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Show 0r lub Conversations j By Crestes A. BroWnson. CONVERSATION XIII (Continued.) "In the Catholic society." said O'Connor, "the family and the state are, in their own order, as free as in natural society, only neither interprets the law under which it holds for itself. Each must take the law as infallibly declared by the supreme pontiff, chief of the supernatural .society and head of the Church, sole representative of the spiritual in regenerated humanity. Within the limits of the law so declared, the father may educate his children chil-dren where and how ho judges best, and the prince may. govern his subjects as seem to him good. The Church defines the secular, tells us what is or is not secular, but within the secularity, as she defines de-fines it, she leaves the father and the prince, the family and tite state, to their own wisdom and prudence." pru-dence." The rule for our guidance in both public and private, social and domestic life," said father John, "is that there are no rights against God. or even against his representative. I have no will that I may set up against the Church, nor has the State any rights that are valid against the spiritual authority. au-thority. But from this it by no means follows that there is no will, no judgment, no autonomy but hers. She dehnes the secular order, and the secular secu-lar order has no rights against her, but this is noti saying there is no secular order, or that the secular, secu-lar, in face of the secular, has no rights, no powers. pow-ers. What really are the rights of the father, the family, the school, the state, the secular society, are simply what God has willed they should have, and these the Church, as his faithful spouse, must recognize, confirm, and with all Iter power protect and defend when assailed." "But I do not see," remarked De Bonneville, "that Eather John's doctrine is much mote liberal than Mr. Window's. Neither will allow the Church can ever be in the wrong, or recognize in the State any independency in face of the Church. Neither concedes it any rights which it may hold up before be-fore her and say: 'These are mine; touch them at your peril.' " "I think that is very likely," said Diefenbach, "and I have no desire to belong to a church that ever can be in the wrong. Individual bishops and priests may be in the wrong, may act from their own judgments or passions instead of following the law of the Church, which is as determinate and as strict for them as for the humblest believer; but the Church, acting in her integrity, can never be in the wrong. M de Bonneville 'wants what,- as a Catholic, he cannot have. He wants a doctrine that will justify the Byzantine emperors, the German kaisers, the French and English kings, with their courtiers, jurisconsults and apostate monks, in their bitter and protracted struggles with the sovereign sov-ereign pontiffs, and permit him to say : 'Caesar was right and Peter was wrong.' He may find it in the four articles of the French clergy in 1682, drawn up by order of his Host Christian Majesty of France, but he will not find it in Catholicity; so he may as well make up his mind at once to say: 'Peter 'Pe-ter was right and Caesar was wrong.' " "God's dominion is absolute," said Father John, in conclusion, "but he governs man as a free agent, and in all his treatment of us respects the freedom of the human will, not because free will is a power that limits his power, or a right that limits his right, but because it enters into his purpose pur-pose that man should be a free moral agent, and he cannot take away that .free-will without destroying destroy-ing man's nature, for free-will is not a mere adjunct ad-junct to our nature, but is essential to its existence. exist-ence. The same principle runs through the whole moral government of God. IIi9 whole moral gov- - i ernmont propoje. whilo assert imr bis own dominion, domin-ion, the preservation of the aetiviry or auronomy of the erearure, or the maintenance of the acfivity of tb" creature, as soeond cause. The spiriuu! represri.is the divine, the ideal, a- iir-t cause, and the relation between ir and lhe eeular copies in thev order of second au.-es th- relation between be-tween crea'or ami creature. All civilization is historically his-torically hieroeratic. and it is the pi ritual that, makes the state, and without it there were no -rale, because there were nothing fixed and permanent. Bur at the same time that the spiritual in the order of second causes creates or founds the .-.ecidar. i' sustains ir as an activity distinct from ireli'. and no more absorbs ir than God in creatiuir a!-erb the creature. So when (led. in the i--e-s of hi- l"e and mercy, institute- the Church, founds supernatural super-natural society the new creation, a- St. Pan! 'mI's it he so constitutes u that i' leave.- the raiii'-a! without abrogating , ab-orbing it. God is the destroyer of hi- i.vai work. lli name is ef Apollyon. His aer i- creative and i-wisei-vati'v. The supernatural nniv add to. bur i- caun'-t take from the natural. It giver, a new order, oat it leaves the old it- autonomy. The -eeular can do nothing againsr the spiritual, hut it is of ih- very essence of the spiritual to -u-raiu it in all it- natural natu-ral rights and vigi-r. 11. nee I assert for the secular secu-lar its autonomy, its full and free activity in its own order according to the law of (lod. as de- dared by his vicar, or representative on earth. I "This, if I ant not mistaken, relieve- theocracy . I of the odium so generally attached to it. and -hews that it. preserves instead of destroy in u' our natural freedom. I pretend not to say iiiat under a fal-e system of religion, with an illegitimate priesthood, it may not have been abused, and perverted to the . destruction of every free motion of the -old or free movement of tb" body. I know no -ecurity men have, or can have, for anything, under a fa!-e religion, re-ligion, under false priests, or no priests, ami exposed ex-posed to all manner of error-, and subject to the lowest and most debe-nig passions, lhe first warn, of man is true religion, administered by true God-ordained God-ordained priests, who receive from !i:n their mission, mis-sion, and are hi- anointed. The attempt to t-et on with a false religion, or no religion a: all, wiib priests who run without being sent, or -imply yuan-made yuan-made priests, however much it may be boasted lo-short-sighted mortals, has always proved ami always al-ways will prove a miserable failure. "Neither do I pretend 1 liar no abu-e- bore and there, or now ami then, have obtained c: (! the true religion. The history of the Church proves clearly enough that if -he stood in human wisdom, human virtue and human sagacity alone, she would long since have fallen through. I'm; these abu-.-s are local and temporary, and the ('lou-eli. wht n not interfered with by the secular authority, has alwas bri herself the power to correct them. The Church, moreover, must deal with men as she rinds them, and if she finds them enslaved, their manhood crush d out by the superincumbent weight of civil de-pot- .-''- ism, she cannot treat them as f re -men. capable o1' standing up like men. and yielding her flie bomag' of a manly and intelligent obedience. Carbolic tradition tra-dition is true, divine, the relevation of God. bur. the traditions of Catholics are affected by the me- (Hums through which they have been transmitted and unhappily bear the tfiint of the civil despotism which has so long prevailed and still prevails in Catholic nations. But while we are bound to receive re-ceive Catholic tradition, we are under no ohliga- ' tion to receive or to defend the traditions of Catholics Cath-olics any further than they are accordant with tho teachings of the Church. Individual.- in the Church may. no doubt, misunderstand and misuse the theocratic theo-cratic principle but. after all. true theocracy is tho only government suitable to a free man. for it is -the only government which enables him with truth to say: 'I bow or bend my knee to God alone.'" (To re Continued.) |
