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    April 15, 1903

    “What Do These Things Mean?” The Signs of the Times 29, 15, pp. 2, 3.

    III.

    IN closing the previous article we said that the power and influence which the Papacy had already gained in the national government, in connection with the coal-strike and labor combines, is only a part of the new standing of the Papacy in connection with the United States Government to-day.SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.1

    The opening of the Spanish-American War presented to the Papacy a grand opportunity, which she instantly seized, and which she has been working to the utmost at every stage of proceedings since. The entanglement of the question of the friars in the Philippines she so worked as to draw the national government one official communication with the papal government in Rome. She secured a commission from the United States Government to be sent to Rome to deal with the Papacy on her own ground in the Vatican. This commission consisted of three persons,—Governor Taft, of the Philippine Islands; Bishop O’Gorman, of the Catholic Church; and Attorney James F. Smith, a Roman Catholic and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. That is to say, the United States Government and the Papacy are two parties to a controversy or negotiation. The United States Government sends a commission of three to represent the United States, and two of the three are themselves Papists. This, then, was nothing else than another instance in which the Papacy is professedly dealing for the United States Government simply deals with herself. For is there anybody in the world so obtuse as not to be able to discern that the papal two-thirds of that commission sent to deal with the Papacy would inevitably work for the interests of the Papacy first of all? that they would represent the Papacy instead of the United State?SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.2

    This two-thirds papal commission went duly to Rome, and entered upon negotiations with the Papacy; with the result that the question in controversy was relegated to Manila as the place of the further consideration of it, and Governor Taft and the papal apostolic delegate, Mgr. Guido, as the persons to conduct the further negotiations, with “the Philippine Government expressly recognizing the official character of Mgr. Guido, and has pledged itself, over Mr. Taft’s signature, to treat with him as a duly-accredited representative of the Holy See.” And this is but the recognition of the papal government by the United States Government in her Philippine possessions and jurisdiction.SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.3

    In the negotiations Governor Taft proposed four articles as a basis of procedure and settlement. One of these articles proposed a tribunal of arbitration composed of five members, two to be appointed by the pope, two by the Philippine Government, and the fifth to be chosen by “an indifferent person, like the governor-general of India.” By the Papacy these four articles were expanded to twelve; and this particular one was so changed as to have that arbitration board composed thus: “Two shall be named by the Holy See, two by the Philippine Government, and the fifth by the common accord of the same four; and if such accord can not be reached, his holiness the pope and the President of the United States shall come to an understanding as to the choice of said fifth member.” Negotiations were at this point abruptly broken off, so that the matter went no further. But this one item shows plainly enough how ready is the Papacy to set traps by which she shall involve the United States Government in such a way that it shall be caused to work hand in hand with the Papacy in behalf of the Papacy. If that proposition had been accepted, can anybody believe that the four would ever have agreed upon the fifth members, when the alternative was that the pope and the President of the United States should work together in the matter, thus becoming a union of the United States and the Papacy?SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.4

    The School Question

    Another item in this papal entanglement is the school question in the Philippines. The Papacy claims the sole right of controlling and conducting education in the Philippines; and at the same time here the schools supported from the public treasury; in other words, to have the Papacy, a union of the Church and the State, supported by the United States. Governor Taft claims the right of the American principle of separation to prevail in the Philippines and not in the school matter there. The papal plea is represented in the following documents:—SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.5

    Cincinnati, July 10, 1902.
    Rev. Dear Father:—

    Should you be willing to do so, kindly sign your name to the enclosed memorial and return it as soon as possible to the Chancery, stating at the same time the number of Catholics under your care. The document has already been signed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Hartford, and the 282 priests of his diocese, and probably by many others.SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.6

    Wm. Henry Elder, Archbishop of Cincinnati.

    Cincinnati, July 10, 1904.
    To His Excellency, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States:—

    The undersigned, the clergy of the diocese of Cincinnati, in their own name, and in the name of 200,000 Catholics of the diocese, would respectfully beg to lay before your excellency the following memorial bearing upon the Philippine schools:—SITI April 15, 1903, page 2.7

    Your excellency is aware that the Filipino people, in so far as they are Christians at all, are members of our communion. For three hundred years they have committed the education of their children to the care of religious teachers. To the training thus imparted the natives owe their present status as a civilized and Christian people. We respectfully submit that, in our judgment, the abrupt and complete breaking away from this system of education, and the adopting of another entirely devoid of religious coloring, coupled with the violent disruption of venerable traditions which must necessarily ensue, would be a grave hindrance to their progress in civilization, and impede unnecessarily our peaceful and successful government of the archipelago.SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.1

    We respectfully submit that the clause of the Constitution which requires the absolute separation of Church and State was intended by the framers of the document to meet the conditions in the United States of America, and not those which obtain in the Orient and among a people unanimously of one form of religious belief.SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.2

