The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-05
FATHER YORKE REPLIES To DR., BOVARD.

TellglOn TO refuse TO OJDeTS. livery OdbIlVAlC
citizen owes full and undivided allegiance TO
the flag No human being can aosolVe hlmseIf
from that allegianee-no Pope or priest can IN
this regard come between the Government OF
these United States and God. In word, 10
quote Cardinal Manning, 1.-The civil aIlegl ance
OF Catholics is as undivided as that OF al
Christians and Of all men who recognize a
divine or natural moral law"
u-ALLEGIANCE AND CONSCIENCE.
When Mr. Bovard states GAS there can be no
government without morals, no morals with
out religion, il puzzles plain-thinking people
to know the boundaries OF papal supremacy,
he states problem which Protestants have to
face Just well as Catholics.
III Christians acknowledge the existence OF
a moral law. This moral law is an eternal and
Interchangeable standard of right or wrong. 1t
is the rule OF our conduct whether we 1--we I'M
der a government or no. 1t does not derive
its force from human legislation or popular
consent. Stealing would be stealing II there
were never king, and murder would be muir
der were there never government. More
over, human law can never prevail against
this moral law; murder is always criminal,
stealing always forbidden, adultery always
unlawful. do not think that Mr.. Bovard, or
any theist, will deny this proposition
2. The medium by which this moral law is
made known to US is the intellect. Human
reason is the only natural way we have OF
knowing and it is through human reason we
become cognizant OF the natural law. This IS
q truism.
3. Human reason, however, is not perfect
medium. Just as light is refracted when pass
fracted when passing through the mind OF
man. In some minds this refraction is greater,
in some il is less But no matter how much
the ray may be bent, ii is still the ray, so no
ma tier how much the moral law may be dis
torted when passing through a particular
mind, it is still for that person the moral law.
4. The moral law as apprehended by mans
mind is conscience. Conscience IS the voice OF
God as il reaches our ears. Conscience is the
sum of our duties, our obligations as we under
stand them. Conscience, in a word, is our
II u M
manded by the law and therefore 1t must be
performed or that action is forbidden by the
law ana therefore must be omitted.
.. Hence conscience must be always Obeyed.
AS long as man is convinced that certain
line OF duty must be followed he sins ii he does
not carry II out. 1t makes no difference
against his conscience. Others may have the
right OF hindering him from doing what his
conscience orders, but he can never have the
right OF doing what he conceIves to be wrong
or OF emitting what he believes he is bound 10
perform. The reason is simple. Conscience is
the moral law to that man, and the moral law
is supreme.
o. from this it follows that mans obedience
to the civil law is limited by his conscience.
This limitation holds Tor the Protestant as well
as for the Catholic. II the civil law were to
order all MethodlstS 10 assist at mass, DR.. Bo-
ward would be the first to break it. II the
State of California should enact the law against
whose repeal John Wesley iought-that every
Catholic should, under pain OF fine, attend the
Anglican SerVlce-no Catholic could obey II.
During the anti-slayerY agitation many Prot
estant preachers and members OF the. Protest
ant churches appealed to this principle under
the name OF the higher law" and yet their
good citizenship is not questioned by Dr.. b.
ward.
T. Hence may retort the argument on DR..
Bovard, the Protestant. Conscience is
supreme in matters OF morals, put as there can
be no government without morals, no morals
without religion, it puzzles plain-thinking
people to know the boundaries OF the su-
premacy OF the Protestant conscience"
uI-FREEDoM OF CONSCIENCE.
l. This argument which I have just retorted
on DR.. Bovard was used by the pagans against
the Jews and by the Jews and pagans against
to be their duty 10 preach Christ the Jewish
authorities forbade them. Then they ap-
pealed at once TO the supremacy of conscience.
''We must obey God rather than man."
=. When Christianity began 10 spread through
the Roman empire 1t was not attacked because
it was q religion. The prosecutors OF the early
church from Nero to Dioclitian proclaimed,
like the preachers OF the A. ?. A, that they
made no war on any mans religion. They
opposed only disloyalty. The worship of the
Emperor's divinity was the great test OF ale
glance, and any one who refused that test
should be punished for treason. The Chris
tians protested their loyalty, but it was all in
vain. Unless they proved that loyalty in the
precise way the Emperor wished they were
food for the lions. Now the Christian con-
science revolted from the test. and accordingly
old men and tender virgins youths, soldiers
TO the block or TO the bloody sand of the
arena-all giving the same reason, We must
obey God rather than man.
3. When the insane hatred of the Pope took
possession OF the English Government Catho-
lies were ersecuted-ostensibly not because OF
their religion, but for treason. Cecil and the
rest OF them assured Europe thai they did not
persecute for conscience sake. They only
hayed, burned, boiled, hanged, disemboweled
and Quertered those who were traitors to the
Queen. They made a test OF loyalty. That test
dTS0Wn TPmnOrQl nj 1Jal
power of the Pope. The Catholics were willing
enough TO disoWn the temporal power, but
their conscience forbade them to disown the
spiritual power, and hence 1t was that for con-
science sake they suffered as the early Chris
tians suffered, because we must obey God
rather than man.
that IL was wrong thing to make matter OF
conscience a test OF loyalty. They reasoned
that men who were so steadfast in standing for
what they conceived to be the right would be
the pest and truest citizens. Hence the thought
arose that it would be for the peace OF the
commonwealth if such tests OF loyalty were
withdrawn and only those enforced which
could in no way interfere with conscientious
conviction. On this continent it fell to Catho-
lies to put this principle for the first time into
operation. Lord Baltimore mad obtained a
grant of land in America, unincumbered with
any conditions. He founded the colony OF
Maryland, and the laws of that colony
provided:
WHEREAS. The forcing of the conscience in
matters of religion hath frequently fallen out
10 be of dangerous consequence in the common
wealth where it has been practiced, and for the
more quiet and peaceable government of the
Province, and the better to preserve mutual love
and amity among the inhabitants, person
within the Province protesting to believe in
Jesus Christ shall be anyways troubled molested
or discountenanced for his or her re gon in the
free exercise thereof.
5. This glorious example was followed by our
Federal Government, and then by the States
Now the constitution iorbids any religious test
as qualification for Office, or, in other words
forbids the Government 10 measure the loyalty
Of the subject by any action or word which
may be opposed to conscience.
8. However, this liberty of conscience is not
absolute. There are acts OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,
acts prejudicial to the peace and dignity of the
State which cannot be committed under the
cover of liberty of conscience Though before
God the man who does these acts is not guilty
of sin, still for its own preservation the State
polygamy has been forbidden, though intro
duced under religious sanction, and certain
free love communities established by so-called
Messiahs have been incontinently broken up.
Now comes the question do the powers claimed
by the Pope interfere with the rights and dig
nifty of the State or the natural allegiance of
the subject? This question am compelled to
defer to another letter. Yours truly,
PETER G. YoRKE.
P0STSCRIPTUM
Like Don QuiXote astride of Rosinante Mr.
W. II. Bowman has mounted his scissors and
has set forth to defend distressed damsels in
RrqZil | do not intend n say anvtbino ro II