The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-22
Uncle Tack and
Bis nepbew. By ys Sssstss H.

Uncle Jack-None too severe if he
should express himself in the sense you
suppose. Suarez believes, as we have
seen, the distinction very real, and he
is as high authority as any Gallican
or quasi Gallican you can cite. Even
you yourself ought to be ashamed to
bring forward such an objection, either
as your own or as another'S. What,
indeed, is the assumption? 1t is that
to assert the plenary authority of the
church over temporals in the respect
that they are not temporals, but spir-
ituals, that is in the respect that they
are related to a spiritual end, is iden-
tically the same thing as to assert her
plenary authority over them in every
respect. Authority governing matter
in relation to one end is authority to
govern it in relation to every end. The
objection itself denies all distinction be-
tween the temporal order and the spir-
itual, for it proceeds on the assump-
ton that to govern temporals in rela-
ton to temporal end, which can be
true only on the superstition that the
spiritual and the temporal are identi-
cal
1.-The assertion of the authority of the
church over temporals in the respect
that they are spiritually related. is sim
ply her authority to direct and govern
them as to their morality. No Catho-
lie, unless carried away by the heat of
controversy or a mistimed zeal, will
pretend that the church has not, under
God, plenary authority with regard to
the morality of all human actions,
whether of state or of individuals. This
Pope Innocent III in his letter to Philip
Augustus, king of France, very dis
tinctly asserts. We do not intend,
h, f+a nd no
to the king of France. But we have
the right to judge of the sin, and it
is our duty to exercise it against the
offender, be he who he may. Here
is the distinction 1 contend for, since
the holy pontiff, while he declaims all
intention of judging the temporarily. as
related to a temporal end, claims 1t as
his right and his duty to judge 1T in
the respect that it is related to spir-
itual end.
but this is perhaps too old an au-
thority. Take. then, a recent authority,
a living authority-the illustrious Car
dinal Gousset, archbishop of Rheims,
man highly esteemed at Rome and ven
Grated through all France. He teaches
in his Observations sur lie Premier Ar
ticle de la Declaration de 1852, if I'M
derstand him, the very doctrine l con-
tend for, and 1 will ask you to listen
to what he says:
"'This article begins by laying 1t
down that est. Peter and his success
sors. that the church itself, has re-
ceived power from God only over spir-
itual things and concerning salvation
and not over things temporal and civil,
and proceeds to prove it by scripture.
But no Pope. no Catholic doctor, has
ever denied the real distinction between
spiritual power and temporal, nor their
independence in what it pertains re-
spectively to their own sphere. The
| church itnervents n respect to the acts
church intervenes In respect to the acts
are contrary to justice, to morality, or
to religion; even then she intervenes
| only in her quality of interpreter of
the divine laws, the natural and posi-
| tive. and as governor or director (regu-
| latrice) of what has a relation to con-
| science, to eternal salvation, and con-
Seuuently to the spiritual order. 1t was
! quite unnecessary to remind us that
| the kingdom of Christ is not of this
world, or rather that it does not come
/ from this world, for it has for its mis-
! sion to govern the things of this world
only in the order of salvation, Regnum
meum non est de hos mudo; quite un-
necessary to remind us that we are to
render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesars and to God the things that
| are Gods; that every soul must be
submissive to the higher powers" that
there is no power but from Cod" that
"whoso resists the power, resists the
ordination of God" This has never
been disputed in the church of Jesus
Christ. Assuredly the Christian world
has not awaited the declaration of 1882
drawn up by order of Lous XIV, to
know the sense of the gospel and the
Epistles of ST. Paul
(To be Continued)