The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-06-28
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY MORNING. JUNE

NEW URLEANS, SUNDAY
dent advanced to the front of the stage will
Mr.. Semmes, cheer after cheer rent the air
showing, as the Judge remarked, that the
speaker needed introduction to a Catholi.
! audience. We give, verbatim, the
! SPLENDID ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS }. sEMMEs
/ It is not my purpose, tonight, to speak o
the personal qualities of the Sovereign Pontiff
| for the civilized world with common accord
recognize his virtues and admire his character
No enemy of the church can be found who
has the hardihood to assail tho purity and
holiness Of Plus *, who in the year 1e4t
assembled the pontfical throne, and has evel
since exercised the functions of his great Office
with such frmness and justice, combined with
sweetness. as to elicit the admiration and love
Who can contemplate the royal prisoner OF
the Vatican. now entering upon the twenty.
ninth year of his reign, bowed down in years
despoiled of territories acquired by gift and
| consecrated by the prescription of a thousand
| years, weak in physical power, strong in the
| love and obedience of two hundred million
spiritual subjects, surrounded by the bayonets
of revolution, pointed at his breast by Cesar
ism to extort concessions to the State incon-
sistent with his duty to Christ, and hear him
in the mild voice of humility, but with the
with the simple words, mon possumus,
without feeling in his Utmost soul that he is
indeed the Vicar of Christ on earthf
Revolution and Cesarism have joined bands
in hostility to the Church, both actuated by the
same motve--the overthrow of Christianity by
the establishment of the anti-Christian doc
resides in the State, absolute, unlimited and
therefore the commands of the State in all
things are supreme
The individu nal, the faniiy; religion, ednca-
tion' an mans thoughts, desires, aspirations:
are TO be subjected TO tie absolute control of
the civil power.
This is ling Ahcrt of Paganism, and is
doctrine "hlch the Catholic Church can never
nineteenth Ger tnry as it has ever done before
This war should enlist the sympathy of free
men ir every land; it is the war Of liberty
against despotism
The Catholic Church has at all times incul-
GATED the general principle of obedience 10
leSt inmate authority to such an extent has
this principle been recogni Zed by her, that the
enemies of the Church have iguorantly or
maliciously assaulted us Catholics, as advocates
of absolute power. But the Church has always
maintained that if the civil power commands
som ething wreng in itself we are not bound to
obey it nor are We bound 10 obey the civil
power in matters not included within its do.
main. Hence we do not recognize the right of
the State to interfere in spiritual matters, nor
are we willing to allow the State to absorb the
individual and the family SO as to destroy their
individuality, to deprive them Of their own
sphere, and leave them only the means of act
ing as an integral part of society.
These are well established principles of free
dom, proclaimed by our American ancestors,
and they constitute part of our inheritance from
them.
The principle of the independence Sof the
spiritual power, which the church has always
maintained, has by its existence at all times
served to remind men hat there are limits to
the civil power, that there are things beyond
its province, cases in which man may say, Il
will not obey"
The history of the Papacy is but a history of
energetic struggles of the church against the
pretensions of sovereigns TO the exercise of
authority in spiritual matters.
The contests with the old emperors of Ger
many, with Louis XIV, with Napoleon l, with
Bismarck, are identical in principle; hence,
the Church, by some of its enemies, is accused
of auarchlcal tendencies, and of pervertiug the
loyalty OF her children to the Government, by
encouraging resistance to the civil power.
These accusations, on the one hand, that the
Church is hostile to liberty, because she
teaches obedience to legitimate authority
and on the other hand, that her children cannot
be good citAeus, because she teaches the
State Is not supreme in all things, AID it is
lawful to refuse obedience to the civil power in
matters beyond it's domain, is the best posi-
bic proof that she has maintained the balance
10y telling the truth TO kings aud subjects.
The doctrine that the State is not absolute,
and in matters not political, but spiritual, is
! not authorized to bind mems cOnsciences, iS
being practically tested at this day III Ger
many.
[ The pretext for the persecution of the Catbo.
lies in Germany is the decision of the Vatican
Council in regard to the iDtMlhb authority Of
tue Pope 10 matters of doctrine. No council,
no theologau, no Catholic ever doubted tue
ihfallibity of the Church. The controversy
lay with the Gailicaus, who claimed that the
DEGREES Of the Pope needed the assent of a
council or of the Church throughout the world
to acquire the character of infallibility. All
Catholics, tho Gallicans included, accord ed
infallibility to the definitions of . council
united with the Pope. The recent Council of
the Vatican was held In union with the Pope,
| and previous council was more numerous,
firm, more solemn or more ecumenical.
To reject the doctripal definition of the
Council of the Vatican, in which the Sovereign
Pontiff and the Bishops of all the world have
| agreed, would be TO reuounce the Catholic
| faith. So far IS civil governments are con-
cetned, it is immaterial to them whether infal-