The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-07-20
From Brownson's Review for July.

Resistance to law 10 tho order Of the day /;
revolution 10 triumphant; and under the
guise Of progress, infdelity and disobedi-
enee is the religion of the hour. Liberty,
which now means license, disorder, rob:
truth are forgotten. The Holy Father is q
prisoner, the Church prosecuted and robbed,
and her authority defed. Society is fast
accepting the old Pagan doctrine, that the
Individual is for the state, not the state for
Of zeal for education, unless we make
bold stand for our rights, we shall soon see
the child taken from the parent, and COM
pulsory education inaugurated. Few be-
lieve and fewer still care for religion. The
Church cries aloud her warning note, but
nobody listens; whilst the devil goes on SOW
ing the seeds OF ruin. We must be up and
doing, and shoulder to shoulder, meet the
enemy. Never was there time when Ca
tholics needed unity more, or when they
had more dangerous enemy to meet; dan
gerous, because he comes as an angel Of
light.
'If we will hold our own amid this uni
versal war that is going on, we must be
more united. There must be less petty
jealousies amongst MS, nationaliGes must
be made subordinate TO religion, and we
n1ss learn that We are Catholics frat, and
IN conflict Nth tho St9te. yet 1t teaches US
that God Is above man and tho Church above
the State. To the Church as the represen-
caeive OF God, We owe o spiritual allegi-
ance, yet, in all that does not conflict with
the law of God, We owe On unqualified obe-
dienee to the State.
"The question of the day is NO longer
Catholicity and Protestantism bat Catho-
lictty and nationalism or infdelity, which,
under the cry Of education, carries on the
war: Educate the man and you make him
good, say modern reformers. True; but
hny Cd 80 k~wN ovS;,. T.,
man there are two powers to direct; the
mind and the heart. Forgetting that il
you educate the head and forget the heart,
you have but half performed your task,
and that, without religion, man cannot be
moral. The modern would be educators
leave them without the moral training ne
cesaary t. use It. Smartness to them 10
everything; goodness, nothing. When
you have developed the intellectual powers,
you have put into the hands of man dan
gerous weapon, much like locomotive
on railroad. The machinery is powerful,
the boiler lie strong, and the steam at the
proper guage, and men exclaim, what
power This is what the education of the
intellect gives-power; power for evil,
power for good power to destroy, as we'll
Us to save. Like the locomotive that &C.
MUS has created, education gives power,
but cannot give skill to guide, any more
than genius that may create, can, without
experience, guide the power it has created.
Who would trust himself aboard a railroad
car without skilled hand to guide the
power that is to draw itf yet, to guide the
human mind, the most powerful and intri-
cate of all machines, men insist that skill
is not needed, and that this machine can be
run without guide.
"Now what is this guideS Religion, says
the Catholic Church; religion, says expo
rience; and religion, begin to say the
wiser men of the age. Tho Greeks aud
Romans We're highly educated, but they
were not moral: what of morality they
had, came from their religion. Pagan
though they were, they made religion part
of their education /; and the better to i'm .
press the Laws of their gods upon the citi-
zen, they united priest and emperor in the
Cesar.
"At present We have nothing to hope
from the State. Yet we must not therefore
cease to insist upon our rights, and, if
needs be, at the polls demand them. Were
Catholics alive and united on the school
question: were they to demand from every
man who asks their vote, pledge that he
would vote for our just share of the school
fund, legislators would learn to respect the
Catholic vote, and give us our just rights.
Catholics are too timid; they seem to go
upon the principle that, if they are toll
Grated, theyAare doing we'll. This is a
mistake; If we let our rights go by default,
we should not wonder If we lose them. We
ent q holder front to our enemies. 1t is
unjust to 90 organize the public schools
that we cannot in conscience send our chill
dren to them, and then tax us for their sup
port. AS well create State Church, and
t0x us for its support"
There is nothing novel or in itself start
ling in the assertion that "God is above
man and tho church above the stats,"
bue Ae requires some courage on the part
of g Catholic bishop in these times to
proclaim it for it is precisely what the
age denies, and, what exposes the church |
just now 20 . bitter persecution throughout
Europe, and excite6 no little hostility to
her even In our .ewn boasted land of equal
rights and religious liberty. The great
controversy Of the day turns on this. very
point. Gallicaps, Old Catholics, Liberal |
Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Infidels, all |
unite in moro or less distinctly declaring,
at least by implication, that in the govern
ment Of this world God 10 not above mAu,
nor tho church above the state. All those
Catholics, and We meet them everywhere,
who are accustomed to say, "My religion
las nothing to do with my politics re-