The Two Voices Of Catholicism
Information Bureau)
Foy E. Wallace, Jr.
In the magazine section of The Daily Oklahoman, August 14, 1960, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus Religious Information Bureau admonished the people to "take the trouble" to look at the facts of history concerning Roman Catholics and the separation of church and state and "be surprised at what they find." Acting on the recommendation of the Knights of Columbus, they let us take a look at some Roman Catholic documents of modern history and give people of the general public a surprise.
I. The Catholic Church Opposes The Constitution Of The United States
The Syllabus of pope Pius IX, and the accompanying Vatican Decrees, were ratified by the universal Roman Catholic Vatican Council in 1870, and declared by the council to be infallible, irreformable and irrevocable — never to be revised or rescinded.
The Syllabus consists of eighty ominous articles which condemn the right of any civil government to separate itself from the Roman Catholic Church; denounces freedom of conscience, of opinion, of speech and of religion; claims for the pope and the priests the right to all temporal dominion; and decrees for the Roman Catholic Church the right to the possession and employment of military force to extend the unlimited dominion of the pope of Rome over all civil government' and to make the Roman Catholic Church the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all others.
Judged by this universal Syllabus Vatican Council, the pope of Rome stands in opposition to the Constitution of the United States. The papal Syllabus is incompatible with the liberties our constitution guarantees to every man. This Syllabus is final authority in the Catholic Church, and from it there is no appeal. By its mandates every American Catholic is bound to oppose the Constitution of our country; and no Roman Catholic can take an oath of office to uphold our Constitution and maintain his own honor and integrity as a true Roman Catholic. His mental reservations and conscientious exceptions cannot be ignored. No man can serve two masters. An honest Catholic can not hold allegiance to the pope of Rome and to the Constitution of the United States.
II. The Knights Of Columbus Contradict The Roman Catholic Syllabus
In view of the current propaganda of the Knights of Columbus in the various newspaper and magazine mediums of the nation, it is in order to "look" at their assertions side by side with the articles of the Syllabus, and observe the contradictions:
1. THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: Separation of church and state in this country seems to Catholics the natural, the inevitable, the best among us, both for the good of religion and of the state."
2. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SYLLABUS: The state has not the right to separate itself from the church (Article 55). The church has the right to require the state to make the Roman Catholic religion the only religion of the state (Article 77).
QUESTION: Shall we take what seems under certain political circumstances to be expedient to a propaganda organization of Catholic laymen — or the official Vatican declaration of the Roman Catholic Syllabus?
Take another "look" at the contradictions:
1: THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: "The status of the Catholic Church in such a land would obviously be different than in the United States, where there are many faiths, all entitled to the same rights and privileges."
2. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SYLLABUS: The Catholic Church claims the power to bind dogmas for universal beliefs, and asserts the right of requiring it to be believed by all that no pope of Rome ever exceeded the bounds of his power, and that no ecumenical (universal) council ever did so. (Article 22 and 23).
QUESTION- Which shall we take — the ipse dixit dictum of the propaganda organization of Roman Catholic laymen — or the official decrees of the Roman Catholic Syllabus?
Roman Catholic Propaganda Contradicts The Decrees Of The Pope
It is a well known fact of history that the pope of Rome and the Roman Catholic hierarchy condemn the expression of private opinion. Hear the Syllabus again: "Publicly manifesting their opinions and ideas, of all kind whatsoever, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people." (Article 79) The recent advertisements in the various metropolitan newspapers and national periodicals, by the religious propaganda, department of the Knights of Columbus, violated this Syllabus by indulging in numerous quotations reflecting the supposed private opinions of ranking Catholics. These quotations were not authoritative, and they contradict the encyclicals of the popes, the canons of the councils and the Vatican decrees.
QUESTION: Shall we take the quotations of the private opinions of a few Catholic leaders, compiled and published with evident political design, or shall we accept as authoritative the official decrees of the pope of Rome in the articles of the Syllabus?
ANOTHER QUESTION: If the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus really desires that the people should have a look at the facts of history, why does not their Religious Information Bureau advertise and circulate the articles of the Syllabus and the Papal Decrees bearing on the Catholic Church and civil allegiance?
IV. The Roman Catholicism of the Nineteenth and the Twentieth Centuries The effort to brush aside this Syllabus with an assertion that it pertained to people and nations of ancient and medieval time is an artful deception and it will not work. This Syllabus of the pope and his ecumenical Vatican council was issued and ratified in the latter part of the nineteenth century, within the generations of our parents. Moreover, it was enacted by the universal Catholic council composed of Roman Catholic prelates from all over the world, including the United States. It was declared to be universal in scope and extent, and decreed anathema upon all in every land who reject it.
The claim by the Knights of Columbus that the Roman Catholic Church has one doctrine for Europe on the separation of church and state, and another doctrine for America on freedom of religion and liberty of conscience, contradicts the basic dogma of Roman Catholicism: the unity and universality of the Catholic Church. If American Catholicism and European Catholicism are not identically the same, then the Roman Catholic Church no longer exists, the pope is no longer the universal pontiff, and both are a thing of the past. Is this the "look" at history which the Knights of Columbus want the people to see?
The only alternative for the American Roman Catholic is to acknowledge and accept the Syllabus, with all of its demands for undivided allegiance to the pope, or to renounce the Syllabus altogether and thereby be anathematized by the pope of Rome together with the rest of all mankind who refuse submission to it.
