Do men who have their wits about them know what this means? This means
the overthrow of the great institutions of society, which have cost
nineteen centuries of toil and struggle of the noblest men and women of
the race. And for what? Only for the tyranny of a commune of declared
atheists, the emancipation of the flesh, and the reign of Antichrist.
Thank God! there is one man who cannot be bought by bribes, or won by
flattery, or made to stoop by fear; who dares meet face to face the foes
of Christ and the enemies of mankind, open his mouth and lift up his
voice, and, in answer to these hypocritical invitations, speak out in
tones that ring in the ears of the whole world and can never be
forgotten: “Non possumus.”
The question is not whether the church will be reconciled with modern
civilization. The real question is whether modern society will follow
the principles of eternal justice and right, and reject these false
teachers; whether it will legislate in accordance with the rules of
right reason and the divine truths of Christianity, and turn its back
upon revolution, anarchy, and atheism; whether it will act in harmony
with God’s church in upholding modern civilization and in spreading
God’s kingdom upon earth, or return to paganism, barbarism, and
savagery. The question, the real question which in the course of human
events has become at the present moment among the Latin race a national
question, and particularly so in Italy, is this: “Christ or Barabbas?”
“Now, Barabbas was a robber.”
It is because the Syllabus has placed this alternative in so clear and
unmistakable a light that Satan has stirred up so spiteful and so
wide-spread an opposition to it among his followers and those they can
influence. Here is where the shoe pinches.
VI.—THE VATICAN COUNCIL.
It is folly to attempt to interpret any society without having first
discovered its animating principle and fairly studied the nature and
bearings of its organization. How great, then, is the folly of those who
seem not to have even a suspicion that the greatest and grandest and the
most lasting of all societies and organizations that the world has ever
known—the Catholic Church—can be fathomed by a hasty glance! Yet there
are men well known, and reckoned worthy of repute, who bestow more time
and pay closer attention to gain knowledge of the structure and habits
of the meanest bug than they deem requisite before sitting in judgment
on the church of the living God. There is in our day a great variety of
demagogues, and their number is very great, but a truly scientific man
is a _rara avis_.
There are also men standing high in the public estimation, and some of
them deservedly so in other respects, who imagine that the decree of the
Vatican Council defining the prerogatives of the successor of St. Peter
has seriously altered the constitution of the Catholic Church, when it
has done nothing more or less than make the common law of the church,
whose binding force from universal usage and universal reception was
admitted, a statute law.
Starting off from this serious mistake as their premise, they wax warm
and become furious against the Vatican Council and its decree concerning
the Roman Pontiff. And the new-born pity with which they are seized for
benighted Catholics, would be worthy of all admiration, were there not
good grounds to question their common sense or suspect their sincerity.
They talk about “a pontifical Cæsar imposed upon the Catholic Church,”
“priestly domination carried to its highest point of development,” “the
_personal_ infallibility of the pope,” “the Roman Church transformed
into an enlarged house of the Jesuit Order,” “the incompatibility of the
Catholic Church, with its _new_ constitution, with the state,” etc.,
etc. Then follows a jeremiad over “the mental dependency of Catholics,”
and so forth. All this and much more has, according to their opinion,
been accomplished by a single decree of the Vatican Council. Apparently
this class of men look upon the Catholic Church as a mere piece of
mechanism, abandoned to the control and direction of a set of priests
swayed by personal ambition and selfishness, and whose sole aim is to
exercise an absolute tyranny over the consciences of their
fellow-Christians; or as an institution still more absurd and vile, for
heresy and infidelity have in some instances succeeded in so blinding
men’s minds that they do not allow the good the church does as hers,
and, stimulated by malice, heap upon her every conceivable vice and
evil. Christ had to defend himself against the Jews, who accused him of
being possessed by a devil; and is it a wonder that his church should
have to defend herself against the charge of misbelievers and
unbelievers as being the synagogue of Satan? The servant is not greater
than his master.
