Catholicism Predominant

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 25, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 33.

Catholicism Predominant

THE German Reichstag is a conglomerate body. It has a half dozen or more parties. Sometimes these can be gotten together and do come together under strange combinations. What is called “the Center Party” is the Roman Catholic party. There have been times in the past when the government has been forced to make terms with them, but for some time they have been one of the quiet parties of the German Parliament. Yet in order to obtain support for his war measures, the Kaiser has been forced to call to his aid the Catholic Center again. These have united with the Conservatives, and the Western Watchman of July 8 declares:

“Henceforward only such laws will be passed by the Reichstag as will suit the Catholic party, and the greatest Protestant state in Europe must, willy nilly, take its orders from Rome. We would put it thus bluntly, because we would emphasize the victory the Center has won; and for the further reason that the parties which have controlled the policy of the German Empire for many years, to the exclusion of the Center, have always boasted that the country would have to be governed either by them or the Pope. We take their own estimate of the situation and state a condition in the words of their own description. The Center is again in supreme power, and with the Conservatives will rule the destinies of the German state.”

In other words, Germany has again “gone to Canossa.”