USA > New Jersey > The Catholic Church in New Jersey > Part 26
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The Diocese of Newark, to the support of which you have so generously contributed, comprises the whole State of New Jer- sey, one of the first thirteen United States of America. It was erected by his Holiness Pope Pius IX. in 1853. Before this epoch one-half belonged to the Diocese of New York and the other was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Philadelphia. Newark is situated between both dioceses. The number of Catholics is about 40,000, almost all emigrants from Ireland, Germany, and other countries. They are broadcast over the whole State, and are employed in factories, as household servants, or on farms. The churches in the diocese are for the most part small structures, built of wood, and attended by missionary priests, who are in the habit of offering the Holy Sacrifice at different stations where there is no church to give our poor people the opportunity of approaching the sacraments. I cannot say exactly just how many Germans there are in the diocese, but I am of the opinion
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that they are about one-fourth of the entire Catholic population. There are some German churches and different stations attended by German priests. You are doubtless aware that we receive nothing from the Government and that the clergy is entirely sup- ported by the faithful. The German missions, on this account, are in the greatest need of support, since the Germans, coming from a country where the Church is entirely supported by the state, are not habituated to the system of voluntary contributions and are much less generous than their Irish brethren. When the Diocese of Newark was under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of New York and Philadelphia, the faithful of New Jersey con- tributed generously to the support of the diverse institutions of piety and learning founded in these dioceses, although none of these institutions were built within the borders of the present diocese. The consequence is that we are now obliged to build ourselves to safeguard religion and uphold its dignity. It is for this reason that, since my advent to the diocese, I have established three communities of the Sisters of Charity, and I contemplate, as I said before, building and founding a college.
I look upon the present time as most critical for our holy religion. The emigration of these last years has been so great that almost everywhere missions and churches are springing up, mainly because the emigrants come for the most part from Ire- land and Germany and the Catholic countries of Europe. The future of religion depends consequently upon the means we will take to preserve the children of our Catholics in the faith. There is no fear for the parents, who become ofttimes indifferent but rarely apostates, while the Protestants make the greatest efforts to pervert our youth, mainly in establishing free schools, sup- ported by the state. You will understand why I use every means to establish parochial schools wherever there are missions, in order that one day the children may become the mainstay of religion in our country. The future of our religion depends upon what we accomplish in these days, and if the Leopoldine Society sees fit to offer some assistance to this new diocese for some years, they will have powerfully contributed to the attainment of this most desirable end.
These letters of our first bishop give us the clearest and most reliable view of existing conditions and a realizing sense of the difficulties he labored under and the means he had recourse to in his efforts to overcome obstacles and to keep pace with the de- mands of his diocese.
In July, 1856, he again writes to the Propagation of the Faith :
The money you have sent me has been a great help to relieve the wants of the poorest sections of my diocese and to help me establish among them the labors I have undertaken to consolidate our holy religion in these parts.
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The state of my diocese has not changed materially since my last letter. Many circumstances with which no doubt you are familiar have powerfully contributed to check emigration from Ireland, as well as from other Catholic centres on the Continent. At the same time such as are here have become restless; many of them have gone back to the old country, and a great number of others have left the seaboard for the West. Affairs are certainly brighter, and our poor people, as a rule, have work and are more contented. These circumstances have been a great obstacle to our advancement. I have, however, been able to go on with the work already begun of erecting a diocesan college. It will be open for the admission of scholars the Ist of September.
The only way, in my opinion, in which we can hope to make an impression upon the proud and worldly spirit of the Protestants who surround us-a spirit which, to say in passing, presents to the development of our holy religion an obstacle as grave as the castes of India-is to elevate the social condition of Catholics.
Many of our Catholic emigrants have made fortunes, and if their children can be taught that in holding to their faith they can stand on the same level with Protestants, they will be able little by little to remove the prejudices which hinder the enemies of the Church from examining the truth of our holy religion. During the synod which will be held in the month of August I will establish the work of the Propagation of the Faith, and although I cannot promise large contributions for the present, it will be a step in the right direction, and will draw down the bless- ings of Heaven on the flock entrusted to us.
In 1858 he writes:
I would be glad to be in a position which would furnish the means to give without being obliged to receive, but although I admit that certain portions of our missions are in greater stress than we, yet it will be difficult for me, at least for the present, to do anything without the help of the association. Here our work is in the midst of bitter heretics, and although our poor people contribute generously according to their means for the support of our churches, it will be out of the question without your help to give to our establishments for education the means and the pro- tection necessary. Unless the work is done now, it will soon be too late. So far as the diocese is concerned, things are about the same. We are striving to organize a mother house for sisters who will devote themselves in a special manner to teach poor children. We have every hope of success. In different places in the dio- cese we have endeavored to organize the conferences of St. Vin- cent de Paul. They are highly important to counterbalance the proselytism of the different sects who work constantly and per- sistently on the poverty of our poor emigrants to pervert their children.
