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Rome and Moral Reforms

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 31.

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Rome and Moral Reforms

By John N. Quinn

JOHN N. QUINN
RECENT utterances from Roman Catholic writers would lead one to think that Rome has ever been in the lead in reform work. The following from Cardinal Manning, himself a Romanist, is to the point:—
“And, further, all the great works of charity in England have had their beginning out of our church,—for instance, the abolition of the slave-trade and slavery, and the persevering protest of the Anti-Slavery Society. Not a Roman Catholic name, so far as I know, shared in this. France, Portugal, and Brazil have been secretly or openly slave-trading, or, even till now, slave-holding. So with the temperance movement. It was a Quaker that made Father Mathew a total abstainer. Roman Catholic Ireland, and the Roman Catholics of England, until now, have done little for temperance. The Anglican and dissenting ministers are far more numerously total abstainers than are our priests. The act of Parliament to protect animals from cruelty was carried by a non-Catholic Irishman; the antivivisection act also. Both are derided, to my knowledge, among Roman Catholics. The act to protect children from cruelty was the work of Dissenters. On these three societies there is hardly a Roman Catholic name. On the last, mine was for long the only one. So again in the uprising against the horrible depravity which destroys young girls—multitudes of ours—I was literally denounced by Roman Catholics. [And yet it is the Holy Catholic Church.] Not one came forward. If it was ill-done, why did nobody try to amend it? I might go on. There are endless men, women, and children ground down by sweaters, and driven by starvation wages upon the streets. Not one of the works on their behalf was started by us. Hardly a Roman Catholic name is to be found on their reports.”—Purcell’s “Life of Cardinal Manning,” Vol. II, page 781.
When a church emphasizes doctrines, and at the same time remains indifferent to the character of its communicants, it will be slow to urge reforms. Rome demonstrates this truth by placing catechetical instruction in the forefront, making it the standard of the orthodoxy of her members.