The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-16
CONTINUE dromP II
CATHOLICISM AND AMERICANISM

its religion. Now the head of the
Catholic Church is the Bishop Of
Rome, a foreigner: it's general Coun-
ellis, composed of men of all nations
foreigners in the majority, Europe
ans, Asiatics, -legislate in
faith and morals for America. Why
not Pope, strictly American? Why
not councils, as those of other religi-
Gus bodies, exclusively made up of
Americans-ca as only Ameri-
cans may be supposed to be, of inter-
preting the American mind and guild
ing the American aspiration?
The late Bishop Doane of Albany
once wrote: ct is hard to find any
other word (than that of 'alien0
which describes the whole communion
of a church which owes it's highest
allegiance to a single head, who is a
| foreigner across the sea" A few
weeks ago, in the yale Review" the
secretary-general of the University,
while treating of what he is willing
to call the helpful influence of the
Catholic Church over recently-arrived
immigrants, complains: But it (the
Catholic Church) links them (the i'm
migrants) with their own past rather
than with that of the United States.
1t has been outside the main currents
of the Anglo-Saxon progress. It's
emphasis is neither on freedom, nor
on democracy: so unless it proves I'M
true to it's own ideal it will not satisfy
the American people" To Bishop
Doane, Catholicism is IAN alien" in
America, Objectionable to Americans,
because it's Sovereign Pontiff is not an
American, living in America. Mr..
Arson Phelps is sure that Catholic
ism, to satisfy Americans, should
| have been woven in loom-room of
Americanism in a loom-room even of
Anglo-Americanism. In the late June
number of the Atlantic Monthly a
writer heads his article with this cap
ton: Reasonable Hopes of Ameri-
can Religion" and actually define
ates a creed suitable in his judgment
to the people of America.
Faith and morals made in America
on design strictly American! Great
and good as is America, it must not
arrogate to itself the realm of the
Almighty God, that of faith AMI morals
Shall we call the Almighty God a
! foreigner? Yet He is not exclusively
the God of America. Shall we call
the Saviour of Calvary a foreigner?
Yet He was neither native nor a
naturalized American: and His mes
sage was-"Teach all nations"-in-
stead of teach only America! And
now shall we call the Bishop of Rome
foreigner, IAN alien" because he
stands before the world the univer-
sal teacher, the Vicar of Jesus
Christ, teacher of all nations, teacher
of the whole human family?
Argue that the Almighty God is not
the Supreme Author and norma of an
eternal righteousness, that Jesus
Christ is not the proven revealer of
the thoughts and the love of the AL
mighty God, that the Bishop of Rome
is not the historic successor of
Christ's Apostolate-then, counsel,
perhaps, you may an American-made
Church for Americans, an American
made code of faith and morals. But
religion is not product of the mind
of the individual man, or of the en-
vironment within which he lives: it
is not a sheer human growth, change
able as the seasons of the year, fit
full and capricious as the likes and
dislikes of men and of peoples. Re-
ligion is the mind and the will of God,
existing as God exists, effectively
outside of men and of peoples, sup
erior to all in man, exacting from man
the obedience due by the creature to
the Creator. The question is never
what is it that suits man, or a
people? But what is it that God has i'm
posed upon men by the eternal laws
of His supreme righteousness, or by
the teachings of His historic revela-
tons? What America requires is, not
an American-made, but God-made re-
ligion. And so, at the bar of Ameri-
can common sense itself the propo-
sails of the writer in the Atlantic
Monthly must only be-as he himself
inclines to despairingly term them
l-"dreams that are the shadows of
hopes" ''hopes that are the shadows
of dreams"
The Catholic Church is eXtra-Amer-
lean, supernatural, begotten for all
nations, not for America alone: its
Supreme Pontiff is extra-American,
supernatural foreigner on no spot
of earth's surface, everywhere at
home, as the spiritual Father of all
tribes and of all peoples who seek
divine truth from a universal God and
universal Saviour.
And this, the beauty; this, the gran
deur of the Catholic Church, that it is
Catholic, as eternal truth is Catholic
as the eternal God is Catholic, as the
salvation given by Jesus Christ is
Catholic. Narrowness, provincialisn
: in religion, in faith and morals, on the
first face of things, is perversion Of
Gods eternal law, and of the reveal
: ton given to men nineteen hundred
years ago. The days of tribal relig
ions are past: they must not be re
vived in America.
The Catholic Church and American
1 State Schools in America.
Another charge of un-Americanism
: the attitude of the Catholics TOWARD
: state schools. My answer is quickly a
hand The state takes to itself tn,
task of inStructing the children of it,