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Show TnE "TRIBUXE" AND THE ENCYCLICAL. ENCY-CLICAL. Communicated. 1 , s' . i .f The' Salt Lake .Tribune has favored the public with what purports to lie a faithful faith-ful construction on the Pope's recent Encyclical. En-cyclical. That it is a faithful interpretation may be doubted, since his inference is presented pre-sented from a single extract. Such pur: port is mora likely to represent theSnews of the editor than : the author. "' If this editor were merely a private citizen, appearing ap-pearing as such in the columns of a paper, his utterances, however at variance with historical accuracy or violative of good taste, might be passed over in silence. But inasmuch as he -boasted that his journal was the foremost one within a radius of a thousand miles, it will certainly cer-tainly be admitted that he should be held to a fair and reasonable account for his insulting public declarations. The only excerpt he dwells upon is the advice to I Catholics to take anr active part in 'elec-I 'elec-I tions. This is his imbecile interpretation interpreta-tion : . "Surely that injunction is unnecessary. j and we fear it is a covert way of telling Catholics to vote for Catholics always and to get as many nominated as possible, and the aim is to finally divide the school fund and I to acquire a political control which will be more or less the creature of the Church." " It is hard to exercise patience while reading such villainous insinuations,', and to find language strong enough to characterize1 char-acterize1 them -This bigot is either a malicious hypocrite or a fanatic. ..Apparently ..Appar-ently he lives in fear. "Cowards die many times before their death." And cimnn'lin nnn . 1 1 n i nuivc iic tun iieuiier ugut nor ny, 11 will be charity to inform him that the first sentences of the' Pope's Encyclical readas follows : . "It is. a; calumny to suppose that the Church is incompatible with the principles of modern civil government and society as now constituted. The participation of the people in State government should not be blamed but encouraged." Here Leo overtly, says the people, regardless re-gardless of creed, should take an active part in elections. And nowhere does he covertly infer that Catholics should vote men of their belief into office with the aim of getting control of the school fund! Yet, this editor "suspects that he had these thoughts in his mind." There is nothing new in that, either in statement or in thought ; nevertheless, repetitions of old falsehoods haye to be met with truths still older. What has the Church to gain by allying ally-ing itself with any party ? AVhat are parties par-ties but changeable organizations ? They spring tip in a day, and they seldom last for the space of one generation. What has the Church, who counts her age by centuries and has an abiding faith that she will continue as long as the world ensures, en-sures, to do with such short-lived existences? ex-istences? The Church never put trust in politicians, whether they sit upon thrones and wear crowns or manage primary pri-mary meetings and caucuses. What has politics ever done for the Church that she should labor to build up or secure the success of any party? Catholics do not constitute a political party in this country, and never have done so. There are no reasons why they should attempt to form an organization, but many and strong ones why they should not. Possibly this editor is surprised that a Pontiff should undertake to speak of pub-he pub-he rights and popular liberties. We tell him it is not a new thing, and was to be expected, since Leo and his predecessors have fostered everywhere the principles which form the only enduring basis of our own civil .liberty, in curbing the tyranny of kings and emperors, defending defend-ing the rights of the people, and encouraging encour-aging every where throughout Europe the establishment of republics, free cities and municipalities. It is not surprising, however, how-ever, that this editor, who is a man of the libenstic school, should endeavor to put a false construction on his words. In all probability, when . the Pope prepared the political portion of his Encyclical, he had just such men as this editor in view. The object was to counteract the influence of those who constantly speak of justice and liberty, of enlightenment and progress of morality and religion, as if they were the born champions of all that is good. Ihe history of modern times, and a sad experience, have taught him that liberal ism is not synonymous with liberty, but rather with despotism. In the present case, what surprises us is, that an editor who respects himself would make a reckless reck-less and blundering statement, as he did without considering that what he was going to say had been most thoroughly refuted in the very letter that he attempts to construe. The fact, however, of his venturing to engage in the shameful task admits of an excellent explanation. He knows that there are in this city, as well 1X1 w ere' a Class 01 thinkers who can gobble down absurdities, relish sophistry and applaud everything that opposes the Catholic church on any subject whatever, what-ever, and especially on education. So he boldly undertook to tell what the Pope covertly thought." In doing so he is not only guilty of a false assumption, but also a mean and malicious calumny. The late Encyclical declares in the most explicit ex-plicit and unmistakable terms that Catholics Cath-olics ask no favor, no special prerogative no privilege, no right that they do not concede to others; in other words, "they seek equal rights for all, favors for none." ihis journalist would have shown a greater love of truth, and would have been more readily believed, had he told his readers that a great many people will say : 'Surely, . that injunction to th uatliolics is simply to vote for the -persons you conscientiously believe to be the least likely to injure your country, but do not mortgage yourselves for life to any party. The preservation of your republican re-publican institutions depends in no small degree upon-yon. Be on-vour guard against the seductions of political revola-tioms revola-tioms s i and.radicals who have fled, from the Old World. And above all, be on your guard against native-born demagogue dema-gogue editors who pose before the rnriQ as representative Americans.' Hold yourselves at all times free to "support the party which appears to you to be the most deserving of your support as simply loyal American citizens." No one but a shallow shal-low bigot would construe the letter other-wise. other-wise. . . ; . -. It is the merest nonsense to accuse the 1 ope of urging