The St. Johns herald., 1890-06-19
Catholicism and Politics.

The time is rapidly approachlnt when American Catholics will b. forced to renounce the treasonabl. teachings of the Papal hierarchy 0. suffer a loss of political privileges
 The surreptitious schemes of thf Romish Church to secure politica
 power in America will bring fortl
 but recompense of confusion. Oul people have been too long and well educated in free principles to sub init quietly to the imposition oi this foreign yoke. Neither pious professions of patriotism nor arro- gant demands for increased power and consideration can any longer influence us. The true animus and aims of this arch enemy of Ameri- can liberty are perfectly patent. Romanism is the same in America as it has been, is, and always will be, wherever it has found foothold. Romanism is only meek and sub missive when it is wholly unable to tyrannize and persecute. Asit has acted in the past, so it must act in the future. for the same hideGus spirit animates and actuates all its purposes and policies. Liberty, whether political or religious, can not thrive in the same soil with Ro- manism. If at times Romanism has seemed to support free institutions, it was only when by their assistance it hoped to secure supremacy. For years the Romish hierarchy have simulated an admiration for our American system, but their true feelings and intentions are now made manifest in their recent inn pudent demands for special politi- cal recognition. Emboldened by our past criminal indifference to their reasonable purposes, they now strike out fearlessly for the goal of their ambition. The mask has fallen from their hitherto hidden face, and its internal lineaments stand out distorted with malignant hatred for all we hold most sacred in American principles and interests. Romanism has been flirting with us as it firted with the French Republic in 1S4S, but the faded old adulteress has lost her power to charm, and so now sub stitutes threats for compliments. It is rather ridiculous when the Pope claims the right of. veto in Ameri- can legislation, which he did recent ly through his agents in Baltimore, when they most soiemnly protest ed against the right of any govern ment to affect tue interests of the Holy Father by any form of legis- lation to which his full approba- tion had not been previously gwen. When, however, the Pope and the whole Romish hierarchy openly preach and command downright re- bellion among American Catholic citizens, it becomes a matter of Se- rious significance. The simple minded men, not long since hung in Chicago for preaching anarchical doctrines, were innocent and inof, fensive as compared with this red handed "Man of Sin," who is "drunk with the blood of the saints" The Pope, in his last en- cyclical, says: "If the laws of the state command anything prejudi' cial to the church, or violate in the person of the Supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, in deed, it is a duty to resist them and a crime to obey them" We cannot forget, in this connection, how the
 
 Pope. in 1863, declared null and void the laws of New Grenada also in 1856, the laws of Mexico; as, ir 1855, he declared void the laws or Sardinia and, in the same year, the laws of Spain and Piedmont. IT all these cases, the special laws which the Pope took upon himself
 to revoke were in harmony with the