Year: 1876

At the special request Of large number
of citizens we publish the following, which
appeared few days sincein the columns of
the Republican:


MR. ED1roR.-While you admit in an cd
itorial of your paper this afternoon, from
evidence published in the MORNING HER
AID to which you refer, that the "Where


ases and Resolution" of the Ministers of
the Methodist Conference published yester-
day were founded OH error, you claim that
the object of them was right. For you say
that "the Catholic laymen,,, should
control their own property independently Of
Bishops and Priests, and the resolutions
above alluded to have only this object in
view" Is this not question, that belongs


wholly to Catholics, lay and clerieals Is
there anything in the Gospel or in common
sense to authorize the belief that Methodist


Ministers know better than Catholics them


selves by what tenure they should hold
their church property! Catholics are not


divided on this subject. The Catholic laity
have net appealed either to the Methodist
Ministers, or to the law against their clergy,
or for any change in the tenure of their


ecclesiastical property. How will thinking
men Of all denominations characterize the
gratuitous intermeddling of Methodist
Ministers in the private affairs of other de-
nominations Will not this proceeding of
theirs he deemed prematurel Methodism,
| Is not vet the established religion of the
l]aud. And ii it was they would have no
more right to ntermedde in the private af-


fairs of Catholics than OF Presbyterians or
| Epscopalans Can these Ministers not
lind sufficient Gospel truth to al up their
time in teaching their own people and In


regulating their own concernss


| But they appear somehow to be inspired
with the idea that the "priestly control of
church properly has been the principal
cause o! the tyranny Of the Roman Catholic
| Church." Catholic laymen are no fonder
| of tyranny or more willing to remain under
| it than Protpstants. How then will these
] ministers account for the fact, that the
Catholic laity adhere to the clergy In Ger
many after the government has taken away
| from the clergy all the control of their
| church property! II the Catholic clergy
tyrannize over the laity, how is it that the


laity adhere still to The clergy in Italy, after
an infidel government has confscated all
the property of the religious orders, and
withheld the revenues of the churches from
the clergy. Let not ignorance assert that
1t is the Catholic laity in Italy that has
shaken OH the clergy anu are now punlsh-


ing them for their past tyranny. 1t Is .


land of bold revolutionary men, who over
threw all minor states Of Italy and have


now centralized in their own hands all pow
ers both of church and state under nomu-


sial king, who is mere puppet, spending


his time in the pursuit of pleasure. This


body has so framed the laws. that out Of


twenty-five millions of inhabitants, there


are not seven hundred thousand legal


voters, and Of these there never are five


hundred thousand votes cast at any general


election. There is an iron-clad oath that


prevents Catholics from voting. If Metho.


dist ministers wish ro ascertain the cause


Of Catholic unity, they must look elsewhere


for it than in the tyranny Of the clergy over


the laity. Perhaps they could find 1t In


the seventeenth chapter of st. Johns gos-


pei. CATHOLIC,


Wilmington, March 18th. 1876.