The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-02-08
Know othingisn1.

Every now and then this absurd political
heresy will crop out, and sometimes in un-
expected places. Thus, in the Vicksburg
Herald OF January Goth nit, we find an
article of this nature containing, b. sides
the old, fanatical conclusions of the Know
Nothing party, some very serious misap-
prehensions or .misstatements of fact. 1t
says that of late years:
The question has gradually been looming up,
urged more especially by the Roman Catholic
Church, that some one form of religion should
be recognized by the central government.
Within the past few years claims have been
advanced by the Church of Rome, on account
of its numerical supremacy in this country,
that it should be the church recognized by the
State, and should this become n question to be
desire of the Catholic leaders it should be,
there can be little doubt, unless the other fac
tions should unite, of which past experience
could give but little hope, that they would
carry their point.
We demand some proof of these asser
tions. We know of no such proposition
having been put forth Or sustained by the
Catholic Church as that "some one form
of religion should be recognized by the
central government in this country" neither
do we believe that it has ever been pro-
posed by any Catholic of intelligence. On
the contrary we every where hear from the
leaders of opinion among Catholics, that in
a country organized as this is, such thing
ought not to be dreamed of.
AS to the other assertion, that " claims
have been advanced by the Church of
Rome, Oh account of it's numerical supre-
macy in this country, that it should be the
Church recognized by the State" it is a
proposition SO utterly without foundation
that We can only marvel at it's announce
ment. We simply defy the Herald to al
duce particle of evidence of it's truth as
applied to this country.
We quote further from the article:
When, during the darkness of the middle
ages, the civil power was in danger of becom-
ing tyranny, vast services were doubt
rendered by an institution which, ike the
church, was strong enough, by its compact or
Sapization, to resist the violence of kings and
mobiles. But the church never yet resisted
tyranny when tyranny was employed for its
own purposes.
Wrong again. The Church has never
permitted "tyranny for its own purposes
1t is easy enough to make an argument by
basing it on a sweeping statement of as
suHcu IaStSs buL we 10 takIHS Tue
above fact for granted. We deny it utterly
and call for instances. The civil power
may have sometimes induced local ecclesi-
cal authorities to second it in acts OF
tyranny, but it was always to forward its
purposes, not those of the Church.
On the contrary, the great, undying enc
my of the Church has always been the
civil power. Even where the population is
overwhelmingly Catholic, the minority al
ways manages to Cypress the Church. A
small coterie of active, scheming Jews,
Infidels and Free Masous, will generally, il
| not always, continue to rule the destinies
of a country which is heart and soul Cath
Ole. These truths are historical. 1t is,
then, either puerility or bad faith to assert
that the tendency of Catholicity is towards
political power, that it is fertile in schemes
and indefatigabe in efforts to obtain civil
supremacy even in country where, as
here, it is largely in minority.
We are happy to say that the Know.
Nothing bigetFy of the Vicksburg Herald
is not shared by the Vicksburger, OF that
city. The article above alluded, was the