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Show CHURCH AND STATE REALLY INSEPARABLE If Church and State are to be independent of each other, every man's conscience ought to be cut in two, half to direct his religious life and half his secular life, remarks the latest writer on this subject sub-ject that is agitating Europe. As a matter of fact, he says, the efforts of the Church and of ihe State, in every good work, must lie along ihe same lines, so that, unless one or the other is on the wrong road, they must travel, together. Mr. Romolo Murri. who lays down these propositions in the Ra ssegna Xazionale (Florence), is the leading spirit in the Italian Democratic league, which Pope Pius X has recently condemned in an encyclical to the Italian bishops. It is true, Mr. Murri says. ! that Church and State can no longer be identical institutions, as they were iu the Middle Ages, but he declares that in auother sense they are inseparable, insepara-ble, because the ethical standards and ideals of religion re-ligion are the best guides to individual and political polit-ical progress. In his own words: "Xo believer in the church's mission will deny that religion regards the ultimate problems of life and existence, and therefore deals with the original and fundamental reasons of human activity. All the purposes of this activity should be imbued and inspired both by the standards of religion whose authority is self-evident to the understanding of raau. and by that morality and honesty which in religion re-ligion are given their full value and sanction. But many are inclined, quite illogieally, to extend the superiority of religion in the human conscience and in human life so as to revive the historic obsolete claims of the Church to that dominion and govern mental power which m certain phases of European" history she manifestly enjoyed. Yet no one in his senses can affirm today that the church can and ought to perforin all those acts of international legislation, leg-islation, of investing kings, and of guarding the civil life of Europe by armed force, as was the case in the Middle Ages. In the gradual development of civilization the tendency has always been apparent appar-ent to specialize and divide off the various departments depart-ments of human activity, and gradually to prefer for specific ends the use of instruments most nicely adapted and most completely in harmony with the object sought. Xo one nowadays would demand tha.4svC'sU--04ft v-Iq& .should Ua'vai i s-ov. n.-r.ligiou home, or its own church, or that elementary or secondary sec-ondary education should be carried on by none but the clergy, or that "the clergy ; should be brought to trial in none but special ecclesiastical courts of their own." The stale, on the other hand ,the writer goes on to say, has now taken over many of the activities: and responsibilities which formerly belonged to the church. These two spheres of hjimiaii activity have thus become separated. The condition of France is peculiar on this point. Even if the Separation had 'not been brought about by the French Government's practical confiscation of church property, another way woUld have been found to separate Church and State. The Roman Catholics are now in the minority mi-nority in France, and "a minority can never form the religion of the slate in accordance with the principles of modern parliamentary government.'' Yet practically religion and government can never really be divorced, however Church and State may be rendered distinct in the administrative authority au-thority and temporal power. On this poiut Mr. Murri speaks as follows: "Any one. however, who concludes from what we have said above that we maintain the separation of Church and State sic et simpliciter, in an absolute abso-lute and essential manner, is quite mistaken. We think separation a good and useful thing so far as it implies the abolition of certain definite and historic relations which are no longer suitable or advantageous to either party. But separation, in Ihe full sense of the term, as implying an utter absence ab-sence of connection between the two societies, wo regard as a contradiction of terms. In order to. obtain a separation it would be necessary to cut the conscience of every human individual iu two, one-half to be the director of religious activity, the other half of all the remaining sphere of life. The Church and the State, but this unity of the human conscience, are made one in their pursuit of the very highest ends. Historically they have been al lies or trials in the work of education, moral and intellectual. In the field of education, to use that word in its widest significance as including the exercise ex-ercise of a lofty influence on the social efficiency of all the legislative and judicial institutions of the land, the Church and State will always be brought in contact with each other, and unless they come to a conflict they must come to an , understanding. Such an understanding will be the sole guaranty of such an activity as will alone enable them to see and define the mutual relations of their national existence' Translation made for the Literary Digest. Di-gest. ."' |