Remember Dagger John!
Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York, is clearly as worried as I am about the viciously anti-Christian legislation being backed by the abortionists’ best friend, NY Gov. Spitzer--which would force religious hospitals, social service agencies, and even schools to cooperate in the destruction of unborn life. The cardinal took the extraordinary step of issuing a pastoral letter this weekend, to be read from the pulpit of every church in his archdiocese. You can read it here.
There hasn’t been this grave a threat to the free exercise of religion in New York since the 1830s and 40s, when Know-Nothing mobs (having already burned down convents and churches in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania) threatened the Catholic parishes of New York City--which were thronged with recent Irish immigrants. The prelate at that time was the great Archbishop John Hughes, whose leadership I remembered as follows in The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Wine, Whiskey and Song:
From the 1820s on through the 1870s, thousands of Irishmen sailed annually to escape the repression and poverty imposed upon the Irish by the English. As William Stern wrote in a famous City Journal article, in occupied Ireland, Catholics were
barred from ever owning a house worth more than five pounds or holding a commission in the army or navy. Catholics could neither run schools nor give their children a Catholic education. Priests had to be licensed by the government, which allowed only a few in the country. Any Catholic son could seize his father’s property by becoming a Protestant.
Even the slums of New York and Boston sounded promising by comparison. As Irish climbed out of steerage and “coffin ships,” they raised suspicions on the part of natives and nativists—who feared the influx into a pristinely Protestant America of millions of loyal “papists.” Prominent Americans from John Quincy Adams to John Calhoun asked aloud if these ragged emigrants were the vanguard of “Romish tyranny.” To make matters worse, when the Potato Famine devastated Ireland in the 1840s, the influx became a torrent—and the immigrants arrived in an appalling condition. As Stern described the new arrivals:
In New York they took up residence in homes intended for single families, which were subdivided into tiny apartments. Cellars became dwellings, as did attics three feet high, without sunlight or ventilation, where whole families slept in one bed. Shanties sprang up in alleys. Without running water, cleanliness was impossible; sewage piled up in backyard privies, and rats abounded. Cholera broke out constantly in Irish wards. Observers have noted that no Americans before or since have lived in worse conditions than the New York Irish of the mid-nineteenth century.
Illiteracy, alcoholism, and prostitution were rampant. Irish indeed formed America’s first underclass—and set some natives (such as the anti-Catholic cartoonist Thomas Nast) wondering whether they were some inferior sub-species of homo sapiens. What saved the Irish from this desperate situation, as Stern documents, was neither a government program nor a guerrilla movement. Instead it was the efforts of the local Catholic Church, led by the intrepid and bellicose Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes.
Born in 1797 to a poor farmer in county Tyrone, Hughes had seen oppression up close. Stern notes that after Hughes’ sister Mary died: “English law barred the local Catholic priest from entering the cemetery gates to preside at her burial; the best he could do was to scoop up a handful of dirt, bless it, and hand it to Hughes to sprinkle on the grave.” The family left for Maryland soon after. There the young John worked as a stonemason building a seminary—and discovered his own vocation to the priesthood. The local (French-speaking!) pastor gave little encouragement to this strapping but unlearned lad, but he met with St. Elizabeth Seton, who used her influence to gain his admittance to Mount St. Marys—which still trains priests today. Hughes was appalled by the hostility he encountered in America, where hatred of Catholics was growing—even as Britain was repealing most restrictions on the Church. In Philadelphia, the first city where Hughes ministered worked, nativist organizations armed themselves with rifles and cannon—while Catholics were disarmed by the police. (In 1844, the nativists would riot, burning three churches and many Catholic homes, killing 13.) Hughes traveled the country debating ministers who accused impoverished immigrants of conspiring to impose the Inquisition in the America, winning a worldwide reputation—and appointment in 1838 as Archbishop of New York.
Hughes fought fire with fire—for instance, organizing armed groups of Irishmen to defend his churches from arson at the hands of bigoted mobs—but he fought poverty through compassion. And not the nanny state, non-judgmental kind which nowadays hands out condoms to schoolkids and free needles to addicts. Hughes used his parishes to start a chain of Catholic schools which would drill the ragamuffin children of recently-starving laborers in useful trades and the catechism, and universities such as Fordham to teach the liberal arts. At their churches, his pastors preached purity and penance. They’d dispense food and clothes to needy workmen—but only after sniffing their breath for the scent of whiskey. Young women who wanted the nuns to find them work had to keep a blameless good name. Orphans and the sick could find shelter in Church-run homes. Soon, the once-destitute Irish re-formed themselves into a healthy working class. As Stern documents, the tough love of good priests like Hughes, and the nuns who staffed their schools, in a single generation pulled an entire people out of penury—and into the NYPD.
