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State and Church

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 19, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 38.

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State and Church

By W. W. Prescott

Reports, Notes, and Comments Pertaining to the Current History of Religious Freedom, and the Campaign “to Make America Catholic.”
Conducted by the Religious Liberty Association.
W. W. PRESCOTT - - - - SECRETARY

Activities of the Roman Hierarchy in Portugal

THE leaders of the Portuguese republic now claim to have proof that the recent effort to overthrow the new régime and to restore the monarchy has been fostered and financed by the representatives of Rome. As a result, drastic measures have been taken to suppress their activities, as is indicated by a press despatch from Lisbon, dated August 13, which runs thus:—
“The government is making wholesale war on priests, scores of whom are being put in prison daily on the accusation of complicity in monarchist plots. The prisons are so overcrowded that convents and monasteries are being turned into state penitentiaries. The government is daily discovering fresh monarchist plots. It is estimated now that four hundred priests and one hundred army officers are in prison. After the discovery of the monarchist plot at Braga, a band of one hundred fifty royalists, including twenty-six priests, fled to the woods. They were pursued by soldiers, overtaken, and after a desperate resistance surrendered, having lost many, killed and wounded. The government declares now that the Catholic clergy in Portugal is mainly responsible for the royalist movement, and intimates that no mercy will be shown to priests suspected of tendencies hostile to the government. Death or deportation will be the fate of all recalcitrant clerics. All the leading Portuguese royalists are emigrating toBrazil, and Rio Janeiro is now the headquarters of the revolutionary movement.”
That the American hierarchy is in sympathy with the priests of Portugal appears from another despatch from Lisbon, dated August 18, which follows:—
“The patriarch of Lisbon is giving marked publicity to a message he has received bearing the signatures of Cardinal Farley, archbishop of New York, and Cardinal O'Connell, archbishop of Boston. The American cardinals in the message regret the persistent attacks directed toward Catholics in Portugal, and hope for the speedy return of liberty of conscience.”
The Roman idea of “liberty of conscience” appears to be that the hierarchy should be at liberty to rule the people, and the people should be at liberty to obey. Any movement which promises real liberty to the people will be opposed, and if possible, defeated by the hierarchy. To this the history of the struggle for religious liberty bears witness.