The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-28
THE RARAL .9YlLABQ9
With Recitation Of the Errors Which 1t Condemns
Translated
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Thirty-first error. 1.-The ecclesiastical
Forum desired for the trial of the tenn
poral causes, whether civil or criminal,
of clerics, should be abolished, even
without consulting the Holy See and
against it's protests.
Thirty-second Error. THE personal
immunity. by which clerfcs are exempt
from military CONSUMPTION and from
the obligation of service in the army,
may be abolished without violation
either of natural right or of equity.
Civil progress demands such abolition,
more especially in a society. the gov
eminent of which is organized on a ba-
sis of liberal principles
Refutation.-The falsity of the thir-
tieth carries with it the falsity of the
thirty-first proposition. This is not
disputed even by these who regard
clerical immunities as of only human
right, because they hold that the clergy
must be exempt from the jurisdiction of
secular judges in order to be perfectly
free and unencumbered in the per
Torrance of the duties of their holy
ministry. Covarruvia maintains that
these immunities derive their origin
from the institutions of the Old tesla
ment, the traditions of the fathers. and
the concessions of certain emperors
and shows that they have always been
regarded in the light of a public bene-
fit by Christian peoples. (Pract. Quest.
cap. 3D. These arguments possess so
much force in his eyes, that he does
not hesitate to declare that the Roman
Pontiffs could have justly exempted
the clergy from secular jurisdiction
not alone in spiritual, burt in all tenn
poral matters whatsoever. Duval him
self, though he regards all clerical i'm
munities as the pure product of civil
legislation, affirms that no secular
prince can without sin either abolish
or SO limit them as to bring discredit
upon the clergy, because they have. as
he says been universally recognized
and respected, and because they have
been Incorporated into law of nations,
which no one is at liberty to abolish
or disregard.
As regards the CONSUMPTION of eccle-
who does not see that this
would be at utter variance with the
nature and requirements of their sa-
cred calling? Reason itself protests so
loudly against subjecting them to this
burden, that even hereticaI govern
ments have never ventured to assert
a claim to their military services, and
mark well, that this exemption is not
a mere privilege, it is a right in the
most rigorous sense of the term. re-
cogrized as such by society, whose in
teresta demand that eccdesdastics be
in no wise debarred from acquiring
that education which is so necessary
to the worthy discharge of their du-
ties as the ministers of religion, and
to enable them to properly instruct the
people in the laws Of God: labia enim
Jacerdotis custodiunt scientiam ct le-
gem requirement de ore ejus. The
great end of mans existence in So
,iety is to know, love and enjoy God, !
which end cannot be attained without
he aid of religion; man had religious
before the constitution of
society. That religion is the necessary
of social institutions is a
ruth, which was recognized even by /
he pagans, one of whom declared that |