Roman Catholics and Civil Government
By Editor
IN a sermon by the Rev. Father D. S. Phelan, of the Western Watchman (Roman Catholic), of St. Louis, in its issue of June 30, 1912, we are told the reason why the Roman Catholic Church is feared. He says:12"Why is everybody afraid of the Catholic Church? and the American people are more afraid of her than any people of the world. Why are they afraid of the Catholic Church? They know what the Catholic Church means. It means all the Catholics of the world, not of one country or two countries, but all the countries of the world; and it means more than that, it means that the Catholics of the world love the church more than anything else; that the Catholics of the world love the church more than they do their own governments, more than they do their own nation, more than they do their own people, more than they do their own fortunes, more than they do their own selves. We of the Catholic Church are ready to go to the death for the church. Under God, she is the supreme object of our worship. Tell us that we think more of the church than we do of the United States; of course we do. Tell us we are Catholics first and Americans or Englishmen afterwards; of course we are. Tell us in the conflict between the church and the civil government we take the side of the church; of course we do. Why, if the government of the United States were at war with the church we would say to-morrow, To hell with the government of the United States; and if the church and all the governments of the world were at war we would say, To hell with all the governments of the world. They say we are Catholics first and Americans decidedly afterwards. There is no doubt about it. We are Catholics first, and we love the church more than we love any and all the governments of the world; we love the church more than we love our fathers and our mothers, we love the church more than we love our own children." There is much more of the same import in this sermon. We would like to say just this, that the priest has the right idea of man's loyalty to God, but an entirely wrong conception of his church. All those sentiments would be perfectly proper if he held the church entirely separate and apart from the state. The true Christian always holds his Lord and his duty to his Lord above everything else, but those duties to his Lord do not lead him to antagonize the state, to manipulate the state, to do politics for state control. That is why men fear the Roman Catholics. It is not because of the conception of duty which the Catholic holds toward his God, or toward his church, but it is the wrong conception that the Roman Catholic has regarding his church and her relation to the state. Let him hold the same position that our blessed Lord did, "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world," and there would be no fear on any one's part toward the Roman Catholic Church. It is because she assumes to herself control of both church and state, the authority to define heresy and adjudge its punishment, that men fear. Give her the control now, and she will do as she did during the Medieval Ages. The very pivot of the thing rests in the wrong conception of the church.