The anti-Catholic motive; an analysis of the causes of organized hatred of the Catholic Church


1HE

TOTHOUC
MOTIVE

An^Analysis of the Causes
of Organized Hatred of

The Catholic Church

BY

DOMINIC FRANCIS

(Third Edition)

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS
Huntington, Indiana

1927





An Analysis of the Causes
of Organized Hatred of
The Catholic Church

DOMINIC FRANCIS

(Third Edition)

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS
Huntington, Indiana

1927



The Anti-Catholic Motive.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this pamphlet is to examine the

motives of those who are identified with the anti-Cath-
olic campaign in this country. That such a campaign
is being made, actively and vigorously, is evident. That
those who take part in it claim the highest motives is
also evident, but it is not so easy to credit the purity of

their motives when one has carefully studied their aims,
their methods, their personalities, and the results which

they achieve. For the sake of brevity I am here citing
seven classes of people, plainly engaged in anti-Catholic
activity, and am probing the motives which, ostensibly
and otherwise, actuate them. My thesis is that no one
of these motives is sufficient to account for the violence

of the anti-Catholic attack, which is rather to be as-
cribed to the combination and interplay of all of them.
That one class of anti-Catholic agitation shades off into,
and merges with the next, will be evident to the reader.
That all of these motives are reducible to one ultimate
and ulterior motive is a theory which I shall prove in
these pages. For having analyzed the motives of vari-
ous anti-Catholic groups and classes, I shall make the
synthesis of them all, which alone can account for the
strength and persistence of the anti-Catholic campaign.

. I shall illustrate and prove each point that I make
by quotations from documents available to anyone who
wishes to take the trouble to verify them. In so doing
I have but chosen one or two instances from the multi-
tude at my disposal, so that my illustrations must not
be regarded as exhausting the possibilities of such proof
of the statements which I make.

CHAPTER ONE.
THE CONDITION AS IT EXISTS

It is evident, to any one at all acquainted with the
religious situation in the United States today, that there

is, on the part of Protestants, and non-Catholics in gen-
eral, a deep-seated prejudice against the Catholic

Church. This situation is taken advantage of by the
fanatic, by the unscrupulous politician, by the ‘‘ex-



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 3

priest” out of a job, by many others who crave the door-
receipts or the silver collection, by the socialist, by the
morally corrupt. Socialism and politics especially are
responsible for the formation of anti-Catholic societies

and the presentation of anti-Catholic lecturers, and for
the existence of anti-Catholic papers and magazines.

A little study of the matter will convince any right
minded person that the alleged causes for this antipathy
are not sufficient to explain its persistence. The “Re-
formation” took place three hundred years ago, and,
whatever may be said about the persecution of Protes-
tants by Catholics, or of Catholics by Protestants at
that time, the mere memory of such bygone unhappiness
could not be enough to account for the feeling of Protes-
tants against Catholics today, or vice versa. If such

were the case the former persecution of Protestant by
Protestant (for example Calvinist by Lutheran, Baptist
by Puritan, Anglican by Presbyterian) would suffice to
make the pan-Protestant world much more of an house
divided against itself than it actually is. The fact is
that there have been no efforts made to keep those inter-
Protestant animosities alive, but a persistent effort has

been made, and is being made today, to keep alive, and
at fever heat, the old friction between Protestant and
Catholic. There has never been a day, since Luther
nailed his theses to the Church door in Wittemberg, but
that some anti-Catholic fanatic has taken a shot at the
Catholic Church. At first, say for a century, th*: odium
theologicum might possibly account lor the virulence of
these unceasing attacks. But somehow there has always
been, a mixture of personal motives with the really re-
ligious elements in the controversy. It was true of the
Reformers, cenairay. No one can read the history of
Luther’s career without realizing that there was a large
element of personal revolt against religious rules which
limited his pleasure, as well as (no doubt) a sincere re-

ligious revolt against what he honestly believed to be a
corrupt form of Christianity. But the more Luther’s
personality is brought to light by unbiased historical
research, the less confidence can the student have in his
religious motive, and the larger looms the element of his
sordid and selfish personality. The same thing is true



4 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

of Henry VIII, and in greater or less measure of every
one of the Reformers—^which is, after all, only to say
that they were human beings, with failings and pas-
sions and weaknesses. But it goes a long way towards
explaining their attitude towards the Catholic (Dhurch,
which was the chief obstacle in the way of their self-
indulgence.

THE PERSONAL MOTIVE.
I have mentioned the Reformers, not because mod-

ern men and women are particularly interested in them,
but because their careers show a striking similarity to
those of anti-Catholic agitators of today, a likeness too

pronounced to be ascribed to coincidence. Luther might,
conceivably, have turned Protestant because he wanted
to have a wife, just as Henry VIII might, conceivably,
have turned Protestant because he wanted to get rid of
one. In both cases the Catholic Church had said, quite
plainly, to them “thou shalt not.” So they quit the
Catholic Church. What portion of their historic influence
on the religious thought of the world is to be credited

to their perfectly natural and human method of crying
down the institution which dared to oppose their de-
sires, I would not like to say. I think that in both these
instances, as in so many others, there was a certain ele-
ment of sincerity; but that there was also a large ele-
ment of personal depravity is evident to any reader of
history. The same thing is true of so many who have
left the Catholic Church, because her teaching and dis-
cipline were not in line with their personal desires and
proclivities, that it seems quite safe, and also quite
charitable, to set down the PERSONAL MOTIVE as
first in the list of explanations for the anti-Catholic acti-

vity of the present day, no less than of the three cen-

turies gone by.
For it is significant that men and women who are

honestly trying, and, by God’s grace, in a measure suc-
ceeding in their efforts, to lead godly, righteous, and
sober lives, do not abandon the Catholic Church (if they
happen to have been brought" up members of it ) Cer-
tainly if, as sometimes happens, they cease to practice

their religion from intellectual motives, they do not turn
around and vilify the Church A man may, rarely, suf



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 5

fer the loss of his faith, or at least its temporary ob-

scuration, (as did the famous Lacordaire), but this is

so unusual as to seem a special visitation or trial on the

road to sanctity. But in the majority of cases what we
call '^loss of faith” means nothing more nor less than
the inability of a certain individual to square his con-

duct with the prescriptions of his religion, and an unwill-

ingness to change his conduct to conform to the dictates

of his religion. The result is that he gives up his re-

ligion. And then comes the perfectly natural effort to
justify his conduct, which he does at the expense of his

former religion. First he ceases to be a good man, and

at the same time, of course, he ceases to be a good Cath-
olic. Then he ceases to be a Catholic at all. It does not
always follov/^ that he then becomes an anti-Catholic,

bv.t it is significant that it can be shown in the case of
practically every anti-Catholic agitator that he (or she)

trod the well-recognized path which has here been indi-

cated. I am speaking now of the ex-Catholic, and espe-
cially the ‘^ex-priest” and the “ex-nun.” To make the
matter quite practical and to the point: documents ex-
ist which show that the so-called “ex-Priests“ who are
today making their living on the anti-Catholic platform,
and in the anti-Catholic Press, were, for some time be-
fore they left the Catholic Church, anything but good
priests. Most of them, to be sure, were never Priests
at all, and are simply using a superficial knowledge of
the Church for purposes of gain, trading on the preju-
dices of the ignorant. But of them we shall have some-
thing to say presently.

The pamphlet “Defamers of the Church” gives the
records of some of these unfortunates, as well as those
of the “ex-nuns” who associate with them. So strong is
the evidence there presented, that it would be safe to
make the assertion that there is no known case of a real
ex-priest or ex-nun w’ho afterwards engaged in anti-
Catholic activity except those whose record as Catholics
is such as to be unable to bear investigation.. I give but
two examples of anti-Catholic agitators whose motive
is but too apparent.

ANNA LOWRY
Anna Lowry was born at Olean, New York, in 1857.

For some time she was engaged in the millinery business



6 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

in New York. About twenty-five years ago she left this
country for England. From the time of her landing in
England she certainly merits the title which, in her own
book, she claims was given her by the Guthrie Leader,
THE TRAMP NUN.

Lived in Nine Convents
Anna Lowry entered the convent of the Holy Cross

and Passion in Bolton, England. Here she lived for about
six years.

Then,* she asks—^remember, she asks—for imprison-
ment at the Convent of Mercy, at Bermondsey, London.
She remained at this convent but a short time. She
gives as her reason for leaving that her relatives in
America would not tender her any financial assistance,
and, of course, she would have her dupes believe, thit
no one is wanted in a convent who cannot come across
with the cash. But how surj^assingly strange, that on
leaving this convent, the ‘‘avaricious” Superior should
give her money enabling her to return to America.

She next entered the Convent at Bordentown, New
Jersey, which, she asserts, has^ since removed to White
Plains, New Jersey. She remained with this community
for almost a year., when she was dismissed.

Although this had been Miss Lowry’s third plunge
into convent life, it was not a charmer. From New
Jersey she went, remember she was not kidnapped, to
Buffalo, N. Y., and applied to the Sisters of St. Joseph
for admission. Thus ran her career until she entered
and left six more convents. How easy it is for a nun
“to escape!”

