The San Francisco call., 1896-01-23

on the shoulders OF those they blame for their
fall. Because they are Protestants they are
Just 1t does not matter whether: ike BIS.
marck, they would rule by blood and iron, and
find the only obstacle to their despotism in a
courageous minority who believe in liberty OF
conscience and in freedom OF speech, they and
all their parasites are pre-emlnently falr
1t does not matter whether, like Doellinger,
they conceive their talents sighted and their
hobbies attacked, because they pitch into the
Pope they are marveously accura te. Charity
covers multitude of sins, but Professionalism,
in addition, infuses all the virtues and all the
sciences. To be a Catholic is TO be cunning,
unfair, illiterate, stupid and untrustworthy
surely this is an exceedingly comfortable doc
trine for those who are on the Protestant side of
the argument, but how does it appear TO the un-
prejudiced looker-on?
When one undertakes to prove that the
teachings of any society are OF certain char
acter legitimate ratiocination requires that
these teachings be produced in the words in
which the society clothes them and that they
be explained in the sense in which the society
uses them. Hence, when giving Catholic doc
trlne, DR.. Wendte should have appealed to
Catholic authorities who were engaged in
writing briefs against Catholicism. Above all
things he should be careful not to detach SEN
tences from their context nor to stop short be-
fore an eXplana ton which puts an entirely
different construction on the preceding words.
Yet am sorry TO state that this Is precisely
what DR.. Wendte has done-not once or twice,
but many times.
PECULIAR OMISSION.
In his quotation from the encyclieal of Pope
Leo XIII he employed this ingenious device in
order to allow the patriotic Imagination TO run
riot among the racks, thumbscrews and autos
da fe with which he filled up the vacuum.
B shop Gilmour's pastoral he treated in like
manner in order TO make that prelate express
opinions he abhorred much does Dr.
Wendte. To-day find him pursuing the same
tactics with Father Jouin in order TO prove
that the young Catholics of California are
taught in our schools that the church claims
temporal power over the state.
bot toa 1oH
of the state must be founded on the eternal
law of right and justice, Jouin says that in this
sense the church is above the state. | shall be
very much surprised II DR.. Wendte or any
Protestant denies this. The state is not the
before there was ever state, and Will exist
when States are no more. Against this law
the laws OF the civil power have no effect. All
the acts OF Congress in the world could not
make murder virtue or theft guiltless. Does
DR.. Wendte think otherwise? Why cannot the
state change the nature of good and evil? For
the simple reason that the moral law which
marks the boundary OF good and evil is higher
than the state.
Whether this law is manifested through the
individual conscience or through the organized
conscience known as the church, the fact re-
mains the same. Does DR.. Wendte consider
that the state can command him to lie? ii it did
so he would refuse to obey. The only reason
that he could offer is that his conscience is su-
perior to the state and that he must obey God
rather than man. Is it logical to conclude
therefore, that DR.. Wendte considers that he has
supreme power over the civil government?
But DR.. Wendte will not allow Catholics what
he would claim for himself. If he appeals to
the "hlgher law II is American patriotism. If
appeal 10 the higher law'' we are seeking
after temporal power. This conclusion he
must enforce right or wrong, and behold how
he does it.