Another "Feature" of Catholicism.
By Editor
THE Catholic Mirror of June 26 contained a glowing account of the wonderful eloquence of an Italian priest, one Agostino di Monte Feltro, whose pulpit efforts have exceeded in brilliancy those of any other European pulpit orator for many years. The great cathedral at Bologna was insufficient to hold the audiences that thronged to hear him last year; and this year his preaching in Pisa during lent "thrilled all Italy." Says the Mirror: "Train loads of people came from Florence, Leghorn, Lucca, and even more distant points, simply to hear this eloquent Franciscan." After announcing his subject, "he would begin the swift utterance of a torrent of brilliant sentences, glowing with poetic imagery, powerful with argumentative strength, and thrilling with magnetic earnestness, that never slackened for an instant or halted for lack of a word during the space of a full hour. Then suddenly he stops, quickly disappears, effects his exit by a private door," and thus avoids the admiring throng who would make a triumphal demonstration about him. All this is very grand, but the Mirror does not tell the whole story. The Congregationalist lets out the secret of his swift utterance which never halted for lack of a word, by stating the fact that his sermons were stolen bodily from Père Giraud, and that a wicked Protestant has had the impertinence to print the two lots of sermons in parallel columns. Thus it appears that the eloquent priest is only a good elocutionist, declaiming other men's thoughts. He had good reason for ending his sermons so abruptly; he had got to the end of his declamation, and had to stop. A peculiar part of the narrative is that the Mirror which lauds his eloquence is dated June 26, while the Congregationalist which announces the exposé is dated June 24, two days earlier. This is peculiar, but not strange; for "pious" frauds were the foundation of Catholicism, and outrageous falsehoods and blasphemies have formed the superstructure. It is not probable that the Mirror will ever learn that Padre Agostino is a literary thief.