Her Marriage
Through her anti-Catholic writings Miss Lowry

found favor with the enemies of the Catholic Church.
She formed the acquaintance of one, W. R. Cunningham,
of Rotzville, Wash., who had been attracted by her anti-
Catholic writings, and whom she married the first day
she met him. Cunningham was seventy-nine years old
at the time of his marriage to Miss Lowry, which took
place at Sprague, Wash.

Following the publication of her book. Miss Lowry
was urged by her friends, the enemies of the Sisters, to
sue the Sisterhood for an amount equal to $400 a year
for her natural life. The Associated Press carried the
report of the trial. The defense demurred and asked
that the suit be dismissed, as there was no cause for
action. The Court sustained the demurrer, and the suit
collapsed.—St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a Special from
Guthrie, October 25, 1913.

REV. (?) HENRY SULLIVAN.
Henry Sullivan, known in reli^on as Brother Ru

pert, was born of Irish parents in London, England,



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 7

January 2, 1869, and educated by the Brothers of Saint
Vincent de Paul. He came to Notre Dame from Buffalo,
New York, where he had charge of insane patients, in
the Providence Retreat conducted by the Sisters of Char-
ity. October 4, 1891, he received the habit of the Bro-
thers of Holy Cross. In the early part of October, 1892,
he was sent as a teacher to Saint Columbkille’s School,
Chicago. During the following Christmas holidays, his
superior advised him to return to tho novitiate)., which
he did, remaining however, only a few days.

January 3, 1893, he withdrew from the Congrega-
tion, giving as a reason for doing so, that he had no
vocation for the religious life. Soon after leaving Notre
Dame he became associated with some A.P.A. leadera,
in or near Chicago. He went from place to place, mal-
igning Catholics and the Catholic Church. Later he
affiliated himself with the Baptists, continuing with
them his same stock and trade. Afterwards he drifted
from place to place, until he loomed up in California a
few years ago. Sullivan was never a priest.

The following is quoted from the Los Angeles Her-
ald, August 10, 1915:

Los. Angeles Minister Arrested in San Francisco.
“San Francisco, August 10—Rev. Henry Sullivan,

of Los Angeles, who claims to be a pastor of the Chris-
tian church, was arrested today on Market street on
charges of vagrancy. The detectives declared, complaint
was made by two boys.”

Now I would not wish to be understood as saying
that none but bad or immoral people withdraw from the
Catholic Church. My point is that when good men and
women, for reasons that appear sufficient to themselves,
cease to practice the Faith of their fathers, they do not
thereupon join themselves to the anti-Catholic platform

or press.

From the very fact that most ex-Catholics are not
anti-Catholics, and the additional fact that the history
of ex-Catholics who become anti-Catholics is what it is,
we see that the personal motive alone is not sufficient
to explain the virulence of the anti-Catholic attack, and
we must look further, even tho the search is anything
but a pleasant occupation. What, then, is it that prompts
these unfortunates to publish their shame? Why do
they turn with such bitterness upon the Church which
they have disgraced? The answer is very simple. It is
because they find that they can make a living by so do-
ing. The anti-Catholic platform pays, and pays well.
The anti-Catholic Press is alwavs on the look-oat for a



8 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

new name to add to its list of writers. And, as not in-
frequently happens, the ex-Catholic, ex-priest, or ex-

nun or thoroughgoing imposter and discovered grafter, is
not the sort of person to whom honest work appeals,
or who is by nature and disposition suited to the task of
making a livelihood in the usual and recognized ways.
To such the anti-Catholic campaign offers easy money.
Have you ever heard of an anti-Catholic lecturer, who
was in the game from high and disinterested motives
unconnected with money? Have you ever heard of such
a one refusing the “silver collection at the door?”

CHAPTER TWO.
THE MONEY MOTIVE.

It is a lamentable fact, but it is none the less true,

that there are in this country today a number of men
and women, some of them really ex-Catholics, many
more of them pretending to be, who are making their
living simply and solely by engaging in the anti-Catholic
campaign on a strictly money basis. In the present state
of feeling in the United States, any man or woman with
some knowledge of the Church, who can face an audi-
ence from a platform, or write passable prose, and who
has sufficient command of the stock anti-Catholic litera-
ture and methods, can go about the country lecturing or
writing for the anti-Catholic organizations, and make a
good living doing so. But what shall be said of the char-
acter of such persons? Perhaps an examination of the
methods employed by them may help us to the answer of
that (juestion.

ANTI-CATHOLIC BOOKS.
I have spoken of “the stock anti-Catholic literature

and methods.” They exhibit a similarity and a plan which
are not fortuitous. They fall into certain well-recognized
lines, and, up to the present writing, the anti-Catholic
forces have not found anything new to add to the old
lines which have been worked and worked until they are
threadbare. First there is the anti-Catholic literature.

I need not catalog it. It consists of books and pamph-
lets all constructed on the same general plan. An analy-
sis of one discloses the skeleton of all of them. They
are always personal accounts in which the ego of the
author is not at all concealed. And the author is al-



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 9

ways a pious and pure person, of either sex, who has
been misled by a crafty priesthood, lured into Orders or

Religion at an early age and without knowing the grav-

ity of the situation, only to become disillusionized and

discouraged, and then, by what seems a miracle, to dis-

cover the Bible (which hitherto had been withheld from

him or her) and so embraces the Protestant faith, and

finds peace and a lucrative job writing or lecturing

about the errors and corruptions of Rome. There are

always chapters on the Confessional, in which the con-

fessor is represented as a corruptor of youthful minds

and a breaker-up of homes. There are always chapters

on the dissipations of priests and nuns, with more than
hints that convents are really bawdy houses, and that it
was to escape this awful condition of things that the ex-
nun fled, after having been held for some time by force
in a condition of abject servitude. If the book is by an
‘‘ex-priest” the injustice and oppression of the Bishop

is featured. Every one of these books has a chapter on
the ignorance of Catholics regarding the Bible, based on

the claim that the Sacred Book is forbidden to Catholic
, readers. Common, also, to all of them is a virulent hat-
red of the Mass, and an ill-disguised rebellion against all
of the disciplinary requirements of the Church. And
always the author is a martyr to his (or her) search for
“truth,” which is finally found in the exercise of Indi-
vidual Judgment on the meaning of certain scripture
passages. Any one at all acquainted with such books as
Chiniquy^s “Fifty Years in the Church of Rome” or
Fresenborg’s “Thirty Years in Hell” or Maria Monk’s
thrice discredited fictions will recognize the description

I have given of the type of these books as true.

Now, although the personalities of their authors,
and the inaccuracy of the statements made by them, have
been exposed again and again, these books continue to
be printed and sold in large editions. Some of them have
had to be expurgated to comply with the postal regulations
regarding the transmission of obscene matter through
the mails, but they are still sufficiently prurient. Maria
Monk was publicly discredited and her book shown to be
a tissue of lies and inventions by a committee of non-
Catholic citizens of Montreal, way back in 1835, but only



10 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

this year her book was reprinted, and is enjoying a large
sale. The same thing is true of other similar works of
anti-Catholic literature, and we shall, presently, see the
reason why it is so.

VILE SHEETS.
But first we must consider the case of the periodical

literature of the anti-Catholic campaign, as exemplified

in such papers as THE MENACE and others of its stripe,
and such monthly magazines as THE PROTESTANT and
others of its stripe. For there are two classes of anti-
Catholic papers, the frankly cheap and vile (like the
Menace) which decent people, of any religious persua-
sion, will not admit to their homes, if for no other reason
than because of the advertisements of cures for “private

diseases”' which they print in profusion; and the appar-
ently serious and respectable magazines (like THE PRO-
TESTANT) which cater to a better class of patronage,
use better English, and make some pretense at intellectu-
ality. Of the former class it can only be said that they
are vile and scandalous sheets. They abound not only in
calumnies which are cleverly kept “within the law”, but
in vile falsehoods also kept by skillful verbiage from be-
ing actionable libels, and in wholesale statements which

cannot be proved, but are readily believed by a multitude
of readers. We shall show, presently, the genesis of
these papers, and the nature of the organizations which
are back of. them. Undoubtedly they pay, and T do not
for one moment hesitate to say that they are printed
primarily for profit.

DENOMINATIONAL PUBLICATIONS.
The case of the more dignified, better written, and

much better printed magazines is difl'erent only inas-
much as they are issued for the eye of i\ better class of
readers. Their emphasis is not so much on the de-
pravity of the personnel of Rome as on the supposed
political activity of the Catholic Church. Yet in both
the cheap weekly, and its more ambitious monthly bro-
ther, the patriotic note is "played up for all it is worth.
But this is a point v^hich deserves special conisideration
by itself, and which will be given to it in its proper place.

Along with the frankly anti-Cathoiic magazines
must be grouped a large number of sectarian religious



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 11

publications which, although they frequently carry anti-

Catholic articles and references, do so only as a side is-

sue, their main content being devoted to the concerns
of the denomination they represent. These print absurd

articles about the benighted condition of Catholic coun-

tries, to which Protestant missionaries are carrying the

light of the Gospel; copy the calumnies which appear in

anti-Catholic sheets and publish occasional diatribes

against the false religion of Rome. They also foster
the belief that the Catholic Church is a political orga-
nization intent on enslaving the United States to alleg-

iance to a foreign potentate. That they aid in the anti-
Catholic campaign is beyond doubt, but it is also quite
certain that that is not their primary purpose. There

can be little question that such denominational organs,

printing anti-Catholic articles from time to time, are
merely the unconscious tools of those forces (the nature

of which we shall presently discern) which impose upon
and make use of the prejudices of Protestants, while
they themselves are neither Protestant nor Christian.