Even Goethe, in spite of his anti-Christian, or rather his
anti-Protestant, instincts, would have saved these men from their
fanatical blindness and their gross errors by imparting to their minds,
if they were willing to receive it, a true insight into the real
character of the Catholic Church. “Look,” he says, after premising that
“poems are like stained glasses—”
“Look into the church from the market square;
Nothing but gloom and darkness there!
Shrewd Sir Philistine sees things so:
Well may he narrow and captious grow
Who all his life on the outside passes.
“But come, now, and inside we’ll go!
Now round the holy chapel gaze;
’Tis all one many-colored blaze;
Story and emblem, a pictured maze,
Flash by you:—’tis a noble show.
Here, feel as sons of God baptized,
With hearts exalted and surprised!”[3]
The “Philistines” we are speaking of infuse into the Catholic Church
their own forensic spirit, and fancy that she is only a system of severe
commandments, arbitrary laws, and outward ceremonies enforced by an
external and absolute authority which, like the old law, places all her
children in a state of complete bondage. They are blind to the fact that
the Catholic Church confines her precepts, such is her respect for man’s
liberty, chiefly to the things necessary to salvation, leaving all the
rest to be complied with by each individual Christian as moved by the
instinct of divine grace.[4]
The aim of the Catholic Church is not, as they foolishly fancy, to drill
her children into a servile army of prætorian guards, but to raise up
freemen in Christ, souls actuated by the Holy Spirit—to create saints.
They are also ignorant of the nature and place, of the authority of the
church, as they are of her spirit.
It is the birthright of every member of the Catholic Church freely to
follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and the office and aim of the
authority of the church is to secure, defend, and protect this
Christ-given freedom.
To make more clear this relation of the divine external authority of the
church with the divine internal guidance of the Holy Spirit in the soul,
a few words of explanation will suffice.
It is the privilege of every soul born to Christ in his holy church in
the waters of regeneration, to receive thereby the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit. It is the bounden duty of every Christian soul to
follow with fidelity the promptings of the Holy Spirit. In order that
the soul may follow faithfully the indwelling Holy Spirit, it must be
secured against all mistakes and delusions and protected against all
attacks from error. Every child of the church has therefore a claim in
justice upon the authority of the church for this security and
protection. But it would be absurd and an intolerable indignity for the
soul to obey an authority that might lead it astray in a matter
concerning its divine life and future destiny; for in the future world
no chance or liberty is left for a return to correct the mistakes into
which the soul may have fallen. Therefore the claim is founded in right
reason and justice that the supreme teaching and governing authority of
the church should be divine—that is, unerring. And it is the intrusion
of human authority in the shape of private judgment, or that of the
state, as supreme, in regard to the truths of divine revelation, that is
the radical motive of the resistance to Protestantism as Christianity on
the part of Catholics.
Now, when the soul sees that the authority which governs is animated by
the same divine Spirit, with whose promptings it is its inmost desire to
comply, and appreciates that the aim of the commands of authority is to
keep it from straying from the guidance of the indwelling divine Spirit,
then obedience to authority becomes easy and light, and the fulfilment
of its commands the source of increased joy and greater liberty, not an
irksome task or a crushing burden. This spiritual insight springing from
the light of faith is the secret source of Catholic life, the inward
principle which prompts the obedience of Catholics to the divine
authority of the holy church, and from which is born the consciousness
of the soul’s filiation with God, whence flow that perfect love and
liberty which always accompany this divine Sonship.
The aim of the authority of the church and its exercise is the same as
that of all other authority—secondary. The church herself, in this
sense, is not an end, but a means to an end. The aim of the authority of
the church is the promotion and the safeguard of the divine action of
the indwelling Holy Spirit in the soul, and not a substitution of itself
for this.
