Tea at Trianon: More About Fr. De Smet

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 8, 2015

More About Fr. De Smet

From Aleteia:

...Belgian-born Father De Smet had an excellent rapport with American Indians, said the College Fix and others:

While converting thousands to Catholicism, De Smet also helped negotiate treaties among the Indians and the United States, ensuring their land and safety.

Writing at Magnificat, author and professor Anthony Esolen called De Smet "one of the most remarkable missionaries in the history of the Church."

He said that Father De Smet rebuked one tribe for attacking another without justification, and the two tribes "buried the tomahawk" because of him. His reputation grew so much that by 1862, it was a no-brainer for President Lincoln to send him to dissuade the Sioux from attacking white settlers as a way of avenging themselves for stolen land and broken treaties. He was successful.

"Had America followed his lead, great good would have come of it, and many evils — war, the theft of Indian lands, perfidy, mutual hatred, and the moral collapse that awaits a defeated people under patronage — might never have been," Esolen said.

Also reacting to the news was columnist and former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan. "As the mission of this Jesuit university is, presumably, to instruct the Catholic young in their faith and send them out into the world to bring the good news of Jesus Christ as Lord and savior to nonbelievers, what exactly is the problem here?" he wrote. "If the founder of Christianity is the Son of God, then Christianity is a superior religion."

Father De Smet is not alone in being the subject of controversy because of his relationship to Native Americans. Soon after news broke that Pope Francis intends to come to the United States and canonize Blessed Junipero Serra, the Spanish Franciscan who founded many of California's missions, a congressman initiated a move to replace Serra's statue in Statuary Hall inside the US Capitol in Washington. The congressman took issue with Serra's alleged mistreatment of Native Americans. (Read more.)