The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-06-25

standing her defeat in the Prussian war.
oiylsed ns.isns e sns saesDe for the abort pe
iod from 1889 to 1916, her people have etesC
lastly adhered to the religion Of their fore
fathers.
While the Venetian Republic was most pow
erful, and into the lap of Venice the streams Q
| commerce poured untold wealth, her Doge
her Council Of Ten, aud her people wer
staunch believers in the Catholic faith.
Holland In her greatest prosperity was non
| Catholic. Her religion remsins the same, al
though her fleets no longer command th
| ocean.
1t is, therefore, manifest that religion has bu
| little, If any, influence on the more materia
development of nations, and their rise or de
cline In the scale of power and prosperity ar
of faith.
The truth is the Catholic Church alone. with
it's great spiritual organization, can check 6
Golden Calf to be adortd and can prevent the
State, by absorbing the individual, from des
Dying civil and political liberty.
The charge against Catholics and the Cath
olic Church Is their refusal to recognize the alb
solute supremacy of the State, and their uu-
swerving adherence to the principle Of di.
yided allegiance announced by Jesus Christ
himself when he said " render unto Cesar the
things which are ssars, and unto God the
things which are Gods"
It is for the maintenance of this principle
that the Catholics of Germany for several years
have been subjected to cruel persecu ton.
Prince Bismarck, under the pretense that the
definition of Papal Infalibility had changed
the relations of Catholics to the State, caused
the enactment of the Falk legislation which
subjected the bishops and clergy of the Catho-
lilo Church in Germany to the control of the
State, in spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs and
deprived the laity of the right of receiving the
mipistratons of religion from any pastor not
approved by the State. The Pope in an ency c.
iicai letter declared that Legislation not bind.
ing on the consciences of Catholics.
The result has been, general passice resist
Cnfh0lica fhrnn uhnnt all GarrnAnv
to the execution of the May laws. The impris.
opment of archbishops, bishops, aud thousands
OF priests and laymen, the suppression of the
religious orders the confscation of their prop
erty and the expulsion of the Jesuits. SO far
from breaking down the spirit of the German
Catholics, have united them more strongly in
the determination to vindicate the divine right
of resistance to tyranny.
This divided allegiance marks the radical
difference between Christian and Pagan civil.
cation. Before Christ, there was no divided
sorbed by the State and nothing could have
wrested mankind from this bondage, but o
great spiritual organic alton such as the Cath
Ollie Church and this, we believe, is generally
by our adversares. They fail to per-
ceive, however, that there is no other iDstitu-
ton than the Catholic Church, which has the
power to prevent the State from again absorb
ing the individual and destroying all civil and
political liberty. If the Church could be
broken up into national establishments, and
the entire control of education handed over TO
the State, the bringing of all men to the ser
vile temper which Charscterzes the Russians
and nou-Catholic Prussians would be only
question of time.
1t is now we'll understood that tho European
prosecutions of the Catholic Church are not
the result of the definition of Papal Infallibil-
ity, but of the growth, influence and power Of
the Church, where she has been ailo wed to
fold and develop her doctrines and her civili-
cation, unfettered by association with the
State, and secure from interference by the civil
power.
Herr Won Kirchmann, a member of the Ger
man Parliament and of the Prusssn House of
Falk legislation, and certainly not a Catholic,
in his considerations on the Culture struggle
in Germany says: 1t is difficult to under
stand how SO experienced statesman as
Prince Bsms can ascribe to this decree of
the council such great Importance for the
states of Europe, and particularly for Prussia
aud Germany. To theorizer, sitting behind
his books, such a decree, it may be allowed,
might appear to be something portentous,
since taken from q purely theoretical stand
point, and according to the letter, the infalli
bility of the Pope in all questions of religion
and morals, gives him unlimited control over
all human action and many q Catholic, when
called upon to receive this infsllibiity part
of his faith, may have found that he was una
able to follow far but q statesman ought
to know how to distinguish, especially when
there is question of the Catholic Church, be-
tween the literal import of dogmss and their
use in practical life.
infallibility, as is we'll known has existed from
the earliest times its organ hitherto has been
the G,umenical Council, in union with the
Pope, but already before 1870 it was disputed
whether the Pope might not alone act as the
organ of in fallibility. 1t 1870 the question was
decided in favor of the Pope; bu5 we mast CON
slider the 6cumenioal Councils have, as his
tory shows, nearly always framed their de-
orees in accordance with the viewsof the court
of Rome, and this of itself proves that the
change made in 1870 is rather one of form than
of essence: Especially false is it to maintain
that by this decree complete revolution in
the constitution of the Church was made.
"To the theorizsr we might grant the alb.
stract possibility, that something of this kind
might some day or other happen; but such
probabilities of the abuse of right are found
in all the relations of public life, in the State
end its representatives, we'll as in the
Church. Even in constitutions the most care
fully drawn up, such possibilities are found in
all directions. What a statesman has to CON
slider is not mere possibilities, but the question
whether the possessor of such right is no
compelled. from the very nature of things. te
make of it only the most moderate and prudent
use. So long, therefore, IS the Pope does mo-
alter the constitution of the Church, that con
I