REASON FOR REMOVAL OF ARCHBISHOP KEANE.
By M. E. Kellogg
THE removal of the Catholic Archbishop Keane from the head of the Catholic university at Washington, D. C., has quite generally been believed to have been because of his liberal principles, which the reactionary, or ultramontane, party in the Catholic Church could not bear. This view of the case is now confirmed by the words of Archbishop Keane himself. At a late banquet tendered him in Washington by very many distinguished statesmen and ecclesiastics, in anticipation of his immediate departure to Rome, the archbishop, in his response to the eulogies upon him and his work, had this to say:— "For the realization of so vast and noble a purpose (the welfare of America), I have been not only anxious to do conscientiously my own humble part, but ready to give just recognition to whatever any believer in Christ, or even any believer in God, might be striving to do toward the same great end. Carping critics have asserted that in this I minimized Catholic truth, and dragged it down to the level of man-made and imperfect Christian systems, or even of heathen unbelief. In so saying they have totally and, I can not but fear, wilfully misrepresented me. I have always been glad, and even proud, to utter the fulness of the truth in any assemblage of human beings who care for the truth; for I hold with St. Paul that to believers and unbelievers, to Gentiles and to Jews, the church of Christ is still a debtor; but I have never forgotten that the power of the truth consists in its presentation in all its symmetry and beauty and fulness; I have never sacrificed or compromised one tittle or iota of it; and they who assert that I have, assert what is false. May God forgive them; I have no controversy with them." Ordinarily the removal of a Catholic archbishop would be of no particular interest to us; but this is of interest to us, since it shows that the head of the Catholic Church at Rome is afraid that the American Catholic Church is in danger of casting off some of its medieval trappings, and coming more into harmony with the spirit of the age. It also shows that the Catholic Church of America to-day is under the control of that element in the church that looks to the times of Gregory VII. and Innocent III. as the best and brightest illustrations of what the Catholic Church should teach and do. Surely this bodes no good to American freedom. As for Archbishop Keane, he has been promoted(?) to an office in Rome, where he can be carefully watched, used to good advantage, and prevented from doing any mischief. M. E. K.