Catholic Church. Commission for Catholic Missions among the Colored People and the Indians

“ The diocese of Galveston presents a great field for missionary labor. Its Negro population, aggregating a quarter of a million, knows almost nothing of the saving truths of Catholicity. The five hundred colored Catholics within the limits of the diocese are scattered here and there and are thus unable, as a body, to possess or exert any influence over their brethren. A church has been erected for the colored people, two schools have been opened, an orphanage founded, while two priests have volunteered their services for the good work. ”

“ I simply surmise that in the fight for the Catholic education of the colored people, the Commission ought to give the honors of war, even to those who come out from the battle field badly beaten, provided they ‘never despair of the Republic.’ The progress we have made is not so encouraging as I had expected. ”

“ The trouble is that day schools with our Indians are impossibilities. We have to clothe the children, board them and teach them. When our schools are built, if we could have all the children we could accommodate it would be all right, but the Morgan system is there to destroy all. He has been a perfect scourge for our Indians— refusing contracts, diminishing them, building other Government schools at the expense of the Indians, where Catholic schools already existed, and this in order to destroy and ruin them. ”

“ The just man lives by faith, and knows that if in loving kindness to the poor and destitute he casts his bread upon the waters, it will come back to him, not in the shape of human praise, but in the fullness of divine mercy, which will not be wanting to him in that supreme hour when he will stand most in need of it. ”

“ Nearly one-half of the population of this diocese are colored. There are 1000 colored Catholics out of the total number of 20,000 Catholics to be found in the State. The colored people have five Catholic schools open to them, and one church in Savannah which is regularly attended by a priest. “It seems to me” writes Bishop Becker, “that the colored people need to be taught less in schools, and a great deal more in individual work. They have a notion that the sovereign panacea for all their woes is to be able to read and write a little, and learn something of figures. ”

“ The girls are taught sewing, domestic work, etc., and the boys, carpentry. Three Sisters of Charity are employed as teachers; and also an instructor in carpentry and building. The Hot Springs’ School is also doing well. In our five schools we have four hundred and fifty pupils enrolled. On the whole, I feel more encouraged than when I last wrote. We have not as yet been able to open a school at Little Rock. The colored people here are superabundantly supplied with schools, public and private. The Colored Industrial School, although but three years, founded, is a pronounced success. ”

“ Much is said of the inconstancy of the negro, but my experience convinces me, that where the negro has been brought up in the knowledge and practice of religion, he is as constant as any white Catholic under the circumstances. Bad training and ignorance degenerate their mind and heart as it does with the white population. We are trying to raise means to build a church for that settlement. I regret very much that the Commission has been obliged to diminish the allocation. ”

“ The heroic self-abnegation of those priests and nuns who have gone forth into a sort of voluntary exile to spend themselves and be spent for Christ in the service of the forsaken and despised Indian, whose lot, to some extent, they share, is worthy of our highest admiration; for this, Dearly beloved, is not a field of labor which all would willingly select—this life of perpetual self-sacrifice, ending only in death. The very nobility of the sacrifice they have made is in itself one of their strongest claims on your generous support ”

“ It is the humility and the meekness of Jesus that is to win for us the great prize of eternal life for which each one, in his own way, is daily striving. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” ”

“ Bishop O’Sullivan has five colored schools directed by the Sisters of Mercy and by lay teachers. Two hundred and thirty-five pupils attended them. “These schools do much good. The attendance would be larger if they were entirely free. In our present circumstances I think it advisable to exact a small fee for tuition. People do not always appreciate what they get for nothing. The children are well instructed in the catechism and make good progress in their studies. Through the children we hope to lead the parents to the church. We have at last opened the mission for colored people in Pensacola. ”

“ For this reason we try to raise all we can. If we secure what we expect all our difficulties will be over in regard to the Industrial School, as it will be self-supporting. We are teaching the girls all kinds of work. They make their own clothes as well as those of the boys. They knit, spin and weave. We are now teaching them to do store work; so that if any remain with us off the reservation they will be able to support themselves. We are aiming at the plan of the Industrial School at our convent in Brooklyn, which I organized some years ago. ”

“ And yet, to our shame, be it spoken, nearly all that are left of this singular, and in some respects, mysterious people, are now wanderers upon the wild prairie, eking out, as best they can, a miserable existence on the paltry pittance that is doled out to them, and are to-day, practically speaking, as destitute of religious instructions as were their pagan forefathers. ”

“ The Church, which to the Catholic, is the voice of God, wishes you to put in the hands of the self-denying workers in that rougher portion of the Lord’s vineyard, the funds they need to carry on the work they have in hand. ”

“ The priest attending the colored church, has to reside at a considerable distance from it. The good effected, though perhaps not so rapid and consoling as might be found in other kinds of charitable enterprises, is still real and substantial. We hope that those who have power, influence and means, will extend a kindly, helping hand to the poor priest, to whose lot it has fallen to take upon his weak shoulders this difficult, uphill work. ”

“ The Indians of this diocese dwell in nine villages the most prominent of which is Harbor Springs. This latter place needs a new church. The church erected by the late Father Piery in 1842 is in a bad condition and is fast going to ruin. It is, moreover, too small, being hardly large enough to hold the children of the parish. The Indians as well as the white Catholics of the vicinity are poor, and help from outside sources is urgently demanded. There is a large Indian Boarding School in this village attended by 130 boarding pupils and 30 day scholars. ”

