Catholic and Protestant Convergence by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 21, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 49.

Catholic and Protestant Convergence

By Editor

The Independent of November 29 had the following note:—

"It is significant that the first article in this our Thanksgiving number is a recognition by the presiding Cardinal Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in America, of the value of the day of thanksgiving and praise appointed by the President of the United States. Our Catholic fellow-citizens have been slow to adopt this New England institution, but now the same Cardinal Gibbons has directed it to be observed in the churches under his authority. So we agree in bidding all our people, Protestant and Catholic, now for the first time, to celebrate this national holiday."

Indeed it is significant, and significant of far more than the Independent imagines. It is significant of the rapidity with which Catholicism and professed Protestantism are coming together. Last spring the majority of Protestant churches in many large cities observed "holy week," in accordance with Catholic custom; and it is but a slight return for their obsequiousness for the Catholics to observe Thanksgiving-day, in accordance with Protestant custom, especially since the observance consists chiefly in gormandizing.