Romish Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 41.

Romish Temperance.

A GOOD deal of capital for the Catholic Church has been made of the action of the Baltimore Plenary Council on the subject of temperance. But the perfect hollowness of that action is shown by the following from the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore. The Mirror publishes, regularly, liquor advertisements, and some Protestant papers have been complaining of it; whereupon the Mirror defends itself thus:—

“Several Protestant exchanges have discovered that the Mirror is guilty of an habitual mortal sin because it publishes some liquor advertisements. What is there inconsistent with just temperance views in this? Certainly there are many who should never touch liquor in any shape. Nearly the whole young generation of Americans are in this condition. Our feverish habits of life and the climate forbid it. But there are others, especially the old men of the present day, to whom liquor, judiciously taken, is beneficial and almost a necessity. What they need to guard against is the vile adulterations of the day. But, should any of our Protestant brethren feel in need of a pure article, which, being pious men, they will use in moderation, we can cheerfully recommend them to purchase of the reliable and well established firms who advertise in the Mirror.”

This can be the better appreciated when it is understood that the Mirror is the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons, and is published with the special approval, and the “apostolic benediction” of the Pope himself. And that is just how much Rome really favors temperance.