The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-31
Conversations OF
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kept pace with the progress of mon
archy; monarchy is in civil society
what the papacy is in the ecclesiastical
society. The man who had developed
modern monarchy from the barbarian
chieftainship, and made it the repre-
sentative of the majesty of the state,
were Catholics, and we must suppose
that in doing it they acted from con-
viction, not from mere policy, and that
in defending it at one time against the
papacy. at another time against the
mobiles or overgrown barons, or at still
another against the commons, they
acted in accordance with their re-
ligiCus as we'll as with their political
views. They really believed that the
interests of the throne and the altar
were inseparably connected, and that
not accidentally only, but in the ma
ture of things an attack upon the one
is an attack on the other The Euro
pean Catholics did but follow their re-
ligion as we'll as their loyalty in rail-
lying around the throne and placing
themselves under the lead of their
legitimate sovereign against the lib
erals, the sans culottes, the JacobinS,
who were the sworn enemies Of both.
What the liberals wanted was not
liberty added Winslow, but license.
They were impatient of all restraint.
warning equally against religion and
society, and no man who regarded
either could do otherwise than oppose
them"
"All that is easily said" remarked
Diefenbach: but the inner life of the
age was developing itself on the side
uf freedom, and true wisdom would
have taught the Catholic party that
resistance would be vain and that to
yNlo
would only tend to give it a false and
unnatural direction. 1t was the unwis-
dom of the sovereigns, who mistook
their own power and the spirit of their
times, that give TO the liberal party
their infidel tendency, and the union of
the Catholics with the monarchical
cause could only strengthen that tend
ency. The old forms of political or
ganization, the cut and dried formulas
of the schools. the puerile and absurd
conventionalisms of the times, re-
strained the workings of the interior
spirit, and prevented the growth and
expression of the deeper life of men.
The whole system which had grown up
tended to make life external and me-
chanical, to dwarf the intellect. to
check the growth of free. manly
thought, and to hinder the FIRE move
ments of the heart and soul. Soci-
ETY. had lost it's naturalness, had be-
come artificial, and life was losing it
self in outward forms The living prin-
ciples of Christianity could no longer
work through those forms; it was too
large for them, and must break them
or be broken by them. If it could not
work with monarchy and the eccles-
iaStical society. it would work with
out them, or, if necessary, even against
them. Your Richelieus, Mazarins,
Louises, Boussets, and others. who
managed affairs for church and state
in France, were blind to the real wants
of their age. gave the Catholic mind
a false direction and prepared the way
for the destructive movements of the
eighteenth century. They overlooked
or warred against the deeper instincts
of the Christian soul, and constituted.
or labored to constitute. a system of
things that made it in the following
century almost impossible to defend
the cause of legitimate freedom in the
Eominally Catholic world without seem
ing to oppose the whole Christian re-
ligion. The liberal party erred in iden-
tifying liberty with infidelity. as the
governmental party erred in Identify
Ing religion with monarchy and abso-
lutte power. Yet these liberals were not
so totally depraved as our friends
WinsloW and DE Bonneville would have
us believe. At bottom they had
something good, something right, in
spired by true religion, and the gov
ernments and sincere Catholics should
have seen it in time, separated it from
the false and the evil with which it
was associated, and freely and frankly
accepted it."
THE church." added Father John
never errs or fails 10 understand the
wants or the movements of the times:
but she has to deal with men as she
finds them. 1t is no reproach to her
that in matters of human policy Cath
olics are as blind or a short-sighted
as other folk, for she has never had
the complete and entire training of
any people. She is not of the world,
but is placed in the world. and must
zeal with men more humane. Human
nature, with it's virtues and infirmities
remains in all men-in Catholics as
well as in Catholics. The great
error of the Catholic populations of
Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries was in suffering the SOW
ereignS to place the civil government
above the church. the temporal power
above the spiritual. They found Cath
Ollie princes their external support
against the declared enemies of the
church, and they forgot the admonition
OF the Holy Ghost, Put not your trust
in princes They yielded everything to
their sovereigns, and, instead of resist
ing. aided them in their attempts to
grasp abs 1lute power. They relied on
the temporal sovereigns to take care of
the interests of religion as we'll as the
interests of the state, and naturally
regarded opposition to the sovereign as
alike rebellion against the state and
the church. Hence they became I'M
able to perceive anything good in the
party clamoring for freedom. At least.
this was true of the majority of the
dignified clergy and of the higher class
es of society. Finding themselves in
the ruling party, and the recipients of
the favor of the court, they forgot the
poorer and more numerous classes and
pursued blindly the rash policy of re-
sisting, along with much error the
really just demands of the liberal
party
THE sovereigns of Europe have
availed themselves of this political
blunder to the fullest extent and while
they have. through the concessions of
the Catholics, kept their control of
Catholic interests, they have asserted
their independence Of the Catholic
party. No European sovereigns fears
any opposition on the part of Catholics
as such. while the Catholics in every
Odlhollc country are dependent on the
sovereign to defend them from the ir-
religious movements of the liberals. He
is therefore not obliged to keep terms
with them, though they are obliged as
they love their religion to keep terms
with him. He plays them off against
the socialists. or the socialists against
them. as it suits his purpose. Hence
we find them without independent
weight in countries where they are.
nominally at least, The Overwhelming
majority. In France less than LOCO, 900
of the population. out of 100000 be-
long to other religions than the Cath