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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · December 1, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 47

THE Mail and Express is alarmed lest Mr. Cleveland should welcome to Washington a Papal nuncio. In its issue of November 17, it said:—

It is indeed a significant coincidence that with the report of the reception given to Mr. Cleveland by the Catholic prelates last night there is published a special dispatch from Rome saying that “as soon as Mr. Cleveland has been inaugurated the Vatican will open negotiations for the establishment of a special United States Legation, and the reception at Washington of a Papal Nuncio.” . . .

The Romanists believe in the union of Church and State, and that the Sovereign Pontiff on the banks of the Tiber should be the head of both throughout the whole world; and those of them who reside in the United States are working as rapidly as possible for that result. . . .

The conclave now sitting in the white marble palace in Madison Avenue is expected to arrange for the reappointment of a Jesuit Commissioner of Education as soon as Mr. Cleveland shall come into office again, for an appropriation for the Roman University in Washington, for the selection of another Cardinal, for the representation of the Vatican in Washington, for the control of the schools of the country, and generally for all other things which will hasten the ascendancy of the Roman power in all departments of our Government—national, State, and municipal.

What Mr. Cleveland’s attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church will be it is not our province to even predict. Roman Catholicism, unlike other religions, has always been a political power; and so politicians have become accustomed to treat with it as with other political quantities. Both parties have for years catered more or less to Rome. It has probably seemed to them to be one of the necessities of the situation, and “not wise statesmanship” to do otherwise. If Mr. Cleveland should pursue this policy further his offense against correct principles would be greater only in degree than have some of the acts of his immediate predecessor.

We trust that the reception of a Papal nuncio at Washington is not one of the events of the near future; however, it would only be in keeping with the policy which has been adopted by the Government in all its departments—legislative, judicial, and executive.