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Note and Comment

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · May 23, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 21.

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Note and Comment

By Editor

"Princes of the Blood"

THIS is what a writer who signs himself Marquis de Fontenoy declares the newly created American cardinals to be. Of their rank as compared with government officials this writer, according to the New York Tribune, says:—
It must be borne in mind that even though Cardinals Farley, O'Connell, and Gibbons are at heart patriotic Americans and members of an American hierarchy, yet they are as cardinals foreign princes of the blood to whom the United States, as one of the great powers of the world, is under an obligation to concede the same honors that they receive abroad, . . . and at any official entertainments at Washington the cardinal will outrank not merely every Cabinet officer, the Speaker of the House, and the Vice-President, but also the foreign ambassadors, coming immediately next to the chief magistrate himself.
For such a claim to be made for the officials of any other church would be counted by all men most absurd, and first of all by the Roman Catholic itself. But these lofty claims on the part of Rome and those who are set for her defense are becoming so frequent of late, and are so fully conceded by many even occupying high government positions, that with the multitude they are beginning to pass as axiomatic truths. It simply shows the truckling to Rome on the part of politicians, and of others, who seek by admission of her claims to avail themselves of her influence.