The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 277ceivedfrom a nation in which the Roman Catholicfaith is professed."And the Catholics of our generation have noblyemulated the patriotism and the spirit of tolerationexhibited by their ancestors. They can neither beaccused of disloyalty or of intolerance to their dissenting brethren. In more than one instance of ournation s history, our churches have been desecratedand burned to the ground our convents have been;invaded and destroyed our; clergy have been exposed to insult and violence. These injuries havebeen inflicted on us by incendiary mobs animatedby hatred of Catholicism. Yet, in spite of theseprovocations, our Catholic citizens, though wieldingan immense numerical influence in the localitieswhere they suffered, have never retaliated. It is ina spirit of just pride that we can affirm that hitherto in the United States no Protestant house of worship or educational institution has been destroyed,nor violence offered to a Protestant minister, bythose who profess the Catholic faith. God grantthat such may always be our record.And it is just because the Church has ever resistedthe tyranny of kings, in their encroachments on thesacred right of conscience, that she has always beenthe victim of royal persecution. In every age, in thelanguage of the Psalmist, the kings of the earthrose up, and the princes assembled together againstthe Lord and against His Christ." l The brightest