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Cardinal Defends U. S. Against Foreign Critics Government Entitled to Take Steps te'csisieen ie "tra teaching order of Sisters in the _To Preserve Its Existence, He Says °*suciccecr nese nou Belgian namesakes, but each In| world’s seeming prosperity ite way an affectionate reminder rather one of justifiable pride, that In the New World, the Old} gratification affection. For, ‘World fives on in name and in- ‘America, the daughter of Europe, OE end t : “What an ronor roll of names Beigium and America in hour of need, not { who seemed to sum up in his per- | were aboard, One of those priests, can be called of Belgian-born and in @ spirit of arrogance, but with i son all of the missionary glory | Father ‘White, offered up the first] Belglan-trainei misisonaries “Therefore do I this day hum- profound satisfaction that : of Belgium, His flaming charity |Mass ever to be celebrated in| America: The martyrs, Father | biy and sincerely make my plea America is able to repay. in some f -—~.and indomitable energy have! Maryland. ‘The little oblong Indian| Beigian-trainei missionaries in| to you, heroic citizens of Bel-} small measure, her tremendous | elicited the admiration of even|cabin which Pather White had} saintly Father Charles Nerinckx, | gium, ever to strive to be an ex: debt, ~— the most grudging historians. He transformed into chapel thus the whole host of Jesuits, Domin!- ) amp! true fi “From out my beloved homeland was -responsible for the baptism became the cradle of Catholtetan cans, Laxarists, Ciares and| America, friendship based ‘on| in the New World, our volces cry of many thousands of Indians. He in the United States. So in a very| Sisters of Loretto who went allliracts of history and the strong out: built and maintained an educa-| intimate way, Belgium is tdenti-] through the great peartland of |itides of divine providence, which, tlonal establishment which In-| fied with thh beginnings of the| our Middle West establishing |:in last three centuries, car- “Thou noble, valiant lend swept cluded a school of primary educa-| Catholic Church in my native] churches and schonls; and finally |iried so many of the sons and by the Northern Seas tion, @ college of higher learning, | land. Today as a representative | that extraordiuary ‘Apostle of the daughters of your own and your Behold today from half scross a home for relicious training, a|of that Church which has grown| Rocky Mountcins.’ Pather Pierre- ‘alster nations of Europe to people the world trade school and an academy of | 80 gloriously and so providentially| Jean De Smet. We hold all their |'the hospitable shore of America. ‘Thy children’s children come fine arts, He established a bos-|{ am happy to record this fect, ames in grateful remembrance.|.You fed the hungry lips of, @ tn love to thee, { pital which cared regularly forl “There are other Belgian ties} = “Pive centuries is litle enough |'youthfal tion, buoyed her with} What thou gave ‘them these more than three hundred Indians.; with my native land to which I time by European reckoning—but | strecgth by substantial contribu- never shall forget, ‘He compiled a grammar—the firat | would like briefly to allude. The| what crowded ‘and eventful cen-| tions in every aphere of life. ‘What they give thee is payment of its kind—in the Aztec language first Bishop in the American col- turies they fave been for us. use of inevitable of a debt j ‘and composed a book in that|onles, John Carroll, was ordained From a nation of primeval forests cultural, civic and po- ‘With Interest compounded of tongue explaining the Christian |‘to the in Liege and} and vast we have come, | litical strains to which your own dearest love, religion to the native Indians,| be taught briefly at Bruges. His th Europe's help and inspir- | country its neig! have] Lat not this payment which is i} wonder that Belgium should » the t_ Archbishop | ation, to our present tion of | been subjected, strains that eft made with joy . i have so glowing = ary | of Baltimore, | world greatness. The sturdy sons) Belgium crushed still un- Instill in you, the mother, 7 tradition when it could produce | alse to Belgium for| and daughters so generously pro- | co! Treason of her in- aught but fulsome pride. men of the character of Peter de| his theological training. And the| vided to us have raced itable and her deep In these fair gifts thy eons and world renowned Pulton J.) part of America with their achieve-| heritage of faith, there sprung daughters bring i ‘Apostle of the Missions, is | ments. grat-| up in the family of na-| Find thou the pledge and prool | “Small wonder, too, that Amer-j'an honored graduate of Louvain {tude we feel for this may be ob- tions, a resentment of the appar- of gratitude, lina t fea today should have cause to be| University. tained from the fact that over @ ent and relative prosperity of the Nor tet a lurking pride | grateful for what that tradition| “Belgium ean look with pride} tho American cities United States. thee to this— te ber Bratt te ip ber in ber reli-| on her part in the berinning of| towns bear the names of “But, it is my heart's firm be- ‘The slory of a nation gious and educational ¢ our Hierarchy—in the insing| parent cities in Europe, There| ef, as I feel it too must be 08 reveal their character When the first ship salled out of | of the first contemplative order are, for instance, an Antwerp. a yours, that the ideal attitude for And sons Engiand in 1633 to establish a| in our country—in the - ls end s Ghent in America.| the present day sona of Belgium ail G08 their mother ta colony in Maryland, two priests tion of the oldest Catholic insti-| none of them ‘approaching in| and her sister-countries should By nt who had been trained in Belgium tution 6f learning in the United| sise, achievement or renown Reprinted from The Catholic News New York Octoher 31, 1953