Liberty of Conscience Threatened
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governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power,
and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution.
A well-known writer speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hi-
erarchy as regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which
especially threaten the United States from the success of her policy:
“There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman
Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see
nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our
free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then,
first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government
with those of the Catholic Church.
“The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of con-
science. Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX, in his
Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: ‘The absurd and erroneous
doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most
pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’
The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathe-
matized ‘those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious
[565]
worship,’ also ‘all such as maintain that the church may not employ
force.’
“The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a
change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop
O’Connor: ‘Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite
can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.’... The
archbishop of St. Louis once said: ‘Heresy and unbelief are crimes;
and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all
the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential
part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.’...
“Every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the Catholic Church
takes an oath of allegiance to the pope, in which occur the following
words: ‘Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord (the pope), or
his aforesaid successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose.’”—
Josiah Strong, Our Country, ch. 5, pars. 2-4. [
See Appendix for
Corrected References.
]
It is true that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic
communion. Thousands in that church are serving God according to
the best light they have. They are not allowed access to His word, and
therefore they do not discern the truth. [
Published in 1888 and 1911.