It is not a question of money with such magazines as
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, THE CHRISTIAN STAN-
DARD and others. The good faith of their editors need
not be questioned. We are willing to believe that they
think they are ‘‘doing God service” and combating a
false religion. After all, it is no sin to be mistaken,

though in this age of the world there is very little ex-
cuse for an intelligent Protestant being continually mis-
informed regarding the Catholic Church. And it is well
for us to remember, in this connection, that IF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH WERE WHAT THESE GOOD
PEOPLE THINK IT, IT OUGHT TO BE HATED AND
FOUGHT AGAINST AND EXTERMINATED. They
are conscientiously combating, not the Catholic Church
as she really is, but the Catholic Church as they have
been misled to think she is. The case with them is en-
tirely different from that of the professional anti-Cath-
olic publishers and editors, who KNOW that they are
printing unverifiable lies, propagating discredited fables,
and fabricating slanderous documents.

Again and again these stories have been disproven;

over and over again these bogus quotations have been



12 . THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

discredited. Yet they are still disseminated by the anti-
Catholic forces, because they know that there is a pre-
disposition on the part of certain classes to give credit

to them; and they also know that these same classes are
the last to hear the refutation of the falsehoods.

INSINCERITY OF ANTI-CATHOLIC AGITATORS.

Our volume entitled “Defamers of the Church” shows
the insincerity of fifty anti-Catholic agitators. Then take
the matter of the circulation of the bogus Knights of Col-

umbus oath, which is quoted always ^Trom the Congres-
sional Record” to give it a semblance of accuracy, but

without the explanation that the document in question
is reported in the Congressional Record as ‘‘the alleged

oath” not as the real oath, which has since been repeated-
ly published. A committee of Masons was permitted to
examine all the secret “ritual” of the Knights of Colum-
bus, and that committee published its findings, saying

that the bogus oath did not appear in the ritual of the

K. of C., and that that organization was inculcating the
highest sort of patriotism. Moreover, in the civil courts,

the fraudulent character of the bogus oath has been
clearly shown, and certain individuals punished for
printing and circulating it. Yet it still continues to be
printed and circulated, anonymously, in huge quantities,
by the anti-Catholic bigots, and has only this summer
been used as a membership-getter by a new anti-Cath-
olic secret society, which has lately been thoroughly
discredited and exposed by newspapers throughout the
country. Nothing could be more complete than this re-
cent exposure of the Ku Klux Klan, which was shown,
by disinterested, non-Catholic investigators, to be a
money-making scheme, managed by unscrupulous and
insincere men, some of them by no means beyond ques-
tion as to their moral character, who preyed upon the
bigoted prejudices of large numbers of uninformed
people, fomenting race and religious animosities, under
the guise of patriotism; and to their own enormous ad-
vantage. The insincerity of these people was apparent.
With so many other evidences of insincerity on the part
of other organizations and individuals engaged in the
anti-Catholic campaign, is it too much to say that in-



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 13

sincerity is a characteristic of people engaged in such
unworthy business?

CHAPTER THREE.
THE SECTARIAN MOTIVE.

To say that Protestant churches are unfriendly
towards the Catholic Church is not merely to state a
truism, but is to remind those, who might otherwise
forget, of the reasons which called the various non-Cath-
olic denominations into being. Such a reminder is almost
necessary in these days when the genius of Protestant-
ism is asserting itself as something other than the
religious conviction it used to be. For within the last
twenty-five years a change has come over the face of
the Protestant world; the old denominational lines tend

more and more to be minimized, if not obliterated.
Federation is in the air; and while non-Catholic sects
continue to multiply and divide, they have apparently
lost sight of their own religious aims, which have
gradually given place to a species of humanitarianism

and social service, which has gone a long way towards
replacing dogmatic or doctrinal religion. But while
the face of Protestantism has changed in these respects,
it is still set solidly against Rome, and the hatred and
mistrust of things Catholic continues to be the distin-

guishing mark of the modern Protestant, as it was of
his forebears. Indeed this hatred of Rome would seem
to be the one thing on which the non-Catholic sects are
really united, the one tenet they all hold in common.

We are not here concerned, however, with Protest-
antism as a religious or moral system, or even as a po-
litical force; but rather our purpose in this chapter is

to analyze the motives which underlie the part which
Protestantism is playing in the anti-Catholic campaign.

For to say that Protestantism is still aggressively anti-
Catholic, is merely to say that it is still Protestantism,

in spite of its alpiost complete indifference to the religious

beliefs which were the first cause of its protest. True,
here and there a voice is raised in genuine denunciation

of Catholicism as a false faith, a relic of paganism and
so on. But such voices are becoming fewer and fewer.

Rather the attitude of the modern Protestant is ostensi-
bly that he has no quarrel with Catholicism as a re-



14 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

ligious system, recognizing the right of every man to
decide his religious faith for himself. If pressed he

must, and will, hold that Catholicism is a false religion,
but in view of his own tenets regarding ‘^private inter-
pretation’’ and ‘Treedom of conscience” he would rather
not be pressed, and certainly hesitates to denounce the
religious aspect of ‘‘Romanism” as it appears in this
country. His attitude towards the Catholic Church in
other lands is radically different. He supports mission-
ary machinery for operation in Latin countries for the
express purpose of converting Catholics from the error
of their ways, and bringing to them the true light of
the Gospel, according to the Methodist, or the Baptist,

or the Presbyterian acceptance of it, or what not.
This might, at first sight, seem a trifle inconsistent,

and even the Protestant would see it so were it not for
the fact that an excuse is found in the alleged suppres-
sion, on the part of Rome, of the Bible and education in
the lands to which non-Catholic missionaries are sent.
Efforts to convert to Protestantism the millions of ad-

herents of the Catholic Church in America appear to be
hopeless. But there may be some chance in Mexico and
South America, or even (splendid thought) in Italy it-

self. So Protestantism girds itself to the task, and

contents itself, at home, with denouncing the Catholic

Church not so much as a false religion but as a “religio-
political organization” bent on subverting the American
Government, closing the Public Schools, and otherwise

frustrating American institutions. The ostensible ex-
cuse is Patriotism. Let us examine the way in which
that works out, and see if, perhaps, there may not be
something back of the flag-waving.

PROTESTANT VIEWS ON “CHURCH AND STATE”
American Protestantism, for some obscure reason,

makes much of a doctrine of the separation of Church
and State, which it claims is a Protestai\t doctrine pure
and simple, as well as a basic doctrine of American Pa-
triotism. Indeed Protestantism takes all the credit for

establishing the division of Church and State as a fun-

damental of our governmental system. Odd, when
union of Church and State, v/ith the emphasis on the

ascendancy of the State, was, until very recently, one



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 16

of the marks of the great Protestant nations. Until the
overthrow of the German Empire the Lutheran Church
was the State Religion of Germany, with the Emperor
at its head. Today, the King of England is supreme
head of the Established Church, and the Established
Church is Protestant. However, the separation is un-
doubtedly fundamental to American ideals, and all of
us are quite right in insisting that it be maintained.

But Protestants are continually putting forward the
charge that the Catholic Church is opposed to such a
separation, that, indeed. Catholics desire nothing more
than the union of Church and State, that they are plot-
ting and \^orking to that end in this country, and there-
fore constitute a menace to American ideals and Ameri-
can liberty. Many non-Catholics profess to believe that
Catholics owe civil as well as religious allegiance to the
Pope, and this in spite of innumerable explanations and
disclaimers with which they are, or ought to be, thor-
oughly familiar by this time; in spite, also, of the fact
that notwithstanding the enormous numbers and tre-
mendous power of Catholics they have never made the
attempt to seize the Government, or to unduly influence
political life, which Protestants profess to fear. The
oft-repeated accusation that Catholics already control

the government, and that they hold a large percentage
of offices was recently (unconsciously) refuted by a Pro-
testant organization. In December, 1921, a survey of the

religious affiliation of the members of Congress was
made by a department of the Methodist church. It was
found that out of 435 members of the Lower House, 18
were Catholics. There were 99 Methodists. In the
Senate, six of the 96 members were Catholics. There
are less than 8,000,000 Methodists in America. Repre-

senting 7.2 per cent of the population, they constitute

more than 21 per cent of Congress. Catholics with about
20 per cent of the population, contribute only 4.5 per

cent of the membership of Congress. On the basis of
Catholic and Protestant it was found that there were, in
Congress, a total of 24 Catholics and 367 Protestants.
There are about forty million church members in Amer-
ica, and almost half of them are Catholics. Yet instead
of Catholics being represented in Congress almost



16 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

equally with Protestants, there was FIFTEEN TIMES
AS MANY PROTESTANTS as there were Catholics.
Not a Catholic has sat in the President’s Cabinet since
Roosevelt’s and Taft’s administration.

