Rome and Toleration by J. Q.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1910

Rome and Toleration

By J. Q.

RECENTLY Wm. T. Russell, pastor of St. Patrick's Church (Roman Catholic), Washington, D. C., spoke before the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic organization, on “Catholic Tolerance in America.” The following citations are from the Washington Herald:—

Tolerance is the product of religious indifference. The state can not afford to permit religious liberty. Absolute religious liberty does not exist; and to legalize tolerance would mean to encourage crime.

We hear a great deal about religious tolerance, but we are only tolerant in so far as we are not interested. A person may be tolerant toward a religion, if he be not religious, or liberal toward a political party, if he be not a partizan; but he is not tolerant toward a thief, because he is interested. Intolerance means fervor and zeal. The best the state can do is to establish a limited religious liberty, but beyond a certain degree of tolerance the state can not afford to admit the doctrine. No church has been so liberal in speech, attitude, and doctrine as the American Catholic Church. It was George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, who first conceived the idea of establishing a colony where man might worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. It was his son, Cecilius Calvert, who first formed a government under which every man might worship as he chose. From Massachusetts the persecuted Puritan came to Maryland, from Pennsylvania came the Quakers, and even the Jew came from afar to find protection in Maryland, where the Catholic Church had planted the principle of religious liberty.

Rome very adroitly makes use of one of her adherents, who, had he been true to the doctrines of his church, would not have made the State of Maryland a refuge for the persecuted. Because Lord Baltimore established religious liberty in Maryland, therefore the Roman Church is the author of liberty in America! But Roger Williams, in 1631, “three years before the ships of Lord Baltimore left England,” proclaimed religious liberty, which was established in Rhode Island in 1636. By parity of reasoning, the Protestant church must be the author of liberty, as Roger Williams was a Protestant! Rome never changes; her intolerant spirit still lives, and awaits but the opportunity to manifest itself.

J. Q.