p. 6 | A Cardinal’s Warning

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 20, 1906

A Cardinal’s Warning

THAT was a significant statement made by Monsignor Lecot, the cardinal archbishop of Bordeaux, in a pastoral letter before departing from Bordeaux to attend the meeting of bishops in Paris. In uttering his condemnation of the law for the separation of church and state, he stated that “the church would never use violent means to secure the triumph of its sacred cause;” “but,” said he, “let us never forget that there is nothing so inflammable as the religious sentiments of a nation. Although with nothing to excite them the masses will remain indifferent, it will take but a trifle to cause them, like a raging torrent, to sweep all before them.” Evidently the cardinal bishop does not expect his religious flock to follow the example of the early Christians who “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.” It is very probable that the cardinal bishop knows the temper of his people; and this makes one question the organizing or converting power of the religion that has been taught them. If the cardinal does not misrepresent them, and they are likely to rise and “sweep all before them,” they are hardly close followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ.