Irish group in Chicago slams Rome ‘cabal’ and Irish bishops over ‘spiritual treason’
Chicago, 16 January 1923 - An extraordinary series of resolutions adopted by the Chicago branch of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) have set down a challenge to the Catholic Church in Rome and its bishops in Ireland.
The resolutions, adopted on December 9th by the Padraic H. Pearse Council of the AARIR, Chicago, threaten a withdrawal of allegiance from Rome and the initiation of a new Church in America.‘These resolutions’, it has been explained, ‘are an ultimatum to Rome.’ They are the magna Charta of the ‘American Catholic Church.’
The source of the Chicago’s Council’s hostility is the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Civil War which has erupted since its signing. It has been described as a ‘drunken treaty’ that had been signed by the ‘traitors of Ireland’, an act of ‘supreme spiritual treason committed by the Invisible Government of the Roman Church and the Bishops of Ireland against the Irish Nation.’ Furthermore, it is alleged that the Catholic bishops of Ireland are being ‘instructed in their infamy by the Roman cabal.’
A note accompanying the resolutions claims that the ‘Roman Catholic’ machine and the Bishops of Ireland have again sold Ireland to England for a price.‘Judas sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver and then went out like a man and hanged himself. Would that the Roman Cabal and the Bishops of Ireland would do likewise.’
The only ways in which the Church authorities might make amends for their alleged crimes, it is suggested, is to announce to the world that they approve the Republican Government of Ireland as the legitimate Government of Ireland and condemn the ‘freak State.’
The Padraic Pearse Council has also ordered that 100,000 copies of its resolutions be printed and sent to the heads of all Governments, to members of all parliaments, and to all Congresses in the world.
Panoramic view of Chicago city and lake front, c. 1900 (Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540)
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
