The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-16
CATHOLICISM AND AMERICANISM.
ACCORD BETWEEN CREED AND COUNTRY

HGDRE00 Vt tHE "OSi nGNGR-
END JOHN IRELAND IN THE
AUDITORIUM, MILWAUKEE,, ON
THE EVENING OF MONDAY, AU-
GUST II.
My religious faith is that of the
Catholic Catholicism, integ-
raj and unalloyed- Catholicism un-
swerving and soul-swaying-the Ca
tholicism, if / am to put it in more
positive and concrete form, taught by
the supreme chieftain of the Catholic
Church, the Bishop, the Pope of Rome.
My civil and political faith is that
of the Republic of the United States
of America-Americani purest and
brightest, yielding in strength and
LOYALTY to the Americanism of none
other American, surpassed in spirit
of obedience and sacrifice by that of
none other citizen, none other soldier,
sworn to uphold in peace and in war
Americas star-spangled banner.
Between my religious faith and
my civil and political faith, between
my creed and my country, it has been
said, there is discord and contradic-
ton, so that l must smother some
thing of the fire of the one when l
bid the other burst forth into ardent
burning, that l must subtract some
thing from my allegiance to the one,
when l bend my full energy in service
to the other. Those who so speak
misunderstood either my creed or my
country: they belle either the one or
the other. The accord of the one
with the other is the theme of the
address l am this evening privileged
to make.
Distinction Between the Spiritual and
the Temporal, Catholic
Principle.
No room is there for discord or con.
tradiction Church and state cover
separate and distinct zones of thought
and action: the Church busies itself
with the spiritual, the state with the
temporal. The Church and the state
are built for different purposes, the
Church for heaven, the state for earth
The line of demarcation between the
two jurisdictions was traced by the
unerring finger of Him who is the
Master Of both; the law of God is
Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesars; and to God the things thai
are Gods"
| rehearse vital dogma of Catholic
faith with regard to the mutual rela
tions of Church and state-the solemn
teaching of a Sovereign Pontiff, Lee
XIII. The Pontiff writes: God ha:
divided the government of the human
race between two principalities, the
ecclesiastical and the civil: the one
being set over divine, the other ovel
human things. Each is supreme in it:
own sphere: each has fixed limits
within which it moves. Each is cir
cumscribed to it's own orbit, withir
which it lives and works in it's owl
native right. Things civil and po
litical are subject, as reason anC
equity demand, to the civil authority
Jesus Christ Himself having com
manded that the things of Caesar b'
given to Caesar, as the things of Coz
are given to God" Language coulC
not be palmer, more emphatic, more
authoritative, with regard to thu
rights of the civil power, its inde
pendence within it's proper zone o
action. The position of the Catholi
Church, consequently of Catholics
towards the nation or state, is defined
in clearest terms by the highest au
thority of the Church. What is to b.
feared from the Catholic Church? T,
priest, to bishop or to pope, who
am willing to consider the hypothesl
should attempt to rule in matter
civil and political, to influence tn
citizen beyond the range of their owl
orbit of jurisdiction, that of the thing
of God, the answer is quickly made
Back to your own sphere of rights an
duties-back to the things of God
Or. in like manner, should the state
or it's officials, in law or in act, ste
beyond the frontier of temporal juri:
diction and dare lay hands upon thing
spiritual and divine, the answer is
Beware; touch not the things whic
God has reserved to His duly al
pointed representatives in the spiri
ual order.
A recent proclamation from an ant
Catholic association in America reads
1--WE hold that no citizen is a tru
patriot who owes superior tempors
allegiance to any power above ths
of his obedience to the principles
the Constitution of the United States.
The shaft is loosed against a SUI
posed tenet of the Catholic Church
it pierces the vacant air: it is a mi:
sive of pitiable ignorance.
Is the issue that of the temporal so7
ereignty exercised for ages in part c
Italy by the Roman Pontiffs, sti
claimed by their successor as an il
ternational right? But in the State
of the Church the Pontiff was Kin
as well as Pontiff. To his own kins
dom his temporal rule was strictl
limited Beyond the frontier of hi
own States, he claimed no civil Q
political power: none was allowe
him by the most Catholic of nations
by the most loyal of Catholic believer
.