p. 7 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 12, 1906

Note and Comment

THE Roman Catholic Church professes to be the chiefest preserver of law and order. As an illustration of this we quote from an editorial on “Civic Reform” in a recent issue of The New World (Catholic) as follows:—

But for the reform work of the Catholic Church in this city [Chicago], the trebling of saloon licenses and the honest payment of taxes by millionaires and corporations would not suffice to secure a tithe of the policemen needed to preserve public order.

As a plain matter of fact the Roman Catholic Church is the most lawless organization in the world. It defies all law which may conflict with its own decrees, and claims authority to change even the law of God. Just lately there have been riots in the churches of France, mobs of Catholics resisting the officers of the law who were carrying out the provisions of the recent legislation separating church and state. A word from the Vatican would have put an end to these outbreaks, but the pope issued no instructions. Why?—Because this lawlessness was regarded as in the interest of the Roman Catholic Church. The loyal adherents to the Roman Catholic Church are law abiding when so directed by ecclesiastical authority, but perfectly lawless where the same authority either encourages it or winks at it. The Roman Catholic Church will preserve public order when the laws can be dictated by her authority. This is the very essence of lawlessness.