ARCHBISHOP IRELAND, who is as well known for his supposed Americanism as for his Catholicism, in a reply to the pope’s recent letter on “Americanism,” said:—
“The whole episcopate of the United States, in their own names and in the names of their people, are ready to repudiate and condemn those errors. We cannot but be indignant that such an injury has been done us—to our bishops, to our faithful people, to our nation—in designating by the word ‘Americanism,’ as certain ones have done, such errors and extravagances as these.”
“An injury” “to our nation”; mark the words. The “errors” condemned by the pope’s letter as being out of harmony with the teaching and practice of the papacy, do not represent Americanism, says this Catholic prelate. To say that they do, is to insult the nation. What then is true Americanism?—Why, of course, [196] that, and only that, which is in harmony with the mind of the pope! What else but this can be the meaning of the archbishop’s language?
The prelates of Rome have not forgotten the Supreme Court decision that “This is a Christian nation.”