    And the Catholic paper from which these documents are copied, the Church Progress, of St. Louis, enforces the plea of the documents with the following editorial endorsement:—SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.3

    While our government has been far from doing the right thing by way of recognizing American Catholics in the Philippines, we believe justice will eventually prevail. For that the demand of fifteen million American Catholics is somewhat of a guarantee. It is one which no administration dare ignore.SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.4

    Against Governor Taft’s holding to the American principle of separation of Church and State, the Papacy sets up the argument: “The Constitution of the United States does not apply in the Philippines.” And since that is exactly what the Supreme Court has decided, who can deny the legality of the papal contention? And since the Papacy has the highest possible legal basis for her claim that the Constitution does not apply in the Philippines, she holds distinct vantage ground in her claim that the system that has prevailed there for three hundred years shall continue; and that is the papal system, with the splendid addition that the authority of the United States Government is now included in the papal system. And that this shall be firmly secured, she proposes to swing, in the United States itself, the political power.SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.5

    In addition to “this demand of fifteen million of American Catholics,” “which no administration dare ignore;” and as a further strong security that her system and conniving will and shall prevail in the Philippine school matter; is the significant fact that that Hon. James F. Smith, who was half of that two-thirds papal commission of the United States to the Vatican, was, upon his return from that commission, appointed by the President of the United States a “member of the Philippine commission and Secretary of Public Instruction in the Government of the Philippine Islands.” And this simply puts into her hands the whole control of the school question in the Philippines. And what possible prospect can there be of Governor Taft alone stemming that papal tide in the Philippines, when that tide is so industriously fed, not only from Rome, but from Washington itself?SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.6

    No, that tide will surely engulf not only the Philippines, but the United States. Eleven years ago the Papacy published in the United States that “what the Church has done for others, she will now do for the United States.” Ten years ago she gave by Satolli her official commission to the Catholics of the United States to bring their country into immediate contact with the papal church. And by every possible means this is being done; and her success in the scheme is remarkable. And through the success of this scheme she proposes to lift herself again to supremacy in Europe and the world, and so dominate “all humanity.”SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.7

    And she will succeed in that world scheme so certainly as she is succeeding in her scheme to dominate the United States as the preliminary to that world scheme. And so it is written in the Scriptures: “These kings are of one mind in surrendering their power and authority to the beast.” “For God put it into their minds to carry our His purpose, in carrying out their common purpose and surrendering their kingdom to the beast, until God’s decrees should be executed.” Revelation 17:14, 17 (Twentieth Century New Testament).SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.8

    And when she gets again world-power and supremacy, what will she do with it? How will she use it?—She will do with it just what she did before. She will use it just as she did before,—to compel “all humanity” to do her bidding, and whoever will not do it will incur her wrath in persecution, boycott, and inquisition, unto death. And the one thing in which has always centered her will to be conformed to by all people, without distinction, is the recognition of Sunday as the day of rest for all. This she will enforce upon all the world by all the power of the world. And every movement of any sort in behalf of Sunday as the rest day is a direct play into the hands of the Papacy; it is a direct helping forward of the papal domination of the world.SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.9

    And this is the religious despotism of the one-man power that is the logic and the culmination of the universal spirit of combine that prevails to-day. And when she finds herself once more at the head of the world, she exultingly congratulates herself: “I sit here a queen; no widow am I; I shall never know misery.” But her exultation will be short-lived this time, thank the Lord. For the Lord’s own response to her note of triumph is, “Therefore in one day shall these curses befall her—death, misery, and famine, and she shall be utterly destroyed by fire.” And the kings of the earth that surrendered their power and authority to her, hoping that she should be the means of bringing to their kingdoms help and peace from the confusion and anarchy that her own elements had caused—these same kings, in their infinite disappointment and vain humiliation, “will all hate the prostitute, and cause her to become deserted and strip her bare; they will eat her very flesh and destroy her with fire.”SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.10

    Then, in the midst of the anarchy and destruction that is the result of all this, the Lord Jesus appears in the clouds of heaven with true power and infinite glory. And in their blindness and anarchistic confusion the beast and all the kings of the earth turn to make war even against Him. “They will fight with the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are on His side ... will share His victory.”SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.11

    And so the meaning of the things that are ocurrent to-day, and the outcome of the combines that are prevalent everywhere, and in all things, is the religious despotism of a one-man power of the Papacy restored to a short-lived supremacy, and then hurled down to eternal destruction and perdition. While for those who, with the other heroes of the ages, in their individual integrity, refuse all that, and stand in their individual integrity with God in Jesus Christ, the sure outcome is the rising to be with God in everlasting victory and eternal glory. For “those who are on His side ... will share His victory.” “Who is on the Lord’s side?”SITI April 15, 1903, page 3.12

    ALONZO T. JONES.

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