Drawing Closer Together
By L. A. S.
According to the Boston Transcript, “a new era has dawned in New England,” the particular feature of which is the drawing together of Protestants and Catholics. This is indicated by “the character of the receptions given to Bishop O’Connell, of Portland, Maine, and to Bishop Harkins, of Providence [R. I.], by their fellow citizens, irrespective of creed, as they have returned home from Rome the past year.” It appears that these receptions were attended by Protestants of social and political eminence, who vied with Catholics in doing honor to the papacy. The Transcript says:— For prudential, if for no higher reasons, it behooves public men in New England to-day to be respectful to the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church with its increasing numerical and social strength; but the tenor of the remarks by federal judges and State municipal officials on these occasions has been such as to show that higher motives have caused the presence on these occasions of the men of eminence among the non-Catholic laymen who have attended. Their congratulations and tributes have been too full of feeling to be perfunctory or servile in spirit. One of these occasions, a dinner given in Providence, “was notable not only for the presence of so many Protestant public officials, but also for the presence of Bishop McVickar, of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Rhode Island, concerning whom the toastmaster of the evening, Mayor Higgins, of Pawtucket, a Roman Catholic layman, said: ‘If all the potentates of the church were Harkines and McVickars, the question of the unity of Christendom would long ago have been a solved problem.’” “All the reports which come from Rome to-day from Protestant visitors6to Pius X,” observes the Transcript, “show clearly that he is welcoming Protestant scholars and editors in confidential talks. . . . Both Prof. Charles A. Briggs, of Union Seminary, New York City, and Editor McBee, of the Churchman, the leading Protestant Episcopal journal of this country, have gone on record within six months as testifying to the cordial welcome they have had as fellow Christians from the great democrat and prudent opportunist who now rules at the Vatican. Such facts as these,” says the Transcript, “are to be borne in mind by all who are sincerely concerned with the future of New England and the United States.” An argument designed to justify this coming together of Protestants and Catholics is drawn from existing social and political conditions, amid which it is discerned that “the great conserving institutions of society, the state, the church, and the family, are in peril from forces that are disintegrating, secular, and fleshly.” We are pointed to what has taken place in Europe, which “is witnessing some surprising realignments of Christians long hostile, in fighting these common enemies of faith, authority, chastity, and spiritual ideals,” and the prophecy is made that “a similar sinking of dogmatic feuds, rivalries of politics and disputes over the letter of the law and the historic accretions of a purely ecclesiastical, metaphysical interpretation of religion, in all probability must come in this country, under pressure similar to that which in Europe has made friends of those who for long have been foes.” Rome’s method of conserving the state and the family is simply to make the church supreme over both. Rome’s ideal of a state is a government subordinate to, and directed by, the church, and Rome recognizes no family relations which have arisen without her sanction. The only valid marriage is that performed by the priest; all others, in her view, are unlawful and immoral. The acceptance of Rome’s dictum on this point would at once break up and destroy every Protestant family in the land. Rome would conserve the state and family only as incidental to the perpetuating of her own rule and authority. Rome is now posing as the great conserving force in society, and leading Protestants to believe that they must join hands with her in order to withstand the forces of disintegration, surrendering for the purpose such “minor” points as those for which the Reformers contended when the separation from Rome took place. Along this line Rome sees and rejoices in prospective victory.