The Pope a Rebel by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1875

The Pope a Rebel

By Editor

The Pope a Rebel.—We clip the subjoined paragraph from the editorial columns of Zion's Herald. The case is well put and logical withal:

The effrontery of that man at Rome, who pretends to be superior to all governments and all law, inciting Roman Catholic citizens of whatever country to disobey such laws as displease him, i. e., inciting them to rebellion, and threatening with excommunication and damnation all who disregard his sovereign mandate, is marvelous. There is said to be some talk of his coming to America, in a certain contingency. Would he come here to be a loyal citizen? He could not, without renouncing his present pretensions, that is, denying his infallibility. Here, then, is one man in the world who cannot be a citizen or a subject. Wherever he may live, he cannot, on his theory, be amenable to the laws; he is above the laws; he can absolve others from obligation to the government; and is, of course, himself free. Suppose, then, in the event of his establishing himself in the United States, he should set himself against some particular statute, national, State, or municipal. He can instigate Roman Catholics to rally round him and sustain his disloyalty, and they would be bound to obey him rather than the government; or, as he puts it, to obey God rather than man, making himself equal with God. And here is rebellion, the logical result of popery. Mark, then, this fact, which cannot be disputed: The Pope is, ex-officio, a rebel; he cannot be anything else. Already, from Italy, he has commanded his American subjects to trample on our governmental school laws.