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18 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