Protestantism: “the Mother of All Abominations,” “the Dying Wretch,” “the Religion of Dirt”
It is hardly probable that the readers of the Review are aware of the bitter spirit displayed and the abusive language employed by Roman Catholic editors in the current discussion of questions at issue between Catholics and Protestants. It seems as if some of these writers have grown so sure of the position and power of Romanism in the United States that they no longer hesitate to reveal the real spirit of the Papacy. The following extract will speak for itself:— “When Valentine issued his order against the nuns’ habit, he felt sure his action would be supported by the government, and approved by the nation at large. The old anti-Catholic prejudice was too strong, and the President would not dare challenge it. Valentine felt he was touching a responsive chord in the heart of the American people, and his ground was secure. He little dreamed that his order would be promptly suspended, and himself driven out of office in disgrace. The country did not take up his cause. The old bigotry did not respond. And the reason is the Protestantism of long ago is dead, and all forms of Protestantism are dying. The old lies do not pass current any longer. It is now good form to speak only what is good of the Catholic Church.” “But the death of prejudice against the Catholic Church means more than a popular return to a juster way of thinking and speaking. It means not only the subsidence of slander, but the death of the slanderer. Protestantism is hoist by its own petard. For four hundred years it has vilified the Catholic Church as the mother of all abominations, the scarlet woman, and the whore of Babylon. She has outlived all the vituperation; and now the slanderers are being tried on the very indictments they have so long fulminated against Rome. To-day the whole world believes that Protestantism, and not the Catholic Church, is the mother of all abominations. The scarlet woman, and the whore of Babylon. The unchurched and unsected millions who disgrace every civilized land are the waifs of the Reformation. The disrupted homes, morgues of plighted love, are the handiwork of the Reformation. The debauchery in high and low life in every land where Protestantism holds sway attests the general loosening of bonds of morality caused by the Reformation. Protestantism has become the synonym of unbridled lust, domestic infidelity, and irreligion throughout the world. Compared with England, Japan is clean. Judged on the score of honesty, the United States stands below southern Italy. In divorces and illegitimacy the Protestant peoples are first, and all the rest nowhere.” “Six months ago a nation-wide movement was inaugurated against the Catholic Church. Many men with more money than brains, and more bigotry than religion, became interested in the movement. The magnitude and cost of the anti-Catholic literature that has been scattered throughout the land must have run up into the millions. A new semi-political, semireligious party was formed, and many of the most honored names in every walk of life were found on their roster of abetters or promoters. It was confidently predicted that the triumphs of Know-nothingism and A. P. A.ism would be repeated and outstripped. Lecture courses were announced in every city from the Atlantic to the Pacific. To the astonishment of everybody and the utter dismay of the prime movers, the people were not only indifferent to the fiery appeals of the zealots, but they plainly told the foul-mouthed agitators to shut their mouths and retire to the obscurity from which they came. The movement collapsed because the people had had a surfeit of lies. The career of the Guardians of Liberty was the last militant appearance of Protestantism in this country. It was the last gasp of the dying wretch that for four centuries had filled the world with hatred and division, and filled the armies of hell with recruits. Protestantism is par excellence the religion of dirt. When it disappears, there will be a monster Augean stable to clean out; and the nations will feel relieved of a plague that threatened to last forever. The world is vile and sinful; but filthy as it is, it is far too pure for Protestantism.”—Western Watchman, Sept. 26, 1912. In the face of all the facts, it certainly requires an unusual degree of assurance for a Roman Catholic writer to assert that the woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast (Rev. 17:3), upon whose forehead was written “Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth,” is Protestantism. Moreover, it is a decided departure from Roman Catholic interpretation; for such recognized Roman Catholic theologians as Cardinal Bellarmine and Bossuet have declared that the woman represented the heathen city of Rome. This attempt to pervert the meaning of this striking prophecy by asserting that it is fulfilled in Protestantism, constitutes a challenge to us to restate the position which has been successfully maintained by Protestant interpreters for several centuries; namely, that the woman represents, not the city of Rome, but the Church of Rome. Let us accept the challenge.