Catholics and Sunday Enforcement
AMONG five great evils enumerated by Cardinal Gibbons as the chief ones by which society is at present confronted, he mentions “the desecration of the Christian sabbath, which tends to obliterate in our adult population the salutary fear of God and the homage we owe him.” From this and similar statements which come occasionally from leading papal spokesmen, it is evident that Catholics will be ready to join hands with Protestants in the movement to enforce Sunday observance, when the opportune moment arrives for such a union of the forces supporting that institution. There is no visible means other than legislation by which it is proposed to arrest the tide of Sunday desecration; and when Catholics speak of the duty of checking this alleged evil, they have reference to the use of the civil power to enforce upon the people this institution of the papal church.