The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-01-25
REV. M'CRATH
HEARD AGAIN in
SPECIAL SERMON
GIVES TALK LAST EVENING
AT CATHOLIC CHURCH
DEALING WITH ALLEGI-
ANcE TO POPE OF ROME

American Catholics do not owe
or pay the Pope of Rome any more
temporal allegiance than they owe
or pay to old King Tut of Egypt
said the Rev. Thomas j. S. Nc
Grath, S. j., at st. Mary's Catho-
lie church, last evening in his lee
ture, what Catholics Do NOT
Believe"
The subject of the lecture this
evening will be "Why Catholics Do
Not Change Their Religion" to
which the Rev. Francis x. Dough-
erty, S. j., pastor, cordially invites
the general public. No collection
will be taken up this evening or
any evening this week.
With "And this | pray, that
your charity may more and more
abound in knowledge and all I'M
Outstanding" (Phil. 1-9) the
speaker began his discourse by
stating that misunderstanding are
frequently the cause of trouble and
enmities and said "It is for the
purpose of clearing up misunder-
standings that / have introduced
this lecture into this dogmatic
series in Key West. Of course it
is not possible for me in the space
of one hours lecture to refute all
of the absurd charges that have
been spoken against Catholics, so
I shall take up the most glazing
of them"
Defines Allegiance
Concerning allegiance to the
Pope, Father McGrath said: "There
are two kinds of allegiance, the
one spiritual and the other tenn
poral. Spiritual allegiance is obe-
dience to a supreme spiritual ruler
in matters of religion; temporal
allegiance is obedience to SUI
preme civil ruler in matters of
state. 1t is true that American
Catholics owe and pay spiritual al
legiance to the Pope of Rome. That
is part of our religion and we do
not apologize to any iother Ameri-
can citizen for it. 1t is part of
our. religion to obey the Pope and
since he is the head OF, the Catholic
church, and our federal constitu-
ton guarantees us freedom of
conscience in the matter of re-
ligion.
"But our temporal allegiance is
owed and paid to one supreme
civil ruler and to one supreme
civil ruler only, and the supreme
civil ruler is Mr.. Herbert Hoover,
president of the United States, a
Protestant. And we are sworn to
defend one national flag and one
national flag only, and that ma
tional flag is Americas Star
Spangled Banner"
Relative To Marriage
Concerning the marriage of Pro-
testant couples the speaker said:
at is an infamous calumny to say
that the Catholic church does not
regard as valid the marriage OF
Protestant couples. Canon 1899.
paragraph 2. clearly states: Non
Catholics, whether baptized or UNI
baptized, when they contract mar
riage among themselves are in no
way obliged to follow the Catho-
lie laws Consequently the mar
riage of Joseph Stanley, Metho-
dist, and Mary Jones, Baptist,
with the ceremony performed by
his minister or hers or by any
other Protestant minister, or by a
justice of the peace, civil judge or
notary public is just as real and
binding as the marriage of Patrick
Murphy and Bridget Callahan,
Irish Catholics, with the marriage
ceremony performed by the Pope
of Rome"
In The Citizens report of Father
McGrath's sermon for Monday the
speaker was quoted as saying II
am Catholic today because of my
Catholic parentage." What should
have appeared was 81 am a Catho-
lie today NOT because of my Cath
Ole parentage," as the Jesuit was
very emphatic in saying that even
if his parents had been Hin
dus he could not and would not
be anything but a Catholic.