“Unspeakable and Unutterable”
By Editor
The Western Watchman, a Roman Catholic journal of St. Louis, has the following from its Rome correspondent anent the Balkan question. It speaks for itself: “It is all very well for certain American editors to chant the Te Deum over the humiliation of the unspeakable Turk, but we have got to think of the probable position in which the Oriental Catholics shall find themselves, if the schismatic states come to rule them. For, if the Turk is ‘unspeakable,’ the schismatic is unutterable, and, if any, the former is preferable. The list of the few thousand Catholics in the schismatic states, which was given in this column two weeks ago, shows how firmly the iron heel is being kept upon Catholic activity. ‘It is the Greek, not the Turk, who causes us Catholics trouble here,’ remarked a priest to the writer when driving through the streets of Constantinople a few years ago. In this despatch referred to, a tribute of gratitude and admiration is borne by the Moslems for the bravery with which the Italian missionary priests rescued many Mussulmans from the massacres commenced by the Greek and Bulgarian lambs.” “Our Rome correspondent speaks of the ‘unutterable’ schismatics of the East, and is of the opinion that they are of a far more virulent species of persecutors than the Turks ever were. But both the ‘unspeakables’ and the ‘unutterables’ will find the Catholics of the East a far different race of fighters from those that did the ‘dog’ act under fierce Ottoman tyranny. Now that the Balkans are admitted into the family of Christian nations they will have to behave themselves.”