Vatican Diplomacy and the Philippines
By Editor
THE Northwestern Christian Advocate calls attention to the following recent cablegram from London:— A dispatch to the Telegraph from Rome says that the Philippine question continues to occupy a prominent place in the Vatican policy. Archbishop Guido, the apostolic delegate to the Philippines, who is now en route to Manila, was instructed prior to his departure to do everything possible to draw closer the relations between the Vatican and the United States. The idea of the Vatican is to have the negotiations between Archbishop Guido and Governor Taft for a settlement of the Philippine church question reach a point that will make it advisable for the United States to have a representative in Rome accredited, if not officially, at least, privately, to the Vatican, this being the first step toward the establishment of diplomatic relations between Washington and the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. If this plan fails, the pope, it is believed, hopes that when the negotiations at Manila are concluded, the United States will send to Rome to ratify the arrangement a personage bearing credentials as envoy extraordinary. Upon this the Advocate comments:— It has been apparent almost from the time that Governor Taft arrived in Rome for the purpose of adjusting, on a business basis, the friar question in the Philippines, that the authorities at the Vatican were determined to take advantage of the occasion to secure the recognition of the temporal sovereignty of the pope, and, if possible, secure the appointment of a permanent embassy at the Vatican. Every step in the negotiations of the friar question has clearly indicated that those negotiations were being prolonged with this object in view. We may expect before long to see the apostolic delegate in Washington endeavoring to secure recognition from the secretary of state as the accredited nuncio of the pope. The American people will awaken to this fact. The president should make it clear to the Vatican that such recommendation is contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and thus relieve his administration and the country of possible future embarrassment. We hope “the American people will awaken,” as the Advocate predicts; but the awakening should have taken place long ago. The trouble is that the people have been drifting away from gospel principles in both religious and civil affairs, and the movement has brought and is bringing them continually nearer to Rome.