p. 8 | Romanism in the Protestant Press by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 12, 1912

Romanism in the Protestant Press

By Editor

THE persistence with which the Roman Catholic Church is seeking to advance its own interests, and its attempted encroachments upon the liberties of a free people, continue to be the subject of much discussion in the leading Protestant journals. We present herewith

several clippings which we have made during the last few days from some of the church journals that have come to our office.

Says the Lutheran Observer in its issue of Aug. 30, 1912:—

It can not fail to be recognized that at the present time there is an anti-Catholic agitation in this country of more general and determined character than has existed since the days of the Know-nothings. It can not be attributed merely to the avowed anti-Catholic journals, and its present proportions preclude the idea that it is all the result of frightened bigotry. Sober journals whose spirit is the furthest removed from the sensational, are discussing the situation as holding a real menace, demanding recognition and careful attention. If there is no organized and matured plan on the part of the Roman Church to secure unusual rights, if not supremacy in the United States, the circumstantial evidence to that effect is such as would convict a defendant in any court in the world, and the utterances of her own papers would confirm the verdict. Catholics themselves are responsible for the drawing of religious lines by their insistence on the recognition of Catholics as such. The pretensions of the new-made cardinals and the flaunting by them of claims never ventured by Cardinal Gibbons, have had a tremendous effect. The claims of the Indian schools, and conducting them as though still under church control; the exploiting of the Catholic vote, and the pushing forward of Catholics politically as Catholics,—all have their effect. The placing of an Italian plenipotentiary of the Pope in Washington has accentuated the impression. If Rome has not the intentions credited to her, she has herself to blame for the belief that she has. If the intentions are real, the present agitation is essential to the future well-being of the nation. It is not bigotry, but the instinct of self-preservation. It is not fighting a man because of his religion, but a powerful organized body.

The editor of the Christian Standard (Cincinnati, Ohio), in his paper of Aug. 31, 1912, makes the following sweeping charges with reference to the Papacy and the influence of its work:—

Those who have even a slight acquaintance with history know the bloody record of the Papacy in its century-long struggle to crush out every vestige of civil and religious liberty. In every country where it has had the power, it has resorted to the most cruel and diabolic means to destroy these liberties, which we Americans regard as our chief national glory. To this end it has not only usurped political authority, corrupted governments, and destroyed civil institutions, but, knowing instinctively that intelligence is its deadliest peril, it has used every means to keep the people in ignorance and superstition. By keeping the people in dense ignorance, the Papacy has been able the more readily to play upon their superstitious fears, and extort from them the huge sums required for the enrichment of the clergy, and for filling the Vatican treasury. Wherever it has been dominant, it has worked so successfully upon these fears, and so multiplied terrors for the subordinate, that it has reduced the people

to extreme and pitiable poverty. In lands where the Papacy has long had sway, illiteracy, superstition, and poverty are the common lot.

After speaking of the efforts of the papal church to gain for its people recognition in the United States, and of the manner in which the government officials have given their influence to this propaganda, citing particularly the Thanksgiving service held two years ago in St. Patrick's Church, in Washington, and the field mass attended by leading government officials, the editor continues:—

Many other instances might be given of impudent meddling with our public affairs, and undue influence exerted upon our public servants, by this hoary nightmare of nations, the Papacy. These, coupled with the occasional boasts of some who have high seats in the hierarchical synagogue, that Roman Catholics will soon control America, forces upon patriotic Americans an exhaustive inquiry as to what manner of thing it is. Will it undermine our free institutions; subordinate the state to the church; forbid all worship except the Roman Catholic; destroy our public schools; and hand us over to those tax-gatherers of a foreign power, the priests? It has done these things wholesale in other lands and in past times, but is there not something in our American atmosphere which can change the leopard's spots?

The editor feels that these efforts on the part of Rome are not being sensed by the people of this country, and proposes to undertake the work of their enlightenment:—

Many of our citizens, blinded by partizanship, or drowsy with the narcotic of indifference to public affairs, idiotically (the Greeks called one who took no interest in public affairs an idiot) conclude that this particular man-eater leopard has changed his spots. Many look with imperfect vision and ask, "Is there really a Roman Catholic peril?" For the clearing of the vision of such, we propose to look into the history of this ancient institution and discover the principles that control it. We shall examine the Papacy during the last hundred years, and see if it has changed in essence or aims since the middle ages. In our next we shall consider the rise and progress of the Jesuit order.

The Northwestern Christian Advocate of Aug. 21, 1912, contains a report from the Rev. J. T. Wardle Stafford, D. C., British fraternal delegate, of his visit to the American Wesleyan Methodist Conference. Reviewing some of the conditions existing in America and the influences to be observed in the religious life of the people, he says regarding the Roman Catholic Church:—

No man can be a good Romanist and at the same time a friend of the liberties of the people. The center of all interest for the honest Catholic is neither Washington nor Westminster, but Rome. Romanism and republicanism are at opposite ends of the pole. The Roman prelate claims not merely the lordship of the

church, but the lordship of every government on the face of the earth. An infallible pope can have no sympathy with the audacious dreams of a young nation. The prophets of the States are wide awake to the insidious efforts of the Roman Church to control the politics of America. They know that such control would spell the death of American patriotism. Nothing has done so much to weaken the influence of President Taft, himself a good man and in faith a Unitarian, as his constant flirting with Rome.

Says the United Presbyterian of July 4, 1912:—

We are not indifferent to the significance of certain facts and tendencies. The hostility of the Roman Catholic Church to our public-school system is all too apparent, while its clergy have not the least hesitation in declaring that their parochial schools should be supported by the state. The Roman hierarchy, heedless of the stern lessons of history, seems unable to resist the temptation to seek after political power. The recent action of Cardinal O'Connell in claiming precedence over Governor Foss, and the comments of the Catholic press thereon, would seem to indicate that there is concerted effort to gain an official governmental recognition of certain prelates, and to establish the Roman Church in a position of official superiority.

We have fairly well-defined ideas as to what this venerable ecclesiastical imperium might do in the United States if it had the power.

The Christian Standard of June 22, 1912, quoting the Catholic Telegraph, in which Speaker Clark and Cardinal Gibbons were referred to as "America's two grand old men," says:—

Why this strange classification? Has it occurred to any one to refer to Bishop J. M. Buckley and Mr. Cannon as "two grand old men"? Would it occur to any one to make such a comparison? Only a politician working for political support would classify a prelate with a statesman as is here done. The reference would jingle pleasingly to Catholics; evidence the fact that the Telegraph seizes upon it as a sweet morsel at once. This is the very thing Catholics desire, the association of their dignitaries with officers of state. In a little while it will be taken as a matter of course, by blind Americans; there will then be little distinction between officers of state and officers of the church. Then presently the two can be merged, as has once been done.