Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-04-04
From the pittsburg Weekly Gazette.a
TO THE REV. DOCTOR O'CONNER. RO-
MAN CATHOLIC BISHOP ETC,

SR:-Your letter of the 10th inst in replv
TO correspondent, on the subject of Roman
Catholic church property, as held in this State
under a special law in Your favor is truly re-
markabe. And 1st, in regard to the Pope's
TEMPORAL POWER. You say, 81 will enter into
no controversy on the Pope's temporal power.
| If what has been said and written on that sub
ject within the last half century is not enough
to satisfy any enc that Ue admit 30 TEMPORAL
potrer in him outside Of the small territory kuo,pn
as the STATES Of the Church, wifi not attempt to
| supply the deficiency. admit my incompetent
cy to counteract fhe benighting influences under
,chich those labor who will insisi on the coatrarv'
We understand this language tomean,-Q.) to }
That you for yourself deny utterly the Pope's
| claim to temporal authority in any land ex-
| cept the narrow district of Italy known as the
| estates of the Church." And (2ndIy) when
| you say tre, and speak for others also,
derStand YOU TO mean that no such doctrine Of
| the Pope's temporal power is held by your fell
low Bishops, or by the Roman Catholic Church.
/ And (5dly) You have even gone further. You
are pleased TO denounce sfhoSe tUho insist on the
contrary, aS sldboring ander benighting Influences,
which you are utterly inconpetentto 10 caunteracf,'
| and therefore you Will make no such attempt
| What are we to understand by this language?
Are you at length brought to confess the ssbe-
| aighting influences" under which Pope Plus la
| bors, and under which all your Holy Fathers,
| the Popes, have labored for they have noto-
| riously insisted on the contrary. OF the facts
| you are very well aware. In what uncompro-
missing terms Gregory VII, and Boniface III,
| and Plus V, and Innocent III, and Leo y, and
Paul Y, and SiXtus V, and Plus TX himself,
'sinsisted on The contrary" cannot be unknown
| to you. Surely Sixtus is denounced by you
| as laboring under the most ssbenighting influ-
ences'' when, in his Bull against Henry, King
| of Navarro, and the Prince Of Condo, he said,
| '.The authority given to St. Peter and his sue
hx-f tlfa
King erceis all the poper Of k.ngs and princes
| it passes uncomfortable sentence on them all.
| We depriUe them ard their posterifg foreUer Of
| doninioas and Kingdoms. BY the authority of
| these presents we do abSolve and set free all
| persons, as well jointly as severally from any
| such oath, and from all allegiance whatever in
regard of dominion, fealty, and obdience; and
do charge and forbid all and every of them
that they do not dare to obey them or any of
| their admonitions, laws and commands"
What means it that from the time of the
Emperor Leo III, down to that of Henry ~ of
France, no fe,oer than sTxTT.TaREE H,SaGrcis
were communicated and depOsed by over
forty Popes ?-and this number not including
subordinate princes, royal dukes, and others
similarly treated.-(See the list in 'sBrucc'S
Free Thoughts P 50.)
To all this sad chapter in history we have
your word for 1t, that all these tyrannizing
claimants OF a temporal power outside of ''the
States OF the Cnurch'> were iItoglHG &nG2.
most ssbenighting influences"
81 grant, said King ohm of England, 'tha:
l ought to obey his Holiness In spiritual mat
ters-but that this submission should reach to
my temporal jurisdiction, and lesson my pre-
rogative, cannot allow" To which Cardin
al Pandulf, the NunciO of Innocent III, repf-
ed, ssthat this distinction with respect to his
Holiness authority was unsound, and that His
Highness ought to obey the Pope in tcnporals
as well as in spiyituaIs.' And then followed
that scene immortalized by Shakespeare.
Thou canst not, Cardinal, devise name
So slight unworthy, and ridiculous.
To charge me to an answer as me Pope. Hand
Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of Eng
Add thus much more that no Italian priest
Shall tithc or toll in our dominions.
But as we. pnder Heaven, are supreme Head,
So, under Him, that great supremacy
Where do reign, will alone uph old
Without the assistance of mortal hand
So tell the Popo-all reverence set apart
10 him aad his usurped authority
King Jokai, Act III. Scene 1.
Then followed the thunders Of exconmunica-
tion, the closing of churches refusal to bury
the dead, &c, till the frightened monarch
gave up his crown and sceptre to the Popcs
Nuncio, who kept them five days before re-
storing them in the name of the Pope!
Can there be any doubt in aohat sense this
Pope, the same who declared Magma Charta
void claimed temporal power outside Of the
States of the Church!
Says Thomas Aquinas, s:The power Of the
Pope is the top of both powers, SO that when
any one is excommunicated for apoSt3cy, his
subjects are, ipso Jdcio, freed from his domin-
ion and from his oath of allegiance"
Baronius, your standard author, adds
ssThere can be no doubt of it but that the civ
il principaity is subject to the sacerdotal."
These dignitaries and doctors of your Church,
therefore, you pronounce to have been hope
lessly under SSbenightlng Influences and you
plainly join with US in thus condemning them.
We have always regarded these influences as
beafghting whether at home or abroad-wheth-
er at Rome or in Pittsburg-and on this very
account, we have honestly and conscientious !
ly, as in duty bound, warned our fellow citi |
zens against coming under such 'benightinS in |
fiuenceS,' either in the state in the schools. |
But at length, strangely and suddenly enough, |
we find you on our side, conceding this most |
important point, allowing US your public testi- |
mony, that whoever lin your church or out of |
it) is found insisting on the temporal pouer of |
the Pope, in other lands than his own, is under |
such benighting influences You would fain, if |
possible, counteract, but cannot
What, then, is the position of the s:Roman |
Catholic Bishop of Pittsburg," in regard to |
the power claimed by the Pope? If YOU had |
simply claimed to differ from the Ultramsn |
tame faction on this point and to side with the |
Gallican party against the Popes, Councils and |
Cardinals, who have ''insisted on The confroru,''
we should have hailed il as evidence of more
liberal views in the head of this diocese than
those which Brownsen and Bakewell have pro-
mulged with the sanction of your co-prelates of
st. Louis, Baltimore and New York. But when
you have undertaken to condemn hem all as ir-
in darkness, we wonder if our SEN
ses have not deceived u.s. or whether indeed
You are getting step toward the light.
DeradVentllrp. understand