Catholic Claims in America

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1908

Catholic Claims in America

A CATHOLIC clergyman in a sermon recently delivered in Boston, sets forth two of the pretensions of the Roman Church in America that will be of interest to our readers. The priest declared that the representatives of the Catholic Church—bishops, archbishops, and cardinals—were, in this country, as much superior to secular rulers in majesty and in claims upon the affection and reverence of the people as the eternal life infinitely transcends the temporal in importance and dignity. His second statement was to the effect that outside of the Catholic Church the whole world of American life is under the influence of Satan, and that “men and women of apparent

natural goodness and eminent respectability before the world are really enemies of Christ and opposed to the kingdom which he founded.” These claims to all the goodness there is in the land and to an exaltation infinitely above all the rest of mankind are in perfect keeping with the well-known characteristics of the papacy. In view of the prophetic utterance concerning this power, namely, that it would oppose and exalt itself “against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as ‘God,’” it should not surprise us to see this power exalting itself above all that is called man.

Speaking of this public utterance of the Boston priest, the Christian Register (Unitarian) says:—

Happily the Catholic preacher, and those who agree with him, will never have an opportunity to put their theories into practise in America.

The Register, like many another religious publication, puts forth its wish and hope as a prophecy of what is to be.