The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-03
RoMANIsM AS A MENACE.
Rev. j. A. Lansing's Lecture at City Hail
Last Night.

Rev. j. A. Lansing addressed a fair sized
audience at City hall last night, taking as
his subject, "Romanism as a Menace to
American Institutions He was introduced
as on the evening before by the Rev. DR..
blanchard. who bore. testimony to his sin
certify, his power and his kindliness of heart
Mr.. Lansing, began his address by thanking
the newspapers for their fair reports of his
address of the evening before. He then said
that he proposed to treat Romanism and
Professionalism as systems. He was not
speaking of the religion of the one or of..the
other. He then went on to describe the
Roman system. At the head of it was the
Pope. who was elected by Cardinals and the
cardinals were created by the Pope. The
great majority of the cardinals were Italians
and always had been. Below the cardinals
were archbishops, and then came bishops
and finally priests. The whole polity of
Romanism was summed up in the word
obey" Every Cotholic was taught that
he must yield unquest1oning obedience TO
his superiors. Professionalism on the con-
trary said to any man "Be Free yield
obedience only to God and your own
conscience. He quoted the Papal encyclical
of 1890 to show how this idea of blind obedi-
ence ran all through the teachings Of the
Roman church. Romanism said, send your
children to the parochial school,
Professionalism said, send them to whatever
school Your conscience and your Judgment
directs. Referring to the claims set up by a
prominent Roman ecclesiastic in this
country that Professionalism amounted to
nothing and that the only religion of this
country was the religion of Rome, Mr..
Lansing showed from the last census that
only a small fraction of the people protested
allegiance to Rome, and that the great mass
of them were Protestants The civilization
which this country of freedom would follow,
is not the civilization of Rome. The
civilization of Romanism was exempli-
fed in Spain when over go per cent of the
people could neither read nor right.
America would not have that kind of civil
cation. The most honoreds society of
Romanism today was the Society of Jesus,
the fundamental doctrine of which was
complete and unquestioning obedience.
That society had been banished from
almost all the Catholic countries in the
world because it was inimical to freedom
and progress. 1t had gained foot-hold in
this country, but would never be permitted
to direct the policy of this people. Roman
ism is still struggling for restoration of
the Popes temporal power against the
wishes of the people. The three things
most dear to the American people were
freedom of conscience, freedom of speech
and freedom of the press. Romanism was
opposed to all three. As an instance of the
opposition of Romanism to the freedom of
the press, Mr.. Lansing cited the famous
case of Bishop Bonacum of Nebraska. Bon
acum had been prosecuted by priest in a
civil court, and the Rev. Mr.. Phelan, an
editor of Catholic paper, had undertaken
to defend the priest, and maintainrthe right
fulness of the prosecution. The archbishop
of the diocese ordered him to desist. Phelan
refused and declared that he owned the
paper and should speak his sentiments. The
matter was then referred to Satolli, and
after receiving rebuke from that protein
tate the editor humbly retracted all he had
said, abandoned the position he had taken
and surrendered completely to the
ecclesiastics. admitting that it was the
right of the church to guide and direct his
utterances.
DR.. Lansing closed by contrasting Luther
as painted by the Catholics with the real
Luther of history, honored and revered by
the great German nation.
Mr.. Lansing's address was very impressive
throughout, entirely devoid of fippancy or
appeal to passion or prejudice.