The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-14
Conversations Of
Our Club = By yo o5sstss H.


tan powers; it forbade an nfidel power
to hold Christian people in subjec-
ton, and authorized. as in the cru
sades, all the powers of Christendom to
arm in defense of the Christian against
the inffdel. Christian princes had the
right to make war on infidel powers,
and compel them, not to embrace the
Gospel, but to receive it's missionaries
and to permit their subjects to be-
come Christians if they chose. This
right is abandoned now, and the right
of the padishah over his Christian sub
jects is recognized to be as full and
as complete as over his Mahometan
subjects. All rights of interference for
the protection of Christians against
the prosecutions and expressions in
fijCted on them by their infdel masters
is now disclaimed, and the right of in
reference now is only in behalf of
the freedom of commerce. / regard
the Treaty of Paris as a solemn dec
laration by the great powers of Eu-
rope that they officially ignore the
Christian law and are no longer held
to govern as Christian powers. The
state henceforth processes no real re-
ligion, and rejects, as the state, all re-
ligion; hence the new danger of po-
litical absolutism to religious interests.
Religion can now be free, not in its
own right, but only in the right of
the citizen or subject, as included in
the number of his private or personal
rights. Under absolutism the subject
has no rights, and, therefore. under
absolutism the Church has and can
have no freedom, because there is no
freedom of the citizen or subject in
which it can be included. 1t can now
be free only in a free state. state
which recognizes and guarantees to
all it's members the freedom of con-
science as a natural and inalienable
right Whatever was the duty of Cath
olics before the treaty of Paris, there
can be no question now that it is to
labor to convert the European govern
ments, as far as possible, into free
states. OF course, they must reject
the revolutionary principles of the RED
republicans and the insane and Hcen-
tious theories of the socialists, but they
must in other respects, however I'M
pleasant it may sound, make common
cause with the liberals"
"Father John seems to me-" replied
O'Flanagan, "to push the matter too
far. I am for liberating oppressed
nationalities and restoring Ireland,
Poland, Hungary and Italy to their
national independence, but [ see not
why the Church cannot be as free
under one form of government as an
other: why the monarch should be
more disposed to Cypress the Church
than would be the people. 1t seems 10
me, as [ have often heard Father John
himself maintain, that the true policy
is to seek the freedom of the state
in religious guarantees, not the 1ree-
dom of religion in political guarantees
THAT" answered Father John, IN
one sense I still maintain. The mon
arch would be as good security as the
people. providing that he held his
throne by Christian tenure, and
acknowledged himself bound to reign
as a Christian king, as in the middle
ages; for then the Church, as the IN
terpreter and judge of the CHRISTIAN
law, would be acknowledged by the
civil law to be supreme, ana her
canons would bind the civil courts
If the king infringed her rights, sne
could excommunicate him and deprive
him of his authority. But there is no
communicating the sovereign who
places himself, as sovereign, out or
the Catholic communion, and the
church cannot deprive king that
does rot hold his power by chris
tan title. She did not deprive the no
man or even the Greek emperors.
Caesar is, though privately Cath
Ole, now, as Caesar, of no rehg1on,
and is therefore in his official charac-
ter. not under the Christian law, but
outside of it. and his title remains
legally the same, whether he is MUS
selman or a Gentoo. The Church can
not touch him. The Pope may, in
deed, absolve the Catholic subject from
his allegiance and even forbid him to
obey his orders, but this, however good
in fOro cOnscientiae, would not be rec
ognized in foro EXTERIOR, and the sub
iect would be liable to be condemned
in the civil courts and executed as d
traitor. because no law of the state
recognizes the legal authority of the
Pope. The sovereigns OF Europe nave
rejected the old European law so lar
as it imposes restrictions on the tenn
poral power, and it is idle for us TO
dream. in the present state of the
world. of reviving it, Leave, then, the
sovereign absolute in the face of the
subject, and you have and can have
no ground on which you can legally
or constitutionally, that is, in the civil
courts, assert the freedom of religion.
"By the treaty of Paris the princi-
pal powers of Europe have adopted on
one side. in relation to the Church, the
American system, and freed them
selves from all obligation to her or to
any religion. Whether this is to be re-
garded as a gain or a loss to re-
ligion, 1 pretend not to decide. Much
may be said on both sides. l will only
saw that it is in harmony with the
modern world, which puts trade in the
place of the Church, and material civ
ilization in place of religion, and
whether we like it or dislike it, we
cannot help ourselves. We must accept
it and do the best we can with it.
But, if we acquiesce in absolutism
emancfpated from the Church, we leave
our religion without protection, and all
her temporal interests, as we'll as the
consciences of Catholics, at the mercy
of the despot. We must insist on car
rying out the American order, in the
respect that it guarantees individual
liberty and entire freedom of con-
science. as well as in the respect that
il emancipates power from its obli-
CATION to govern as a Christian power,
SO that the civil courts will be legally
obliged to protect the Church, because
Obliged to protect the liberty of the
citizen or subject, as is the case in
this country, and, to a certain extent,
in Great Britain. Mr.. O'Flanagan will
see, then, why, 1 so earnestly insist
on constitutional guarantees for free
dom in opposition to the new tangled
Caesarism, defended by Louis Veuillot
and a certain number of French and
other Catholics.
81 regard it as certain that hence
forth the Church can count on no
protection, as church, from the civil
power; that she will, even in Catholic
countries, soon be compelled to stand
before the state on a footing of equal
ity with Professionalism, Mahometan-
ism, Gentooism, or any other form of
religion or no religion, and to rely
solely on her own intrinsic divinity and
excellence.