Catholic Freedom of the Press

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 6, 1909

Catholic Freedom of the Press

THE kind of freedom Americans may expect when the Roman Church accomplishes its purpose of making America Catholic is illustrated in the following episode: There are three Catholic papers published in Boston. One of these is the Pilot, recently purchased by the new Archbishop of Boston, Dr. O’Connell. The second is owned and edited by Jesuit priests, and the third by Catholic laymen. The new archbishop evidently purposed from the very start, to make the Pilot the leading paper in his diocese, and in furtherance of this purpose addressed his priests, in synod, as follows:—

Therefore, here in synod, I desire solemnly to publish that the duty of every priest of this diocese to maintain, assist, and spread the influence, helpfulness, and support of the Pilot is one binding in conscience, and that neglect to do so after this solemn and legal warning will be accepted and interpreted as a flagrant neglect of duty.

They may support other papers if they wish; but support his they must under pain of the penalty that follows “a flagrant neglect of duty.” Then speaking of the other Catholic papers that were competing with his for the patronage of the Catholic people of that diocese, he said:—

There is one, and only one, official organ of the diocese. All other papers, magazines, journals, reviews, and calendars, whether for parochial or general distribution, on sale in any way, controlled, printed, or edited in this diocese by priests of this diocese, must have before further publication under penalty of suppression the written permit of the archbishop, with the added understanding that all such printed matter is subject to all the conditions imposed by the laws of the Holy Office, and that for good and sufficient reason the Ordinary may at any time call for the discontinuance and suppression of such papers and calendars.

Here is a government within the government, which says who may and who shall not print a paper, and what that paper may contain and what it shall not contain. To carry out his purpose, the archbishop declares his intention of setting up the “holy office” (the Inquisition), and making amenable to its laws any who dare to exercise the freedom this nation guarantees them in the matter of carrying on a legitimate business. The government of the United States has reserved to itself the right to suppress publications of a certain class, such as publications that tend to incite incendiarism, murder, or immorality; but here is an organization that assumes to itself the right to abolish the legitimate business of individuals for no such reason; and it lays upon those suppressed the duty of yielding to the suppression as a matter of “conscience;” for each such suppression builds up the Pilot, and the duty of supporting the Pilot “is one binding in conscience.” The requirement of securing the permission of a Catholic archbishop before publishing a paper was never contemplated in the American government’s guaranty of citizen rights.