It is well to recall these early, bitter struggles, to listen again
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to that voice silenced by death, to recall his warnings, and verify his predictions. Much of the old rancor of our brethren outside the fold, if not extinct, is rarely apparent; but to their spirit of opposition has succeeded the more dangerous, because intangible and inoffensive, prevalent irreligious naturalism, which imper- ceptibly influences the young, who, restive of restraint, unless solidly grounded in their religion, sweep away every obstacle, moral or religious, which may hinder the full enjoyment of their liberty. The old foe of the Celt still reckons his victims among our ranks, still must be credited with a considerable share of that leakage of the faith which in the last half century has depleted the ranks of the Catholic Church in this country by the hundred thousands. It is the height of folly to blink this fact, which, if admitted, might stimulate to more earnest, persistent efforts to arrest it. One of its most efficient causes has been and is to-day the vice of intemperance. Hence the pastoral of January 21st, 1861, may be reproduced, not only for the interest it may excite, but also for the good it may accomplish.
REVEREND SIR: I am compelled to call your attention, in a particular manner, to the dreadful sin of drunkenness.
This horrible vice, so destructive alike to body and soul, is, as we all know, making the most fearful ravages among our people. It may be said to be the chief cause of all the sins they commit, and of all the social evils and discomforts under which they labor. It brings strife and disunion and poverty into families; it renders parents unfit to discharge the duties which they owe to their children; it corrupts the young, and is the source of innumerable crimes. It is, in fact, as we are all made to feel by daily experi- ence, the one great obstacle which stands in the way of our labors for their spiritual and temporal good.
Notwithstanding all the clergy have done, by exhortation and warning, to put a stop to this monster vice, it is, I regret to say, on the increase among us, and I feel that I would be neglecting my duty as a bishop if I did not take some strong measures, in concert with the reverend clergy, to check this moral pestilence.
It is my wish, therefore, that, on the receipt of this letter, you would immediately bring this subject to the attention of your people by reading it to them, and that you would urge upon all the better portion of them, all who love their religion and deplore the scandal which this vice brings upon it, and who grieve on ac- count of the souls that this sin destroys, to unite with you in laboring to arrest its progress.
Your efforts, as you will readily perceive, are to be directed against two classes of persons-the drunkards themselves and those who, knowing them to be such, supply them with drink.
While I am willing to leave to each pastor the choice of the
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particular means which he thinks most likely to effect the object we have in view, I would direct your attention especially to those who keep disorderly drinking houses and who sell liquor late on Saturday nights and on Sundays; and I would suggest the advan- tage of obtaining a list of all the drunken men and women and of those who keep such houses in your district. In this way you may be able to make an example of them and to excite against them the indignation of all good Catholics, as persons who bring disgrace upon their religion and who are to be shunned by every one who has any regard for order, peace, and good citizenship. I am determined to make use of the most severe measures against all who are addicted to this scandalous and destructive vice; and if they continue in the practice of it, they must do it as outcasts from the Catholic Church, who have no right to the name of Catholic while they live nor to Christian burial when they die.
* JAMES, Bishop of Newark.
Bishop Bayley wrote, in August, 1860, to the Propagation of the Faith in a more hopeful tone:
I am happy to be able to say to you that the labors inaug- urated in my diocese for the establishment of religion seem to prosper. The mother-house of the sisters established for the edu- cation of the young and other works of charity contains now twenty-six novices. The house which I bought for them is too small and inconvenient, so that I have given them the property which belonged to the Diocesan College. It is large, convenient, and healthy, and it will answer all their wants. The sisters are animated with an excellent spirit, and we have every reason to ex- pect from them the greatest benefits for religion, above all, for the salvation of our poor children. Up to the present they have been supported almost entirely by me, and hence I ask the association to help me as much as possible. Within a year they will be able to receive some help from the other churches, where they will form little communities and will take care of themselves. After having given the college to the sisters, I had to purchase another property for the Diocesan College. It is near the episcopal city and will consequently be under my immediate direction. More- over, those who are preparing for the priesthood will be able to assist at the functions of the cathedral.
We are sadly in need of priests. Had we a sufficient num- ber of zealous and worthy priests, religion would make great head- way in this country. At present it is almost impossible to take care of the Catholics. I have just now twenty-seven young men studying for the priesthood, some in one college, some in another. The most of them come from poor families, and I am forced to provide for their wants during their course, even to ordination. For every dollar I receive from the diocese I must spend three, for if the work is not done now, it will soon be too late to do it.