Perhaps the most famous thing Hughes ever said dates from a threat by nativists to burn down St. Patrick’s Cathedral (the old one, which now stands in trendy Nolita, on Mulberry Street). Recalling the Tsar’s scorched earth response to Napoleon’s invaders, the good Archbishop said that if anything happened to his cathedral, his congregants would make of New York “a second Moscow.” The cathedral still stands.
Since the armed mobs that threaten Catholic hospitals and schools today will hold the sanction of the State, it is the State that Cardinal Egan should make his enemy, using (of course) non-violent means. Egan should do whatever he can to influence all of these institutions to openly flout such an unjust law--and put the full resources of the Church put behind their legal defense, appealing to the Supreme Court to uphold our First Amendment rights.
When a hospital or school loses its license, it should continue to operate--until the police are sent in to drag out the doctors, teachers, patients and students. If that happens, Egan should use whatever pressure he can among the many Catholics in the NY Police department to provoke a police strike. And so on. Such a civil rights movement would not seem sincere if the bishops themselves were unwilling to go to jail. They should remain there as long as necessary--until the last doctor, teacher, or cop is released. The next pastoral letter should come from Binghamton jail.
The NY governor’s law is a declaration of war against every orthodox Christian (and orthodox Jew) in the state of New York. If he passes it, we have no other choice--if we are serious about our Faith--but to make New York State ungovernable.
Comments
Amen, sir! Amen!
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Life is life, born or unborn, and war destroys it.
Thou shall not kill.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
A worthy and inspirational piece. Intelligent citizens should be able to see the state’s assault on Catholic moral code as an assault on the liberty of all American citizens, religious or otherwise. We all grew up with the impression that America guarantees freedom of religion, and the American people should make America prove it, by heeding Mr. Zmirak’s exhortations toward forceful, pervasive, and non-violent resistance.
The US government is devoid of morality, and its ministers, like John McCain or Hillary Clinton, will serve only the gods of money and power and bloodshed. Still, the American people are not entirely immoral people (yet). They should turn off the diversionary corporate crap of CNN and MSNBC and heed the activist call.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
God help us all if Catholic fundamentalists like you ever come
to power. I can see the blazing stakes already. And don’t forget:
it is people like you who give enlightened Catholizism a bad name.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
“Man”, I find it revealing of your intellectual abilities that you should connect Catholicism with “blazing crosses , as the Ku Klux Klan was a notoriously anti-Catholic organization.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Dominic, he said “blazing stakes”, not “blazing crosses”.
Think auto-da-fe and burning faggots (the wooden kind).
Click to flag this comment as abusive
“Dagger John” in tactics, threats of violence, and actual violence (the Draft Riots) bears a striking resemblance to the fundamentalist mullahs now flooding America and Europe, who are similarly commissioned and funded by a Mother Church (Saudi Arabia) elsewhere.
Which also explains why the Catholic hierarchy is in favor of willy-nilly mass culture-rending transformative immigration of any kind, anywhere and sees immigration as a God-given right.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Yeah, Bill. The Europeans are threatening to burn down the mosques in Paris and London, which is why the fundamentalists are calling for jihad and sharia. Thanks for clearing that up, and defending the radical Islamists by equating them with Christians defending themselves from actual, violent persecution. Why don’t you send some money to the murderers of Hamas, while you’re at it?
Click to flag this comment as abusive
I doubt your calls for another Irish Donnybrook or riot will resonate with Americans of the Catholic persuasion, Mr. Zmirak. They have been here and been “Protestantized” too long.
It might work with the Muslim, Black or Mexican population, though.They still seem to be at that level of cultural sophistication if the race riots and other ethnic demonstrations are any measure.
The Jews are much more effective at this than Christians. It might be wise to ask yourself what the ADL or the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations would do to resist these encroachments.
The last time a Catholic scorched earth policy was attempted was in the Irish Draft/Race Riots 150 years ago. It didn’t turn out so well.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
John, I think you[should] know by know...that one cannot be Amerikan and be cata-holica. The Amerikan Church is all about kerosene & manipulating strange isotopes. The cata-holica church is all about incense & the glorification of a caring mystery. Amerika is about the perverse, inverted finite(facts & experience). Cata-holica is about an opening to the divine infinite(purpose & origens). Amerika is a punishing curia… imposing, forcing a constructed salvation. Cata-holica is an ecclessia… longing for a unique re-uniting joy. It is what it is John.....it is what it was. Amerika has a past...we do not. Amerika has a home...we do not. Given the past & given the home....things may not be as bad as it may appear.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Always good to hear about Hughes, especially with St. Patrick’s day coming up.
