Catholicity and Political Office
THE Catholic Mirror of June 3 gives much prominence to an announcement of the proposed elevation of Charles J. Bonaparte to the office of secretary of the navy. Among other statements the Mirror says:— Perhaps the strongest feature in Mr. Bonaparte is his Catholicity. He has been in the forefront of every endeavor of the Catholic Church in this country, and has been on all occasions its uncompromising champion. He is a warm personal friend of Cardinal Gibbons, and was recently elected to a position of trust and distinction in the management of the Catholic University at Washington. The fact that Mr. Bonaparte is a Catholic has no significance at all in connection with his occupancy of political office in this republic, unless there is to be some degree of connection between the two, and the latter is to be turned in some way to the benefit of the Catholic Church. There is, of course, no intimation that Mr. Bonaparte will be a Catholic in his official capacity; but the fact that stress is laid in Catholic journals upon his religious affiliation in connection with the mention of his political standing, shows how the two positions are associated in the Catholic mind, and that in its view the accession of Mr. Bonaparte to high political office is of importance chiefly because he is a leader in the Catholic Church. The union of church and state constantly shows itself as an inbred principle of the Catholic system of belief.