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The year 1861 ushered in the rumors of a conflict which was to rend our country in twain, to precipitate a war between the North and South, which was to cost millions of dollars and thou- sands of human lives. This gave occasion to Bishop Bayley to call upon his people to avert this dreadful calamity by prayers and penance, and to counsel almsgiving in the stress occasioned by the hard times.
In common with every citizen of our noble country, we can- not but grieve at these sad dissensions, which threaten to bring strife and anarchy where lately everything was peace and pros-
OLD ST. ELIZABETH'S ACADEMY, Old Seton Hall, Convent Station.
perity. The change has been so sudden and was so little antici- pated, the evils threatened are so dreadful, all remedy from human wisdom or statesmanship is so apparently hopeless, that we are obliged to acknowledge that the hand of God is upon us. And it is not difficult for us, as Christians, to understand the cause. Our country was too prosperous, and men forgot God and became proud. It is impossible, in reading our newspapers and the speeches of our public men, not to have been struck with that tone of arrogance and self-exaltation which was rebuked and pun- ished by God in the proud commercial cities of the Old World.
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And now God is about to visit us in his justice as he did Tyre and Sidon. He is about to humble us and make us recognize his supreme authority and our dependence upon him. We are no longer to seem to be an exception to the law of expiation which is upon the whole human race. It is our duty, therefore, as Christians and as citizens of the country, to humble ourselves before him and to do all that is in our power to turn away his judgments from us. . .. God would have spared the cities of the plain if ten just persons could have been found in them; and how many thousands of pure and holy souls are there among our poor people whose daily life is one of expiation, and who at the voice of their pastors will pour forth fervent prayers and offer them- selves as victims for the sins of the people! There is more hope for us in the prayers and sanctified sufferings of the pious poor than in all the wisdom and resources of men.
And since I have alluded to these works of reconciliation, it may not be out of the way, in these times when so many are suffering from poverty, to remind them how great is the merit of almsgiving in obtaining pardon for sin. We are ourselves but beggars, knocking at God's door, and if we wish for mercy our- selves we must show it to others. The smallest alms involves an act of detachment from the goods of earth, the love of which is one of the evils of our day. It will be a favorable opportunity to explain to your people the spirit and teaching of the Catholic Church in regard to poverty, so different from the spirit and feel- ings of the world upon the subject. You will remind them that honest poverty, difficult as it may be to endure, is in the Christian view in some sense a holy state; that our Blessed Lord was a . poor man; that the words so often used, that "Christ is in the poor," are no mere poetic phrase, but the expression of what may be called a Catholic dogma. These consoling truths will make those of your flock who are in want patient and resigned, and they will excite those who have anything left to come generously to their relief, so that they may obtain the blessing which God has promised to those who have compassion on the needy and the poor .- Circular Letter, January 28th, 1861.
In March, 1862, he again writes to the Propagation of the Faith :
March 8th, 1862.
It is not my intention to find fault with the distribution of the funds of the Propagation of the Faith; nevertheless, it seems opportune to remark that the members of the council ought not to suppose that, because I have organized the work of the Propa- gation of the Faith in my diocese, and that it requires a serious effort to contribute to its funds (larger, I observe, in this diocese in a year than any other diocese in the United States outside of New York), the Catholics of this diocese are richer and more numerous than in other dioceses. They are on this account to be
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compared with other dioceses who send little or nothing to the work, but who receive four or five times as much from the society. Judging by the allotments as they appear in The Annals, I am led to believe that the council could have more accurate sources of information relative to the condition and needs of the different dioceses.
April, 1864.
The paper money with which the country is flooded is rapidly depreciating, but by its abundance it suffices to preserve a ficti- tious prosperity and helps us to maintain our institutions for the welfare of religion. My college, seminary, and the different mis- sions of the Sisters of Charity are all doing well, and my only fear is our immense debt. For sooner or later the financial crash - must come. I regret to say that our Civil War, in addition to its other calamities, is undermining the morals of the people and hin- dering the progress of religion. The future becomes each day darker, and our only hope is in the goodness and mercy of God, who will protect his Church in the storms of disasters which are gathering around our country, once so prosperous."