That the clamor about separation of Church and
State is, to say the least of it, disingenuous, is amply
shown by the fact that practically every Protestant
church, certainly all of those which have any considera-
ble numbers or influence, has been, for the past fifty
years, openly engaged in carrying through municipal,
state and national legislation favorable to Protestantism,
to Protestant ideals and aims. In the doing of this the
non-Catholic bodies have gradually built up a powerful
political machine of the very sort which they accuse
Catholics of trying to create. The Catholic political
effort is a fable and a dream. The Protestant political
machine is an accomplished and working fact in America
today.

So much is this so that it is an unusual thing now-
adays for any large gathering of non-Catholics,—Con-
ferences, Synods, General Conventions and Assemblies

—to adjourn without passing one or more “resolutions”
to be forwarded to State or National legislators, de-

manding the enactment of laws, recommending policies,
even international policies, and calling for the correction

of this or that abuse. Certain Protestant churches are

notorious for the frequency with which they pass openly

anti-Catholic “resolutions” calling upon the Govern-

ment of the United States practically to stultify itself
and renounce its own Constitution by proscribing the
Catholic Church.

Lest this assertion should seem to be rash, I beg

the reader’s indulgence and careful perusal of the fol-

lowing documents:

ANTI-CATHOLIC RESOLUTIONS.
Baptist Resolutions

“Resolved—That we view with grave concern the
disposition of the Roman Catholic Church to tax us
through the State with the support of its institutions:
that we especially oppose being compelled as taxpayers
to maintain parochial schools ”

“Resolved, That we view with serious alarm and
vigorously protest against the efforts of the Roman



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 17

Oatholic Hierarchy to gain control of our Government.’^
^‘Resolved, That we deeply deplore the presence of a

Papal legate as the representative of the Vatican at our
national capitol for the purpose of influencing govern-
mental affairs.”

“Resolved, That we hereby petition Congress to
submit an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States prohibiting any appropriation of public money

—

for any church institution ”

[Not one of these resolutions relates to a fact; every
one of them is founded on ignorance.Editor.]

Methodist Resolutions—1915
“Whereas, The' politico-ecclesiastical organization

known as the Roman Catholic Church has become, by its
great numbers, its false dogmas, its peculiar practices, its
political activity, its hostility to our public schools, and
its arrogant and bigoted assumption of supremacy, a
menace to the well-being of our republic; therefore be it

“Resolved, That we urge our people more fully to
inform themselves concerning the history, character,
claims and purposes of this age-long enemy of civil and
religious liberty; that we request the editors of our of-
ficial press to open their columns freely for such news
items, correspondence, and discussion as will tend to
awaken our people to the magnitude of this peril, and
that we request our bishops to place in the course of
study for our ministry such books as will fortify and
prepare them for successful resistance to the further
aggressions of the papacy.

“Resolved, That we respectfully request the con-
gress of the United States to eradicate this root of
bitterness, sectarian appropriations, from our religious
and civil life by submitting a constitutional amendment
prohibiting all sectarian appropriations wherever our
flag floats, whether by national, state, or municipal
governments.

[The Methodist leaders have evidently acted on these
resolutions during the past six years—alarmed at their
own scarecrows.—Editor.!

Presbyterian Resolutions
Anti-Catholic Resolutions adopted by the General

Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian church, at Louis-
ville, Ky., 1911:

“Resolved, that the General Assembly views with
serious concern the growth and pernicious activity of
that powerful politico-religious organization known as
the Roman Catholic Church.—” The next year, at Bris-
tol, Tenn., this same Southern Presbyterian General
Assembly recorded itself as follows:

“That the Roman Catholic Church is a politico-re-
ligious organization, as ex-cathedra or official teaching



18 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

of the papacy makes clear. That this politico-religious
organization is a menace to human liberty.—^The Roman
Catholics are crowding their representatives into politi-
cal power in our municipalities, state governments, and
national government. Rome is endeavoring to capture
the secular press of the country. , . . Rome eiadeavors
to break down the public schools; she aspires also to
use the public money to advance schools of her own
(and finally) Rome is loosening the bonds of law and
order by teaching that civil oaths may be taken with
mental reservation; that an oath to support a civil con-
stitution not in accord with the Roman church is not
binding.”

[Baptists, Methodist, and Presbyterian churchmen
must have acted on ex-cathedra decisions—of The
Menace.—Editor.]

“CHURCH AND STATE”
So flagrant has this Protestant desire and effort to

meddle with politics become, that only last year a great
metropolitan daily felt called upon to rebuke one re-
ligio-political organization in the following terms:

“The general conference of the Methodist Episcopal
church has passed a resolution favoring acceptance of
the Armenian mandate by the United States.

“Comment upon this action will be restrained by
consideration of the ecclesiastical character of the as-
sembly. Nevertheless lay comment is called for and is
the more clearly justified inasmuch as the conference
in taking action left the field of religious concerns and
entered that of politics.

“We consider the resolution not only unwise from
the viewpoint of the nation's immediate welfare, but
improper from that of American principle.

“It is, in our opinion, inconsistent with the princi-
ple of separation of church and state. If our govern-
ment is to accept the Armenian mandate at the behest
of the Methodist church, it may very well be required
to accept a Mexican mandate at the behest of the Roman
Catholic clergy, or to demand a mandate for Palestine
at that of the Jewish congregations, or of Smyrna at that
of the Greek church.

“The conference itself, collectively, is a religious
and sectarian entity. Its proper field is religion and
morals. Politics and diplomacy are not its proper field.
Each member, whether a layman or clergyman, acting
as a citizen is free to express himself and to use his
influence as he sees fit for or against the acceptance of
the mandate. But when he acts collectively as a re-
ligious and sectarian organization he departs from his
citizen character and imports into a civilian controversy



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. Id

considerations and influences which our national princi-
ple recognizes as misplaced.

Within the past decade, Protestantism, in its

humanitarian character, in pursuance of its policy of so-

cial service and reform, has produced two powerful
organizations, the Anti-Saloon League and the Lord's
Day Alliance. I do not here venture to criticise the
aims of either of these organizations. This is not the

place for a discussion either of Prohibition or of Sunday
Observance. What I wish to call attention to is the
METHOD by which these organizations attempt (and
in the case of the former, succeed) to attain their ends.

It is well to remember that both are avowedly Protest-
ant organizations. The former was popularly called
among Protestants “The Church in Action." Both are
officered and manned exclusively by Protestants. And
both of them are openly and notoriously political ma-
chines, aiming at legislative enactment of the principles

for which they stand, working towards a condition of
national life in which the State will enforce, by penal-
ties, the observance of regulations which are part and
parcel of the Protestant position today. (I do not

mean, of course, that both Temperance and Sunday-
keeping are not taught by the Catholic Church. The
point is that both are claimed to be Protestant tenets,

and pressed upon the nation as such.)

PROTESTANT POLITICAL ACTIVITY
With the Anti-Saloon League it is not necessary to

deal, more than to say that its carefully organized
campaign was singularly successful, and that that
success was heralded as a victory for Protestantism.
But it may not be amiss to quote from a recent news-
paper the outline of the organization and aims of the
Lord's Day Alliance. Its General Secretary, the Rev.
Henry L. Bowlby, thus describes its composition:

“This body was formed by the highest church
courts, such as general assemblies, corffierences and
synods. Originating thirty-two years ago, it has ex-
panded until it now includes sixteen denominational
bodies. The various churches represented in this Al-
liance have between fifteen and sixteen million com-
municant members, and also at least five million adher-
ents counting children and adults. We can therefore
reasonably claim one-fifth of the total population of the



20 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

United States as favoring our cause or in sympathy
with it.”

By what process of investigation it has been found
that all of these millions were committed to stringent
Sunday laws, Dr. Bowlby did not explain. It was sug-
gested that many of them might be good church-goers
and yet fond of relaxation, amusements and sports on
Sunday. To Dr. Bowlby the two things are incompati-
ble. He went on:

‘‘While we have representatives in all the States,
twenty-one are now completely organized under the
name of State and District Auxiliary and Affiliated
Societies. All New England is organized, and likewise
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir-
ginia, the Middle West, and the Northwest clear out to
the Pacific Coast. The South is being organized under
the leadership of Rev. Dr. I. Cochrane Hunt, whose
headquarters are at Chattanooga. Each of our State
organizations has a traveling staff of speakers; we have
about twenty in New York, and other States have
theirs. In the whole country there are several score
of traveling special speakers connected with the Lord’s
Day Alliance and affiliated societies who are out every
Sunday. In different States we also have field days in
which all of the local churches unite. On these occa-
sions there are often a dozen or fifteen volunteer
speakers in addition to the regular staff.

“We are also sending out millions of pages of leaf-
lets and pamphlet propaganda. We urge pastors every-
where to bring influence upon the local newspapers to
publish our matter, and we are planning to have our own
press bureau to supply newspapers throughout the
United States. If any disposition is shown not to pub-
lish our statements, local ministers will make every ef-
fort to see that articles are published bearing on our
work. Our publicity matter is intended to arouse people
to the perils of a civil Sabbath and the results of a break
down of religious Sabbath observance. In every State
where we are organized we also have our men watching
every bill introduced to legalize Sunday motion pictures,
theaters, dancing or commercialized sports. We are
also opposed to any games or other diversions on Sun-
day interfering with church services.”

