Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-05-09
THE ROMAN CHURCH IN AMERICA.

We publish elsewhere an account of the
Catholic authorities of Bavaria second the
efforts of the greatest minds in that Church
to resist the dogma of Pspal Infallibility.
The most striking fact, says Harper's
Weekly, connected with this question of
IRfallibility is, that while the Catholic
powers and leaders of their church in Eu-
rope are resisting this preposterous dogma,
The most serUiIe acQuiescence in it is
found among the Romanists of the Amer
lean Republic" Cardinal Bellarmine said
that the Pope "hath full power over the
whole iUorld, both in ecclesiastical and civI
affairs, and that to question it was detes-
table heresy." Pope Paul the second told
the ambassador of Queen Elizabeth that
England was held in fee of the Apostolic
See." Yet what do we see to-day in Eu-
rope. A Roman Catholic government
takes possession of the City of Rome
and divests the Pope of all civil functions.
The same government, composed of his
own churchmen, propose to separate en-
tirely the church and State. In Austria,
an earnest Roman Catholic country, the
Government has positively forbidden the
priests to NEEDLE with the schools, and
when the Pope protested, promptly and
rebuked him for his interference. In Ba-
varia the government sympathises with
DIR. Dollinger and refuses to allow the
publication of the Vatican decree of infal-
libility. In these countries the history,
spirit and objects of the church are known
from dear experience, and hence its pro-
posed encroachn,ents are resisted.
But if we turn to New York city, now
under the control of the most corrupt and
iRtolerant ring ever known in this coun-
try, we find its government practically
under the control of the Romish
Church. The voters in that city upon
which Hoffman, Tweed and Hall
rely are Irish Catholics. They are under
the control of the priests, and whatever is
ordered to be done, they willingly and
slavishly do. They are practically in con-
troll of the public schools Of that city. They
control indirectly the State Legislature
and the immense revenues of the city. In
appropriations made for asylums, churches
and schools, they get the lions share. What
they have secured in New York through
the connivance and aid of the Democracy,
the party with which they invariably act,
they seek to secure elsewhere. The same
contest we are now to meet they have
pressed everywhere. They demand F"
their share of public monies, to be used,
not through public agents for the public
good, but through their own priests for
their own purposes. They want to break
down our public schools, for they know
that they are the greatest barrier to
overcome. Will we allow them to do it ?
LIS there no danger7 In 1900 they were
but one-seventeenth of the population of
the United States. In 1870 they were one
sirth. They practically control New York
and are daily receiving from its Demo-
cratic Legislature large grants of the pub
lie money, and are fast growing to be the
wealthiest church in that great metropolis.
Thus on the 23rd ofApril we published an
item from the New York Tribune, that of
the $3.50, 600 appropriated by the Legisla-
ture on the 10Th, the Roman Catholics got |
ttOo-ttirds.
We do not wish to make war upon this |
denomination because of their religious |
tensts, but it is their alliance with the
Pope, and the struggle in this country for
political power that alarms us and leads
us to warn the people agains its plots and
purposes. AS against its religious doc
trines, we leave the religious world to con-
tend.