But I should like to counsel restraint, or, as my blunt Irish-American USMC then NYFD father would say: calm down. There will be no scene. And, I am afraid I must add, to be fair and thorough, that to advocate one is a counter-productive juvenile fantasy.
To explain: if the Catholic hospitals lose their licenses, they’d have a financial heart attack. For starters, why would an anonymous off-site, insurance company functionary approve payments to a non-accredited medical provider for medical services? Then there’s the whole liability issue. Basically, before any warrants ever get issued, a bunch of best practices rules in a bunch of three-ring binders in a bunch of offices ice the place.
For your transplant operation to be a success the Catholic hospitals will need a pretty big cash-bank on the ready to make the necessary transfusions. Like months. They don’t have it. At least not as the Archdiocese is currently running things and taking in donations. What the Church does have is a lot of charitable accounts receivables that, if a bill were sent, and I’m talking figuratively again here, would bust a decent bit of the City’s socialist entitlement facade.
Something like that is probably what Egan, Bloomberg, and some State legislators are trying to gently explain to running-shorts-on-high-holidays Spitzer. Like, uh, “Elliot, Elliot, look, they just have a thing about abortion; it’s not gonna happen. What do you really want?” Hopefully Spitzer just got coaxed into this by some hothouse flowers and doesn’t really have a cunning answer to that last bit.
Now, if there is no deal, there may be some drama, but Tiannamen Square at St. Vincent’s I think not and don’t recommend. In any event, if you want to fight more, keep up the good work, keep writing, marry that girl, and donate more to the Annual Cardinal’s Appeal.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
The French speaking pastor was Father John DuBois who fled the French revolution. He was taught English and sheltered by the likes of Patrick Henry and founded Mount St Mary’s Seminary 200 years ago this year. He also founded my parish 201 years ago. He let Mother Seton and her sisters stay in his house when they arrived in Emmitsburg. He became the 3rd Bishop of New York which is celebrating its establishment as a Diocese this year as well.
Bishop DuBois did rankle the Irish in New York but Dagger John was appointed Cop-Adjutor Bishop. He became the first Arch-Bishop of New York.
You make it sound like he was suspect because he was “French.” The Wild Geese from Ireland fought in many countries against the English.
Hughes said he was the equal of any man in the world when he was born until a week later when he was baptised as a Catholic. He then became a second class citizen.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Excellent. Go raibh maith agat!
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Good article, Mr. Zmirak!
I would however disagree with your call for non-violent resistance as the West is in desperate need of Catholic Counterrevolution not seen since the great Spanish Crusade of 1936-39.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Dear Mr. Zmirak, re the “murderers of hamas” - could you please have a look at Uri Avnery’s article over at counterpunch? He’s giving a rather fair account about who is murdering whom in what numbers.
As another of your readers pointed out, your idea of civil disobedience is fantastic, but the movement might be quelled by some anonymous insurance clerk. Pity.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
CC (if she’s who I think she is) works for the NY Arch., so she gives us a useful insight into what might happen, and how much stomach the institution would have for a fight. It sounds like the hospitals would have to simply be sold or shuttered… the alternative, co-operating with the law, would entail (like any cooperation with abortion, by Canon Law) ipso facto excommunication for anyone directly involved. Which would, in this case, include hospital administrators, and arguably the Cardinal himself.
However, if the law does apply to schools (as Cardinal Egan himself wrote) those could well be maintained in operation without licenses, forcing a confrontation and allowing for civil disobedience. If anyone has the stomach for it.
I’m sure those civil rights bus boycotts offered their own share of obstacles. But they worked. The key is to maneuver your enemies into revealing themselves as what they are: aggressors. And to do it with maximum publicity.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
John,
Governor Spitzer will soon be answering questions about his involvement in
a prositution ring. Not sure if he was a provider or a receipient, but it
should delay his plans to jack-boot Catholic hospitals into the culture of
death.
