Why Then?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 21.

If it be true that "every sane and sensible man and woman in the world must hope and labor for the success of the Catholic Church in the Philippines," as the Western Watchman quotes Secretary Taft; if it be true that "that church was the prop of civilization in the archipelago, and her prosperity meant the progress of enlightenment and the advance of every civic and moral interest in the islands;" why then did not that influence work in those islands for years past for the stability of government and the tranquility of the people? Why should good Catholic Spaniards have such a hard time in controlling good Catholic Filipinos? Why then the decadent condition of Spain and Portugal, under Catholic influence and domination for centuries? Why then the French Revolution and other deplorable conditions which have existed in the family of "the eldest daughter of the church"? It would seem, wouldn't it? that centuries of Catholic influence ought to show better results for good if Catholicism is all the above says it is.