The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-08-06
NO MORE CHURCH AND STATE.

tho leading Jesuits of Ponce, represent
ing thousand churches in the province
were introduced by Chaplain Chadwick
of the Cincinnati, formerly of the Maine,
to Gen. Wilson. of the American forces,
to ascertain how they were to be sup
ported by the government of the
United States, now that Spanish power
was overthrown in the island. They
| were Informed by Gen. Wilson that
under the constitution of the United
i States it was not possible to apply any
| government money for church purposes.
The dispatch does not say how the
/ priests received the information, but it
adds that Father Chadwick said it
would be all the better for the church
if its own people learned to contribute
to its support and he said what is
! unquestionably true.
| The union of church and state in every
country Of Europe, whether Catholic or
Protestant, has been more detrimental
than beneficial to the church. Spain itself
| is q case in point. Had there been no
union of church and state in the country
we would never have heard of the
Spanish inquisition and it's horrors. One
of the most immortal countries in Eu-
rope today, according to reputable au-
| thorities, is Catholic Austria where
| church and state arc linked together. In
the statistics of illegitinacy it stands
nv will ho
tries Of northern Europe, in which
church and state are indissolubly con-
nected.
The members of all churches would
take more active interest in religion,
and the priests and ministers would ex-
ercise more vigilance over the moral
training Of their tlocl1s if they were not
depending on the state for financial sup
port. What is easily got is lightly val
ued," is maxim which applies to
church work equally with secular af-
fairs; and in no country can there be
found the earnest Christians and flour,
ishing church organizations that abound
in the United States, where pastors and
people hustle for money and receive no
aid from the government. "a fair field
and no favor" for the church is all that
they should reasonably demand and OBJ
| tain in any country, and when any IA
voritism is shown to one church in
preference to any others, the people
should protest against it with all their
night
1t is time that church establishments
Should be abolished wherever they exist.
The late Mr.. Gladstone disendowed the
church in Ireland some thirty years ago,
to the great delight of Catholics, Presby-
terians and Methodists, who were taxed
for the support Of Episcopal ministers
Now every church there stands on its
own bottom and is supported by it's own
members. But not so in England. There
the state church is supported by all the
people with extraordinary patience and
their sons of the nobility who are unfit
| to make living with their hands or
brains are drawing big salaries in tax
| alton from the pockets of the people for
preaching to empty pews The church
| patronage is in the hands of individuals
who are sometimes men of shady reputa-
ton, and who sell the benefces to the
| highest bidder among the clergy Of the
established church. A writer in last
Sundays Chicago Tribune, under the
non de plume of "Ex-Attache," has the
| following to say on the question::
| There are at the present moment
fees of the state church in the United
Kingdom, and of these probably three
quarters are in the hands Of individuals
who are perfectly free to use them as
mainder ara vested in the hands OF the
! crown, the universities, and the espisco-
pate. The origin of this condition of af-
fairs may be traced to the understand
ing which has existed ever since the
days of Henry VIII, and which remains
in force to these present times, that who
| ever builds a church is entitled to select
its pastor in perpetuity. This right at
first descended to the heirs Of the found
err of the church along with his other
property, usually, but not necessarily,
going with the land and the manor
house. But as by degrees the old aris-
! tocracy, became impoverished and was
forced to sell its possessions to new men
recruited from the ranks of commerce
and industry, the advowsons, or rights
of patronage, became, like the remainder
Of tho estates, a salable commodity,
transferred or Sold by auction to the
| highest bidder, the traffic thus developed
having in the course of the last three
centuries degenerated into a scandal
which is positive disgrace to a nation
so enlightened as the English people"
! The same writer, who evidently knows
I: his subject thoroughly, says further that
a certain baronct who was expelled from
the house of commons, dismissed from
+ the navy in disgrace, and sentenced to
penal scrvtude for particularly repre-
hensible offensc against morality, retains
no less than three important livings, and
| can select rector for the spiritual and
moral welfare of several thousands of
his fellow citizens. Even the young duke