The Irish standard., 1908-12-05

connection with spiritual matters.
Thus the worship of God, the admin
istration of the sacraments, the election
Of Pore es and Bishops are purely splr-
itual matters. The form of civil gov
ernment to be adopted, the levying OF
ordinary taxes the maintaining Of an
army, a navy and police force are
purely temporal matters. Publ: edu-
cation, marriage and burial laws are
mixed matters, which concern both
spiritual and temporal affairs.
II. the ideal state of things the whole
naLcn is Catholic, rulers and people.
The Church is wholly indepen lent Of
the state in purely TEMPORAL ratters;
the State is wholly Independent Of the
Church in purely temporal matters;
the State is indirectly subject to- the
Church in mixed matters The Church
and State should be united. The Cath
clio religion should be tie only religion
allowed in the State. The state Should
rot be atheistie e. indifferent, bu,
Catholic. The Church should uphold
the State and. the state uphold tho
Church. When this ideal becomes ac-.
tual, the Church and State should not
be separated. This is the meaning of
i tie. ffty-fifth proposition condemned
in the syllabus Of Pore ptusIx., which
affirms the Church should not. lie sepa-
rated from the state nor the State from
the Church. On the. contrary, the
! Church is to remain united to tie State
,, and the state to the Church. =.
Secondly, the actual condition. of
Church and State in the United States.
The people are not Catholic; at
least four -fifths Of them are Of no
religious faith or Of any but the Catho-
Iic faith. The first amendment to the
Constitution forbids the making OF any
law respecting the establishment Of
any religion or forbidding. the free ex-
ercise thereof: The sixth article of the
. Constitution ordains that no religious
test shall be required as. qua!if.:ation
/.
; for any office or public trust under the
p, United States. We Catholics look upon
these Constitutional requirements as
practically the best that can. be made
wliere the Catholic faith has never been
the religion of the whole nation, and
: even If the conditions were reversed,
: and the nation were four. fifths. or even
ninety. nine per cent Catholic, we
Catholics would be compelled by no
tenet Of the Catholic religion, by no ut
-teranee Of the Sovereign Pontiffs to al
ter tho Constitution. We would con.
slider it wrong to violate the religious
], liberty, tho freedom Of conscience, the
freedom Of worship Of even small mi.
nority Of our fellow. citizens. We do
j; not 4ook upon our present arrangement
as wholly wrong and only to he tcle-
i rated until it can be changed Only
when the whole nation should BIZ Cath
clic would we advocate any further
union Of Church and State.
Secondly, let us next tell our mis-
!, taken fellow-countrymen about the
Church's teaching concerning the rights
Of conscience. Conscience may be right
judging as right and wrong what Is in
itself right and wrong, or it may be in
error when it judges as right what is
! wron in itself, or as wrong what is
right in itself. This error of con.
; science may in some cases be un.
avoidable. Protestants, taught from
childhood that the Catholic Church is
the enemy of liberty and progress,
and knowing nothing of the real
! teaching Of the Church, are bound in
!. conscience not to vote for Catholic
candidates for public Office. Con
science in avoidable error must be
obeyed just as a right conscience. Nc
; one has the right to coerce such q
!. mistaken conscience. Such has been
l and is today and always will be tile
J teaching of the Catholic Church. 1t IL
> the real basis of religiuos liberty
! freedom Of conscience, freedom oi