p. 117 | MAKING HER DESOLATE

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 13, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 15.

MAKING HER DESOLATE.

In Rev. 17 : 16 we read that the ten kingdoms should hate the harlot, the papacy, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. The following facts show how this scripture is receiving its fulfillment, and this desolating process is going forward. Under the heading of “Persecution in Germany,” the Home Journal, a Roman Catholic paper, published in Detroit, Mich., says:—

“The following letter appeared in the London Times of Tuesday, Jan. 25, 1876:—

“Sir: Will you allow me to call attention to the present condition of the Catholic clergy in Germany? A committee consisting of Lord Petre, Lord Arundel, of Wardour; Lord Howard, of Glossop; Lord Emly, Monsignor Patterson, the Rev. H. J. Coleridge, Mr. T. W. Allies, Mr. John Young, Jr., Mr. J. H. Pollen, M. W. H. Lilly, and myself, have been engaged for some months in making inquiries on the subject, and we are now in a position to state the following facts:—

“1. By the law of April 22d last, an annual sum of between £135,000 and £150,000 has been withdrawn from the Catholic church of Prussia.

“2. This sum, the due payment of which had been solemnly guaranteed by concordats between the Prussian government and the holy see, was by no means a State subsidy to the Catholic church, but an allowance made in consideration of sequestrated ecclesiastical property of far greater annual value.

“3. The number of priests whose income is thus stopped, either wholly or in part, is about 10,000.

“4. The only terms on which the clergy are entitled under the law of the 22d of April to claim the resumption of the payments thus stopped are by entering into a written engagement with the government to ‘obey the laws of the State,’ among which are the ‘Falck’ laws.

“5. The Falck laws are simply incompatible with the practice of the Catholic religion, providing as they do, inter alia, that the education of the clergy shall be conducted in State universities in which anti-Christian principles are openly taught; that no disciplinary power shall be exercised in Prussia by the pope; and that bishops may be deposed by the sentence of a purely civil court, the Royal Gerichtshof. The clergy have therefore been called upon to choose between beggary and apostasy. They have chosen beggary.

“6. But this is not all. In many instances the exercise of purely spiritual functions has been punished as a criminal offense; the ordinary public worship of the church, the administration of the sacraments, even the burial of the dead have been treated as crimes. Six bishops and a very large number of priests have been deprived of their personal liberty; some are confined with, and treated as, common criminals, and thousands of the faithful are without pastors and spiritual consolation.

“7. Nor is it possible for the Catholics of Prussia to do much for the support of the impoverished clergy who as yet have not been thrown into prison. It was stated in a telegram which appeared in your columns on the 10th of May last, that orders had been sent to the district administrators, according to which collections were made, without the sanction of the governor of the province, to compensate Catholic priests for the penalties inflicted upon them, constituted offenses punishable by law.” We are in possession of evidence that in many provinces the order is being enforced, and that in the poorer parishes, especially in rural ones, the clergy are suffering the greatest privations, which their people are unable to relieve. A very high authority states that in the dioceses of Treves, Hildesheim, Limburg, Fulda and Culm it is utterly impossible for the faithful to support their priests, and any protest by the laity, through the public press or otherwise, against the policy of the government, is repressed by fine and imprisonment.

“In such circumstances it appears to us that an appeal may confidently be made on behalf of those sufferers for conscience’ sake. Acknowledged to be men of exemplary lives and entire devotion to the duties of their sacred calling—the only crime alleged against them being their refusal to submit to the dictation of the State in matters of religion—they are entitled, as it seems to us, to the respect, compassion, and active sympathy of all Englishmen.

“I am, sir, your obedient servant, “E. M. Norfolk.”