The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-08-09
cATHoIIc1sM IN GENEVA.

ceived in the usual 60 anti-Papal" style
against the Church, for the prodigiou
strides which she has of late years made ii
the stronghold of Calvinism. The statistic
establishing this fact are undeniable; an,
the feeble efforts made to qualify then
only serve to show how reckless men lie
come when power is Guiding their grasp
Anti Catholic writer's, when they wish t,
arouse political hatred against the Churcl,
accuse her of favoring monarchcal despot
ism. 1t serves the purpose of the writer il
| the Reriew to charge her with "politica
RIGHTEOUSNESS" and to show 90 how Rome ii
fitted at once to foster and to use de
PRAYED democracy" We give specimen
! Of this TRADE:
That little State has given, in many
epochs, the keynote to European opinion
If we were writing her history, we might
show how: first, there was the commercial
and municipal age, when the burghers
struggled against feudalism, and com.
PEELED the concession of civil rights; and
this was followed by the ecclesiastical age
the period of the Reformation, when Rome
ever the associate of feudal exactions, had
to fly before the strength of Calvin, as
teudalism had felt the shock Of the martyr
dOms of those noble spiI its, Berthelier and
Levericr; to this succeeded the pbilosOphc
age. Geneva, resting, was still moulding
the mind of Europe, not merely as she was
the refuge OF Voltaire, but, as she fostered
and her men of this period anticipated
Europe--themselves succeeded by this which
may be called the political epoch when
again we are interested in seeing Geneva,
upon small scale, the crucible of Europe
Romanism restored to the city-of Calvin,
dom v-rr1 Il.
others hands, and the mournfll and ex-
ceedingly probable probability, as, after
three hundred years, the bishop of the
Romish Church has been restored to &C.
neva, SO the Church of ST. Pierre may be
the Notre Dame of Geneva, and the restored
at present makes loud boast of this. Not
long since, we were favored, in the Dublin
Rerie,c, with an article on the 80 Restoration
of Catholicism to Geneva" AS Geneva has
been in the van of opinion in the ages past,
it is confidently hoped she will lead the van
here; that significantly she will illustrate
the drift and tendency of the times that
the handsome new ROmish cathedral rising
on the spot where, not long since, Rome
was regarded with hatred and horror as
the enemy of free opinion and free people,
and the steady invasion of Romanism on
the population, SO that, while the census of
1880 gave as the population of the Genevan
Canton, twenty-nine thousand seven hun
dred and sixty-four Catholics to thirty four
thousand two hundred and twelve Protest
ants, itself an amazing change, 1s60 shows
forty-two thousand and ninety mine Cath
olics to forty thousand sixty nine Protest
ants, and six hundred and sixty ght
persons who profess no form of Christianity.
Men of intelligence, with whom we have
conversed in Geneva, Indignantly affirm
that Geneva is soundly Protestant still ;
that the intelligence and respectability OF
the city are Protestant; and that it is only
the Canton, the drawing in of the villages
around, which gives the balance to Rome.
We believe it is so still something more
than universal suffrage obtains now in
Geneva. A writer says the Church in Ge-
neva has obtained so democratic a devel-
opmept, that it is, perhaps, the purest
specimen of multitudinism existing. Votes
also have been extensively manufactured,
and altogether Geneva, whatever her future
destinies may be, illustrates how Rome is
fitted at once to foster and to use de-
PRAYED democracy.