His letter of April 10th, 1865, reviews the progress made in a decade of years, and is a noble testimony of the generosity of his flock :
I have no other revenue than a very slender salary, and it is owing to the allotment of the Propagation of the Faith that I am able to meet the interest of many debts I have contracted by helping the many poor parishes and in founding institutions of education and charity in the diocese. Having made a review of the ten first years of my diocese, I find that while the Catholic population has increased a third, the churches and priests have doubled in number. In 1854 there were 33 churches and 30 priests; to-day there are 67 churches and 63 priests. In 1854 there was no religious community ; now we have a monastery of Benedictines, another of Passionists; a mother house of Sisters of Charity, numbering 87 members and conducting seventeen different establishments; two convents of Benedictine nuns, two others of German Sisters of Notre Dame, and two others of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. In 1854 there was no institu- tion of learning; to-day we have a flourishing college and a diocesan seminary, an academy for young ladies, a boarding-school for boys, and parish schools attached to almost all the churches. More than this, many of the old wooden chapels have given way to handsome, stately churches of brick and stone. All this has been done in the midst of a population of emigrants, comparatively poor, without incurring a great debt; but this debt is much less than the value of the property acquired, and, barring any financial crisis, we will be able to handle it and gradually liquidate it. We have good reason to thank God for blessing our feeble efforts
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and rooting solidly his Church in this portion of his vineyard. . . . It looks now as if our unfortunate Civil War were drawing to a close, and we hope, unless new complications arise, we will soon enjoy the blessings of peace and security.
The publication of the Jubilee, granted by Pius IX. in his encyclical letter "Quanta Cura," gave Bishop Bayley an oppor- tunity to address his flock on matters which are as vital to us as they were to the Catholics of 1865. While many points of the encyclical were not directed to the Catholics of the United States, and hence had no weight among the faithful here, except as assertions of undoubted truths, nevertheless practical lessons could be learned by all from the warning voice of the chief pastor of Christendom :
PASTORAL LETTER.
JAMES ROOSEVELT BAYLEY, by the Grace of God, and of the Apos- tolic See, Bishop of Newark, to the Clergy of his Diocese, Regular and Secular, health and benediction :
Although happily that false liberalism which the Holy Father denounces, which prevails so largely in Europe, and which prac- tises toleration by tying up the Church and giving full liberty to every form of error, has not hitherto been able to obtain a foot- hold in our country, yet we are subject to other dangers, spoken of in his Encyclical Letter, which it is our duty to understand and carefully to guard against. Foremost amongst these is what is called in our days religious indifferentism. In the words of St. Leo, when speaking of heathen Rome, men seem to "pride them- selves on being very religious because they reject no error." By a confusion of ideas which is almost incredible, large numbers of persons in our days have come to confound civil or political and religious toleration. Because the civil law leaves a man free to adopt whatever religion he sees fit or none at all, they seem to take it for granted that he has the same liberty before God. Now under certain circumstances, in a country like ours for instance, where so many different religious systems prevail, civil or political toleration is not only lawful, but it is absolutely necessary; and under any circumstances intolerance, so far as it implies the use of coercion in obliging religious assent, is wrong. It may make men hypocrites; it cannot make them good Christians. But intolerance, as implying the moral condemnation of all opposing error, is a necessary attribute of the truth. Before God's positive revelation of his holy will, man has no right to believe anything in matters of religion, except the truths of that revelation in their fulness and integrity. Hence all those false maxims which are so common in our days, that "all religions are good," that "it is no matter what a man believes so long as his life is right," that
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"the great point is to lead a good moral life," are but the expres- sions of an ill-concealed infidelity, against which we cannot be too much on our guard. In the sight of God, a man's life can only be said to be right when he believes all those truths which God has revealed to us and observes all those duties which he has commanded us by his Church. "He that would have God for his Father," says St. Cyprian, "must have the Church for his mother."
But whilst, my dear reverend brethren, you watchfully guard those under your charge against these false principles by instruct- ing them carefully in the Christian doctrine, remember that their danger comes not so much from any intellectual perversion as from the worldly and sinful influences which surround them on every side. It is seldom or never that a Catholic who has been well brought up and instructed in his religion falls away and be- comes a scandal to it. The sad perversions and wicked lives of so many among us who bear the name of Catholic have been chiefly owing to neglect on the part of parents, and to their not having been fortified when young by sound instruction and the graces of the sacraments. In fact, the weak point in our line of defence against the evil influence of society and the world is the decline and almost destruction of the Christian family in our midst. The active and too engrossing pursuit of gain, the habit of moving from one place to another in the hope of bettering one's temporal condition, the employment of women and children in factories, and, to a sad extent, the vice of drunkenness, have all tended almost to destroy the old Christian home. Parents no longer seem to recognize the immense responsibility which rests upon them in this matter; that upon their care and protection and example, more than upon any other human cause, depends the future well-being of their offspring. It is, of course, impos- sible for us to remedy these things entirely, but we can do a great deal toward it, and therefore it is one of those matters which we should ever keep before us-by public and private exhortations ; by pointing out how inconsistent this restlessness and worldliness is with submission to the will of God and dependence on his providence; by often dwelling upon the immense influence of parental example; by encouraging parents to establish family devotions in their households, and to attend themselves to the instruction and training of their children. Life was not given to us to be spent in a ceaseless struggle for wealth and excite- ment, but to serve God and save our souls; and this can hardly be done except in the peace and tranquillity of domestic retire- ment.
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