Catholics to acquire political po-litical control which will be the "creature of the Church." The tenor of his editorial editor-ial is to the effect that the Church would plunder the school fund like a robber would. Is not this shameful, after seeing see-ing her coins on in iill Ta ir. : sion of benevolen.ee and . charity for the I poor, and gaining universally their affec-1 "on, by the most inestimable benefits. I ihen, what he adds about the "Pope I not realizing what would be accepted as i a command in this country by the body ot Catholics," is simply a puerility, if not an impertinence. Doubtless, the v aVle t0 "realize" the interests Catholics should take in AmonVan offoJ-o so as to promote the welfare of this country coun-try without the kind help of the Tribune zealot or other self-appointed tutors. He continues -. . ito JJf4' !le Church must never seek to lav GoveSm."d DPOn be fnnCti118 f th j ,VIl5re is t,ie man 80 densely ignorant, i other than this editor, who does not know'i s that the Catholic Church teaches that civil governments have rights which no citizen can conspire against without sin i Is it likely that she shall set the example to her own members of disregarding that ; teaching, by engaging herself -in a -con- j spiracy to overthrow this Republic ? VV e repeat conspiracy, for that is what the bigot means when he talks about her " strong: hand. " : The history of the Church, shows that she has lived on terms of peace and amity with governments govern-ments : of every kind and form, and uniformly rendered to Ciesar "the things that are Cesar's," whether the authority j was represented by king, emperor, sultan, j czar, director or president, and has never asked from the State aught but the liberty of rendering to God "the things that are God's." We are far from being prepared to conceue uiai me viiurcn evei ougu to place her "strong hand" on the security secur-ity and peace of any government save in the practice of injustice or in the unjustifiable unjusti-fiable exercise of power. When did this editor learn that she had a "strong hand," in the sense he uses it? In the Middle Ages, when her prelates exercised any jurisdiction in civil or political matters, as some of them did, the power was so notoriously used in a beneficent way that it became a proverb : . "Better fear the weight of a bishop's thigh than of a baron's little finger;" "Better live under the shadow of a monastery than in a for tified-castle." Is this to be forgotten that room may be made for belief of a voluntary volun-tary and malicious falsehood? The writer adds: -' "They understand that the door is open tp the poorest of them to obtain the highest honors in the land." .-' -.. ' Perfectly true. But . what have the Catholic citizens of this country, as Catholics, Cath-olics, to expect from any party? If a Catholic occasionally obtains an office, it is not because he is a Catholic, but rather in spite of it. ..When has any political organization' in the United States ever dared to make even a show of -doing scant justice to the civil rights of Catholic citizens, or as a party to lift a voice in their favor? Let the Tribune sage answer. an-swer. He has more to say : "There are bigots in the Church who hold that the Pope is their temporal King." The ignorance of that statement . is equalled only by its falsity. There is not a Catholic in this wide country goose enough to believe anything of the kind. The Catholic Church never claimed, as a divine organization, to have authority in purely temporal matters, anywhere or at anytime. And the Pope claims for himself him-self temporal authority no where on the face of the globe, except in Rome and the adjacent country known as the "States of the Church," now wrested from him. Catholics, therefore, the world over, do not believe that the Pope has any authority author-ity over them. Nor has a claim of .universal .uni-versal sovereignity ever been made by any one of the Pontiffs who have occupied occu-pied the chair of St. Peter. The editor continues : "And they would, if they could, break up our free school system." We deny that Catholics would destroy the school system in the manner he would have his readers believe they would. That Catholics have protested against the present system,-is true, of course; but they were not the only ones who protested ; nor was their protest intended in-tended to shelter the rights of Catholicity alone, but those also of all other Christian families in the country. They, know that the State cannot adopt a system of Catholic Catho-lic education any more than of Methodist, Jewish, or Mormon education. The Catholic theory only maintains that the public schools must not be godless. Let them be denominational, and no one will urge their destruction on the ground of violated parental rights. It is reasonahlfi to infer that this editor is so shallow, on the school question, as to believe that the perpetuity of this Government depends on our present free school svstem. This being so, it is a pity that he "is not an ardent ar-dent patriot at all times and under all circumstances. It is surprising that he was sucn an entnusiast on the nomination of Mr. Blaine, since he tried to "break up our present school system" by his proposed alteration of the Federal Constitution. Con-stitution. He continues : "And they would vote blindly for the men of their creed when ordered to do so." Here is the - stale, senseless cry of priestly coercion" again. It is still occasionally occa-sionally raised by some demagogue or second-rate newspaper.. It requireseither a heartless soul, full of venom and hv- I pocrisy, or a stolid itrnoranm tn a charge of duplicity against Catholic citizens. citi-zens. While Protestant ministers do not scruple to introduce partisan politics into their religion, Catholic prelates rigidly abstain from it. Valuing a3 highly as other men their rights as citizens, they, with lew exceptions, from regard for their sacred duties and functions, take no part whatever in political affairs. These facts are well known to the intelligent portion of the American people. To anip.t tho - ' cuilui, ntj will tell him that the people of this country are in no danger of having any of their civil institutions destroyed by Catholics, ihe danger will come from another quarter. quar-ter. The danger is in the spread 6i Lib-6I"k Lib-6I"k u 88 tauSht by this great journalist which is but another name for infidel revolution, and is always despotic in the i end, however fair it may seem in its first aspects. . . ; In conclusion, we advise him never to write any more Know-Nothing editorials lest his readers may think he is a bigoted Know-Nothing. Catholic. Salt Lake City, November 16. |