p. 131 | Present Aspects of the Papacy

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 22, 1875

Present Aspects of the Papacy.

By John Norton Loughborough

(Concluded.)

It may be well for them to say now that they are in love with the laws of our country; for they may well be. While the laws grant toleration to all religions, they see a good opportunity to fill the country with good Catholics. In this respect, like some anciently, “their strength is to sit still.” The question is, Will they carry out our country’s laws of toleration if they become strong enough to resist them. As we have already quoted, they say, “The church is of necessity intolerant.”

As another proof of their mild character, we are pointed, here in San Francisco, to a late speech of Father Buchard on the evening of Nov. 25, 1874. Speaking of the American Protestant Association, he said, “The Association calls upon the Protestant sects to unite and oppose the advances of the Catholic church. The right of private judgment which Protestants claim makes this impossible. Our Protestant fellow-citizens need not fear the Catholic church nor hate its members. We are all children of one government. Jew, Turk, Mohammedan, and Christian, are all equal here.” “Catholics have a right to live here as well as Protestants. They do not wish to interfere with any man’s conscience, and will allow no encroachment upon theirs. The Catholic church loves our country and reveres its laws.”

We know that this Jesuit, Father Buchard, says, “We love our country,” but we do not know with how much Jesuitical, “mental reservation,” he says it. Had they the power to change the laws here, which now grant tolerance to all religions, how long would they let them remain? They love these laws now, simply because they give them an opportunity to go on unmolested in their work of preparing to overthrow these same laws.

As to how they regard matters in this country, let the following from a Florence journal, of June, 1874, testify: “The pope has been presented with a copy of an address sent from the United States to Archbishop Ledochowski, of Posen. The Holy Father, in replying, spoke most cordially of America, and said, ‘The United States is the only country where I am really pope in the eyes of the government. I am always afraid lest European governments shall oppose or control my acts, whereas I can freely send pontifical documents to the United States, without fear of opposition on the part of the government.’”

No wonder the Catholics profess to love the United States; but it is very apparent that they have in their hearts a deadly hatred for our free institutions and free schools. Read the following, clipped from the Charlottetown Islander, Prince Edward’s Island, 1874: “No later than last week it is well known that Bishop McIntyre addressed a ‘Pastoral Letter’ to his clergy in this Colony, in which he solemnly commands them to leave no means within their power unattempted, to influence their respective flocks to vote for those candidates only who will pledge themselves to carry out his wishes in the matter of the school system of this Province.”

The shy manner of Catholic encroachment is very graphically described by Gavazzi: “The church of the pope is, at first, oh, how modest! What a pattern of humility! She humbly stands before you, and with downcast eyes, and with a faltering voice, asks a corner—a small corner—a neglected, useless corner—where she may build a little altar, a small modest chapel, and worship her God according to her faith. Pleased with her humble fervor, beguiled by her unassuming mien, a Protestant government grants her the supplicated ‘little corner.’ She builds her church, an unpretending edifice, worships her God without ostentation, smiles meekly as you meet her in the street, gives you the walk, and takes the gutter, passes by, and troubles no man.

“Thus, for a few months, a few years, she worships God in spirit and in truth—as you may think; but all the while she has other work on hand, which she urges forward, energetically, untiringly, adroitly, unscrupulously, secretly—Jesuitically! And now her modest chapel has grown into a cathedral; her bishops, archbishops, perhaps cardinals, are poured into your community, and palaces rise to receive them. Where now is her humility—her little corner? Squares are too small to contain her. She meets you in the street, and holds her own. She is your equal and tells you so.

“A little longer, and she has advanced still further. Her temples, her palaces, her domains, have spread so far and wide that there is no longer room for yours. She meets men in the streets, and has lackeys and guards at hand to thrust them out of her way. Times have changed, and if she permits the Protestant government and people to have ‘a little corner and a small church in which to worship God according to their faith,’ it is a marvelous toleration; much more probably, she asks them to kneel in the dust and kiss her foot in token of subjection.”

From a sermon by Rev. Dr. Hatfield, of Chicago, in August, 1868, we quote the following respecting the future of the papacy: “The Romish power grows weak in the old world. The man of sin is palsied and trembles upon his throne, and casts eager and wistful glances to this magnificent country, with its broad prairies, and its magnificent prospects, eagerly desiring to avail himself of its resources. His eyes are fixed on this country, with the hope that he may here build himself up a throne that will outlive the years and survive the wreck of ages. Here the last great contest is to take place, in which the papacy is to bestride this country like another Colossus, or is to sink like a millstone in the depths of the sea, to rise no more forever.”

The means resorted to by the papacy to obtain power are various. The following, from an article in the Cumberland Presbyterian, of Aug. 8, 1873, speaks for itself: “A great many immigrants are landed upon Ward’s Island, New York, and the authorities have erected a house of worship for their special comfort and accommodation. The Catholics have attempted to control the building and to exclude the Protestants.”

It seems from the said article that Mr. Smith, an Episcopalian, was appointed chaplain of the island in February, 1871, and that Rev. Father Prakensky was appointed Catholic chaplain of the island in August, 1868. It seems Prakensky thought it his duty to get the Protestants out of the chapel, and made a practice of getting all the Protestant children he could. Before a lawful body appointed to investigate the case, Prakensky gave in the following testimony:—

“I have tried in several instances to get children from their mothers. I do not consider this proselyting, but actual conversion, as there is but one baptism. I believe my judgment in this respect is perfect. I do not know that the laws of the State prohibit proselytism. I believe I have divine right to secure Protestant children from their Protestant mothers and make them Catholics. I deny the right of the Protestant minister to do the same.”

“The chapel in which the Catholics now worship is now virtually consecrated to their worship; if the chapel was used for other purposes it would be considered by me as profanation; the Protestants would defile the church by worshiping in it. I would consider it an act of injustice if the commissioners permitted the Protestants to worship in the chapel.” And were they as strong as in other times, they would say it was injustice to allow any Protestants on the island.

The papists of the old world are designedly seeking to gain power here. Their schemes are known to careful observers in Europe. As far back as July, 1846, Frederic Kapp, a member of the German Legislature, is reported to have said before that body, in Berlin, “At the present moment, it depends only on the Catholic church of the United States to determine when it will begin its war on the government and on Protestantism.”

That papacy is at heart what it always was, and just as ready to persecute as ever when it has the power, was fully manifest in the late massacre in Acapulco, Mexico. Four men and one woman were killed in the church, and a large number were wounded. The San Francisco Chronicle says, “Justi Denada, the Roman Catholic pastor of Acapulco, granted the assassins full forgiveness of sins and two hundred days’ indulgence for every Protestant they killed. The Roman Catholics of Acapulco presented a petition to Diego Alvarez, the governor of the province, asking him to use his authority to prevent the opening of any more places of Protestant worship in the city. This Alvarez promised to do.”

The man of sin, nearly consumed to death as a civil power, not only says what John saw that this power would say, but must soon meet the fate predicted in the prophecy. The church says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” But God says, “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God which judgeth her.” Rev. 18:7, 8.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.