CATHOLIC PRESTIGE IN THE UNITED STATES.
By W. N. G.
“The Catholic News voices its Romish spirit in these words: ‘So great an honor has never been conferred on that historic pile, as will be conferred when there is a “Catholic altar” erected there—and there it is surely destined to be erected, and by the will, consent, and hands of the American people. The Catholic Church is to-day the balance wheel of this republic, and the day is not far distant when she will become the entire machinery of this government and perpetuate it as God’s most favorable nation.’ In the face of all the past history of Romish persecution and intolerance, the American people will surely hesitate before they intrust the entire machinery of our government into the hands of the Romish Church.”—Christian Cynosure. Yet the editor of the Cynosure is a prominent factor in the great National Reform movement which is now seeking to attach a religious amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which will practically exclude from office all excepting professed Christians, and even such of them as do not observe Sunday. And this Reform Association has expressed a willingness to “gladly join hands” with9the Catholics in the wicked scheme, “whenever they are ready to co-operate.” These reformers fairly danced with joy when Cardinal Gibbons attached his name to a petition for a national Sunday law, and immediately heralded abroad the news that 7,200,000 signatures had been secured by virtue of this one name. They also went into ecstasies when the United States Supreme Court issued its dictum that “this is a Christian nation;” yet the first stone laid in the foundation of that opinion was the fact that Christopher Columbus received his commission, under which he discovered America, from “Ferdinand and Isabella, by the grace of God King and Queen of Castile.” If this fact were in any sense relevant to the subject, if it in any manner could be counted as a factor in the establishment of the religious character of this nation, it would to that extent indicate that this is a Roman Catholic nation. This would be the logical conclusion, from the fact that Ferdinand and Isabella were intensely Catholic; so prominently and preëminently Catholic that they were entitled by the pope “The Catholics.” So zealous were they for the preëminence of the church, that by them the notorious Inquisition was established for torturing confessions from “heretics,” and by means of which many thousands of victims were put to death. Not only was the Inquisition established by Ferdinand and Isabella, but it was by their government sustained. Those who recognize the Christian nation theory, as promulgated by the Supreme Court, and on the strength of it advocate the proposed religious amendment and contingent religious legislation, can not consistently deny to the Roman Catholics all the prestige they may be disposed to claim in the “machinery of our government.” The Catholic Church may not be the “balance wheel of this republic,” but it exercises more influence in public affairs—national, state, and municipal—than any other religious organization, and has power to secure more material aid for its various enterprises than all others combined. It is also true that no influence is doing so much to place the Catholic Church in control of the “entire machinery of this government,” as the National Reform combination. Every effort that it puts forth for religious domination in civil affairs is just so much effort to establish conditions in the land which are distinctively Roman Catholic in principle. And when the time comes, as it surely will, that these conditions prevail; it will be found that experienced Rome will be far ahead of all others in the ability to take advantage of the situation. Rome is cunningly and quietly looking on, while professed Protestantism is preparing a platform upon which she may victoriously stand. The principle of church and state union, with the church in control, is Rome’s strong citadel; and this is the real ground of all the religious legislation which a professed Protestantism is so strenuously urging in the United States to-day, through the plea of “national reform,” and by the means of the much-lauded “Christian citizenship” movement. True Protestantism stands only in the absolute equality of all men, without respect to race, political opinion, or religious belief, and the absolute separation of church and state. When any Protestant, or combination of Protestants, in the name of Christianity, step off from this stand, they step onto Roman ground. W. N. G.