Evidence accumulates that Dr. Bowlby’s claim of
widespread organization are no boast.

Returning recently from a tour through sixteen
States, William A. Brady, the motion-picture producer,
told how, in opposing blue-law agitation, he had per-
sonally seen the effects of this widespread organization.

“
‘I was amazed to discover,’ he said, ‘that no matter

where I went the arguments were identical, their mode
of presentation the same. In every instance these self-
appointed saviors of the public soul used the same



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 21

arguments. They varied hardly a word, and their cam-
paigns merely started with arguments.. I saw legisla-
tors hooted in the halls of State capitols by organized
bands which seemed to me to have rehearsed for the
part they were playing. When so-called reform meas-
ures were under discussion in legislative chambers the
galleries were invariably packed, and everywhere there
appeared to be a clique of iron-palmed men and women
who knew perfectly why they were there and operated
accordingly. In practically every State capitol that I
visited I got the impression that every move made by
the self-appointed guardians of public welfare was
staged.'

”

Is there any need to offer further evidence of
the fact of the religio-political nature of the Pro-

testant churches of America ? Is it not sufficiently
evident that they are actually doing what they are wont
to accuse the Catholic Church of attempting? Why,
then, is the cry so constantly raised against the sup-

posed ambition of the Catholic Church to dominate
American political life? Why is the accusation so con-
stantly reiterated, when it can be shown, and has been
shown repeatedly, that the accusation has no foundation
in fact? The conclusion is irresistible, that the Protes-
tant protest against the supposed political activity of

Rome is nothing more than an effort to throw dust
in the eyes of the public to cover up Protestant political
activity and to keep non-Catholics bitter against its too
successful religious competitor. With them ^^the end
justifies the means," and therefore they play cleverly
on the old animosities, they revamp the old fables, they
misrepresent and discredit, and yet, at the same time,
have the effrontery to pretend that they have no quarrel

with Catholicism as a religion.

PROTESTANTS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Then there is the matter of the Public Schools.

Nothing is being kept before the public eye more
assiduously today than the Protestant claim that

the Public Schools are a Protestant institution and
that the Catholic Church is antagonistic to them.
Neither proposition can be proven. The very fact
that the Constitution of the United States gives equal
rights and privileges to ALL religions, makes it neces-
sary for the Public Schools to be absolutely non-sec-

tarian and non-religious. And the fact that Catholics



»

22 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.
maintain their own schools, for the sake of giving their
children the advantages of religious and moral training
in addition to secular education, no more means that
they are opposed to the Public School than the fact that
John Smith sends his children to a private school con-
ducted by the Friends or by the Ethical Culturists
means that he is seeking to destroy the American sys-
tem of free and compulsory public education. On the
contrary, the Public Schools, in these hard times, will
thrive better if they do not have to take care of the
2,000,000 children in the parochial schools.

Absurdity of Accusations

The accusation is absurd on the face of it. Yet, as
Paulsen remarked, ^‘The absurd has this advantage in

common with truth: that it is unanswerable.^' And
“the little red school house" has proven itself a potent
argument in the hands of professional anti-Catholic
campaigners, all the more potent because the appeal is
to sentiment rather than to reason. One cannot help
wondering whether, if the Methodists, say, or the Bap-
tists, had anything resembling the splendid educational
institutions which the Catholic Church has produced in
this country in the short space of an hundred years, in

the face of financial and other obstacles, there would be
so much talk of “opposition to the Public Schools."
There is a reason for it, which we shall discuss present-
ly. But it may not be out of the question that there is
some slight admixture of simple human jealousy in the
attitude of Protestants toward^ Catholic educational

and charitable institutions. Certainly until they dupli-

cate, for their own people, the activity of Catholics in
these directions, it would be at least better taste to
refrain from blaming Catholics for accomplishing the

very thing they themselves wish to accomplish. That
they do wish to inject religious teaching into the non-

sectarian public schools, and that it is the Protestant
Religion they wish to have taught there, is being made
manifest in the frequent articles which are appearing

not only in denominational papers, but in the secular

press, which feature addresses by non-Catholic min-
isters and educators, all clamoring for “the Bible in the
Schools" and for courses of religion and morals under



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 23

denominational auspices. The columns of OUR
SUNDAY VISITOR have qtioted such utterances too
frequently for me to need to give examples here. The
best minds of the Nation have awakened to the futility
of trying to make boys and girls into moral and useful
citizens without religious education. In a way, this
agitation for religion in education, is a compliment to
the Catholic Church, which has always maintained that
no education could be really complete without the in-

culcation of religious and moral truths along with the
secular branches of learning. But the agitators give
their own game away when in one breath they cry for
the introduction of religious teaching into the curricu-

lum of the Public School, and in the next denounce the
only educational system in x^merica today which actually
does stress such teaching. It becomes plain that what
they want is not merely religious teaching in the Public
Schools, but Protestant teaching. Some of them even
go so far as to claim that the Public Schools are a
Protestant institution, from which non-Protestants
should be excluded. Their motive is frankly sectarian,

and as such should be resisted as opposed to the letter
and the spirit of the Constitution.

All this .would hardly be a serious matter were it
not for the fact that the ambition of Protestants to

dominate the educational system of America leads them
to join hands with the most radical element of the anti-
Catholic campaigners. In Michigan, during the recent

political campaigns, in which the school question was a
paramounl; issue, various Protestant organizations im-

ported and featured, in behalf of their political cause,
such rascals as De Long, Helen Jackson, and the Se-
guins, anti-Catholic lecturers whose unsavory records
have repeatedly been exposed. To such methods will
Protestant churches stoop when they engage in politics,

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE PATRIOTIC MOTIVE.
The Denominational magazines, it is true, have a

good deal to say regarding doctrinal corruptions of the

Catholic Church. This is only natural, inasmuch as the



24 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

various Protestant bodies, whatever the causes which

brought them into being, ‘continue to exist only in oppo-
sition to the religious teaching of the Catholic Church.

Protestants do not believe the Catholic Faith; many of
them honestly believe that it is a blasphemous and
wicked form of religion, and as such they fight against
it. Indeed this theological hatred of Rome is the one
doctrinal point on which ALL the multitudinous Pro-
testant bodies agree. However they may differ among
themselves regarding the essentials of religion; how-
ever various and mutually exclusive their tenets may
be, they are all one in denouncing the Catholic Church
as a false and erroneous teacher. Even those forms of
Protestantism, which seem to approach most closely
the Catholic form of Christianity, such as the Anglican
Church, and the so-called ‘‘Old Catholics” are one with
the rest of the pan-Protestant world in their denuncia-

tion of Rome; and this, as I have said, is only what
would naturally be expected of churches which owe their
very existence to the fact that they differ, on doctrinal

grounds, from Rome. But the modern world has a
theory, the credit of which it owes to the fundamental
principle of Protestantism (the right of private judg-

ment) that every man has a right to his own opinions
and preferences, especially in regard to religious and
political affiliations. The denunciation of those who
differ from us in such matters, even when accompanied
by multitudes of texts from Scripture, has not the
weight which it would have were this theory not so
generally accepted as an axiom. It is easy for the
Catholic to reply to the Protestant who calls his Faith
into question: “Oh, but according to your own teaching,
I have a perfect right to believe in my form of religion,
just as you claim the same right to differ from me.”
So there has been a tendency, ever since the sixteenth
century, to transpose the controversy from doctrinal
matters to purely political. In recent years this ten-
dency has become the predominating note of the anti-
Catholic campaign, and today we hear very little (out-
side of the more rabid sectarian pulpits and press)
about the falsity of the Catholic religion, but we DO
hear a great deal about the supposed political activity
of the Catholic Church.



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 26

The Religious Test

The Constitution of the United States abolished

the ‘‘religious test'' and assured the members of ALL
religious bodies equal rights as citizens of the Republic.

Yet from the very beginning of our history there has

been discrimination against Catholics in our national

and civic life. Nor was it long before the anti-Catholic
forces began to accuse, more and more openly, the
Catholics of America with secret disloyalty to the
government. The history of the anti-Catholic organiza-
tions of America brings to light several very interesting
facts, and the time has now come for those facts to be
more generally known to our people.

For the Patriotic Motive has assumed the first
place, especially in recent years, among the ostensible
reasons for anti-Catholic feeling and action. The anti-
Catholic platform and press reiterate the charges that
a Catholic cannot be a loyal citizen of this Republic be-

cause he owes allegiance to a foreign ruler, the Pope.
Coupled to this is the terrifying claim that Rome is
secretly preparing to enslave the United States and
make it a vassal of the Pope. The Catholic attitude in
the matter of education is represented to be one of
hostility to the Public School system of the country.

THE SCHOOL QUESTION
In spite of the fact that the Catholic constituency

pays its share of the School tax (although one-half of
this body makes no use of the Public Schools, maintains
its own educational institutions * at its own expense and
saves the nation millions of dollars annually) it is the

constant cry 6f anti-Catholic agitators that the Catholic

Church desires to overthrow public education and divert
the public funds into its own coffers. It is claimed,
also, that the Catholic Church desires to restore a union
of Church and State in this country in favor of itself.
And the pulpit and press take this stand on these easily
controverted suppositions, and so lay claim to a high
patriotism which must, at all costs, frustrate the schemes
of Rome and save this Republic.

