The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-07-20
I srning Star and Catholic Messenger.
J. NEW ORLEANS. SUNDAY. JULY 90. 1873.

. NEW ORLEANS. SUNDAY, JULY 90 1873. b
(Concluded fron si1tb pagel r
10 question thas, sssthe bishop says, the d
var raging il between the church and po- r
Iticai atheism. Waesserted and endeav- 1
red to show itsSR. tue revolutionary epoch d
4 ls4s, and at an earlier date but t
e could %as na very few ,. 81 or Casn
hem aiiling to accept the nnesen which
We proposed to light put the Vssfle. We I
|aw then and we. see now no ground on
which We could or eau sueceeeSxly comoat
political atheism, but thse1 the supremacy
q the spiritual order, and OF the pope as ~ It's
ear Of Christ, in the government OF human
afIalrs. So we assured those Of our Catho!
lie brethren who disapproved our course
he impfudent, as too bold and hazardous,
and as going too far. The opposition was
too strong for us, laymen a. We W. wer s,,h 70
But We retained our conviction, and the
Syllabus and the definitions of the Council
of the Vatican have only served to coafirm
Be, and to give us the right and the courage
DO renew the fight on the line which our
friends, not our enemies, induced us to sue-
zion We took up, the credit is due not to us,
10 our learning, ability, wisdom or sagacf- |
~, but to the late bishsp Of Boston, OF I'M |
nortal memory, who was our instructor ;
Ind to the learned, able, and energetic
PRIESTS who surrounded him, and who took
biples as we'll as the specific dogmas Of the
catholic faith.
q The germ of political atheism was al
READY concealed in the Four Articles OF
The Gallican clergy,-especiaaly in the de-
snial that the power of the keys extends TO
kings, save as simply private individuals.
For this withdrew their crowns, their off,
- 81 and thnrofOpa In nrinC1DI0.
me whole civil authority, the state and all
Its acts, from the supervision and authori-
|: ~ of the spiritual order, and therefore from
the sovereignty of God: which is precisely
what We understand by political athsism:
The Galliean theory, always the theory OF
4 the larger portion Of the lay community,
whether professedly Catholic. or non Cath
Ole, is based on the assumption OF an orig
inal dualism, that the natural law and the
revealed law are two distinct, coordinate,
and mutually Independent laws, founding
two distinct and mutually independent or
ders. II assumes that the state holds from
the natural law, and is supreme in the natu-
raj order, therefore in all questions touching
natural society and natural morality and
that the church holds from the revealed
law, and is supreme only In matters apper'
tanning to the revealed order, or the nys.
teries and dogmas of faith, and the sacra-
i Inents and their administration. But az
that which issnatural is prior to that which
q il spiritual, the state is prior to the church
it defines for itself and for her the extern
and limits of each, and therefore deter
Il mines the sphere Of the church's free ant
q independent action-and, in practice, re-
stricts her sphere to another world and for
q bids her to NEEDLE with the affairs of tn:
81 world, as we see in the acts of Cavour an!
u his successors in the Italian Cover nment
"a The law of nature being understood to b
q Independent Of the revealed law, it requiI
~ ed very little refinement to assert, first II
"a practice and then in theory, that the STATE
"a holding under it, Is independent of til
~ spiritual order, then not subject to the dc
|# minion Of Christ, and therefore not subjet
u to the dominion of God; which is dowr
Is right political atheism.
81 Copcede the Gallician dualism, as "
81 were required to do, and we know no I'M
"a thod by which political atheism can be Il
81 gically refuted. But the assumption
s. that dualism is the virtual denial of Chris
u ianity, not less so than the assumption
II the Magian, and Manichean dualism, +
vived in Calvinism, which makes evil poe
. tive, and therefore must assign it q positi'
a principle opposed to the principle Of Goo
81 The natural law and the revealed are di
q tinguished, we grant, yet not as two sep
81 rate and mutually Independent laws, b
81 as two parts or sections of one and Il
same divine law and hence we And in Il
ii Syllabus, as already minated, that the
tai separation of church and state, and the
mutual Independence a. coordinate POI
ers, is condemned, and can be held by
Catholic. The natural law, as far as
goes, is as strictly and as truly the law
q God as is the revealed law, which if call
the New Law, it is only in relation to t
Mosaic law, bntis really older than th
law, as st. Paul to the Galatians assul
us, for it was the law from the beginnir
in reference to which man was original
created. TIE natural law is called natnr
not because enjoined by nature and not j
mediately by God himself, for nature bel
creature and dependant cannot legisla
except by a figure of speech but becaI
it includes those prescriptions of the u
versal law of God which are cogniGable
Il natural reason. The works of God form
dialetic whole, and the natural law OF
moral law is only the initial section of
one divine law, which 6nds it's fulRlm
in regeneration and Qualification, as
showed in our article last April on s.
81 thetic Theology. We shall not find I
grand principle brought out in our te
Il books Of moral philosophy, for they tr
only of the ratinpal order, and for the m
g part treat of 1t as lift we're an independ
order without any dialetic relation to
Fl ravaAled and nalinreDesiac orders, or