" " " Mrs. C. Goodwin, " " " " " " Chin Gaing, " " " Santa Barbara, Mrs. E.M.  Shattuck, Santa Barbara, Cal.  Santa Cruz, Miss Mary L. Perkins, Santa Cruz, Cal. " " Yong Jin, " " " Stockton, Mrs. M.H.  Langdon, Stockton, Cal. " Hong Sing, " "

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CONVENTION OF COLORED ROMAN CATHOLICS.

“A National Convention of Colored Roman Catholics, composed of delegates from nearly all the colored Roman Catholic churches and societies in the country, began its sessions on the morning of January 1st, in the St. Augustine Colored Catholic Church in Washington.  Every seat was occupied when Father Tolton, of Quincy, Ill., the only colored Catholic priest in the United States, began the celebration of solemn High Mass.  Immediately in front of and beneath the pulpit sat his Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, who delivered the sermon.  He was clad in scarlet robes.  At the conclusion of the sermon, the Cardinal welcomed the delegates in his own name, and in the name of the clergy 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