Here, again, we must distinguish in the matter of
method and literature, between the cheaply sensational
and the more dignified, but certainly no better inform-



26 THE AN I-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

ed, agencies which foster distrust and suspicion of the

Catholic Church and of Catholics under the specious
guise of Patriotism. The Menace, and its compeers,
issue reams of violent rhetoric about the ‘^little Red
Schoolhouse’^ and the insidious influence of Rome, at
Washington and elsewhere. These are the periodicals
which delight in badly drawn cartoons depicting priests
and nuns cramming unwilling children full of catechism,
and ignoring the ^‘three R’s.^^ They foster the delusion
that practically all the time spent by children in the
Catholic schools is devoted to religious studies, and
ignore the published facts of the general superiority

of the pupils of the Parochial Schools in the secular

branches of learning, as demonstrated by the results of
competitions and examinations conducted by disinter-
ested authorities.

These are also the periodicals which print and re-
print the bogus “Knights of Columbus Oath,” and similar
documents, which have again and again been shown to
be clumsy forgeries, but which sell, in leaflet form,
like the proverbial hot cakes. These are the papers
which shout loudly for the “Little Red School House”
but which have never been known to do anything for
said structure except to print a wood cut of it on their
title page. They declaim Toudly against the employ-
ment of Catholic men and women as teachers in the
Public Schools, in spite of the fact that, ability being

equal, they have as much right to accept such positions
as any other citizens. They flaunt unveri-fiable statis-
tics regarding the proportion of criminals, who receive
their education in the Parochial Schools, and they im-
ply, in spite of the laments of the standard educational

and teachers magazines, that the Public School system
of the United States has arrived at a degree of perfec-
tion which defies improvement. Perhaps it has, but
the officials of the system do not think so. The unwil-
lingness, however, of Catholics to patronize the Public
Schools is, as we have said, not based on any such criti-
cism of their efficiency, but solely on the fact that they
do not, and cannot, give instruction in religion and
morals. The more conservative publications take a
patronizing attitude tow^ards the splendid system of
Catholic education, which has been built up chiefly



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 27

among what might be called the lower classes, in the
face of determined opposition from Protestants, and
of a double burden of taxation. A great deal of stress
is laid, by these, comparatively speaking, better publi-
cations, on the supposed ignorance and illiteracy of
Catholic countries, the implication being that Rome
fosters ignorance as the mother of devotion, and dares
not permit her children to have the advantages of
modern education and enlightenment lest they see
through her shams and sophistries and forsake her.

WHO ARE LOYAL CITIZENP*^
Now there is no denying that among a \arge class

of American citizens there is a profound suspicion
against the Catholic Church on this score of i^olitical

activity. This suspicion has been produced, and is fos-

tered, by the enemies of the Church, who make use of
every possible method to increase it. A calm survey of
the facts of the case would be enough to convince any
serious-minded and thoughtful person of the utter base-
lessness of the usual charges against the Catholic Church
in the matter of patriotism. The blanket charge that
Catholics cannot be and are not patriotic American
citizens may be dismissed at once on two unanswerable
scores. First, the Constitution and Laws of the United
States give them equal rights and privileges with all
other citizens, thus giving the lie to the allegation of

the enemies of the Church. It is for these official docu-
ments to define such terms as ‘‘citizen,’’ ^and not for
biased individuals. The United States recognizes no
“religious test” either for office or for citizenship. She
stands on the doctrine that the civil allegiance of her

citizens is independent of any religious allegiance they
may profess. So it is folly to make the claim that Cath-
olics CANNOT be good Americans on account of the
purely spiritual allegiance they owe to the P'xpe. The
other charge, that they ARE NOT, as a mat.^^' of fact,
patriotic citizens of this country is amply refuted by
the War record of Catholics. These two scores are
becoming known better and better, and they are recog-
nized as valid by all right-minded men. But the original
promulgators of the calumnies which they so ably refute,
are beginning to insinuate that under the surface



28 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

patriotism of Catholics there is an ulterior motive which
works towards an eventual subjugation of the Nation
to the Church.

UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE
But this implication is as false, and as easily

shown to be false, as were the former libels. For
first of all, the Catholic Church evidently does not de-

sire a union of Church and State in this country. True,

the Church has her theory of the ideal relationship

between Church and State. But the Church certainly
does not insist upon such a union as essential, nor is
her theory thereof any part of the deposit of Faith.
It is a matter of polity, and as such can be, and is,

readily set aside, when conditions make it impossible oi
unwise to press it. Such conditions exist not only in the

United States, but in many other modern nations, and
the Catholic Church has never sought to insist upon
her theoretical ideal in their regard, but has willingly

acquiesced in the separation of Church and State, the
more willingly because she has found, by experience
that such a separation admirably suits her spiritual

purposes and existing conditions help, rather than
hinder, her growth. True, the Catholic Church has
her temporal side. In the nature of the case she must
But she never forgets that her Kingdom, which is that
of her Lord, is not of this world, and that though she is
in the world, she is not of it. Nevertheless, as the

greatest single organization of men in the world today,
indeed as the only organization which transcends the
boundaries of race and nationality and holds a world-
wide dominion in the spiritualities, she must, and does,
enter into the moral life of the nations of the world, in-
asmuch as nations, no less than individuals, are moral
entities. She avows her. ambition to win the whole
world, nation by nation, to the knowledge and
salvation of Christ, of which she considers herself
the sole rightful and true exponent. This, and this
alone, is what is meant by the oft-quoted phrase “make
America Catholic.’^ It is the same thought as that sc
often expressed by Protestants in the phrase “Win the
world for Christ.” To the Catholic mind the phrases are
synonymous. And to read into the Catholic slogan a



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 29

political meaning is simply to poison the spring, to

asperse false meanings to words and motives to Catho-

lics. And I dare to venture the assertion that those -

who do this, in the anti-Catholic campaign, know right

well that they are misrepresenting the Catholic mind

and meaning of the words.

INSINCERITY OF THE “PATRIOTS.’’
For we shall show presently that the forces which

are back of the anti-Catholic campaign are essentially

insincere, and interested not at all in the religious and

moral issues, or indeed in the national issues about

which they so loudly prate. The Patriotic motive is but
a blind to hide their real nature and their real activi-

ties. This is true of their propaganda regarding the

matter of Church and State, and it is true also of their

propaganda against Catholic education. The system of
separate schools for Catholics is simply the (somewhat

expensive) substitute of the Catholic Church for the

incomplete education furnished by the Public Schools.
No criticism is offered of their efficiency along
secular lines. The point is simply that they ignore the
very matters which Catholics deem of supreme impor-
tance, the teaching of religion and morals. In the na-

ture of our composite national life, in view of the fact

that the State is not and cannot be committed to any
one religious system, and in view of the further fact of
the multitudinous divisions of Protestantism, it is im-

possible for the Public Schools to teach religion. What
religion should they teach? And in the absence of re-
ligious teaching, what moral teaching worth the name
can possibly be had? But the Catholic Church does not
regard -a man as educated in any real sense unless he
has had instilled into him, all through the formative
years of life, the principles of religion and morality.
Since these things are not available in the public

schools, the Catholic Church simply builds schools
of her own where her children may get the training
which she regards as most essential, and at the
same time secure a thorough and efficient education in
the secular branches of learning. In doing this she

does not release her constituents from their obligations
towards the state institutions. She simply, in spite of



30 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

the manifest injustice imposed upon her people by the

state, adds the cost of her own schools to the already
sufficient burden of taxation, and thinks the necessary

sacrifice well worth while in consideration of the trans-

cendent importance of the things which she can thus

procure for her little ones. Her enemies wilfully mis-
construe her action into a criticism of and an hostility

towards, the system of Public School education. It is

no more so than would be the attitude of a man who
wished his children to learn French, and so sent them

to a private school because the Public Schools of his

city offered no course in that language. In view of the

criticism of the Public Schools on the part of non-

Catholics; in view of the cry which is heard from Pro-
testant pulpits on every side regarding the dangers of

godless education, and the pressing need of religious

instruction which shall be more complete and adequate
than can possibly be supplied by the denominational
Sunday School, we must certainly look deeper for the
motive of the anti-Catholic attack on the Parochial

School than the obviously absurd, yet readily believed

claim, that Catholics oppose the public school. We must
ask WHO are the people who make this charge, and
WHY do they make it? Is their motive really and
truly the“ patriotic motive which they so loudly claim,
or is it, in fact, something else?

CHAPTER FIVE.
THE SOCIALISTIC MOTIVE

In spite of the cleverness of the camouflage, we can
speak with certainty of the most prominent and least
reputable organization engaged in the anti-Catholic
campaign. I mean the group which began the publi-
cation of THE MENACE, and for some years continued
it. It is not a coincidence that they were the same men
who had, for a number of years, been connected with The
Appeal to Reason, an organ of an advanced group of
Socialists, which printed from time to time anti-Catholic
articles, until its proprietors discovered that they were
thereby alienating many of their subscribers. Where-
upon The Menace was started by J. A. Wayland in 1911.
Previously Wayland had been editor of The Appeal to



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 31

Reason. With him were associated two former em-

ployees of The Appeal, Marvin Brown, and W. F. Phelps
who had been dismissed from the office of The Appeal
on the ground of immorality. An account of this dis-
missal appeared in The Appeal to Reason February 4,
1905. Wayland himself committed suicide after having

been indicted for a grave offence against morality.

