Literature and the Laity [pp. 1-8]

4 LITERATU~E AND THE LAITY. [Oct.,
social customs of the community of which they fOrm so large a
part?
Perhaps the answers to all the questions embraced in the foregoing paragraph may be indicated by the answer to the last one,
and that will not be hard to find. The Catholics are by far the
largest body of Christians in the United States; in the metropolis they are nearly as many as all the rest of the population combined; and yet nobody who reads the newspapers will question
that they are of less account in public affairs than any other denomination with which the public condescends to reckon at all
-far less than the Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians; less than the Jews or the ethical-culture atheists; less
even than some of the minor sects whom most of us ~ardly know
by name. We hear a great deal of ignorant and random talk
about an assumed political force called "the Catholic vote"; but
how little influence the Catholics as a body are supposed to exert
~ipon the development of American culture and the tendencies of
American thought may be illustrated by a single fact: namely,
they are the only religious denomination whom the newspapers
are not afraid of.`I~he secular press, pi-ofessing to be neutral in
theology, takes pains not to wound the susceptibilities of any
class of believers or non-believers, except the most numerdus
class of all-the Catholics. If a reflection upon any Protestant
sect, or upon Hebrews, or upon infidels is inadvertently printed
the editor is ready to apologize and explain. These people are
his customers and he cannot afford to offend them. But the
Catholics are his customers, too. He wants their money, and
the party which he serves wants their votes. Yet he affronts
them every day. There are prominent journals which never let
pass a chance for a whack at the papists; and the papers which
Catholics are supposed, rightly or wrongly, to be most in the
habit of reading are sometimes more unfair and injurious to
them than any of the others. It seems to be an accepted belief
in newspaper offices that it is not worth while to be civil to
Catholics, because they will not resent anything, or do nQt know
how. In point of fact they do not resent anything. Irritating
misrepresentations of Catholic doctrines and practices, or of the
facts of Catholic history, or of the relation of current events
to the Catholic Church rarely provoke a protest in the place
where the falsehood appeared. The Catholic weekly papers
perhaps take up the matter and publish an answer which nobody
sees except Catholics, who do not need it-not even the offending
editor to whom it is addressed. The secular journalist knows