a law in the legislature of this State, enjoining that all ecclesiastical property be held in the names of trustees appointed by the religious body represented. The opposition of the party of the Archbishop to this law was persistent, and I regret to say, that within a few months the statute has been repealed. - Cor. CHRISTIAN WORK. NEW YORK, Jan., 1864. |
