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A Candid Admission

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 21, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 3.

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A Candid Admission

The manner in which the Roman hierarchy believes in a separation of church and state in this country is explained by a Catholic writer in the Pioneer Press, of St. Paul, in pointing out what he calls a basic error in the Lutheran letter of protest to President Roosevelt. He says:—
Applying their conclusion as to general Catholic teaching, they absolutely ignore that necessary and fundamental distinction made by Catholic theologians in treating this subject of the mutual relations of church and state, the consideration, to wit, whether the state under discussion happens to be a Catholic or non-Catholic country.
For the Catholic country, this writer admits, all the Catholic teaching about the inseparableness of church and state is distinctly true. But he insists that it is beside the point for the Lutherans to class America with Catholic lands. As the United States is a non-Catholic country, the Catholic Church could not apply these doctrines here. In other words, Rome believes in the separation of church and state in all Protestant or heathen countries. She believes in the union of church and state in all countries where Catholicism is the dominant religion. She believes in the separation of church and state in this country now; but when she succeeds in making America Catholic, as she has declared her intention of doing, she will believe in the union of church and state. To unite church and state here now would be, she feels, to give an advantage to some non-Catholic “sects.” That she does not want or believe in. To unite church and state when she has made America Catholic, will, she feels, give her an advantage over all the “sects.” That is what she does want and does believe in. When Catholic priests declare their belief in a separation of church and state, it is always that kind of separation. Let not Protestants be deceived by such declarations. Rome has not changed, and will not change.