p. 16 | Rome’s Benefit

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jun 21, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 25.

Rome’s Benefit

Rome's Benefit.—Rome has a prospective harvest in the recent religious liberty decree issued by the Czar of Russia. The effect is especially noticeable in Poland, as indicated by the following telegram, dated Warsaw, May 23:

Since the promulgation of the emperor's ukase concerning liberty of worship, and abolishing the religious disabilities of the Roman Catholic Church and other religious communities, 26,000 persons are reported to have left the Russian Church for the Roman Catholic Church, in the governments of Seidlie and Lubin. The censor has ordered the press not to make any reference to the subject. In one village of 680 inhabitants, 678 have changed their faith.

This indicates that the change is not so much a matter of doctrinal belief as of political prejudice. The Poles all hate Russia, of course, and leaving the Russian Church is all the means they dare use to manifest their hatred in a practical way. It is safe to say that all the changes from the Orthodox to the Roman Church will be mainly on this account, even in Russia; for the difference between the two religions is entirely a matter of detail in formalism, and not in fundamental doctrine. The despatch also states that "the authorities of the Russian Church are taking stringent measures to prevent these desertions."