The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-21
An Interesting Discussion.

The Pittsburg Dispatch of recent
date printed two sides of an interesting
discussion. 1t permitted w. j. II,
Traynor, president of the American
Protective association, to explain Why
that organization is waging its pres
ent warfare upon the Catholic church;
and in the same issue it printed a
learned refutation from the pen of
Bishop Keane president of the Catho-
lie University of America. Both ar
ticles were very long; too long to be
more than cursorily reviewed. Presi-
dent Traynor charged Catholicism
with employing it's spiritual power and
ecclesiastical organization to seize the
reins Of political government in this
country in proof of which assertion
he claims that from 60 to 90 per cent.
of our public Office holders and their
employees are Catholics. He gave the
following summary of the American
Protective associations principles
First-The absolute, perpetual separa-
tion of church and state, and the elimnd-
ton of all religious elements from poll
tics.
Second--Undivided fealty to the Re
public and the acknowledgment of the
right OF the state to determine the scope
of its own jurisdiction.
Third-The maintenance of free, non
sectarian system of education.
Fourth-The prohibition of any govern
ment grant or special privilege to any sec
tartan body whatsoever.
Fifth-The publication of the ballot, the
establishment of franchise with an edu-
catonal qualification, and the suspension
of immigration for more or less pro-
tIacted term, its resumption to be based
on guarantees of extended residence in
the country, with an added educational
qualification.
Sixth-The taxation of all property
| equally, public property excepted.
Seventh-The prohibition of that penal
system which permits convict manufac-
| lures to be brought into competition with
| free labor.
Eighth-The subjecting to public inspec
| ton Of all private institutions where per-
sons of either sex are secluded with or
against their consent.
Replying to these charges, Bishop
Keane cites the unfairness of blaming
| the Catholic church for occasional
perversions of it's teaching by men
falsely claiming to be its spokesmen.
| Fair minded men," he truly observes,
| "must judge the church, not by what
some Catholics do in spite of their
| religion, but by what those Catholics
do who are recognized as typical
| ohurchmen in conformity with the
principles and teachings Of their re-
| ligion." He reviews the church's IA
| miliar position on the school question,
explaining that Catholics regard a
proper teaching Of mans duty to God
| as even more essential because resting
at the basis Of all civilization, than a
proper teaching of mans duty to man.
| With reference to the political portion
Of President Traynor's accusations,
Bishop Keane says:
| The Catholic church has no political
purposes. 1t neither countenances nor
wishes for any political position, distlnc-
ton or influence. There is absolutely no
relation between the church and any polit-
| ical party. Prominent Catholics are DEM
ocrats and prominent Catholics are Re-
publicans, simply according to the view
they may take of the great centripetal
and centrifugal tendencies, in which con-
sist the harmony of our governmental
system. Neither in the private recognl.
ton of their church nor in the public ey-
ample of its Christian citizenship are
they either better or worse Catholics for
the views which they hold concerning
these great principles and tendencies. of
our commonwealth. Men are good Cath
olics II they hold and follow the princi-
| pies of the chruch, and they are bad
Catholics If they have permitted corrup-
| tion to separate or estrange them from
its principles. The secular position and
afllnites of any Catholic, aside from his
observance of the moral law, are matters
entirely extraneous to his religious faith,
and any assumption to the contrary is re-
pudiated by both the teachings of the
church and the practices of its consistent
members.
The foregoing is Of course, an i'm
perfect summary of this discussion: but
it covers at least several of the salient
features Of it. We incline to the belief
that the Importance of the American
association has been considerably over
rated. Whatever of virtue there is in
its platform is thoroughly covered by
other platforms and other movements
in no sense marred by bigotry or pro-
scription. The honest common sense of
the American people will not permit
them to believe that any church is to-
day actuated by q desire to throttle
liberty either of conscience or of civic
action within the law. Such a desire
If entertained, would die of the intrinsic
impossibility of its own qualification.