Just as the object of the authority of the state is to promote the
common good and to protect the rights of its citizens, so the authority
of the church has for its aim the common good of its members and the
protection of their rights. And is not the patriotic spirit that moves
the legislator to make the law for the common good and protection of his
fellow-countrymen identically the same spirit which plants in their
bosoms the sense of submission to the law? Consequently, to fix more
firmly and to define more accurately the divine authority of the church
in its papal exercise, seen from the inside, is to increase individual
action, to open the door to a larger sphere of liberty, and to raise man
up to his true manhood in God.
It does, indeed, make all the difference in the world, as the poet
Goethe has so well said, to “look at the church” with “Sir Philistine”
in a “narrow and captious” spirit from “the market square” stand-point,
or to gaze on the church from the inside, where all her divine beauty is
displayed and, in a free and lofty spirit, fully enjoyed.
VII.—THE VATICAN COUNCIL (_continued_).
To define the prerogatives of the papal authority, and its place and
sphere of action in the divine autonomy of the church, was to prepare
the way for the faithful to follow with greater safety and freedom the
inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and thus open the door wider for a
fresh influx of divine life and a more vigorous activity. Thanks for
these great advantages to the persistent attacks of the foes of the
church; for had they let her authority alone, this decree of the Vatican
Council would not have been called for, and the prerogatives of the
papal functions might have been exercised with sufficient force as the
unwritten and common law, and never have passed into a dogmatic decree
and become the statute law.
The work of the Vatican Council is not, however, finished. Other and
important tasks are before it, to accomplish which it will be sooner or
later reassembled. Divine Providence appears to be shaping events in
many ways since the adjournment of the council, so as to render its
future labors comparatively easy. There were special causes which made
it reasonable that the occupant of St. Peter’s chair at Rome should in
modern times be an Italian. Owing to the radical changes which have
taken place in Europe, these causes no longer have the force they once
had. The church is a universal, not a national society. The boundaries
of nations have, to a great extent, been obliterated by the marvellous
inventions of the age. The tendency of mankind is, even in spite of
itself, to become more and more one family, and of nations to become
parts of one great whole rather than separate entities. And even if the
wheel of change should, as we devoutly hope, restore to the Pope the
patrimony of the church, the claims of any distinct nationality to the
Chair of Peter will scarcely hold as they once held. The supreme Pastor
of the whole flock of Christ, as befits the Catholic and cosmopolitan
spirit of the church, may now, as in former days, be chosen solely in
view of his capacity, fitness, and personal merits, without any regard
to his nationality or race.
It must be added to the other great acts of the reigning Pontiff—whom
may God preserve!—that he has given to the cardinal senate of the church
a more representative character by choosing for its members a larger
number of distinguished men from the different nations of which the
family of the church is composed. This, it is to be hoped, is only a
promise of the no distant day when the august senate of the universal
church shall not only be open to men of merit of every Catholic nation
of the earth, but also its members be chosen in proportion to the
importance of each community, according to the express desire of the
holy œcumenical Council of Trent. Such a representative body, composed
of the _élite_ of the entire human race, presided over by the common
father of all the faithful, would realize as nearly as possible that
ideal tribunal which enlightened statesmen are now looking for, whose
office it would be to act as the arbitrator between nation and nation,
and between rulers and people.
Since the close of the first session of the Vatican Council nearly all
the different nations of Europe have, of their own accord, broken the
concordats made with the church and virtually proclaimed a divorce
between the state and the church. This conduct leaves the church
entirely free in the choice of her bishops; which will tend to bring out
more clearly the spiritual and popular side of the church; to set at
naught the charge made against her prelates as meddling in purely
secular affairs; and to wipe out the stigma of their being involved in
the political intrigues of courts.
Modern inventions and improvements, such as telegraphs, railroads,
steamships, cheap postage, the press, have added time, increased
efficiency, and lent an expansive power of action to men which poets, in
their boldest flights of fancy, did not reach. These things have changed
the face of the material world and the ways of men in conducting their
secular business.
