gy and of the
congregation. He said:

"'This gathering will mark an era in the history of the colored people
of the United States, for never before have colored Catholics of the
country met in convention.' He suggested that the convention discuss the
education of the children--the religious education necessary to the life
of the Republic. _The universal level of the Catholic Church--its
equality--was eloquently dilated upon, and attention was directed to the
fact that a colored priest had celebrated mass in company with two white
clergymen._"

We quote the above from the _People's Advocate_, a paper published in
Washington, D.C., by colored editors and in the interests of the colored
people. In comments upon the above report, it adds:

"The presence of a Negro priest of pure lineage, born a slave, ordained
at Rome, Augustus Tolton--the property of Stephen Elliot, as the record
stands in the Vatican--the appearance of Cardinal Gibbons in his
official robes to sanction the meeting, his eloquent reference to the
universality of the Church of Rome that 'knows neither North, South,
East or West; that knows neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek, Barbarian nor
Scythian,' may mislead the unwary as to the real object of the movement.
Its real purpose is to propagate the Roman Catholic faith among the
colored people. So far as this meeting will secure from white
Protestants a greater interest in, and a more Christian recognition of,
the Negro as an equal participant in the Gospel plan, we regard it as
Providential. We are not ready to concede that the Roman Catholic Church
has been the friend of freedom, of education, of human rights and of
progress. We do not see that anything is gained by claiming for Roman
Catholicism to-day, or in the past, what is clearly not so. But the
Roman Catholic Church has placed itself squarely on the doctrine of the
Gospel as taught by Christ upon the question of universal brotherhood.
Prejudiced as many may be by long years of training against the tenets
of this church, all must acknowledge that this practice of the Romanists
as manifested in the presence of a black man on terms of perfect
equality, officiating at the altar of St. Augustine's Church, assisted
on his right and left by white priests, in the presence of his Eminence
Cardinal Gibbons, will be put in striking contrast with that of the
white American Protestant churches who are willing on every occasion to
sacrifice the Negro to secure the c