Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1909

Note and Comment

By Editor

Vinegar and Vitriol

The New World (Catholic), of Chicago, in its issue of April 3, quotes “Father” John J. Wynne, who has just returned from Rome, as representing the sentiments of Pope Pius X respecting the spirit which should characterize Catholic editors and writers toward those with whom they disagree:—

The Holy Father above all things warns Catholic writers and editors to be courteous and urbane in their statement about those with whom they occasionally have to disagree. . . . I regret to say that too often Catholic publicists indulged in mutual abuse and recrimination, and seemed to act as if terms and tactics that would never obtain in polite society were the proper stock in trade of the editorial offices of the religious publications. Thanks to the insistence of His Holiness on the amenities and urbanity of editorial courtesy, the solution of vinegar and vitriol that formerly flowed with the printers’ ink has given way to the mixture of honey and balm.

That this excellent advice is timely has often been demonstrated by Catholic journals, and that they will heed the admonition of the head of their church is to be sincerely hoped. They have never been slow to demand servile respect on the part of Protestants to all things Catholic, and to resent quickly any real or fancied insinuation against their church. They have not been so prompt, however, to manifest the same spirit of courtesy toward others. An example of this is found in the Catholic Standard and Times, of Philadelphia, in its issue of April 3. The correspondence editor of the Press is taken severely to task for applying the term “Romish” to the Catholic Church:—

No one but an ignoramus or one who wants to insult the religion of Catholics would in these generous times use the term “the Romish Church” in connection with the Church Universal, of which the adjective “Catholic” is a synonym. The Catholic readers of the Press could not be blamed if they showed the Press in some effective way that they will not allow the correspondence editor to insult their holy church in so wanton and vulgar a way as this.

Here surely is a demand for courteous treatment without the elimination of all the “vinegar and vitriol” from the demand, the editor suggesting to Catholic readers of the Press that in some effective manner they resent an insult “so wanton and vulgar.” Naturally, after this strenuous demand for courteous consideration, we would expect to see the Standard and Times exemplifying the same principles of courtesy in its treatment of others, and thus following the wise counsel of its church head. We are therefore the more surprised to find in the same issue of April 3, as the leading editorial note, the following “vinegar and vitriol” diatribe against the Lutheran Church:—

Muses the Lutheran, apologetically: “The Lutheran Church was not born a sect.” Certainly not: it was hatched. Insects come into the world in that way. It was hatched an insect, and did not come into the world as a church. The Lutheran is quite right as to one postulation, anyhow.

Surely in this treatment of the Lutherans the Standard and Times forgot to be “courteous and urbane,” and failed signally to mingle the soothing “mixture of honey and balm” with its statements. We commend to our Catholic contemporary the good counsel of Pope Pius, and suggest that the spirit as well as the letter of that counsel applies with quite as much force to Catholic editors as to the editors of secular journals. It should seek to be consistent in the columns of the same issue at least. Moralists should themselves endeavor to exemplify the same standard of ethics which they demand of their fellows.