The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-28
THE VICTORIES Of THE CHURCH
AN ABLE ARTICLE ON RAPID
STRIDES OF THE CHURCH.
She Has Withstood the Intrigues and
Plots of the Most Powerful Po-
tentate's In the Worlds History.
BY H. d. sEDGwICK, JR.

attention. The author, II. d. Sedg
wick, jr., has certainly treated
the subject in a novel as wei
as a readable manner. Not tn
, least notable fact in connection will
Mr. SedgWick's subject is. the fact tina
it has appeared in the Atlantic Month
ly. In speaking Of the future relations
of our cosmopolitan country with the
one cosmopolitan or universal church
he says:
by the time the United States shall
be acknowledged to be the richest ano
most powerful nation in the world the
attitude. of the papacy will already
have been long determined. The church
reads the signs of the times, and viii
have girded herself for, the great task
of controlling the religious life of the
majority of the American people.
In the past the Roman church has
achieved her great victories in face OF
the greatest powers of the world. First
she Subdued the Roman empire; after
its fall she met the TeutOnic emperors
as a rival and now after the holy Ro-
man empire has passed away she still
treats with the governments of the
greatest nations as an equal She is
the only organization which has sue
ceeded in adopting itself to the varying
needs of men for 1000 years. Again and
again has she fallen into servitude of
German emperors of Roman mobiles, of
the kings of France; again and again
has she risen with undlminished vital
ity. 1t is not strange that many who
think that some divine power stood be-
hind the early Christian church should
believe that the same power guides and
preserves the church of Rome.
There have been great crises in her
/ history. She might have been destroyed
when the barbarians overran Italy; she
might have been wrecked by the Refor-
nation in the sixteenth century; she
might have been ruined in the nine
teenth century if the pope had been
made the head OF a cOnfederated Italy,
and she may be vanquished in the
twentieth by the spirit of the American
/ democracy, but the genius and pas
sion of the Latin race still subsist and
there are great powers on her side.
THE Roman church has always been
cosmopolitan. There have been popeS
from England, Holland, Germany,
France, Spain and Italy. Her churches
| lift their spires from Norway to Sicily,
! from Quebec to Patagonia. Her mis-
! Sionaries have sacrificed their lives
over all the world. Her strength has
! been that she is the church universal
England recognizes the queen as the
head of the Anglican church; Russia
the car as the head Of the Greek
! church, but the Roman Catholic church
has never been bounded by national
boundary lines. She alone has been
able to put before the western world
the ideal of a church for humanity. This
has been the source of her peculiar at
! traction, and in the next century, with
national barriers broken down, her
claims to universal acceptance and ODE
dience will be stronger than ever.
Americans cannot kneel to an English
king, nor PROSTATE themselves before a
car of Russia, but many will do both
before him, who has the only claim to
be considered the high priest of Chris
tendon
Moreover, the city of Rome is the
only city in which the spiritual head of
a great church could live without eX-
citing national jealousies elsewhere. 1t
is the capital of a nation which no
longer can rank as a great power. 1t
is the city which holds greater tradi-
lions than any other 1t has been the
head of Europe and Of the civilized
world so long that in the present it
has all the charm of the distant past
and appeals to the sentiments of all
men.
1.-The meeting of the great American
democracy and the Roman church will
not be a hostile meeting. There will
be no jealousy, no rivalry. We have no
national creed to oppose to the Catholic
beliefs. Rome has no commercial am
bition to clash with ours. She will come
quietly as into a sick room.
Seventy years ago Protestants and
agnoSticS would have banded together
against the Roman church. They would
have felt that they must struggle side
by side against gross ignorance and
grosser superstition. But Protestant
prejudices against the Roman church
are falling off. Calvin and Knox are
losing worship. Jonathan Edwards has
become a. signboard of obsolete nations.
Our old jealousies of the Roman church
were part of our inheritance from Eng
land. That inheritance has lost its rel
atiVe consequence ana in the chang
ing character OF the United States
those jealousies are disappearing.
Even the strong Protestant sects Of
the Methodists and Baptists are grow
ing less antagonistic to the Church of
Rome. The PresbyteIians show signs
of consultation towards the Episcopali- !
ans: they build churches in the likeness
of Magdalene Tower; they put stained
glass in their windows; they are lesa
rigorous to heresy.
THE Episcopal Church, nearer to !
Rome by far than the other Protestant |
sects, is constantly gaining ground Her |
prelates, her hierarchy, her liturgy are i,
little by little. making the
more recalcitrant Protestant sscts more !
and more accustomed to the structure |
and to the rites of Rome In the EpiS- |
copal Church itself, attempt has been |
made to bring all Christian churches |
into union; With the idel that the mid |
die path Of the Anglican creed and |
practice would be the means of recon-
and the meeting place for the !
churches and the Mother +,
Church. But every idea Of union pre-
pares the road to Rome. The great
original Church may open her arms to
receive, but she will never turn aside
her feet to tread the Via Medic. How
shall we ask the Church that claims
its authority from the. Apostle Peter
to humble itself before the Church
which derives its independence from
Henry VIII?
THE Democracy of American in5titu-
tons will be no hindrance to the
been the greatest democratic power in
he western world. With q few eXcep-
ions. the PopeS have always been
elected: and the Papacy has always
oeen open to every Catholic regardless
# his birth. Popes have been chosen
rom all ranks of society. In the NEST
7igorous period of the feuGai system,
he great councils of the Church were
1reat representative assemblies; their
members came together from all Chris
endom. The Church has always taught
he spiritual equality of the rich and
Door or has given precedence to the
,oor. The great NIonastic orders prac-
iced equality The Order CT Jesus has
llways set the degree according to tai
nts
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