Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-17

any other denomination. The state with us is based upon equal rights and not on privileges, and among those rights are the rights of con science which after all must be for every man his church.
 And these rights are not derived from the state or civil society. If the constitution of the United States proclaims them 1t is because as 1t declares, they are inalienable and therefore natural rights; and nat ural. too, in the sense of theologians, viz: as held under the law of na- ture. And these natural rights we derive from God our creator. And since they are not derived from the temporal order, and in the last analysis they are not, there is but one other order and that is the spir- itual, and every religious denomlna- tion which would not lose its iden- tity must protest against complete separation of political from theo- logical principles. In other words 1t must protest against political athe- Ism or pure statolatry which would bring us back to the days of auto cratic and despotic pagan absolutism.
 The invariable principles of a civil society founded upon the equal rights of men are theological princi- ples and to tolerate code of politi- cal principles at variance with these would be subversive of the rights guaranteed by the constitution as natural rights. So far as I know this is the only separation against which the Catholic church disclaims. And I venture to assert that Luther ans and Baptists, Methodists and Episcopalians, Congregationalists and Presbyterians would alike pro- test did our government attempt to organize movement that would take from them their rights.
 When our Lutheran friends, there- fore, assert that the Catholic church does not stand for complete separation of church and state, they ought to understand that we do not tolerate such a separation as Is eX- emplified in France, which is in reality no separation but an absorp- tion of the church by the state. When they tell us even by Implication, that here in the United States we do not stand for the separation of church and state, they ought in all fairness to be little more categorical in their accusation and tell us when the church-not some over-Zealous indi- vidual-desired union in any other sense than that which I have ex- plained above When in the history of the United States has the Catholic church not stood "for full and per feet religious liberty as understood by all America and defined in our federal constitution" Freedom of conscience. the right of every man to worship God according to the dic- tates of conscience is essentially a part of the Catholic faith. And the greatest theologian the Catholic church ever had. St Thomas Aquinas, teaches the doctrine. And so fully does the church recognize that right that no Catholic priest would receive into the church anyone from President Roose- welt down, whom he knew to be con- strained by any other than conscien- tious, intellectual conviction that her doctrine is right.
 Are We not compelled" says the Lutheran committee, Ito maintain that loyal Roman Catholic who full ly understands the allegiance requir- ed of him by the pope can never sim cerely subscribe to the federal con- stitution, or if he does, never can he be expected to abide by it, enforce it or defend it." The Lutheran commit tee may be compelled to maintain this but venture a guess that Presi- dent Roosevelt will not side with them for he knows that they have sincerely subscribed to 1t, that they have abided by it, that in the civil war they stood shoulder to shoulder with the non-Catholic fellow citizens in the trenches and before the can non's mouth to enforce, that at Las Guasimas and Fl Caney and San Juan hill they fought with him against Catholic nation to uphold a cause which not even all non- Catholic Americans considered just.
 When our Lutheran friends make such an assertion they brand with the detestable stigma of hypocrisy some fifteen millions of their fellow citizens, many of whom like myself. were born here, knew no emblem of civil authority but "old glory" and recognize no civil allegiance to any power, papal or other, save to the constitution of the United States. Catholics owe allegiance to the pope as visible head of the church, but not as visible head of the nation. It might as truly be asserted that a Christian because he owes allegiance to his God cannot be good citizen.
 The letter of the committee goes on to ask the president if he believes ''that Lutherans and others are to be branded as bigots because they be- lieve that chance should not be given Catholics to choose between his duty to his church and his duty to his country when holding high office. !" Not at all, for the president knows that the true Catholic has no choice to make when holding high office,, that his duty is solely to his country and that his church is not to be con- sidered unless his country would dis criminate against his church in the rights guaranteed to all citizens alike, irrespective of creed. As take it the point the president wish ed to drive home was that the Cath ollie. as any other citizen, must be considered loyal until he is proven And so far in this coun- try, though many of them have held high office, they have not been prov
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