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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
CATHOLICS AND THE POPE
The following questions and answers dealing with
Catholics and their relations to the Pope are taken
from a pamphlet issued by the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia. Copies of the pamphlet will
be mailed free to any address on request. This is
the fourth article of the series.
What is meant by the temporal Power of the
Pope?”
This refers to the right of the Pope, resting on
the consent of the people and international law, to
temporal rule over the former Papal States, a part
of Italy that comprised about 18,000 square miles,
where the people themselves as well as the nations
of the world acknowledged the Popes as temporal
rulers from the time of the grandfather of Charle
magne to the time of Victor Emmanuel; who with
out taking a plebiscite to secure the consent of the
people, in 1870 by force of arms and on the old
pagan basis of right of conquest, invaded the States,
captured Rome and proclaimed the Pope’s temporal
power at an end. The Pope energetically protested
against this forcible spoliation, and still continues to
protest, resting his right on the consent of the peo
ple and established order, which is the Christian
concept of the right of civil government as opposed
to the pagan concept that might makes right.
It should be said that the right of the Pope to tem
poral rule over the Papal States did not inhere in
his office as Pope and did not rest upon divine
authority directly granted, but had the same basis
legal, historical and political, that makes valid the
claim of any other temporal ruler of a state or na
tion; also, that the Government of Victor Emmanuel
acknowledged this right of the Pope and voted to
him and his successors in compensation for its un
lawful spoliation, a perpetual annuity of several mil
lions of lire, which, however, the Pope has consis
tently refused, since to accept it would be to com
promise with wrong, which, although it might not
be inexpedient, would ill become the Supreme Shep
herd of Christendom.
‘‘It has been said that the Pope started the world
war, in order to win back his temporal power: is this
true?”
It has been said also, that the Pope ordered Lin
coln and Garfield and McKinley assasinated,—and
what other form of deviltry ever committed has not.
been laid at .his door,—with this or that ambitious
purpose attributed to him, which although it goes
on from generation to generation is never any nearer
achievement. One would think the Pope might
sometime tire of studying how to afflict humanity
with schemes that never succeeded. There is no
answer to the man who says the Pope started the
war. If he does not believe what he says he is
shameless; if he does believe it, it is only because
he wishes to believe it, for there is not any evidence
to induce such a belief or support it. Such a belief,
not resting on evidence cannot be removed by evi
dence. It is wilful error, which cannot be corrected
by reason. Those who entertain it must be left to
the enjoyment it gives them.
“Was the Pope pro-German during the War?”
In Germany it was said he was pro-ally; in allied
countries it was said he was pro-German; neutral
nations regarded him as neutral. The confusion
arises partly from a failure to distinguish between
the Pope and the Catholic Hierarchy of the different
nations. The Pope’s office is international in char
acter and he may not show national preferences on
any ground. The different Hierarchies are national
in character and each must be loyal to its own coun
try, in both peace and war, striving without injus
tice by every .means to promote the singular inter
ests of the nation to which it belongs. The Pope must
look to the common interests of all.
That Pope Benedict XV did not fail in this plain
duty or violate it by taking sides for or against any
nation during the world war, but on the contrary
acquitted himself creditably to all mankind, is irre
futably established by the published record of his
activities, which the Laymen’s Association has re
printed in pamphlet form and will be glad to send
without cost to any person requesting same. None
reading that record with an open mind can fail to
be impressed with the dignity, nobility, charity, kind
ness, patience and fatherly solicitude of the Pope of
Rome, whose constant effort to relieve the sufferings
of all the peoples engulfed is a great golden feature
of the war.
“Does not the Pope claim the right to rule the rulers
of the world?”
No, he claims the right to teach all men, includ
ing the rulers of the nations; all things whatsover
Christ commanded; but he claims no right to civil
rule over any one (except where this right was given
to him by the people in the Papal States). In the
spiritual domain, the Pope is the Successor of St.
Peter, the Vicar of . Christ on earth; he has every
right that this, implies; he claims no more. In the
temporal domain all governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed, which is
the democratic and right basis of civil rule that the
Catholic Church taught to the world and which after
five hundred years of her teaching we in America
at last embodied in our fundamental law. The
Church has always recognized and taught that the
command of our Lord to render unto Caesar the
things that belong to Caesar is as sacred and in
violable as the command to render unto God the
things that belong to God. She holds the strict and
conscientious observance of the first, no less than the
second, to be a part of man’s religious duty, separate
and distinct in its exercise, but equally indispen
sable and binding. Speaking directly to this point
in his Encyclical Letter of November, 1885, Pope Leo
XIII said: “God has placed the direction of the
human race between two powers, the ecclesiastical
and the civil; the former over the divine things, and
the latter over the human. Each is restricted within
limits which are perfectly determined in its own
nature and special aim, and each in its order is su
preme.” And in his Encyclical Letter of January,
1895: “The Church and the State have each its
own power, and neither of the two powers is subject
to the other.”
“What must Catholics do in case a law of the Pope
and a law of the State clash?”
They cannot clash. It is either not a law of the
Pope or not a law of the State that produces a clash-
Either the one or the other is in excess of authority,
and the Pope has attempted to legislate in matters
outside the spiritual domain or the State has at
tempted to legislate in matters within the spiritual
domain; therefore, it is not a clash of two laws but
of a law on the one hand and attempted usurpation
on the other. In such a case a Catholic like every
body else must uphold the law and put down usurp
ation, whatever its source. Our Lord would not
have directed us to render unto Caesar the things
that belong to Caesar and unto God the things that