“ If we can induce the parents of the children to let the latter remain with us when their schooling is finished, it will be, in our opinion, the best method of civilizing them. Oh, if we could but have help, how much good we could do for the glory of God and the salvation of these dear souls!... ”

“ The buildings now occupied are entirely inadequate for the work. Many of Christ’s little ones must grow up in filth and ignorance and sin, because they who are otherwise so able and willing to keep them, lack the means of providing ample accommodations for the helpless and forsaken. One thousand dollars are needed for the ensuing year to keep up the Sisters’ schools at Leavenworth and Topeka, make an addition to the Colored Orphan Asylum at Leavenworth, and furnish part of support to one priest. ”

“ The Indian work here is so limited and so uncertain that the prospects for the future are not very bright. The protestant and government schools are getting control of most of the Indians. The work of propagating the faith would require money, and missionaries to consecrate themselves to the work— I have very little money, and very little time to give to the Indian work. ”

“ They believe that such knowledge would somehow keep them from being obliged to work. The orphan Asylum for colored children is wholly dependent on our help, except for what the girls may get for working. I would gladly do all in my power to aid the colored people suitably. It is my well founded belief, that without an ‘Industrial School’ under some Brothers, like the Xavieran for instance, very little permanent good can be effected. With utterly inadequate means we are doing what we can. ”

“ Bishop Heslin has a wide field for work. One of his priests, a very zealous man, is engaged exclusively in Negro Mission work. This priest, the Rev. A. N. Peters, has just purchased a plot of ground in a locality easily accessible to the colored people. “This will entail additional expense,” writes Bishop Heslin, “as almost every building that is required will have to be built new, and the old place cannot be disposed of at once. The Rev. Father will have to seek help to enable him to erect church, school, convent and parsonage and to provide himself with a means of livelihood.” ”

“ Besides, a new church was sorely needed at Little Oconto and has been built at great expense on the part of the Franciscan Fathers, as yet it is not completed. A very necessary work is the building of a new church at Kinepowa, calculated to be finished during the coming summer, if the necessary means can be gotten for the same. The two old buildings wherein divine service has been held so far, are in ruinous condition, and so small that not more than half the respective congregations can find room therein during divine service. They have to attend outside, the doors being left open. ”

“ Archbishop Salpointe has 8,000 Catholic Indians in his diocese. The total Indian population aggregates 25,000. There are 18 churches and 11 schools in the diocese exclusively for Indians. These schools have an enrollment of 433 pupils. Three priests devote nearly their whole time to Indian missionary work. “We intend to carry out our school work on a better plan,” writes the Most Rev. Archbishop. “The agents of Commissioner Morgan are doing all in their power to ruin our schools and to pervert our poor Catholic Indians, by means fair and foul. ”

“ Indians titles for their land without any restriction as to their right to sell. As soon as the allotments were made, land sharks went among the Indians and bought their lands for trivial sums, or loaned them small sums of money at high rates of interest secured by mortgage, on short time, and then foreclosed as soon as the law would permit them to do so.” In 1888, through the zealous labors of Father Altmicks the condition of affairs was brought before the Government, and a contract was given for the support of the schools at Harbor Springs. ”

“ The diocese of New Orleans still continues to lead in the work of Negro education. There are 80,000 colored Catholics in the diocese, 36 schools open to colored children, a large orphan asylum and a home for aged women. The schools are attended by over 2309 pupils. Two or three extra schools are opened each year. Archbishop Janssens feels confident of the future good results to come from his labor, in multiplying these colored schools. ”

“ There are from forty to fifty colored children enrolled in our school, and it is both consoling and edifying to witness the docility of these little ones, and their [12] eagerness to make all manner of sacrifices to avail themselves of the advantages of an education. ”

“ They would plant in their midst schools in which young Indian boys and girls may be trained in civil learning; and churches into which all may be gathered round the altar of God, and taught to know and worship in spirit and in truth Jesus Christ, their Redeemer, whose children they are, and, equally with us, heirs of eternal life. ”

“ According to the late census there are 706,243 colored people in the diocese of Mobile. About 2,500 of this vast number are Catholics. The total Catholic population, negroes and whites included, is scarcely 17,000 souls. These figures will give us some slight idea of the difficulty to be met with on every side in the work of propagating the faith. Priests, money and moral support are absolutely necessary to achieve any missionary success. ”

“ Of this great number but 3000 are Catholics. These Catholic Indians have six churches which are regularly attended by six Benedictine Fathers, of the Sacred Heart, and one secular priest. There are five Catholic Indian boarding schools in the Territory with an enrolment of 262 pupils. “A school should be built in the Gwokow nation” writes Bishop Meerschaert, “for that nation and other small tribes around. A church there is an absolute necessity. Another school should be built in the Creek nation. We will try a day school in Muscogee where we can build and be able to have sisters. ”

“ It comes to you with the sanction of grave and venerable prelates who in council have weighed the matter well, and now make known to you the obligation you are under. The rich results of your generosity you may not live to see. ”