The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-03
Conversation x.-Continued.)

THAT is probably true. Really Cath
Ole governments were never very
plenty, and there is a decided scarcity
of them now"
But how will your doctrine apply
where the state is not Catholic?"
1T remains the same de jure but de
facto, so far as the state is concerned,
is inapplicable."
What will you do in such case?"
What the early Christians did I'M
der pagan Rome. adhere to our religion,
practice it in all respects so far as the
state permits, and die for it where it
does not. We have nothing else for it.
We submit to what is inevitable, use
our freedom so far as the state does
not restrain it. and where it attempts
to restrain it we adhere to and defend
our faith as martyrs and confessors.
If the state leaves us free, eXacts moth
I ing of us contrary to our religion, and
only refuses to profess it or give us
positive aid, we can get along very
well. and make 10 complaint. But this
is aside from the real question. You
wish me to prove that the church does
not absorb the state nor destroy its
autonomy I have shown that it does
not, and that the state where Cath
olic has, to say the least, nothing to
apprehend from her. This is all that
the objection requires me to prove. If
the church does not endanger the state
where the state is Catholic, it certainly
does not where the state is non-Cath-
Ollie.
ITO this last consideration 1 beg you
to attend. Where the state is not Cath
Ollie, and the majority, as with us, are
strongly anti Catholic, Catholics are
the only party in danger. Their rights
may be denied, their liberty infringed
and their consciences oppressed; but
the state, the political order, has moth
ing to fear from them, because it holds
them at its mercy. However ultramon-
tame our views, we cannot in this coun
try, and Rome cannot. since she can
act on the American public only
through US, take possession of the gov
eminent and through it Cypress the
non-Catholic majority. We are less
than one in ten in the whole popula-
ton: large portion of us are foreign
ers. strangers, some to the language,
and the majority to the manners and
customs of the country, without ma
terial, moral or political weight in the
community, unable even to protect our
own rights and legitimate interests.
Any n1ea sure we should oppose as pc
culiarly hostile to US as Catholics,
would be fastened upon the country by
an overwhelming majority. and any
measure we sf1c'lfd support as favor
able to US would fer that reason, if for
no other, be defeated by a majority
equally overwhelming. We are. save
on election days, treated even though
native-born. with few individual eX-
ceptiens. as aliens parfhs and the
slaves of the south are treated with
more consideration than the Irish Cath
Ollie laborers in the northern and middle
states. Any appeal we might make to
pubic opinion. 10 the justice of the
country would be treated with con-
tempt. Associations may be formed
aga fngt us oil over the Union; we may
be insu' ted. Footed. mobbed in our own
houses or shot down in the streets by
armed rufFiars led on by iail-birds and
the dregs of American and European
society. all with ippunity. The local
authorities SELDOM interfere. and when
they interfere it is invariably against
US, and to arrest only us. the assailed
and wronge6 party. What more ridicu-
lous. more 6isgraceful to your own
manhood. than to pretend to fear our
getting POSSESSION of the government,
or that We srd our religion are at
present D'e~" Gin to American indie
per1ence al repub- icauism. Out upon
such cowa dice or rather such malice
and hypocrisy"
"Cuf course. my Hear uncle. we do
rot fear your present strength. The
prudent man foreseeth the evil. and
ri1ar@es+ e~airst danger. 1t is the
prosUeHtiv" danger we fear. what with
y~ur uItramCntanisr YOU will do when
YOU become the ratoritv and have pos
seTSic7 of tho government
''T hove show vou that you have
nothing to fear. then. for the state and
the church. since the state is repub-
Iican, will mcve on in harmony. for
the common coed. TEMPORAL and spir-
itual, of American society"