PARALLELS

Indeed, this is already apparent. It is the truth that all that was really new about their repudiation of the word “Protestant”, was only in the open and express doing of it. As far back as December 1908, in the first meeting of the council as such, the “right of private judgment,” that was emphasized, and the “individuality” that was developed, by “the Protestant Reformation,” was specifically thrown over as that which should “no longer blind the minds of believers” to “the need of combination” and of “mutuality in service.” And in the public announcement of the date and place of holding this council in Chicago, it was plainly stated that this “United Protestantism is not to be construed as a demonstration against the Roman Catholic church.”ATAP 3.25

This latter statement was confirmed in another act of the Chicago council. The council unanimously adopted a report in which it is distinctly declared that the church is justified “in turning to the State for a cooperation which will enable her to do her sacred task.” This is exactly parallel to the instruction given by Leo XIII in his encyclical of January 6, 1895, to the hierarchy in America, saying that here the Catholic church “would bring forth more abundant fruits, if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of public authority.”ATAP 4.1