The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-10-24

L
most deadly blows in the name of civilization,
and in defence Of authority.
Ihe authors Of the persecuting laws Of the
present day denounoe hsr on tho ground that
Que civil allegiance meits before her teaching.
AT tont time abe was accused of being the &C.
comPlice of the civil power in enslsving man
! tect who would lord it over the civil power
| itself How has it come to pass that ACCUSE
ton has thus been exchanged for accusation 7
IL 10 because the Revelation itself has changed
its position with regard to the seat of pow or.
authority against which it formerly conspired.
| shape, more or less distinctly, the legislation
OF modern governments. But, in the hour of
its triumph, it has felt that it must silence the
Cnurch, or DO resigned to see its present ad-
Ventagee swept from il, one by one, before the
vigor OF the renewed faith of Christian nations.
Hence proceed those imperious demands, ad-
dressed to the Church, of absolute submission
70 the Will OF the State, even in what vitality
affects her. own existence. Hence, when the
Church, although ever willing to give to Cesar
what Is Csesar's, refuses to surrender to him
also that which 10 Gods, the cry of treason is
raised, and her assertion Of her own spiritual
liberty and OF the liberty Of mems souls is pro-
| nounced to be dsloyalty. From this to perse-
cutlon there Is but single step; and that step
10 secured by flooding the public mind. artfully
prepared for their reception, with trayesties of
the Syllabus and of the Vatican DEGREES. Then
the Statute Books are filed with penal laws, SO
wide and deep in their range as to render i'm
possible in this age the free exercise of the
Catholic Religion. Such is the history of the
recent iegislation in Germany. in Switzerland
legislation based on principles inevitably tend
ing to fling back society, which Christianity
had made free. under the pagan bondage of
brute force.
Against this revolutionary spirit, whether it
speaks from high places by the lips of states
men. or in the cries of a misguided mob, it is
our imperative duty, dearly beloved brethren,
to defend, by every lawful means. our rights
and liberties as Catholic citizens But we must
frame our defence in accordance with the
Justice and modsrations of the principles of the
dignatiou at the wrong done him to hurry him
into unlawful resistance is false to her teaching
equally with him who sacrifices his conscience
at the unjust bidding of those in power. The
true catholic is neither q rebel nor slave; ;
and while be cheerfully yields to authority the
obedience which is it's due he refuses with
Christian manliness to submit to claims, how
ever specious, which invade the rights of God
or of man.
Against one of these claims we desire
mere specially to warn you, dearly beloved
brethren. both because it is the envenomed root
whence the preseut persecution has issued, and
because 1t Is continually obtruded upon Catho-
lies oy the press as an undisputable proof that
the motive of the present persecution is
political, aud nowisesreligious. We allude to
the claim put forward on behalf of the State to
make laws that strike AZ the Churchs very
life, on the ground that to the State belongs
the control of the whole external order of
society. This claim, apparently so modest ex-
pands, if once admitted, without limitation,
into system of despotiBm the most crushing
1t Is such as would Justify the suppression of
the Christian Religion itself; for that religion
Is not religion of mere sentiment, but of
positive doctrines and precepts, that must alb
seiutely clothe themselves in external acts. 1t
belongs essentially to the practical order; for
| it is the religion of Redeemer, who came as q
second Adam to undo the work of the first.
Ihere remains no portion of human life which
he did not raise up, touch, cleanse, and repair
by the efficacy of his restoring grace. The
heart and the hands of man, his souls life and
ms nody's energy, his intsEian6Sod~ exterior
faculties, with their acts, have all their duties
| set forth in His law. Moreover, the second
great christian commandment absolutely i'm
poses an external action so wide as to embrace
all humanity. Is not the whole earth covered
with monuments of Catholic charity, the mag
| nlhcence and multitude of which attest that
the Christian religion is impelled, by the very
necessity OF its nature, to give to its principles
the practical expression of external acts ?
how, then, can it be that the Founder of
Christianity has given power to the State to
control tne entire series of external acts with
out which Ills religion cannot live7 And not
only to control them, bat to determine what
act belongs to religion and what to politics
And not only to determine the limits of the
religious and the civil order but to employ as
tho guiding principle of such determination,
not the eternal Interests of man, which the
modern state affects to overlook, but the ma
terlal interests of lis world, corrupted as they
that wars against the soul And, above all,
that this secular principle is to be, of prefer
ence, applied precisely to those subjects in
which the Christian conscience claims the
greatest part, such marriage, which is the
foundation of the Christian household; the
education of children, which is one of it's chief
duties; charity towards the poor; and the re-
lgious life, as well in it's inner part, which are
its vows as in it's outward maintenance and
action To admit such system as this, even
in theory, is to concede that the Christian
religion, far from being, according to the
Divine plan, the true Light of the world, has
absolutely no right to exist as q society.
And be not deceived by those who say that
this is mere exaggeration, and that no one
dreams of extending to all the details of the
Christian life the right of absolute control over
the external order of society claimed for the
civil power. We ought never forget the warn
ing of our great countrypan, Edward Burke
that doctrines, limited in their present ap
plioation, and wide in their general principles,
are never meant to be confined to what they at
first contend. theory concerning govern
ment may become as much cause of fanaticism
as dogma in religion" ("Ed- Burke's
Works. vol. ill, page 90 Bohn's Ed). And
what bat fanaticism of the darkest we prom pts
those persistent efforts, made at home as we'll as
abroad, to frame legislation 80 as to exclude
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