Catholic Power in the United States
By Editor
OUT-SPOKEN POPERY.—The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser translates the following article from its German contemporary, the Buffalo Telegraph. Father Oerter writes in his “Catholic Kirchenzeitung,” or Advocate, a long article, from which we make the following extract: “Whoever undervalues the spiritual power of the Church in the United States, wanders in a fearful labyrinth. We have not only seven archbishops, thirty-three bishops, and seventeen hundred and four priests, all in the service of the Pope and Church, but we have also thirty-one colleges, thirty-seven seminaries, and a hundred and seventeen female academies, all founded by the Jesuits, bringing danger and death to unbelief and misbelief, to American Know-Nothingism and un-American Radicalism. “And the hierarchial bands which, like a golden thread, surrounds forty-one dioceses and two apostolic vicariates, and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and maintains an invisible, secret, magnetic connection with Rome—this hierarchy is to us a sure guarantee that the Church, perhaps after severe struggles and suffering will one day come off victorious over all the sects of America. It is computed that there are at present more than two millions of Catholic inhabitants in the United States, who are baptized and confirmed Catholic soldiers of the Lord, and who, at the first summons, will assemble in rank and file; then will men not undervalue the power of the Catholic Church in the United States.112 “It will scatter sand in no one’s eyes, and therefore I stand forth openly and directly declare that the power and the influence of the Catholic Church are stronger than many believe. Whoever doubts this must be either a fool or blind.”