What Catholicism Is

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 7, 1910

What Catholicism Is

EARTH'S history has never presented a system so complex in its character, so far-reaching in its influence, and so marvelous in its workings, as that represented by the Papacy. This is forcibly expressed by Lecky in the second chapter of his “England in the Eighteenth Century,” as quoted by the Christian Advocate of June 16. He says:—

Catholicism never can be looked upon merely as a religion. It is a great and highly organized kingdom, recognizing no geographical frontiers, governed by a foreign sovereign, pervading temporal politics with its manifold influence, and attracting to itself much of the enthusiasm which would otherwise flow in national channels. The intimate correspondence between its priests in many lands, the disciplined unity of their political action, the almost absolute authority they exercise over large classes, and their usually almost complete detachment from national and patriotic interests, have often in critical times proved a most serious political danger; and they have sometimes pursued a temporal policy eminently aggressive, sanguinary, unscrupulous, and ambitious.

There is a marked tendency in these days of religious sentimentalism to forget the history of the past, and to accept the flattery and cajolery of the great Catholic system of error, believing that it has really experienced a change of heart, and holds different principles today than it has held in centuries gone by. The Word of God, however, presents it as the same mystery of iniquity and man of sin down to the very end of time.

On the quotation given above the Advocate adds this pertinent comment:—

These are not the words of a Protestant fanatic, but of one of the most unprejudiced of historians. They were not written in the reign of William and Mary, but in the liberal days of Victoria. They are the sober judgment of one of the sanest students of civilization. They are commended to the thoughtful attention of those Americans who are in danger of being lulled or cajoled into forgetfulness of the plain warnings of the past.