p. 18 | Changed Conditions

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 20, 1912

Changed Conditions

WE have received the first number of a new publication entitled “The Church Protest,” edited by an ex-priest, who declares its purpose to be “to protest against ecclesiastical abuse, and to demand its abatement through public exposure and opinion.” The following extracts are taken from the leading article in this first issue:—

“Time there was when criticism of the Catholic Church affairs found an only too welcome column in the secular press. Bitter controversies with non-Catholics, as well as among Catholics themselves, and mutual accusations filled, day after day and for long periods of time, the pages of the local press with bitterness of feeling, often to the supreme satisfaction of a religiously antagonistic community. But the conditions have changed. The preponderance of the Catholic population in many parts, and its influence in most sections, have made the medium of public opinion and expression, both by and against Catholics, a very delicate affair. Social, political, and commercial interests have become of more importance than the cause of religious public opinion, be the cause just or unjust. This situation is both shielding the church against public criticism and giving her a great degree of immunity from investigation and arraignment of her abuses and disorders. Under this régime of both private and public protection she is free to both administer and neglect her affairs as she sees fit, and can defy both her members and the public from interference. That abuse in church affairs must flourish under these conditions is not hard to see. . . .

“It is the rule of all private organizations that their differences should be settled within the organization, rather than before the public, which can be at most disedified, if not scandalized; and the very end of the organization, its extension and efficiency, crippled and defeated. But when an organization becomes a powerful factor in the community; indeed, when it aspires to become identical with the community itself, such as the aspiration and plan of the Catholic Church is to-day, its affairs no longer remain private affairs of a contingent body; they affect the community at large, and this community obtains a corresponding right to inquire into the credentials of such an organization, and into its claims to public patronage and protection. . . .

“Shall the influence of the church be permitted to become so great, so telling upon the community, that her injured and dissentient members shall be practically at her mercy for their temporal prosperity, if not their very living and civil liberty? or shall not a sane and reasonable halt be called against her all too liable presumption and aggressiveness? The true faith is the rightful possession of every man, and its blessings and advantages dare not be publicly withdrawn from him through the aggressions of unworthy ecclesiastics, or the helplessness and incompetency of presumptuous superiors. The public has rights which the church must respect, or suffer the account she will be called upon to give.”

This is one more voice added to the many that are now protesting against the course of the Roman Catholic Church in this country.