The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-07
Conversations Of
Our Club g By Byo Sgsstss st.

+ inent man among its friends, and fin
! ally not to labor to form a public opin-
! ion favorable only to absolutism. To
a fearful extent Catholocity has lost
/ Its hold on the population. even of
! Catholic countries, and Europe is, 1 was
about to say, more VOltarian than
/ Catholic. What may be called public
/ opinion it at least un- Catholic, and
nowhere is the Catholic cause the pop
, ular cause or that which kindles the
enthusiasm and calls forth the ener
getic activity of the mass of the peO-
pie. 1t never will be the popular cause
so long as the more influential Cath
olicS in Catholic countries exert them
/ selves only in behalf of authority. The
reason why the European liberals are
almost universally anti-Catholic is not
( to be set down exclusively to their
WickedenesS and RIGHTEOUSNESS. Cath
olics-not Catholocity-the are
to some extent responsible for it. and
might, without proving in any degree
unfaithful to their religion or deficient
in true loyalty, do much to render them
/ less hostile to the Church. They have
I some truth and justice or their side, or
else they could not sustain themselves
as they do, though they certainly have,
at the same time, great and most mis-
chieVous errors. Yet Catholics in their
controversies with them and opposition
/ to them have not it seems to me, been
always disposed to cOncede them the
truth and justice they really have, and
| have not shown themselves as ready
to accept and defend their cause, so
| far as true and just, as they were
] bound in the sound policy and by their
/ religion to have done. They have some
times denounced where they should
have reasoned, and silenced their argu-
ments by authority instead of solid
reasons. This has driven them farther
than they originally intended. and pro-
voked a hostility towards Catholocity
they did not in the beginning enter
tain. I respect and uphold legitimate
authority with my whole heart and
strength, but L have observed that holy
! popes and sanity prelates never bring
| forward their authority till the appeal
to reason and conscience has failed.
1 am not willing to abandon all Eu-
ropean liberals to Satan, and to de-
spair of all efforts to recall them, or
at least the larger portion of them,
to milder and juster feelings toward
the Church. I would even stretch a
point and go out of may way to con-
vince them that Catholocity treats
them with more forbearance than does
a certain class of Catholic publicits,
and that her sympathies are with the
poor and oppressed and her predilec-
tions are for freedom"
But you seem to me. Father John"
said De Bonneville, 'to be merely
advocating the movement commenced
in France by La Mennais and which
you are aware was condemned by Pope
Gregory XVI"
II am not aware that 1 am advo-
eating anything the Church has con-
demned in La Mennais. Not all that
La Mennais said was false, or all he
proposed was wrong. His philosophy
was unsound, and I do not hold it;
he required the Church to place her
self on the side of the revolutionary
party in opposition to the sovereigns.
and raise, as it were, democracy to an
article of faith / do no such thing.
L ask neither the Church nor the peo-
pie, Catholic or non Catholic to make
war on the kings and emperors of Eu-
roDe. 1 do not ask her to break her
concordats with the sovereigns and to
cut herself loose from all connections
with the state. | am not myself a
democrat in the ordinary acceptation
Of the term, or opposed to monarchy
where it is the legitimate order. There
is no government in Europe which, in
my judgment it's subjects, Catholic or
non-Catholic are not bound to obey,
and defend if attacked by violence The
point with me is not there. 1 wish
Catholics, as politicians and statesmen,
to accept the great principles of JUS
| tice and equity recognized by their re-
! ligion, insisted on by the great doc
tors of the Church. and labor in le-
gal and loyal way to restrict the tenn
poral authorities within their limits
and to recover for the nation the rights
which monarchy in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, during the great
religious wars, usurped Monarchy has
concentrated in itself powers once held
by the papacy the nobility and the
commons, and has thus become too
strong for freedom, and I would gradu-
ally, by the force of public sentiment
restore these powers to the rightful
owner. What I ask of Catholics every
where is to aid in the growth and eff
ficiency of this public sentiment; that
they discriminate in the demands and
theories of liberals what is true, just
and practicable. ID frankly accept 1t,
and use their innL nee in a loyal way
to grain it a legal recognition and CUR
anty.
I mo one can have studied history
and comprehend the present state of
| the world without perceiving that So
clety in Europe is undergoing, nay,
since the epoch of Luther's rebellion,
has been undergoing, a deep and radi-
cal transformation. The old order of
the middle ages has been demolished,
and the absolute monarchy which sue
ceeded it and which maintains by it's
army only a fitful and even artificial
existence, cannot erdue, unless Europe
is doomed to followed the example of
the Asiatic world and lapse into
state Of semi barbarism. A radical So
cial change is taking place, which rem
ders the permanent and healthy ex
istence of the old order impracticable,
If not undesirable. | say not that this
change is a progress; [ say not that
it promises us anything better for the
world than we before had; but [ do
say that it is too late to oppose it with
permanent success, and by opposing
it Catholics practically place them
selves in the attitude, under q tenn
poral point Of view toward the new
order springing UP assumed by the
old pagan world of Rome toward the
new Christian world that was forming
in it's bosom, and will inevitably UNDER
go a defeat. What l ask is that Eu-
pean Catholics take pains not to in
volve the interests of their religion in
the fate of that old and superannuated
order. and prepare themselves to ac-
cent the new state of things that is
springing up and to turn it to the ad-
vantage of religion"
TT seems to me-" replied Winslow,
that Father John is recommending
Catholics to compromise with the spirit
of the world. The Church is immutable
and immovable. 1t is Tor her to gov
ern the spirit of the world not to sue
cumb to it. or to be governed by it,
She cannot change as the world
changes, but must always be the same
in all times and places. She represents
the divine element in human society