The Papal Outlook by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 43.

The Papal Outlook

By Editor

MEASURED by the recent immense Eucharistic Congress in Montreal, account of which was given quite fully in this journal, by the dedication of the great Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City free from debt, and by other events scarcely less notable, Roman Catholic influence in the New World can scarcely be said to be waning. An item published by us last week states that the pope looks upon America as the hope of the Papacy. The same sentiment is echoed by the Roman Catholic press.

Roman Catholics not only believe that the Roman Catholic Church is strong, vigorous, and full of winning possibilities, but that on the other hand Protestantism is weak, divided, decadent, dying, dead, and consequently complete Catholic victory of America is only a matter of time. For instance, the editor of the "Western Watchman," Dr. D. S. Phelan, had this to say in a sermon preached March 20, published in his paper of March 17, 1910:

"It is plain that any man who runs can see — non-Catholics want a church that has no God in it; and they won't have any church that has a God in it. And all the churches, except the Catholic Church, are churches that have no God in them. As the Jews said to Moses, 'We will listen to you, but we do not want God to speak to us,' so outside the Catholic Church you have mere men talking everywhere, men preaching everywhere, men teaching everywhere; and the non-Catholic world are perfectly willing to listen to men. In all the pulpits of the sects you will find men giving their views, men airing their opinions, men telling the world what they know. Men are speaking; and no voice was ever yet heard in a non-Catholic church but the voice of a man. Why will the world listen to a man and not to God?"

And this from the same journal of February 24, 1910:

"Where religion is not publicly taught and supported by the state, private morality must languish and crime must increase and grow apace. We have a great deal of religiosity still left in this country, despite all the efforts of Protestantism to eliminate it. It would be a mistake to compute the prevalence of religion outside the Catholic Church in the United States by the number of people who adhere to the different heretical denominations. There is more religion among the Protestants who belong to no church than there is among those affiliated to the different sects. But we can not expect this religiosity to last forever, deprived, as it is, of the necessary aliment of faith. Protestantism is dying out, and when it disappears there will open before the eyes of the unchurched masses of this country an awful abyss of blank infidelity."

Still another from an editorial in the "Western Watchman" entitled, "No Wonder; They Know No One There":

"Even well-informed Catholics do not understand how the very essentials of Christianity have disappeared out of the faith of Protestants. With them religion means doing good to the neighbor and fighting the Catholic Church while life in this world lasts; and as for the future, if there is a future, they hope to have the best going. . . . We would like to enlarge, rather than curtail the hopes of our separated brethren; but we must tell them the truth. Catholic theology holds out very little hope of salvation for them; and Catholic theology is the truth of God systematized and made comprehensible and consistent with reason. Poor Protestants! We should pray for them, that God may open their eyes to see His truth, and their hearts to appreciate His love."

Similar opinions of Protestants and Protestantism could be greatly multiplied from Catholic sources. Regarding Protestantism as they do, why should they not expect its speedy downfall? Why should they not expect a vigorous, united Catholicism to conquer?

The mere opinion of Roman Catholics, or their severest condemnation, would be of little account, if Protestantism had the life to resent such imputations, or the keenness to feel the force of their truthfulness, and so repent. But they do little of either. Nay, more, many count the Catholic Church as a mother or sister church, an ally against the forces of evil. One Protestant gave $5,000 toward the expenses of the Eucharistic Congress at Montreal, to be abused for his religion by Dr. Vaughan of England. A few papers protest, but these generally are of small circulation, and published by small religious bodies with limited influence. Is it true that there is not enough real Protestantism in the great Protestant bodies to protest? It certainly looks that way.

The loose "Liberalism" which possesses many is not born of conviction of truth, or of faith in God's Word, or in love of man. It is born of lack of Bible belief, and infidel indifference to things religious. In this modern "Liberalism" the old writers are no more. The story of creation is ridiculed; the fall of man is a myth; the incarnation, the resurrection, the second coming of Christ, are repudiated. The vicarious atonement and justification and regeneration by faith are unreasonable. Even the Master was mistaken. Why should those who have lost faith in all these great foundation truths of Christianity or those who are led by them, protest against the baleful errors of the Papacy? And why should not the Papacy make progress, with its hoary traditions, its religion of the human?

Yet God's Word still stands, and all the great foundation truths of Christianity, the historic truths of apostolic and partly of Reformation times, are still mighty through God to save men. Preach the Word.