Pope Sixtus V. readjusted and improved in his day the outward
administration of the church—a reform that was greatly needed—and placed
it by his practical genius, both for method and efficiency, far in
advance of his times. This same work might, in some respects, be done
again and with infinite advantage to the interests and prosperity of the
whole church of God.
One of the most, if not the most, important of the congregations of the
church is that _De Propaganda Fide_. It is the centre of missionary
enterprises throughout the whole extent of the world. No other object
can be of greater interest to every Catholic heart, no branch of the
church’s work calls for greater practical wisdom, more burning zeal, and
more energetic efficiency.
There is, perhaps, no position in the church, after that of the papal
chair, so great in importance, so vast in its influence, so wide in its
action, as the one occupied by the cardinal prefect of the Propaganda.
Could it be placed on a footing so as to profit by all the agencies of
our day, it would be better prepared to enter upon the new openings now
offered to the missionary zeal of the church in different parts of the
world, and become, what it really aims to be, the right arm of the
church in the propagation of the faith.
Who can tell but that one of the results of the present crisis in Italy
will lead by an overruling Providence to an entire renewal of the
church, not only in Italy, but throughout the whole world? Such a hope
has been frequently expressed by Pius IX., and to prepare the way for it
was one of the main purposes of assembling the Vatican Council.
VIII.—IMPENDING DANGER.
Scarcely any event is more deplorable to the sincere Christian and true
patriot than when there arises a discord, whether real or apparent,
between the religious convictions and the political aspirations of a
people. Such a discord divides them into separate and hostile camps, and
it is not in the nature of things that in such a condition both religion
and the state should not incur great danger. Every sacrifice except that
of principle should be made, every material interest that does not
involve independence and existence should be yielded up without
reluctance or delay, in order to put an end to these conflicts, unless
one would risk on one hand apostasy and on the other anarchy.
The discord which has been sown between the state and the church by the
revolutionary movement in Italy has not only excited a violent struggle
in the bosom of every Italian, but has created dissension between
husband and wife, parents and children, brother and brother, friend and
friend, neighbor and neighbor, and placed different classes of society
in opposition to each other. The actual struggle going on in Italy is
working every moment untold mischief among the Italian people. Already
symptoms of apostasy and signs of anarchy are manifest. Every day these
dangers are becoming more menacing. A way out of this dead-lock must be
speedily found.
The church has plainly shown in ages past that she can live and gain the
empire over souls, even against the accumulated power of a hostile and
persecuting state. She has shown in modern times, both in the United
States and in England and Ireland, that independent of the state, and of
all other support than the voluntary offerings of her children, and with
stinted freedom, she can maintain her independence, grow strong and
prosperous. The church, relying solely upon God, conquered pagan Rome in
all its pride of strength, and, if needs be, she can enter again into
the arena, and, stripped of all temporal support, face her adversaries
and reconquer apostate Rome.
But who can contemplate without great pain a nation, and that nation the
Italian, passing through apostasy and anarchy, even though this be
necessary, in the opinion of some, as a punishment and purification? Can
those who believe so drastic a potion is needed to cure a nation give
the assurance that it will not leave it in a feeble and chronic state,
rendering a revival a work of centuries, and perhaps impossible? Every
noble impulse of religion and humanity should combine to avert so dire a
calamity, and with united voice cry out with the prophet: “Is there no
balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the wound
of the daughter of my people healed?”
The balm that will cure the present wound in Italy is not likely to be
found in a closer alliance of the church with the actual state. For the
state throughout Europe, with scarcely an exception, has placed itself
in hostility to the church, and to expect help from this quarter would
indeed be to hope in vain, and to rivet more closely the shackles which
bind the free action of her members. Is it not the apparent complicity
of the church with some of the governments of Europe, since they have
thrown off the salutary restraints of her authority, that has been one
of the principal causes of the loss to a fearful degree of her influence
with the more numerous class of society, giving a pretext to the tirades
of the socialists, communists, and internationals against her? The
church has been unjustly identified, in the minds of many, with thrones
and dynasties whose acts and policy have been as inimical to her
interests as to those of the people.
