The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-06-18
The Pope Veto in Politics.

This was the subject of Mr.. Cooks
last lecture this year on the Boston
platform. 1t was substantially as fol-
lows:
Vicar General Preston has said !:
"Whoever atfirms that he will take
his faith from st. Peters chair but not
his politics, is not a good Catholic. !"
The Baltimore Conference of Eaynen
adopted platform of principles: the
concluding paragraph of that astonlsh-
ing manifesto says: 1.-The absolute
freedom of,the holy See is Indispensable
to the peace of the church and the well
fare of mankind we demand that
this freedom be honored by all COVE
ments ; we pro est against the assump-
ton by any government of the right
to affect the interest or control the ac-
ton of our Holy Father by any leg
islation to which his full appreciation
has not been previously given; and
we pledge to Leo XIII. the loyal SYM
pathy and aid of all his spiritual chill
dren in vindicaling his perfect liber-
ty." This is the familiar doctrine of
the superiority of the ecclesiastical to
the civil power. 1t has not been COM
mon for this doctrine to be thrust In
the faces of free citizens by Catholic
laymen. Here is a proclamation by
American citizens that an alien power
in certain cases has right 10 exercise
q practical veto over commonwealths,
Congress, and even the President. !
Ahave no large indiscriminate charge to
Amake against the body of the Roman
SCatholic church but the clerical par
, ty obey its bishops, bishops the Pope,
and the Pope the Syllabus, of which
the central doctrine Is the superiority
of the ecclesiastical to the civil pow
er.
In reply to the question, Does the
Pope assert q veto pnwer in American
politics? ? l may say that the Sylla-
bus of 1861 contains certain PROPOSE
tions which are in favor of that doc
trine on these comment has been
made by Bismarck and Gladstone and
many others, all to the effect that they
vitiate the allegiance of Roman Cath.
olcs; they assert the veto power of
the Pope in politics. The encyclical
of 1885 is in the same strain, and the
latest encyclical is that published in
1.-THE Pilot" of February ID last.
This last says, cit is an impious deed
to transgress the laws of the church
under the preteXt of observing the
civil law" | say that is an implous
doctrine. Again it says, eff the laws
of the State are in contradiction to the
divine law" by which it means the
law of the Pope, "prejudicial to the
church, it is duty to resist them and
u crime to obey them" 1t is a politi-
cal crime to proclaim to American
Catholics doctrine as dangerous as
that. 1t adds: 1.-The church alone
has been invested with the power of
governing souls to the exclusion of
the civil authority, for it was not C;e-
sar but Peter to whom the keys OF
heaven were given. The church can
not grant its patronage or favor to
those whom it knows to be hostile to
it. Parents ought to oppose their
children attending schools where they
will imbibe the principles of ungodli-
Hess" Catlolias must be prepared
for a contest, so it says repeatedly. In
the light of this encyclical we under
stand the assertion of the Roman
Catholic laymen in Baltimore. The
Pope is given authority in matters of
faith and morals, and I make my best
bow to Cardinal Manning for being so
frank as to give us the statement.
"Politics are within the sphere Of
morals"
1t may next he asked. are there any
recent instances of the exercise of the
veto in politics? Plus TX. declared