Joining Hands With Catholicism

The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America has also interested itself along the same lines, and has cooperated more or less with the other two organizations. November 21, 1905, twenty denominations met in New York, and invited the cooperation of the Roman Catholic Church to help solve these civic questions. Another meeting was held in Chicago, December 4-9, 1912, where representatives of thirty-two denominations, having a constituency of nearly 18,000,000 people, met in council. The Inter-Ocean of December 7, 1912, reported:FAFA 304.1

“Federal Council Opens Its Doors to the CatholicsFAFA 304.2

“Word Protestant Is Stricken from Committee Report on Object of Association of Churches.FAFA 304.3

“The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America took one of the most important forward steps in its history when it adopted a resolution presented by the executive committee eliminating the word Protestant from the report of the committee, and virtually threw down the bars and invited the Roman Catholic Church of America to join the council, and lend its titanic strength toward solving the common problems of the church.” — Quoted in The Review and Herald, January 9, 1913.FAFA 304.4

A strong resolution for the enforcement of Sunday laws by civil government was then adopted.FAFA 304.5

In forming the Papacy during the fourth and fifth centuries the Catholic bishops, in conjunction with the state, enforced the pagan Sunday as one of the first steps in uniting church and state, thus producing what prophecy terms “the beast.” And now in forming “an image to the beast’ the Protestant and Catholic clergy will again make Sunday laws the entering wedge in their attempt to enforce religion by law, because Sunday legislation constitutes the neutral ground for cooperation between Catholics and Protestants, and in this work they seek each other’s assistance. Rev. S. V. Leech, a Protestant Sunday advocate, said in an address at Denver, Colorado:FAFA 304.6

“Give us good Sunday laws, well enforced by men in local authority, and our churches will be full of worshipers.... A mighty combination of the churches of the United States could win from Congress, the state legislatures, and municipal councils, all legislation essential to this splendid result.” — “Homiletic Review,” November, 1892; quoted in “American State Papers,” William A. Blakely, p. 732. Washington, D. C.: 1911.FAFA 305.1

Rev. Sylvester F. Scovel, a leading National Reformer, says:FAFA 305.2

“This common interest [in Sunday] ought to strengthen both our determination to work, and our readiness to cooperate with our Roman Catholic fellow citizens.... It is one of the necessities of the situation.” — “Views of National Reform, Series One,” Bible Students’ Library, No. 8, pp. 85, 86. Oakland, Calif.: Jan. 15, 1889.

“Moreover they [the Roman Catholics] are willing to cooperate in resisting the progress of political atheism, we will gladly join hands with them.” — ” Christian Statesman,” Dec. 11, 1884.FAFA 305.3

The Catholic Lay Congress, held in Baltimore, November 12, 1889, said:FAFA 305.4

“We should seek an alliance with non Catholics for the purpose of proper Sunday observance.” — Quoted in “Religious Liberty in America,” C. M. Snow, pp. 283, 284.

When the great Federation of Catholic Societies was organized in 1906, they said:FAFA 305.5

“The Federation is a magnificent organization that is bound to root out prevailing and ruling national evils; a patriotic undertaking in which Catholic and non-Catholic may join hands.” — “The Catholic Union and Times,” Aug. 2, 1906; quoted in The Signs of the Times, July 8, 1908.

The following resolution was adopted by the Boston Archdiocesan Federation of Catholic Societies: “We are unalterably opposed to any relaxation of the Sunday laws. Sunday is a day of rest to be devoted to the praise and service of God. We hold the safest public policy at present is to adhere to the rigid observance of the laws now safeguarding the sanctity of the Lord’s day.” — “Boston Pilot,” official organ of Cardinal O’Connell, March 16,1912.FAFA 305.6

In 1910 forty-six Protestant denominations co-operated in an effort to reunite all the Christian churches in the world, and fifty five commissions were appointed to attend a world’s conference. They were to have been sent in September, 1914, to different countries to explain the plan, but the World War delayed it. Another effort was made in 1917, when delegates from “many denominations, including Protestant Episcopal, Baptist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian,” met at Garden City, N. Y., where they received a letter from Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State; and in 1919 three Episcopal bishops were sent to Rome to interview the pope on this question of church union, for Pope Benedict XV had already (1917) started a “move for reunited Christianity.”FAFA 306.1

The daily papers reported in January, 1930, that a plan for a world federation of Lutheran churches was being worked on by a sub-committee of the National Lutheran Council at New York. Reports at that time stated the federated church would be headed by a world executive comparable in administrative respects to the Roman Catholic pope. Decorah Posten (Norwegian) for January 21, 1930, gives a similar report. So “federation ” and ” consolidation ” are in the air.FAFA 306.2