The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-01-04
ORLEANS, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY A., 1874
Pope and Kaiser.


... Pope and Kaiser. -
From tho London Tablet.l .,as. q,
Under this heading the Saturday Retiep has
an article on tho present situation in Germany.
The writer says truly that we can almost i'm
agine ourselves to be witnessing the progress
of the great 1nvestiture controversy which
exercised so many generations of Popes and
Emperors, from the time OF Hildebrand down
wards when we read the latest ecclesiastical
news from Posen. 1t is, in fact, the same con-
the cause of conflict is the same. The COM
batants now, as then, are the two powers-the
ecclesiastical and the civil-and the one point
which is to rulef There are on earth the two
orders-the natural and the superintendent
in each is power ordained of God. God in
tens;oaIIy from the nSturs Of sitber there
need be mono. But Of the very nature of
the case there must be o subordination of
the one to the other; mere coordination
means the extinction of the supernatural
and abdication of its supremacy. The
very name of supernatural would in that case
be misnomer and an absurdity, as in
therefore. who affirm tho power of the civil
ruler to control tho ecclesiastical, by such at
irmation deny the existence of the coolest as
tical as a supernatural power. They assert its
purely natural character, and declsre that all
ecclesiastical government is but . branch Of
| the civil service. Conflicts between the Eng
Ian E9GaDll1Qm0uG ana Sp6 SEOWn arc purely
civil conflicts. The former is o civil corpora.
ton, As the latter 10 Q civil power. As Q civil
corporation the former 10 of lite nature subor-
| dinate to the latter as aciyil power. The latter
is, therefore, reasonable in controlling the
| former, and restricting and preventing any
action on its part which it deems inconsistons
| with its own rights and welfare. Were the
Establishment to assert and act upon any
principle OF supremacy, tho Grown would
reasonably regard it an iSsporivns IN impereo,
| and consider its existence and action. as such,
Ia a. s-fA arI all hat ~
| State.
Non-Catholic churches are identically Of the
same nature with the civil states in which
| they are locally situated. The Catholic Church
verse from every civil power. It can exist
| under any form Of government, and recognizes
every form-monarchical, or democratio-
Christian or pagan-so that it possesses the
finds no difficulty in obedience to the civil
ruler in all matters within his sphere, but it
moreover teaches such obedience as O religious
duty, and enforces it under religious penalties.
The Catholic Church teaches, with st. Paul,
| that damnation is the punishment of disloyalt
But disloy aity is o sin, and SO within the cate
| CORY of morals and in the sphere of morals
the Catholic Church asserts her supremacy as
in the sphers OF faith. To her it belongs to
determine what 10 disloy atty and what 10 not.
70
rehounced,i thore would be now NO Catholic
Church; and, were there no Catholic Church,
there would be no reIrsious conflicts With the
and non-Catholie corporations, which assume
themselves to be ecclesiastical, are conducted
by them on really Ultramontane principles
Catholic Church. Tho members of the free
Kirk in Scotland, arc the Scottish Oltranon.
tanes. They have blind hatred of Rome, and
that hatred blinds them to the fact that or
with her. If they approve of the German
policy they are morally cutting their OWL
testant body which, with them, holds as {
: principle the spiritual independence Of the
ecclesiastical power and for this reason: w
. NAV be one with them in our common assertion
of one principle bat they are one with thu
/ civil power, not merely in agreement on prin
ciples, but ono in the nature Of their boil
belonging to the sarne natural order. They ct.
instilctively conscious that, however mucl
. their policy and ours ought, on paper, and II
. theory, to be the same, the difference whicl
separates them from NJ 10 wider and deepe
than any difference which separates them from
I'll the civil powers with which they may have
The civil power also, for its part, 10 oonSciou
of their real oneness with itsolf, that they sr'
not dangerous and that it can afford not K
persecute. There may DO . conflict Of skir
misheO, but not . conflict which rises 20 th'
dignity Of war.
0 It is not In regard to non-CAthohe eoaiol
and their respective Governments, that Sat1r
day Reviewers OF French Journalists say h'
religious question 10 the order of the day" Al
. to the result in Germany, the Reviewer say
that, in . struggle OF this kind, "wbere brut
: force is brought to bear on moral endnrnnce
e armed with the skill derived from an experl
!. euce of centuries and the obstinate pereistencI
Of q power which boasts thar it is patient be
cause it 10 eternal" mere physical pre.snr are
o whether not it assumes he form OF dlrrc
d persecution, is very likely TO TIE worsted III IN
long run. He thinks il only rarurai to assum
that a state smsb like Prince Bismarck has no
o entered on the campaign without first conntn
{ the coat, and that he has, of course, far bette
. opportunities than any outsider of known
the precise nature and relative strength Of th
. forces with Whieh he has TO reckon. He II
marks, howVver, that statesmen are Rom'