Martin Ignatius Joseph Griffin

“ We Catholics regard William Penn as a religious enthusiast, who contended for Religious toleration or Liberty when he was oppressed, and when given the opportunity to establish a colony, proclaimed as the corner-stone of its structure the principles which he had advocated when oppressed for conscience sake. ”

“ If the history of our Faith in Philadelphia is ever to be written or its development aided by our Society, surely the first point of historical inquiry and patient and conscientious research must be the principles on which our State was founded, and how these principles and the professions according therewith were applied to the early Catholic settlers in the colony Penn established. ”

“ And in order that each may enjoy that liberty of conscience, which is a natural right belonging to all men, and which is so comformable to the genius and character of peaceable people and friends of repose, it is established firmly, not only that no one be forced to assist in any public exercise of religion, but also full power is given to each to make freely the public exercise of his own without meeting with any trouble or interference of any kind ”

“ After 1692, until the Revolutionary War, nowhere else in the British Provinces was Mass allowed to be publicly celebrated but in Philadelphia—or else where in Pennsylvania. Even in Mary land, founded as it had been by Catholics who welcomed all, Catholics were, as soon as Protestants got the power, oppressed for their religion, and doubly taxed, and the public exercise of their religion prohibited. Mass could only be said in one of the private rooms of the manors of the well-to-do Catholics. ”

“ We must give the liberty we ask, and cannot be false to our principles, though it were to relieve ourselves, for we have good will to all men and would have none to suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent on any hand. ”

“ Our whole early history is but a romance, and rarely upon facts. The very first alleged fact—that in 1686—just 200 years ago, there was a Catholic priest resident in Philadelphia, is not true and the Catholic writer who first started that historical tale, is censurable because he perverted the fact upon which he built a story that has its life still longer lengthened as it appears in the recently issued Life of Bishop Neumann. ”

“ Note that Penn always speaks of the right to practise one's religion as well as to profess it. One is naturally contained in the other, but in Penn's day it was not the profession, but the practices of his creed and that of the Catholics that were punished. It was the Mass that was specially objectionable. As regards Catholics, Protestant opinion was aptly summarized by Cromwell's order that liberty of conscience should prevail in Ireland, but no Mass. ”

“ It is against this stain on Penn that I seek to show that there is no justification for any hesitation on the part of Catholics to express admiration of the Founder of Pennsylvania, nor any reason why his followers, "the people called Quakers," to use the old time words, should not be regarded especially as Friends.
But how did the Catholic misjudgment of Penn's character arise? From Watson, the annalist of Philadelphia. He relates that Penn wrote to Logan, in July, 1708, saying: "Here is a complaint against your Government that you suffer public Mass in a scandalous manner. ”

“ There is not a sign to show that the Quakers during Penn's time here, or when he was in England, or after his death, at any time "bitterly opposed" Catholics practising their religion.
On the contrary, quite the reverse. The complaint to England about the Mass of 1708 amounted to nothing injurious to Catholics. They were here, they came and went, as did others. Priests visited them regularly, and the founder of the little chapel of St. Joseph's is traditionally related to have come to this city in the garb of a Quaker. Perhaps so. ”

“ Who should be lenient in judgment, tolerant in opinion and disposed to fair examination, if not Catholics, who above all others have suffered most reproach because the enemies of the Church have not examined into the truth of the statements alleged against Her. ”

“ There were Catholics in Philadelphia as early as 1686, and one Peter Debuc, who died in 1693, whose will I have examined, bequeathed £50 to Father Smith—supposed to an alias for Father Harrison, or Harvey, as investigation may show. Now, if half a dozen Catholics could be gathered together in the new city during this time, they surely had Mass celebrated by the Jesuit—who visited them when journeying from Maryland to New York, or on his return. ”