p. 3 | The Papacy and the War by W. W. PRESCOTT

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 21, 1915

The Papacy and the War

By W. W. PRESCOTT

The Chastisement of the Nations for Their Disloyalty to the Roman Catholic Church

W. W. PRESCOTT

The great war in Europe has furnished a theme for many writers, some of whom have devoted special attention to the causes of this outbreak. Probably every one of the great nations engaged in this conflict has been made primarily responsible for it by at least one contributor to the press. Of special interest and significance, however, to those who are watching the fulfillment of prophecy, is the discussion of this question by those who interpret more or less authoritatively the Roman Catholic view of the situation. Some Protestants have charged that Rome is directly responsible for the war by making a concordat with Servia which practically made that a Roman Catholic nation. Others have professed to know that the Vatican has been for a long time stirring up Germany against England, and that the Jesuits of England had advance information of the break between that country and Germany. Of course, neither of these views is sanctioned by Rome, and a very different reason is given by her representatives for this conflict, the most terrible that history records, as will be shown by the testimony submitted herewith.

On Sunday morning, Oct. 4, 1914, Cardinal Farley preached a sermon in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City, in which he discussed the war and its causes. Having called attention to what he regarded as a happy coincidence that the President had chosen the day observed in the Roman Catholic Church as the feast of the rosary as the day of prayer for peace in Europe, he declared that the war had come because the Roman Catholic Church had been suppressed and driven out of the councils of the belligerent nations by the political leaders. He affirmed:—

“Had the people of Europe heeded the pleas of the late pontiff, had they heeded the teachings and warnings of the church, they would not now be engaged in a bloody war. But they did not heed. Almost every nation in Europe was persecuting the church, trampling on its rights, driving it into the corners of the land. And now they are paying the penalty. They are suffering for their sins against God.”

According to the report which appeared in the New York Times of October 5, “the cardinal mentioned France in particular as one of the nations that

had trampled on the rights of the church.”

The first encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, published in the Catholic Mind, Dec. 22, 1914, deals with the causes of the European war and the basis for permanent peace from the Roman Catholic standpoint. After speaking of the flock intrusted to his care,—“an immense flock, in truth, because under one aspect or another it embraces all men,”—the Pope specifies the causes of the present struggle as follows:—

“From the moment when the rules and practices of Christian wisdom ceased to be observed in states,—rules and practices which alone guarantee the stability and peace of institutions,—these states necessarily began to tremble at their foundations, and there followed such a change in ideas and customs that, if God does not soon intervene, it appears as if the dissolution of human society is at hand. The disorders that have arisen are the want of mutual love amongst men, contempt for authority, injustice in the relations between the different classes of society, and material welfare made the only object of man’s activity (as if there were not other and much more desirable blessings to be gained). These, in our opinion, are the four causes why human society is so greatly disturbed. It is necessary, then, that energy be exercised generally for the purpose of removing such disorders and restoring Christian principles, if the object is to put an end to discord and compose differences.”

After a somewhat extended discussion of these reasons in the body of his encyclical, the Pope makes direct reference to the loss of the temporal power and his desire for its restoration:—

“For a long time now, it is true, the church has not enjoyed the complete liberty of which she has need; that is, since her head, the sovereign pontiff, has been deprived of the protection which by the will of divine Providence he obtained in the course of ages to safeguard that liberty. The result of depriving him of that protection was, as was inevitable, serious anxiety amongst Catholics, for all who profess to be sons of the Roman pontiff—those who are at a distance as well as those who are near—have a perfect and undeniable right to demand that their common Father should be really free in the exercise of his apostolic ministry. Therefore, whilst most wishful that peace should be restored amongst the nations as soon as possible, we also desire that the abnormal condition in which the head of the church finds himself and which in many respects is highly injurious to the peace of peoples, should cease. We accordingly renew on the same grounds the protests on this subject which our predecessors made on several occasions, moved, not by human considerations, but by the sacred sense of duty,—the duty, namely, of defending the rights and dignity of the apostolic see.”

The Roman Catholic press has been effusive in its praise of this encyclical, heartily commending it for its alleged keen analysis of existing conditions, and agreeing with it in the demand for the restoration of the temporal power. One writer in America (January 2) interprets in a very definite way the Pope’s reference to the nonobservance by various states of “the rules and practices of Christian wisdom.” Germany, France, England, Russia, Austria, and even most Catholic Belgium, have in his view either actively hindered and persecuted the Roman Catholic Church, or have failed to be aggressively loyal to her and her teachings. From the Roman Catholic point of view this is the same as being disloyal to God, and this has provoked him to judgment. The nations are, therefore, suffering a just retribution for their neglect of the one true religion, and for their failure to support the one true church, as was done in the good old days before the Reformation of the sixteenth century, when the church and the state were regarded as simply two aspects of the same power.