The time for non-violent resistance to the State is close at hand. It won’t
hurt the cause that our first opponent will soon be a regular on the Jerry
Springer show.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
While in Phila, Archbishop Hughes helped build and was pastor of St. John The Evangelist which served as the temporary cathedral of the diocese. It is a beautiful church and serves the working people of center city well to this day.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul replaced St. John’s and there is an interesting story about the newer edifice. The windows of the new cathedral were placed higher than a man could throw a brick or stone due to attacks on churches. Here’s a couple links.
http://www.stjohnsphilly.com/index.html
http://home.catholicweb.com/sspeterpaulcathedral/index.cfm
Click to flag this comment as abusive
The Lord has heard your prayers: Today’s headline: “Spitzer linked to prostitution.”
Click to flag this comment as abusive
The timing couldn’t be more perfect!
Spitzer ran on a campaign of “bringing ethics back to Albany.”
Now he’s named in a federal complaint for his involvement in a prostitution ring.
God, and the government, works in mysterious ways.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
P.S. -Archbishop Hughes had nothing to do with the draft riots (except to help stop them). He was an advocate for self-defense in a society where the authorities could not be depended upon to protect Catholic lives or property.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
CC here again. I don’t work for the NY, or any other, archdiocese, except indirectly in so far as I, a typical NYC Catholic, occasionally volunteer at my parish.
Confrontation of the 60’s variety is even less likely to occur at the schools for the simple reason that the confrontation, be that as it may, could be scheduled to take place during the summer recess. If a ruling came down from the Court of Appeals (NY) or the Supreme Court (US) putting it into effect could wait til the break, as the issue is ancillary and minor to the main point of the schools, plus the summer recess provides a reasonable occasion to effect the change. It’s ancillary and minor to most of the work of a hospital too, but they run 24/7/365 so there’s no comparably good time to make the change. If Cardinal Egan said he intends to run the schools his way come September --and he’d pretty much have to say something as the parents would, you know, kind of want to know where their kids were going to school a little in advance of the fact, then the lawyers for the State and City could get an injunction and padlock the place.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Abu my Irish Brethheren. I remember the little slap I took at my confirmatiom. I sm well into my sixtiies
Rise up and give me the chance to die proudly!
Click to flag this comment as abusive
I’m Orthodox and I extend my whole-hearted support to this initiative by the RC Cardinal of NY. Abortion is murder, and the state cannot be allowed to force someone to participate in murder!
Click to flag this comment as abusive
What I do not see in Egan’s letter is any indication that Church institutions would not cooperate in providing aboritons if compelled to do so by the state. He speaks of being “forced” to provide such cooperation, but he takes no stand which says, “We shall never agree to perform or otherwise assist in such abominations, and cannot be made to do so by any law.” All his letter says is that it would be unfortunate in the extreme if Catholic institutions were obligated by law to cooperate in abortions. This is a deeply disappointing letter, and I expected much more. Though I probably shouldn’t have.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Powerful men really don’t like having to close down buildings and scale back operations, and the Church’s retreat from health care would be a major cultural defeat.... But Canon Law offers him no choice. I doubt that this pope would stand for Catholic institutions carrying on under such conditions. As a mere cardinal, he cracked down on German bishops for doing much less.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
As a Southern Protestant I must chime
in and say that it would be an honor
to stand with the Catholic Church.
I am sick and tired of the silence
of the American Protestant Church.
My dream is re-unification of all
Christian Churches to defeat this
evil that is suffocating us.
We must find a way. We must find a way.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
The Church might consider St John of God whose Feast Day we just celebrated. He went out to find the poor sick lying on the streets and under bridges and brought them indoors to give them some comfort. He was attacked for pampering troublemakers. He begged for any offerings people could give for the poor sick. He even stole a pot of food from a well to do family to feed the starving wretches.
Jesus said “Whenever you do this for these the least of my brethren you do it for me.” St John of the Cross is of course is a raving left wing liberal social activist whose death trying to save a poor child from drowning couldn’t have come sooner. Of course he didn’t need to get a license from the state to gather in the poor to his hospital in the first place. But a permit can keep out the riff raff. He is the founder of the Order of Brothers Hospitallers
I think Catholic hospitals still take charity cases. The undeserving poor get lucky sometimes. I suppose abortionist can moonlight as Doctors in their “clinics.”
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Hopefully with Spitzer out of commission, this won’t be an issue.
All the same, somebody should send this article on to Cardinal Egan, with a count of the number of people who approve of Mr. Zmirak’s recommended course of action. Count me at “one”.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Taki's Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. Personal attacks, ethnic slurs, the riding of hobby horses and the beating of dead ones will be deleted as soon as they are detected by our small but alert staff. Repeat abusers of this policy will be barred from leaving comments. All comments reflect only the views of those posting them and not necessarily those of this website, its editors, or authors. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
Commenting is not available in this section entry.