The full and authentic text and analysis of this Syllabus in the original Latin form and in the English translation can be found by "people who take the trouble to look" for what they can "find" in the annals of history. It has appeared in such notable publications as "The Vatican Decrees and Their Bearing on Civil Allegiance," by the Hon. William E. Gladstone, member of Parliament and Prime Minister of England; and in "The History of the Vatican Council and The Papal Syllabus," by Philip Schaff, the eminent president of the Revision Committee of our American English Bible; and in "The Pope, the Kings and the People," by England's William Arthur. The exposure of the Syllabus by Gladstone was published in the United States by Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1875.
V. The Evidence Of The Un-American Character Of Roman Catholicism
The following examples from the eighty articles of the Syllabus provide the undeniable evidence and irrefutable proof for the subversive and political character of the Roman Catholic Church.
Articles one to fourteen declare the pope's right to control all religion, and all moral and political philosophy, and all science and reason.
Article fifteen condemns every man's freedom to profess and embrace the religion which he deems to be true, and asserts the right of the Roman Catholic Church to require the state not to allow this freedom of conscience to any man.
Article nineteen claims that the rights of the Roman Catholic Church are unlimited, and denies the state the right to interfere with any of its activities whatsoever, regardless of their political character and effect.
Article twenty-seven claims for the Roman Catholic hierarchy all dominion over temporal affairs.
Article forty-five claims the right of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the entire direction of public schools.
Article seventy and seventy-three claim the right of the Roman Catholic Church to annul all marriages performed only by civil contract and not according to the forms of the Catholic sacrament of marriage decreed by the Council of Trent.
Articles seventy-eight and seventy-nine claim the right to prevent the state from granting freedom of opinion and of public worship.
Article eighty declares that the pope cannot be reconciled to modern civilization, progress, government and freedom, and that he cannot compromise with these concepts.
In order to perpetuate the union of church and state under this Syllabus, the Roman Catholic pontiff claimed the right to employ force to execute it (Article 55). Since the enactment of this papal Syllabus and the Vatican Decrees, the pope of Rome has retracted nothing and abandoned nothing — therefore, the Roman Catholic Church in America must be judged by the Syllabus, as it is judged in Europe, and by then papal decrees it must stand or fall in every country of the world, among all men of every race and nation.
It was due to the ratification of this Syllabus in 1870 that Gladstone declared that no Roman Catholic should be a member of the English Parliament, because of the allegiance to the Vatican power that the Syllabus binds on every Roman Catholic in the world. Gladstone warned the people of the British Isles of the efforts of the Catholic priests to Romanize England, and extended this warning to the United States, "where the separation cf church and state is supposed to be complete," and declared that this country was standing in the same danger.
VI. The Political Propaganda Concerning Intolerance And Bigotry
The Syllabus of pope Pius IX proves that Roman Catholicism actually is not a church but is essentially a politico-religious state, a hierarchy of civil and religious totalitarianism which sweeps into the papal net whole systems of government, and which binds the authority of the pope of Rome on all Roman Catholics in the United States to the extent of impairing the integrity of their civil allegiance.
The propaganda that religion should not be injected into the political field is both subtle and subversive in design. The Vatican is itself a civil state, and the pope is its political head. Catholics protest the injection of religion into politics, but they promote the projection of politics into religion, and through the multiple organizations of the Catholic Church they are waging an enormous campaign of propaganda on the religious issue. The politico-religious Issue is inherent in Roman Catholicism; it is a part of the warp and woof of their whole system. The pope of Rome has decreed both political and religious intolerance. The Syllabus binds intolerance on every Roman Catholic. But it is a, one-way Catholic street — because the intolerance that the papal decrees bind on all Catholics, if practiced by non-Catholics is protestant bigotry. But religious bigotry is the Roman Catholic stock in trade.
The presumptuous perversion of truth being foisted upon the public by such Catholic organizations as the Knights of Columbus poses a challenge to every citizen of our beloved land, who holds the freedom of body and soul as our heritage. It is a martial call, the signal to rise up and fight.
VII. The Dark Cloud Of Catholicism On The American Horizon
Since the Knights of Columbus Religious Information Bureau has chosen some quotations to serve its obvious propaganda purposes, it is permissible that another quotation from an eminent personage be seen. It is the voice of Abraham Lincoln: "If the American people could learn what I know of the fierce hatred of the generality of the priests of Rome against our institutions, our schools, our most sacred rights and so dearly bought liberties, they would drive them away from us tomorrow.... The history of the last thousand years tells that wherever the church of Rome is not a dagger to pierce the bosom of a free nation she is a stone to her neck, a ball to her feet, to paralyze and prevent her to advance in the ways of civilization, science, intelligence, happiness and liberty....I see a very dark cloud on our horizon. And that dark cloud is coming from Rome...." (From America or Rome, Brandt.)
Roman Catholicism is a system of politico-religious communism. There are two rival systems of communism — the political communism of Russia and the religious communism of Rome. Both systems are totalitarian in character, one seeking the complete regimentation of every individual under an atheist political state, the other seeking the same ends under a theistic religious state. Let the voice of Lincoln he heard' "I see a very dark cloud on our horizon, and that dark cloud is coming from Rome." This country was settled and its government established by its founders to get away from the European conditions imposed upon them by the feudal lords and the Roman priests. Shall we now see these things thrust upon us again?
The Roman Catholic Church is using every technique of ancient and modern methods to brainwash the American people, preliminary to the final test of strength foreseen by President Lincoln, and we may all well pray God save America.
— Oklahoma City, Oklahoma