THE "noblest man in the world to-day" is what Bishop Muldoon of the Roman Catholic Church called President Roosevelt in a speech on "The President of the United States," delivered at the banquet of the Illinois council of the Knights of Columbus, in Chicago, January 30. So says the Chicago "Tribune." The Bishop continued:
"The United States is the strongest and most perfect of governments. As its head, he becomes the greatest power in the world. He stands for power and for authority, and there is no one who can better appreciate him than the Catholics. . . .
"There is no man who can speak better of the President of the United States than a Catholic layman or a Catholic priest. The fact that he stands for power and for authority makes this possible, for the Catholic is best able to appreciate it. He symbolizes the power of the earth.
"To-day the offering we make to him is the offering of 1,000,000 children, standing around the White House, if you will, hand in hand, ever ready to obey his will, and knowing for what he stands. To act against his will is to act against God's will. And so I encourage the Knights of Columbus to draw their swords, if need be, in defense of him, against anarchy, against dissolution.
"The Catholic Church never has had a fairer field for its work than it has here in the United States. We are not only Catholics; we are American citizens. The better citizens, the better Catholics we are.
"Who is the greatest friend the President has to-day? Is it the wealthiest men or those in power? Or is it the one that teaches that we must obey the laws of God, and the laws of God are the laws of the United States? There is no sectarianism in the laws of the country."
Now no one who knows aught of the Roman Catholic hierarchy will believe for a moment that Bishop Muldoon has abjured Romanism in the slightest degree. He still holds his allegiance to the See of Rome, first, last, and all the time. Holding this, he must be assured that President Roosevelt is working in perfect harmony with the Papacy. They are "ready to obey his will," "knowing for what he stands," and therefore knowing that he stands for the interests of the Papacy.
Bishop Muldoon and his brethren believe that God's will is expressed thru the Roman Catholic Church; that her voice is the voice of God, her law the law of God; they also believe that they KNOW "for what the President stands;" and, furthermore, the bishop declares that "to act against his [the President's] will is to act against God's will;" therefore the President of the United States in his exercise of public functions stands for Roman Catholicism. If this were not so, how could the statement be true, "The better citizens, the better Catholics we are?"
Never before until that papal opinion, voiced by Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court, in the Trinity Church Case, in 1892, and the concurrent events surrounding it, did we hear from Roman Catholic authorities any approval of this government or its federal head. It was not a government blessed of God. But since the declaration that "this is a Christian nation," by the Supreme Court, since the yielding to the clamor for religious legislation on the part of Congress, since the approval of these things by the chief magistrate at various times, and the many other acts favorable to "the church," Roman Catholics have been satisfied that America is fast swinging into line among the Catholic nations of earth.
These are items of more than passing note. Every true Protestant and patriot ought to have an appreciation of the situation, to which, sad to say, the great mass is blind. Rome should be expected to do all in her power to win and control the United States as she once controlled Spain and France and Italy. Logically, she must do this; but wo worth the day to the nation and the world when her efforts are accomplished.