The distinguished Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, John Ireland, a man of wide influence, on May 5, 1890, spoke on the race problem in a sermon delivered at St. Augustine's Church, Washington, D. C. Secretary Windom, Recorder Bruce, the whole Minnesota delegation to Congress and many Senators and others prominent in public life were among the congregation. The bold and outspoken stand of the Archbishop on this occasion created somewhat of a sensation throughout America. Among other things he said:
"It make me ashamed as a man, as a citizen, as a Christian, to see the prejudice that is acted against the colored citizens of America because of his color. As to the substance, the colored man is equal to the white man; he has a like intellect, the same blood courses in their veins; they are both equally the children of a common Father, who is in heaven. A man shows a narrowness of mind and becomes unworthy of his humanity by refusing any privilege to his fellowman because he is colored. Every prejudice entertained, every breach of justice and charity against a fellow-citizen because of color is a stain flung upon the banner of our liberty that floats over us. No church is a fit temple of God where a man, because of his color, is excluded or made to occupy a corner. Religion teaches that we cannot be pleasing to God unless we look upon all mankind as children of our Father in heaven. And they who order and compel a man because he is colored to betake himself to a corner marked off for his race, practically contradict the principles of justice and of equal rights established by the God of Mercy, who lives on the altar. Let Christians act out their religion, and there is no more race problem. Equality for the colored man is coming. The colored people are showing themselves worthy of it. Let the colored be industrious, purchase homes, respect law and order, educate themselves and their children, and keep insisting on their rights. The color line must go; the line will be drawn at personal merit."[512]
There may be cited other instances of the friendly interest of leading prelates and Bishops of the Church in the welfare of the Negro and of care for their spiritual interests. They have ever been anxious that justice be done to the race. The late Pope Pius X, sometime before his death, wrote a letter through his secretary to the Rt. Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee, saying that he "most earnestly wishes that the work of the Apostolate to the colored people, worthy of being encouraged and applauded beyond any other undertaking of Christian civilization, may find numerous and generous contributors."
Joseph Butsch
St. Joseph's Seminary,
Baltimore, Md.
Footnotes:
[478] Dollinger, "The Gentile and the Jew," II, p. 265.
[479] Aristotle, "Politics," I, 3-4.
[480] Plato, "The Laws," VI, p. 233.
[481] Cardinal Gibbons, "Our Christian Heritage," pp. 416-420.