The San Francisco call., 1896-02-09
FATHER YORKE
TO DR. WENDTE.
The Chancellor's Continued
Answer to the
Unitarian
ON CHURCH AND STATE.
Catholic Doctrine on this Great
Question Extensively
Defined.
SAYS DIR. WENDTE is IN ERROR.
Father Yorke Contrasts the Views of
the Church With the American
System of Law.

undertook TO discuss was The Doctrine of
Civil Government Held by the Catholic Church,
as Contrasted With Our American and Secular
Theory of Church and State" The six letters
which he wrote on this point form mass of
miscellaneous information unparalleled be-
leVe in the annals of controversy. The dis
orderly and unscientitc manner in which DR..
logical classification OF them matter OF much
difficulty. This difficulty is much increased by
the tendency TO DEPRESSION to which he gave
himself up, especially in his later letters. l
must therefore, in the first place rescue the
relevant matter from the rubbish in which it
is hidden, and then, sweeping all this rubbish
almost every subject under the sun, from free
dom of conscience to the architect of DR..
Wendtes pantaloons.
The first part of this letter, therefore, will be
occupied With revision of DR.. Wendte's argu-
ments on the relations subsisting between
I. CHURCH AND STATE.
Dr. wendte opened the discussion by pro-
pounding what he considered the Catholic
doctrine on the relations between church and
state. That doctrine was entirely erroneous,
and in answer, explained the teachings of
Catholic philosophers at length. Hence the
first part of the review falls naturally under
two heads.
A. The false teaching attributed by DIR.
Wendte 10 the church.
B. The true teaching as set forth by Catholic
authorities.
A. WHAT CATHOLICS DO NOT BELIEVE.
DR.. Wendte explained the Roman Catholic
doctrine as ''the supremacy of the church and
the subordination of the state to it, lie said
practically that Catholics believed in a "theoc-
cracy." "The classical example for it is the
system of the Papacy and the canon laws of
the Roman Catholic Church. Since the time
of Gregory VII the Catholic church has taught
that there can be no sovereign political
authority nor any independence for the in
dividual beyond the limits liked by the
ecclesiastical power
To back up this misstatement of our doctrine
Dr.. Wendte gave what he alleged to be:
l. The philosophical argument
2. The Roman canon law.
8, Declarations of recent POpes.
4. Declarations of eminent modern Catholics.
D. Actions and principles of Catholics in
America.
3. Actions and principles of Catholics abroad.
1t was evident from the very beginning that
DR.. Wendte was not familiar with Catholic au-
thoriues. Indeed, he confesses as much him.
sell and makes the confession in such way
as TO put him outside the pale of serious con-
troversy. He is utterly incompetent TO state
what Catholic teaching is, because he has
never read that Catholic teaching authorita-
lively set forth. He does not seem to realize
that quotations taken at fourth and fifth hand
are never reliable and that scholar would
sooner cut off his right hand than use them.
The fact that DR.. Wendte has used them and
tries to defend his method shows that he has
been trained rather 10 sustain his masters
opinion than to seek truth scientifically and
for himself.
Let US now examine the six proofs which he
produced to show that his statement OF Catholic
belief was accurate.
l. THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT.
DR.. Wendte contends that "the Pope is the
sovereign of the world and that all must sub
NIT to his dictation" He gives the following
sentiment from Bishop Gilmour as the Catholic
argument for the Catholic claim:
1.-THE state is for the body, the church is for
the soul. But the soul is superior to the body,
hence the church is above the state"
replied that this argument proved nothing
1t is a statement common enough in Catholic
and Protestant writers, but is no more alleged
10 prove the sovereignty of the Pope than II is
to prove the sovereignty OF the man in the
moon. The fact that the church is superior to
the state in the sense that the soul is superior
Ia n QhI7rn n
possesses or claims supreme temporal
power. Superior P may mean higher
lence. If I say peasant is superior to
many king do not mean that the peasant
has Jurisdiction over the king, mean simply
the church is superior to the state because the
church deals with the soul, which is worth
more than the body, with which the state
deals, no sensible man Will imagine that CON
slider the church to have jurisdiction over the
state.
that of lawyer. base my belief on the fact
that clergymen aim at the welfare of the soul
lawyers at the welfare of the body polite.
The souls interests are superior to temporal
interests, and, therefore, the calling OF the
priest is superior TO the calling of the jurist.
is there any one outside of an insane asylum
who will ascribe to me the opinion that the
ding?
superior to the state, because the soul is supe-
rior to the body, neither he nor any other
bishop ever imagined that this superiority
would be produced as claim to temporal
sovereignty.
To this reply TO his philosophical argument
Dr.. Wendte vouchsafed no answer except the
plying comment that i make a very "poor
showing"
2. ROMAN CANON LAW.
After this very remarkable piece of ratiocin-
alton DR.. Wendte undertook to quote canon
law. The doctor does not appear to have the
faintest idea of the meaning of the term. be-
cause in the long series of citations which he
lGbplg q itarv
sentence which pertains to canon law. He is
at much at sea on the Specification of canon
law as he was on the Specification of physiol-
ogy:
All these alleged quotations were taken from
book entitled 1.-THE Spirit of the Papacy,''
written Dy John 5. H1ttell, one OF the many
hand-me-down scholars that plague this coast.
Hence was compelled TO deal with Hittell and
thus grew up the
INTERLUDE OF THE HoARY HUMBUG
Among many charges against the authen-
ticlty OF HittelPs quotations. which charges
will come up later, there was one of downright
forgery. In one of his books DoeIlinper de-
scribed the doctrine held by certain Tolomeo
OF Lucca. Doellinger did not quote Tolomeo
6us gave In his (Doellinger's) own words what
tell deliberately took Doeninger's words,
adorned them with inverted commas and put
them in the mouth of Thomas Aouinas
OF course called Hittell a forger.
DR.. Wendte retorted by saying that hated
Hitteil because he was an infdel, and he added
that the said Hlttell was "a man of high moral
habits"
In my next letter reiterated my charge that
Hittell was guilty OF forgery.
To this Hittell answered in propria persona
and asserted that his quotation was correct:
"My forgery consists in quoting word for
word. from Doeliinger in the English transla-
tion.''
Whereupon / put Hittell's quotation and
Doellinger IN the English translation in pa
rsllel columns. The juxtaposition justified
my charge.
HitteIl answered that he understood ..Doel-
linger 70 hold Aquinas responsible for the
ideas written by his (AquinasD partner in a
book which the two composed conformity"
From the very same page of Doellinger in
the English translation showed that Aquinas
had been dead quarter of a century before
his partner" wrote the book in question
Exit Hittell.
DR.. wendte merely lamented that my man
ners were very rude
In the meantime, while this interesting and