Brown and Phelps grew wealthy out of their victims,

and sold The Menace in its most prosperous days for a

big fortune. Later it came into the possession of more

clever '‘patriots’’ who incorporated under the high
sounding, name of "The Free Press Defence League,”
whose head was Gilbert 0. Nations, with headquarters
during the past few years at Washington., D. C.

THE MENACE was started under Socialist aus-
pices. The same could be said of other papers of sim-
ilar character, such as The Yellow Jacket. Now it is a
truism that Socialism has essentially an anti-Christian

program. The leaders of the Socialist Party in the
United States, including Eugene V. Debs himself, are
not only infidels, but anti-religious, as is evident by their
contributions to papers professedly anti-Christian, the

Melting Pot, for instance, and their commendation of
anti-Christian books. That this Socialist backing of the
anti-Catholic campaign is widespread is illustrated by the
fact that for many months the Guardians of Liberty (an
anti-Catholic secret order) and The People’s Press, a
bitter anti-Christian sheet, used the same "copy.”

It is a temptation to digress here for a backward
look towards some matters which we did' not mention in
our chapter on "The Patriotic Motive.” It should be
interesting to recall to our readers the position taken by
many prominent Socialists before and during the World
War. Some of them are still in Federal prisons as a re-
sult of that position. Yet many of those who bear a
prominent part in the anti-Catholic campaign under
the guise of patriotism, were, as we have seen,
more or less allied with the very movement the leaders
of which landed in prisons and detention camps on ac-
count of their "patriotic activity” in wartime. Socialism
amply demonstrated its anti-American character during
those stirring times when Catholic homes were contribut-



32 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

ing more than their quota to the land and sea forces of
the United States. Yet anti-Catholic papers, founded
and controlled by Socialists, dare to impugn the patriot-
ism of Catholics. But this is a digression, and I only in-
dulge in it because the fact that many of the self-
styled Patriotic societies, which aid in the progress of
the anti-Catholic campaign are also under the control or
at least the influence of the Socialists is easily demon-
strated by a comparison of their principles with those of
the Socialist Party, to say nothing of the comparison
of the roster of their membership with that of the So-
cialist Party. I cite only one, the Junior Order of Amer-
ican Mechanics, a notoriously anti-Catholic secret order.

As a member of the ‘‘American Federation of Patriotic
Societies’’ the Junior Order is committed to the platform
of the Federation as set forth in the Federation Bulletin,

July 1916, a frankly anti-Catholic and pro-Socialist plat-
form.

American Federation of Patriotic Societies
“Recent disclosures in Congress and our diplomatic

relations with other countries have stirred this nation to
a realization that political Romanism in the United
States would have to be dealt with promptly and ener-
getically or we soon would find ourselves in the same
disastrous predicament Rome has wrought in every
other country where she has' gained a foothold. To fore-
stall this calamity, several. special publications and patri-
otic societies sprang into existence at the hands of good
men, mostly temperamental enthusiasts and radicals.”

“The ‘Federation,’ which is designed to be the friend
and promoter of every patriotic order and publication,
pleads with you to be friendly with one another.”

D. J. REYNOLDS, Pres.
424 Plymouth Bldg., Minneapolis, Minn.

“We today have ample strength numerically speak-
ing to carry any reform measure that may be suggested
if our sentiment could be crystalized and our force be
centralized upon the bulwarks of the enemy. This is the
purpose of the American Federation whose member-
ship, whether it be Guardians of Liberty, Knights of
Malta, Orangemen, Patriotic Sons, Junior Order, Knights
of Luther, the Great Secret Order, or any of the many
patriotic orders, may meet on one common ^ound and
exchange ideas and receive help from the wise counsel
of many minds.”

Its Platform
1. We demand the absolute separation of church and

state, as guaranteed in the Constitution.



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 33

2. That the public schools are essential to the safety
of the state; that such schools should be free from the
ecclesiastical influence or control; that persons disloyal
to the government or to the public schools should be
rigorously excluded from teaching therein.

3. That the freedom of speech and of the press be
preserved inviolate.

4. That there shall be no diversion of public prop-
erty or funds for sectarian purposes whatsoever.

5. That there shall be full religious toleration under
the American flag.

The purpose of this organization shall be to serve
as a clearing house for patriotic societies, where they
can meet on one common ground for the exchange of
ideas, for the cultivation of good' fellowship amongst
patriotic workers, for the fostering of the patriotic work
along such lines as may be deemed expedient.

Resolved, That all patriots and patriotic societies
bring pressure to bear upon their office holders to do
what lies in their power to promote the education of all
children in their public schools, regardless of religious
effiliations, up to the age of fourteen years.

Resolved, That we insist that all school boards be
purged of members who send their children to parochial
schools and that we oppose the employment in our pub-
lic schools of any teachers or others who have not receiv-
ed their primary training in our public schools or under
auspices entirely favorable to the same, since it is neither
fitting nor proper that the avowed enemies of our free
school system should be given employment therein.

I do not imply that ALL anti-Catholic activity is con-
troled or influenced by Socialists, although it is evident

that all simon-pure Socialists must be, and are, by the
very nature of their tenets opposed to the Catholic

Church. I mention it merely as one of the motives be-

hind the anti-Catholic campaign, not sufficient in itself

to account for the anti-Catholic feeling in this country,

but undoubtedly contributing largely to it, and doing so

covertly, for the most part, because the Socialists real-
ize that the Catholic Church is the most potent force ar-

rayed against them, the greatest obstacle to be over-

come by them in their efforts to transform the United
States into a Soviet Commune. They are clever enough
to see that anything which will undermine the influence
of the Catholic Church will assist them in their purposed
overthrow of the existing form of Government in the
Republic. And those who under the guise of patriotism,
or in the cause of Protestant advance assist them in their



34 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

anti-Catholic campaign are unwittingly furthering them
in theii’ program of social revolution.

CHAPTER SIX.
THE MASONIC MOTIVE

It m:iy seem a far cry from rabid socialism to so

solid and respectable a body of men as the Masonic
Fraternity. Yet the connecting link, if one were needed

was furnished by The Menace of May 13, 1913, in which
the following item appeared:

“I have a personal, private message which I wish
to convey to every Thirty-second Degree Mason in
the United States, who is a subscriber to the Menace
at the present time. The information which I pro-
pose to furnish will be registered to you free of
charge, and it involves nothing that will put you
under any obligation to me whatever, but it may
prove fortunate for you. I must be convinced that
you are a Thirty-second Degree Mason before the
information will be given, and it will be necessary
for you to enclose in your letter your last dues re-
ceipt or other information satisfactory to convince
me. Your credentials will be returned with the in-
formation, registered. Address me personally.

—

MARVIN BROWN, Thirty-second Degree, Box 243,
Aurora, Mo., Associate Editor The Menace.—Men-
ace, May 13, 1913.”

This may have been but the indiscretion of a single
Mason, but it is by no means the only bridge between
the anti-Catholic forces and Masonry, itself sufficiently

recognized as an active anti-Catholic organization. We
shall see, presently, the real reason why it is so. For
the present it will be enough if we examine the osten-
sible motives, which Masons themselves put forward to
explain their attitude towards the Catholic Church.

First of all, they make a great deal over a certain
variety of Patriotic appeal. In their later literature

they adopt the thesis that the Public School is a distinc-

tively American institution, quite forgetting how recent
anylhing like a general and adequate system of free and
compulsory public education is in this country. Few of
our greatest patriots from Washington to Roosevelt ever
attended the public school. They then make their own
the senseless anti-Catholic cry that the Church is op-
posed to the Public School. They swallow whole the
fable that the Catholic Church is un-American, that it



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 35

is to undermine American institutions and enslave

the American people. These things, utterly unproven

and unprovable, are taken as axioms by the official

Masonic publications which have, in recent years become

little more than out-and-out anti-Catholic publications.

MASONIC PUBLICATIONS PRIMARILY
ANTI-CATHOLIC.

The New Age, official organ of the 33rd Degree
Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction; the Crescent, offi-

cial organ of the Shriners, the Trestleboard, the Texas

Freemason, the Masonic Chronicle, and a host of unof-

ficial Masonic paper, fill their columns with abuse of the

Catholic Church, and almost all of it is on the score of

so-called patriotism.

