Catholicism In Marion County, Kentucky
Lebanon, Kentucky Dear Brother Tant:
Here in Marion County, Kentucky, we have the most notorious example of Catholic aggression in the nation. Catholics here have taken over the public schools, with a Catholic "Knights of Columbus" man as County Superintendent, and 46 out of 86 teachers are Catholic nuns. Most children in the county are deprived of any except Catholic schools. The only non-Catholic high school in the county has been discontinued, while each of the four Catholic high schools continues to operate. The citizens in the area of the discontinued high school (Bradfordsville) have been on strike since last September, and have two suits now pending in the courts. They refuse to send their children to the Catholic high schools.
The Church of Christ here in Lebanon recently invited Brother O. C. Lambert of Winfield, Alabama, to come here and give a series of lectures on "The Menace of Catholicism." Following is a letter Brother Lambert wrote to the editor of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Five thousand copies of this letter were distributed in and around Marion County. The lectures have awakened this county as never before to the danger confronting all of us. We feel that much good has been done.
Sincerely, Ellis F. Webb
Minister, Church of Christ
Lambert's Letter
To the Editor of Courier-Journal:
I note with interest the furor among your readers over an alleged statement of a Baptist minister, a Mr. Callico, to the effect that Roman Catholicism is a greater threat to America than Communism. I want to utter a loud amen to Mr. Callico. The following quotations from unquestioned documents, which I will gladly produce, furnish my reason:
1. Everybody Is Under Pope, They Claim!
"The Roman Pontiff possesses the primacy over the whole world" (decree of the Council of Trent); "over kings and kingdoms" (Boniface VIII, 1301 in Catholic Encyclopedia II, 666.)
Concerning this, a parochial school history text says:
"The dogmatic definition contained in the Bull is the doctrine necessarily held by every Catholic, namely that by divine law all men are subject to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs." (Short History of the Catholic Church, 102, 103.)
2. Claim Power Over All Men! Not Now Able To Exercise It!
"Now, therefore, we declare, say, determine and pronounce that for every human creature it is necessary for salvation to be subject to the authority of the Roman Catholic Pontiff." (Cath. Ency. XV, 126.) "Contentions frequently arise between the ecclesiastical and civil power, of which the issue commonly is, that the weaker power yields to the one which is stronger in human resources." (Great Encyclical Letters, 122.)
"To restrain and bring back her rebellious sons the Church uses both her own spiritual power and the secular power at her command." (Cath. Ency. VII, 261.)
3. Claim Power To Destroy Government!
"Although in the extraordinary conditions of these times the Church usually acquiesces in certain modern liberties, not because she approves them in themselves, but because she judges it expedient to permit them, she would in happier times exercise her own liberty." (Gr. Ency. Let., 158.)
"But ecclesiastics should, at the same time, resume their ancient authority, and an interdict or an excommunication should make kings and kingdoms tremble as in the days of Nicholas I or Gregory VII." (Life of Leo XIII, 540.)
"There is nothing strange in attributing to the Roman Pontiff, as the Vicar of Him whose is the earth and the fulness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein, the fullest authority to lay bare, a just cause moving him, not only the spiritual but also the material sword, and so to transfer sovereignties, break sceptres, and remove crowns." (Cath. Dic., 258.)
"The third canon of the Lateran Council (1215) ordains that if a secular ruler persists, after being warned, in letting heresy grow up undisturbed in his dominions, he was to be excommunicated by the bishops of the region subject to him, if he contemns the excommunication the Pope is to be informed, so that he may declare the vassals of that ruler absolved from his fealty and invite Catholics to occupy the country." (Cath. Dic., 257.)
"But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff as to God Himself." (Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, 193.)
"We (the Pope) hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." (Gr. Ency. Letters, 304.)
"Roman Pontiff has from on high an authority which is supreme, above all others and subject to none." (Pius XI, in Encyclical, Light of Truth, page 5.)
4. Claim Power Over Non-Catholics! "Might Compel" Us!
"In regularly organized dioceses and parishes the bishops and pastors have charge of all people who live within their territory not excepting non-Catholics. (Administrative Legislation in the New Code of Canon Law, 231.)
5. Just Not Able Now!
"Although the church having authority over all baptized persons, might compel heretics, schismatics and apostates to have their children receive the sacrament of Baptism, ordinarily she does not exercise that right, and when both parents are non-Catholics she applies to their children the same rule as those of infidels." (Legislation on the Sacraments in the New Code, 29.)
6. Catholics Hate Americanism Our Constitution "Unlawful"!!
"From what has been said it is quite unlawful to demand, to defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, of speech, of writing or of worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man." (Leo XIII, Gr. Ency. Letters, 161.)
"Hence from all we have hitherto said, it is clear, beloved son, that we cannot approve the opinions which some comprise under the head of Americanism." (Leo XIII, Gr. Ency. Letters, 252.)
"The Church, indeed, deems it unlawful to place the various forms of divine worship on the same footing as the true religion." (Leo XIII, in Gr. Ency. Letters, 127.)
"The very fact that the Church could call upon the civil power to repress rebellion, against her teaching, proves conclusively that the men of that day considered the Church's teaching necessary for the well-being of society. Many non-Catholics of today, find this viewpoint difficult to understand, for with them religion, is a matter of human opinion. They believe that a man is free to choose his religious beliefs as he chooses the style of his coat, or his political opinions. They have ceased to regard religious truth as something objective, they have ceased to believe in divine revelation." (Question Box, 192.)
Five thousand copies of this letter are being distributed in and around Marion County, Kentucky. I challenge anyone, including the Archbishop of Louisville, to meet me on the following proposition: "The Roman Catholic Church is one hundred times as great a menace to free America as Communism."