A Catholic Political Threat
By L. A. S.
The question whether the recently formed federation of American Catholics is a political body, or will use its power in the field of politics, has been answered by a leading Roman Catholic organ of this country, and the answer is in the affirmative. Such an answer was given to the question by discerning Protestants when the federation was formed; but it was strenuously asserted by Catholics connected with the movement that it had no political significance whatever, but that the federation would keep wholly out of politics, and concern itself with purely Catholic questions. This was true to the extent that there was no intention of forming a distinct Catholic political party, or an open alliance with any of the existing parties; but it did not mean that the federation would not bring pressure to bear upon one or both of the dominant political parties to secure governmental action favorable to the interests of the Roman Catholic Church. Now comes the New World (Chicago), a prominent Catholic organ, with an open threat of opposition by the federation to the administration of President Roosevelt if certain reports which it has heard prove to be correct. It says:— We have been informed on excellent authority that the Masonic sect is to be entrusted with the ceremonial rites of the laying of the corner-stone of the new Congressional building in Washington, D. C. The announcement will fall like a thunderbolt from the blue sky on the fifteen millions of American Catholics who had learned almost unanimously to look upon President Roosevelt as the fearless champion of the equal rights which the Constitution guarantees to all American citizens. The Roman Catholic Church is greatly opposed to Freemasonry, and upon this ground sets up a claim that the Masonic order is constitutionally prohibited from the supervision of the laying of a corner-stone of a government building. It is not a question of one church being favored by the government against the interests of others, but of a contest between two secret organizations; for the Catholic Church, no less than the Freemasons, is essentially a secret order. There is not an organization in the world more secret than the Jesuits, who are the most intensely Catholic of all Catholics, and exert a controlling influence in shaping the policy of the church. The different orders of monks and nuns in the church are all secret. The higher conclaves of the papacy, at which the important questions of papal policy are decided, are secret. We have nothing to say in favor of the Masonic order, or of its participation in ceremonies connected with governmental affairs; but there is nothing in the Constitution or in republican principles of government that would oblige the government to take cognizance of the controversy between this order and the Catholic Church. The granting of the proposed privilege to the Masonic order does not violate the Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state, nor that of the equal participation of all citizens in the government. To assume that the government was bound to debar the Masons from this ceremony in the interests of the Catholic Church, would be to assume a virtual alliance of the government with that church. The New World concludes its consideration of the subject by saying:— Will you, Mr. President, force the Catholics of the United States, hitherto6your most loyal comrades in every crisis of your life, into active opposition to you in the future? The federation of Catholic societies will infallibly sound the tocsin, and all their Catholic fellow citizens . . . may be trusted to actively protest against the most notorious official insult that has ever been leveled in the United States against their church. The Catholic federation will “sound the tocsin.” It will exert its political influence against the present administration if the Catholic Church is “insulted.” And this is a good illustration of what all federations, Protestant as well as Catholic, are for; they exist to exert power in the government,—to bring overwhelming pressure to bear upon legislatures, government officials, and the courts, to force the government to fight the battles of the church. To this condition of affairs we are now rapidly coming. L. A. S.