Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1898 — Catholics and the War. [ARTICLE]

Catholics and the War.

The following taken from the catholic' Universe fully explains the position of the Catholic Church on the war with Spain. All the churches in this country have j taken a patriotic stand on theques- ; tion but we have some people who i from a lack of information still ' doubt the loyalty of Catholic people. The Universe says: History is overflowing with records of war between enemies possessing a common religions faith. Wars, except purely religious wars, which have been obsolete for some centuries, are palitical, and the question of religion is j entirely foreign to them. Nevertheless there is a certain class of bigots in this country who persist lin lugging the question into the discussion of the present unpleasantness in spite of the ill-teste of 1 the proceedings, not to mention ■ the mischievous tendency of thus pandering to prejudices, which ! should be patriotically allowed to remain in abeyance. Catholics have every reason to be proud of the part they are taking in the conduct of the war, though they are loath to refer to this and would not do so, except to silence the bf- ; fensive mouthings of stay-at-home ; bigots. Those who express doubts as to the spirit of American Catholics in the existing emergency, will be i surprised to learn that this spirit is manifested in Admiral Dewey’s ■ brilliant, achievement at Manilla. Admiral George Dewey is a Cathoi lie, a convert to the faith, and on | the authority of one who was closely : associated with the hero in the navy, we are informed that he is a i very consistent and practical Catholic, too. There are scores of Catholic officers serving with equal loyalty and valor in Uncle Sam’s vessels who only await the opportunity to demonstrate the same spirit displayed by the brave and successl ful commanders of the Pacific : squadron. A very large proportion 1 of blue jackets who work the ships ■ and man the guns are of the same j faith. A like state of things exists in I the army. At least two and probI ably more of the recently appointed ■ Major Generals are Catholics, and ' in every grade of the service Cath- ' olics hold their own with others in j proportion to their numbers, until Iwe come to the men who carry j muskets, in whose ranks they far ■ outnumber those of all creeds, combined, computed according to the religious census of our population. A knowledge of these facts • might be expected to silence the tongue of cowardly insinuation, and it would, if our critics prized the truth as they do their mean little prejudices.