Note and Comment by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 23, 1902

Note and Comment

By L. A. S.

NEW HAMPSHIRE has been revising its constitution. In this document there is a recognition of the Deity and of the Protestant religion, as follows: “As morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles, will give the best and greatest security to government, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to due subjection, and as the knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through society by the institution of the public worship of the Deity and of public instruction in morality and religion, therefore to promote these important purposes, the people of this State have a right to empower, and do hereby fully empower, the legislature to authorize, from time to time, the several towns, parishes, corporate or religious societies within this State, to make adequate provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality.”

At the session of the State Constitutional Convention, December 2, at Concord, Dr. E. H. Everett, of Nashua, introduced a resolution calling for a popular vote on the question of omitting from the constitution “all reference or inference to God, Deity, or Protestant Christians,” citing in its support “the surprising forethought and the thoroughly demonstrated good judgment of the framers of the Constitution of the United States in omitting any reference to a personal God.” The resolution was voted down. The part which it proposed to eliminate from New Hampshire’s constitution has stood since 1776.

THE “Philippine National Church,” which is the name taken by an independent body of Filipino Catholics, has made a demand on Governor Taft for possession of the cathedral of Manila. The demand is made through the archbishop of the “national church,” Gregorio Aglipay. It represents that the cathedral, under the Spanish occupation, belonged to the crown of Spain, and not to the “Holy See;” and that since by the Treaty of Paris the property of the crown passed to the United States, the cathedral is the property of the Filipino people, under the care of the Civil Commission, of which Governor Taft is the head.

This demand shows upon what dangerous ground the United States government stands as the ruler of these Catholic islands. The government is asked to step into the place of Spain, and hold possession of certain property for the use of a church. Spain was united with the church, and held title to church property by virtue of this union; and it was in this way that the title to the Manila cathedral rested in the Spanish crown. By the Treaty of Paris the property of Spain in the Philippines passed to the United States, but the United States cannot assume to hold church property, as Spain did, without assuming religious prerogatives, and setting up a union of church and state. As the New York Independent observes: “It is hardly probable that any court would uphold the contention that the government of the United States also succeeded to the title of the crown of Spain to all holdings for ecclesiastical purposes as well. The very notion of our government exercising functions or asserting rights as patron of religion, under a four-century-old delegation of authority from the pope, is plainly incompatible with our separation of church.”

Governor Taft has proposed to the Vatican that the titles of churches and church property formerly vested in the Spanish government, be conferred on the bishops of each diocese, following the practice of the Catholic Church in the United States. This is not likely to please the “national church” party, which is said to be ready to make serious trouble if its demands are not respected; neither will the spectacle of the papacy disposing of the title to its property under the direction of the American government be in any way justifiable from the standpoint of American principles of government.

The Philippine government will do well if it escapes becoming entangled, and entangling the Washington government, in the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church. L. A. S.