In the present campaign it would be far from wise to rely for aid on
states, as states now are—whether they be monarchies, or aristocracies,
or republics, or democracies—or upon contending dynasties; the help
needed in the actual crisis can come only from the Most High. “Society,”
as Pius IX. has observed, “has been enclosed in a labyrinth, out of
which it will never issue save by the hand of God.”
The prime postulate of a sound Catholic is this: The church is divine,
moved by the instinct of the Holy Spirit in all her supreme and vital
acts. The Catholic who does not hold this as a firm and immovable basis
has lost, or never had, the true conception of the church, and is in
immediate danger of becoming a rebel and a heretic, if he be not one
already. Whoso fails to recognize this permanent divine action in the
church, the light of the Holy Spirit has departed from his soul, and he
becomes thereby external to the church. Of this truth De Lamennais,
Döllinger, Loyson, are modern and sad examples. Instead of seeking a
deeper insight into the nature of the church, and drawing from thence
the light and the strength to labor for the renewal of Christianity and
the unity of Christendom, they have become blinded by passion and
deluded by personal conceits, and have fallen into heresy and
sectarianism. For the divine Spirit embodied in the church and the
divine Spirit indwelling in every Christian soul are one and the same
divine Spirit, and they bear testimony to each other, and work together
for the same end.
The errors which menaced the truths of divine revelation and the peace
of society are known and condemned by the supreme authority of the
church. The same voice of the Chief Pastor called a general council to
remove all evils from the church, “that our august religion and its
salutary doctrine might receive fresh life over all the earth.”
Again and again he has exhorted the faithful to uphold and encourage the
Catholic press in defence of religion as one of their important duties,
and followed up his advice by his own personal example.
Everywhere he has approved of the formation of societies for the
advancement of science, art, and education; for the protection and
amelioration of the working-classes; and the meeting of Catholic laymen
for the discussion and promotion of the interests of the church and
society.
“_Prayer, Speech, and the Press_”—these are the watch-words of Pius IX.
These words, which have the impress of the seal of divine grace upon
them, have awakened the universal consciousness of the church. The
church gained her first victories by prayer, by speech, and by writing,
and these peaceful weapons are not antiquated, and, if earnestly
employed, are in our day more than a match for needle-guns, Krupp
cannon, or the strongest iron-clads. Above all, when handled by
Catholics they have the power of Almighty God to back them, and that
strength of conviction in Catholic souls which knows no conquerors.
If there be one thing more than any other that strikes dismay in the
camp of the foes of the church, it is the united action of Catholics in
defence of their faith. Let Italian Catholics act unitedly and, wherever
and whenever they can, act politically, saving their faith and their
obedience; uphold generously the Catholic press; let them speak out
manfully and fearlessly their convictions with all the force of their
souls; and for the rest, look up to God, and the enemies of God and of
his church and of their country will disappear “like the dust which the
wind driveth from the face of the earth.”
“It is time, my brethren, to act with courage.”[5]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A MOUNTAIN FRIEND.
I.—OUR BOND.
I know not why with yon far, sombre height
I hold so subtle friendship, why my heart
Keeps it in one dear corner set apart;
No rarer glory clothes it day and night
Than find I otherwhere, yet, whensoe’er
Amid all wanderings wide by road or crest
Mine eyes upon those simple outlines rest,
My heart cries out as unto true friend near.
Nor holds that half-forbidding strength of form
Memories more dear than give so deep a grace
To other heights, yet e’er on yon dark face,
Sun-lighted be it, or half-veiled in storm,
I longing gaze with thoughts no words define,
And feel the dumb rock-heart low-answering mine.
II.—NOON.
I climb the rugged slopes that sweep with strength
And lines, scarce broken, from the desert wide,
Beneath whose shadow frailest flowers abide
And sweetest waters trip their murmuring length;