The Catholic Federation
By Charles M. Snow
ONE of the most important features of the convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies at Indianapolis, Ind., was the annual report of the national secretary, Mr. Anthony Matre. It revealed the growth of the organization as well as the methods by which it accomplishes its purpose. The Growth of the Federation.
The report showed that the federation had grown from 1,500,000 to nearly 2,000,000 during the past year; and it is confidently expected that very soon, thru the pressure that the priesthood can bring to bear, they will have enrolled the entire membership of all the various Catholic societies in the United States. Nor do they expect to cease with that accomplishment. Already the federation idea has taken root in the Old World, and we may expect to see a similarly rapid growth along these lines in the Eastern hemisphere. The actual work of organization has already begun in England, Spain, and India; and with the prestige given the movement by the pope at this convention, we can foresee the rapid evolution of a mighty world federation of Catholic societies. A Most Important Catholic Undertaking.
These societies are not federating for sentiment. Archbishop Chatard declared at the first mass meeting of the convention that "one of the most important undertakings of the Catholic Church at the present time is the cementing of Catholic bodies into one organization to carry out the purposes of the church." He declared, further, that "the underlying idea of federation was to bring the various Catholic forces of this country and of the world into unity for action of a more general nature than any of the various societies could accomplish by themselves." The various Catholic societies, taken individually, can not exert any strong or commanding influence over the legislation of the country, nor help the church materially in enforcing its demands; but that they can do all this when cemented into one organization, directed by one mind for the accomplishment of any set purpose, was well illustrated in more than one particular in Mr. Matre's report. The Federation and Sunday Work.
A matter in point was the demand of the federation that Sunday work cease at the various slaughtering houses in the city of New York, in order that the Catholic laborers there might attend church on that day. The demand was made direct to Secretary Wilson of the Agricultural Department at Washington. In answer to the demand, the Secretary of Agriculture replied that he had taken up the matter, and further that he was "in sympathy with the effort to enforce the observance of Sunday by the establishments, and to secure the day as a day of rest for the employees." The Federation Influences the Senate.
The federation took special pride in the work which it was able to accomplish in connection with the Kongo affair. Congress had been besieged with petitions asking that this government take some action to assist in bringing to an end the terrible atrocities practised upon the Kongo natives by those in the employ of the Belgian Government. So insistent had these petitions become that the Senate seriously contemplated action. But the American Federation of Catholic Societies threw the weight of its numbers and influence into the balances, and there was an immediate cessation of activity in the Senate regarding intervention in the Kongo. How was it that one organization could step in between the Senate of the United States and its purpose, and say to that august body, "Hold," and see its demand complied with? It is a new thing in the history of the United States that this chosen body should "halt" and "right-about-face" at the word of one organization. Had some powerful nation ordered our government to make such a metamorphosis, the government would have set its teeth and plunged ahead. When the American Federation of Catholic Societies speaks, the government gives respectful attention and turns from its purpose. Mr. Matre explained in his report how this was brought about. A strong letter of protest against American intervention in the Kongo was sent to President Roosevelt and the fifteen senators composing the Foreign Relations Committee. That letter informed these gentlemen of the size of the organization, of its belief in the "good faith of the King of Belgium," characterized the charges of cruelty as unfounded and inspired by religious and commercial jealousy, and asked that this government "refrain from any acts of intervention in the Kongo." Lest this protest should not accomplish the desired result, the machinery of the federation was put at work in all parts of the country. Letters were at once sent to the secretaries of all the societies in the federation and to influential individuals, requesting them to send telegrams and letters of protest to the United States officials, especially to the senators of their respective States. The plan worked. Telegrams and letters came pouring into Washington from nearly every State in the union, and our government officials, even to the highest, at once took note of the power of that organization that had set its hand to the work of opposing the purpose of this government. Concerning this matter, the Chicago "Tribune" said: The Protestants Failed: the Federation Did It.
"Flooded with appeals of Protestant missionaries urging the United States to intervene in the Kongo matter, the Senate at first favored intervention. Then Catholic protests came pouring in, and the Senate paused." The Senate still pauses, and there is no indication that it will ever muster courage to look toward Kongo again, much less raise a protesting voice against the terribly cruel work which the agents of the Belgian king are carrying on there, protected by the powerful influence of a great religious body. The reason for this Catholic support of the Belgian administration is not difficult to determine. Catholic missionaries have been granted the utmost freedom to pursue their work, and have been granted concessions which Protestant missionaries are not allowed. A change in the administration would be likely to equalize the situation there in this respect, and this would be regarded as a calamity by the Catholic Church. Because of that danger, the whole machinery of the federated Catholic societies of the United States is set in motion, and the great men from the President down take careful note of a threatened tempest, and steer the ship of state out of its purposed course. Succeeding in a Great Nation: Why Not Take the World?
The federated Catholic societies of one of the greatest nations in the world have asserted their demands and declared their power, and that nation has bowed in submission. Now they will seek "other worlds to conquer" by the same means, for the same purpose. What they are able to do in this nation, they will be able to do in other nations as well, especially in those where the proportion of Catholics to the whole population is larger than here. It is their striking success here that has prompted them to begin operations to the same end in other countries. Thus when any move is made in any part of the world looking toward the progress of evangelical Christianity, we shall soon have the federated societies of the Catholic Church in all the world bringing their united power to bear against it. Then we shall see more than influential organizations and influential men demanding of a nation that it do or refrain from doing a certain thing. We shall see influential nations uniting in their demand upon one nation that it change its course into harmony with the wishes and purposes of the Catholic Church. With the Catholic societies of all the nations federated, that would be a no more astonishing procedure than what we have already witnessed, and a procedure no more difficult to bring about. The federated societies of the10individual nations have only to bring pressure to bear upon their respective governments, and the thing is done. The World under a Single Head; the Prophecy.
That is the point toward which the American Federation of Catholic Societies is earnestly laboring; and when accomplished, it places the legislation of the world under the control of one head; and the official acts of rulers will harmonize with the wishes of that head. Then, whatever the law desired by that head, it will be enacted. It will mean trouble; it may mean civil wars in various countries; but out of it will come the unity of the world under the headship of the Vatican. See Rev. 13:7, 8. Then will come the decree "that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Rev. 13:15. In the work already done and now being done by this federation, we see the beginning of the fulfilment of the eleventh and twelfth verses of Revelation 13. This federation has already begun the work of molding this nation into that image.