p. 8 | Are They True Sentiments ? by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1911

Are They True Sentiments ?

By F. M. W.

UNDER the heading, “True Sentiments From Cardinal Gibbons,” the Christian Advocate of August 3 quotes these words from a recent speech of this prelate of the Roman Church:—

Thank God, we live in a country where there is liberty without the toleration of license, and authority without the toleration of despotism, and where the government holds over us the ægis of its protection without interfering with the individual rights of conscience. We have here no state church, but there is no antagonism between church and state. On the contrary, our civil and spiritual rulers mutually aid and support one another.

It is not for us to question the motives or purposes of any man. Possibly Cardinal Gibbons may believe the sentiments expressed above. We sincerely hope that he does. We know this, however, that these sentiments do not represent the real faith or purpose of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical letter of Aug. 15, 1854, said:—

The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings, in defense of liberty of conscience are most pestilential error—the pest, of all others, most dreaded in the state.

Bishop O’Connor, another prelate of that church states:—

Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.

This latter statement correctly represents the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward all who differ from her faith and practise. All the history of the past demonstrates that the Roman Church has been tolerant only where she is powerless. She has rejoiced in the non-interference of the governments of earth with the individual rights of conscience whenever she herself has not been in a position to control the government. When, however, she has occupied such a position, she has never been slow to exercise her authority to the fullest extent, and at such times she has counted it a lawful prerogative of government to invade the rights of individual conscience and demand allegiance from its subjects to her own dogmas and doctrines. In America she is quietly biding her time until she can do for the United States what she has done for the nations of the Old World. The Roman Church has met with no change of heart in her attitude toward the governments of earth. It is to be deplored that so many professed Protestants are unable to see, through the thin guise of her smiles, the sinister and far-reaching motives with which she is working to accomplish her ends.

F. M. W.