The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-16

imperial and regal despotism, and
peoples in despair cried to them for
mercy and help-or in ages when
Christendom was of one creed in faith
and morals, and special gifts of power
were made to the Papacy, willed by
all as an international arbitrator and
peace-maker-when special opportuni-
i ties for beneficent intermingling of the
spiritual and the temporal in the life
of nations were created for the Pa
pacy, to which it was bound to give
heed, under penalty of betraying the
behests of charity and of justice, and
turning back from the face of the
earth the up-welling stream of culture
and civilization? But into past ages
do not now hold the field-glass of
scrutiny, although, were l to do so,
we're readily able to descry glorious
work done by the Papacy, and to the
wondering eye of more modern
world show it to have been ever the
guardian of personal and social rights,
ever the foster-mother of popular lib
erty and popular justice, ever the re-
splendent mirror of Him, of whom
it was written-"He passed by, doing
/ good" My contention is-the Papacy
and the Church when and where, as
in America, new social order has
arisen, within which the state or the
nation wills to live of it's native life
and rights, and the Church, freed
from burthens imposed upon it by
social phases of other times and other
places, willingly betakes itself to the
folds of it's own mantle, to the circle
of it's own spiritual orbit, saying with
it's Founder and Master-"To Caesar
the things that are Caesars, to God
the things that are Gods"
And now, in America, some do say,
that the Pope of Rome is ambitious
of temporal rule over America, of
planting here the yellow and White
instead of the Star-spangled Banner;
that priests and bishops are active
agents of his yearnings; that Catholics
dream of the day when his command
in civil and political matters will sway
White House and Capitol; that to this
intent associations are nightly be-
fitting themselves by sangulnary oath
and secret drillings, to murder their
fellow-citizens and in the name of a
3 foreign potentate take foreible posses-
: sion of the land of the brave and the
home of the free! l allude to such
wild elucubrations of diseased brains,
only to ask, in unanswered wonder
ment, how such follies can be thought
out and acted upon, even by handful
of men, in the twentieth century, in
} America? But, of course, the insane
are ever with us, and all the insane
are not put into safe-keeping.
3 Distinction Between the Spiritual and
the Temporal, Recognized by
the Constitution of the
: United States.
The partition of jurisdiction into the
spiritual and the temporal is prin.
! ciple of Catholicism: no less is it a
principle of Americanism. Catholi.
cism and Americanism are in com.
. plete agreement
! The Constitution of the United
! States reads: Congress shall make
: no law respecting an establishment OF
q religion, or prohibiting the free exer
: else thereof" It was great forward
e leap on the part of the new nation
towards personal liberty and the con
secration of the rights of conscience
! Not so had it heretofore been on the
!. soil of America Save in Maryland
o while reigned there the spirit of the
= Catholic Lord Baltimore, and in Penn
7 sylvania under the sweet-tempereG
6 rule of William Penn, religious free
G dom was barred by law in the Colonies
o Protestant creeds warning one with
n the other, all warning with the Cath
9 olic But it was decreed-the new
flag must be unsullied by religion:
4 persecution, the new nation must be
!, on every score, the daughter of free
, dom, the guardian-angel of persona
Z rights in each and every American.
5 The proclamation of the Constitu
s ton was as the Milanese edict of The
: Emperor Constantine. Before thu
h time of Constantine all things, ever
D. the things of God, were Caesars. The
t. state made and unmade divinities: i
was itself a divinity: its highest rep
!; resentative, the emperor, claimed
:. place among the Olympians, and in
! cense was burned before his statue, a;
! before that of God. The persona
: conscience was allowed no recogni
g ton. The subject must worship, al
:, Caesar ordered. 1t was servitude mos
absolute. But at last the Conquerol
:. of the Milvian Bridge spoke: hbert!
> triumphed in the triumph of the La
barum. I'VE have determined, will
sound and upright purpose" said Con
' stantine, ''that liberty is to be denieC
u to no one that to each on,
Ii freedom is to be given to devote hi
L mind to that religion which he ma.
$ think adapted to himself" Conscience
g was made free in the Roman empir,
3 by the Milanese edict: it was mad,
y free in America by the Federal Con
g stitution. In the one and in the other
II it is the injunction of the Master
q ITO Caesar the things that are Cae
3, sar's: to God the things that ar
5. Gods"
n BY the terms of the Federal Consti
e tuition, as by the teachings of the Cath
le olic Church, no room Is given IN Amer
% lea for discord between Catholicism
al and Amarfcanief11 hntween my Cath