In order to cure the disorders which now afflict society and which are the direct cause of the present war, the Pope declares that “it is necessary, then, that energy be exercised generally for the purpose of removing such disorders and restoring Christian principles.” This same writer in America interprets this statement to mean that, “briefly, they [men] must come back to God, renew all things in Christ, and bring back Christ to school and home and cabinet.”

As understood by Roman Catholics, this means that the people of Europe must return to the one true church, that they must adopt anew “the rules and practices of Christian wisdom” as taught by that church, and that the influence of the Roman Catholic Church must be restored in the educational system, the home life, and the diplomacy of the nations.

In further explanation of the present world-wide calamity, this writer charges that the nations have not only disregarded one another’s rights, but that they have robbed the Pope of his temporal power. To quote his own words:—

“The nations not only robbed one another, but, by act or connivance, they robbed the vicar of Christ of the civil independence which in Christian days rulers and peoples had given him for the protection of the church’s liberties and their own. They must give it back. They deemed him so negligible that they found him worthy of no seat in their great Peace Tribunal of The Hague. They now see the result; and tribulation is bringing them to see that the vicar of the Prince of Peace, who counts his spiritual subjects in all lands, is the only arbiter who can impartially adjudicate the conflicts and command the confidence of peoples. It is the right and, at this time, the duty of Catholics to insist that the Holy Father shall be again made independent of secular power, and thus free to use efficiently the power God gave him for the peace of the world.”

By the Roman Catholic mind, the European situation is analyzed about like this: The Roman Catholic Church is the only church of God on earth; the Pope is the personal representative of Christ, with all the powers and prerogatives of the Son of God himself; the enemies of the church are the enemies of God; those who interfere in any way with the Pope’s administration of the affairs of the church are working against the interests of the kingdom of God on earth. In olden time the prophets denounced those heathen nations who made war upon God’s own people, and foretold the downfall of the nations which persisted in their rebellious course. In the same way and for the same reason, the defenders of Rome’s claims and interests see in this great war the chastisement of the nations because of their attitude of opposition against the Roman Catholic Church, the pretended kingdom of God on earth. This course of reasoning naturally leads up to the assertions made in the Pope’s encyclical, and to the Roman Catholic interpretation of the troubles in Europe.

As a further help in understanding this matter, we shall refer to utterances made by a representative Roman Catholic before the loss of the temporal power. In a book entitled ‘The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ,’ by Henry Edward Manning, afterward Cardinal Manning, published in 1862, we find the following:—

“If it be true that the temporal power of the popes has been a providential instrument whereby God has created Christian Europe, then certainly the destruction of that providential instrument must bring with it the dissolution of the work, which has not only been created, but supported and sustained by it to this day.”—Page 54.

“They who lend a hand to this work of destruction, they who speak a word for it, they who sympathize with it, are all against God, and will purchase to themselves judgment according to their proportion.”—Page 76.

This reasoning is simple and clear. According to it the temporal power of the popes has been God’s instrument in developing and maintaining Christianity in Europe; and when this agency is suppressed, the whole Christian structure will fall to pieces, and there will be a return to ancient barbarism. All those nations which are either actively or passively concerned in this interference with God’s method of maintaining Christianity in the earth, will bring upon themselves the wrath of God in proportion to their direct responsibility for interfering with his plans.

Looking at the situation today, Roman Catholics see that the nations of Europe have consented to Italy’s act of despoilation in 1870. They see that a war, unparalleled in history, has broken out, involving practically all these nations. From the Roman Catholic standpoint the conclusion seems inevitable. God is punishing these nations for their disloyalty to his church and the vicar of his Son. His wrath will be appeased only

by the repentance of the nations, their return to the one true fold, and their submission to him who is declared to be “another God on earth.” With great unanimity, the Roman Catholic papers of America have adopted these views, and are educating the Roman Catholic laity to look at the matter in the same light.

The significance of this situation should not be overlooked by students of prophecy. When peace comes to Europe, it may mean some changes in the boundaries of the different nations, but its most important effect upon future history will be the increase of power which comes to the Papacy. It is this phase of the great struggle which ought to command the serious attention of a people who are looking for the restoration of the papal power as one of the signs that the last generation is here.

Washington, D. C.

(To be concluded)