It is not unusual for individual Masons to deny that

their organization is anti-Catholic. It is evident that

the subscription lists of such papers as we have mention-
ed above are not coextensive with the Masonic Frater-

nity, and that there must be many, good men and true,
who are ignorant of the attitude of their Masonic lead-
ers, and the official attitude of the Masonic Order to-

wards their Catholic friends and neighbors. But it is

only necessary for such men to open any current issue
of any of the official Masonic publications to be disillu-

sioned. A recent number of The New Age contained no
less than twenty-two anti-Catholic articles, nor were
they all on the subjects of patriotism and the public
schools; in some of them the RELIGION of Catholics
was assailed and ridiculed. But in the main it is the
supposed political activity of the Church that is dis-
cussed, and discussed in identically the same manner, and
often in identically the same words that we are accus-
tomed to find in Socialistic and definitely anti-Christian
publications. The platforms of the Masons and the
Socialists (and it might also be said, of all other anti-
Catholic organizations) are in many respects identical.
It became known, through the New York Tribune a few
years ago, that the Masons were backing the notorious
^^Order of P^s” (Pathfinders) which claimed to be con-
stituted of all anti-Catholic organizations. In fact, from
no less a person than Congressman Haines of New York
came the statement that those who were the moving



36 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

spirit in the Order of P^s were men high up in the Mas-
onic order. There were rumors afloat during the past

summer that the Masons were interested in the revival
of the Ku Klux Klan, although officials of the Order
warned Masons against joining or supporting the Klan
as soon as its activities and methods began to be the

subject of investigation and of general disapproval on

the part of the Press and the Public. The fact that the
leaders of the anti-Catholic campaign are all, or nearly
all, of them members of the Masonic Fraternity may be
merely a personal matter and a striking coincidence.

But that Masonry, as an organization, is engaged, and
engaged officially in a bitter anti-Catholic campaign, is
evident from the matter constantly printed in Masonic
organs, official and otherwise, which constantly spread
the same misinformation regarding the Catholic Church
that is disseminated by the Menace and other bigoted
sheets. A few quotations will not be amiss here:

Read This
^Tt is said that there are 6,084 parish schools

with 1,771,418 pupils in the United States! What
' is taught to this large number of pupils in these
6,084 parish schools? Are they taught to be genu-
ine American citizens? No! They are taught to
keep themselves separate from the rest of their
fellow citizens, to distrust them and avoid them as
associates, and to grow up not knowing and under-
standing them. Their school yards and buildings
are surrounded by high walls in order that in their
play hours they may not even see what is going on
in the outside world.”—The New Age, Dec., 1921.

Then This—The Month Before
^‘We desire to state definitely and succinctly,

and to have fully and completely understood and ac-
cepted, the fact that we have no enmity or any sort
of objection to the so-called Roman Catholic reli-
gion, any more than we have or can have to the many
different religions, and faiths almost without num-
ber, which are in existence today.

^‘But when the Roman Catholic Church, or that
of any other faith religion, behind the guise of
that religion sets up a church or hierarchy which
makes use of the ignorance, the superstition, the
cupidity or lust of power of its devotees to enable it
to enter the realm of politics, of temporal power, of
civic domination, and strives in its dual capacity to
dominate the governmental powers reserved for all



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 37

the people, and as an autocratic power to rule free
people in the interest of that church or hierarchy,
then we are unreservedly against and at enmity with
that church or hierarchy, because its usefulness is
being misused and misdirected, its influence is per-
mitted to be and is exercised against the best inter-
ests of our country, a dangerous condition being
stirred up among the citizens which tends to throw
doubt on all religion of whatever kind or complexion.

^‘The above is a fair and unbiased statement of
the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church and hier-
archy in this country and in all the world; therefore
be it deflnitely stated that we are unreservedly
against said church and hierarchy, will use our very
best endeavors to defeat and overthrow their de-
signs in this country, and we count upon the backing,
the aid and assistance of all genuine American citi-
zens to bring about that end.^^—^The New Age, Nov-
ember 1921.

One Month Previous
^^One doctrine of the Church of Rome which does

not receive the consideration it ought from the non-
Catholic world is her doctrine with reference to mar-
riage outside the Church. Her position is that
Protestant marriages—indeed, all marriages out-
side the Church—are illegitimate and consequently
the offspring of such marriages are illegitimate.

‘‘A letter which I hold, written and signed by
Archbishop Blenk, says, in response to the question
if that is the position of his Church, T answer posi-
tively, ^No\ The Catholic Church does not so class
them, but recognizes their marriages as both valid
and legitimate, and the offspring of such marriages
is also legitimate.’

“But this statement of the Archbishop is not
in agreement with the syllabus on marriage of Pope
Leo XIII, with the facts of history, nor with the
Catholic Catechism.”

—
^The New Age, October 1921.

Space does not permit of our quoting, as we had
planned, from each and every issue of The New Age for
the past year. Not a number has appeared without sev-
eral articles of so pronounced an anti-Catholic bias as to
make it apparent that this publication must be num-
bered among the foremost of the anti-Catholic sheets.
The Lincoln Park Chapter Bulletin quotes, in its Novem-
ber issue for 1921, a folder published by The Sentinel of
Liberty which gives the notorious “William Black Chal-
lenge,” and revives the false statements regarding his
alleged “murder” by the Knights of Columbus in 1915.



38 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

The passage is too long to quote, and it may be said that
the Bulletin is not an Official publication, but it certainly

follows where the official papers lead, as does also the

Oriental-Consistory Magazine of Chicago, and the

Trestleboard, which is ‘‘official,” and issued “for private

circulation only,” in the December, 1921, number of
which (for example) we find the following:

“Here then, is the situation of the Catholic
Church in America. It does and must resist, by
every means at its disposal, any infiltration into the
body of the faithful of American ideas and ideals, as
these have acceptance by citizens generally. It dare
not expose its ignorant masses, however well dis-
ciplined to authority, to the free currents of thought
that are as the breath of life to unhampered men
and women of the nation. It must, and does, keep
its own people apart, in every line of activity. It
must, and- it does, fight against the public schools
and against any extension or improvement of pop-
ular education. The church is having constant dif-
ficulty in dealing with and precariously holding those
Catholics who, from their surroundings and associ-
ates, have gained to a superior stage of mental de-
velopment.”

READ THIS.
“Would a Mason, as such, be justified in work-

ing against the election of a Catholic to the school
board? The man in question is an excellent and
respected citizen; is upright and conscientious. The
only possible objections in such case would be his
membership in the Catholic Church, and the fact
that he sends his own children to the parochial
schools, which would indicate that he does not favor
the public school system.”—^T. D. R., Illinois.

“It is difficult to advise a Mason, as such, in
matters of citizen duty. The usual statement is that
Masonry does not allow discriminations between
men, on account of race or creed. In- the abstract
this is true, but an abstract statement is usually the
side-stepping of a real question—an attempt to quiet
conscience or reason with unmeaning words. As a
practical matter, and in the exercise of ‘horse sense,^
it will be found that Masons, like all other citizens,
desire that those in office shall represent their senti-
ments, or the sentiments of their own group or
party. Upon the governing board of a public school,
the Catholic, however high-minded and conscientious,
could not properly represent the Mason and the
Protestant. His church is insistent that the State
should not engage in the work of education, such
being an exclusive function of the church. He is



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 39

taught and is bound to believe, that the public school
is godless and depraved. Even if the Catholic
director or trustee is uninfluenced by such teachings,
be will have in mind his own double taxation—for
public and parochial schools. It will be no more
than natural that he will seek, on every occasion, to
cut down expenditures for the former, even though
by so doing the value and usefulness of the schools
are minimized or destroyed. The Masonic reasoning
in such case is well expressed by a recent Graft
writer, who says: ‘No good Roman Catholic can
properly serve the public free schools and his church
in any capacity at the same time. He is either un-
true to one or the other. When anyone is attempt-
ing this dual allegiance, suspicion naturally attaches
to his sincerity to one or the other—the school or
the church.^”—Trestleboard, December, 1921.

[The foregoing is pure bunk.—Editor.]
NOT A NEW DEVELOPMENT.

That this condition of the Masonic Press is not a new
development, is amply shown by the following quotations
from publications of recent years:

“There is but one issue, and that is the religious
issue. The schools have been controlled by the
enemies of the public school system—the Roman
Catholics.’^—Masonic Chronicle, Sept. 11, 1915.

“We recommend that work be concentrated on
the election of Percy F. Smith particularly, as he is
opposed by a ROMAN CATHOLIC who, as such, is
opposed tc our PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.^’—The
Keystone American (Masonic).

“The Master Mason, of Missouri, urges all
Masons to throw their entire strength to the Y. M.
C. A., as both Christians and Jews are co-operating
in this great recreation work. It thinks we cannot
afford to waste time or money in helping the
Knights of Columbus or in erecting separate Ma-
sonic buildings on camp grounds.”—Light. Jan. 1,
1918.

“Should a Mason patronize a brother Mason in-
stead of giving his trade to some person or firm who
are not members of the fraternity? asks the Kansas
City Masonic Herald. This is a question we often
hear debated, but to the writer there is but one
answer—Yes.”—Masonic Home Journal, February
16, 1914.

“The Freemason who is not interested in this
campaign on the side of the Guardians of Liberty,
is a very unworthy Freemason. He will not know
what to say when the time comes, as it inevitably
will, when absolute necessity will force into active



40 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. .

work the organization to which he must render
obedience in the interests of his country, his neigh-
bor and his God.’’—Leaflet “The Freemason.”

“A United States soldier or sailor is not per-
mitted to be buried from Roman Catholic churches
with a United States flag on his coffin, as required by
army regulation, but no objection is made to the
papal flag, which represents the Papal States, which
every good Roman Catholic hopes to see restored to
the temporal dominion of the Popes.”—^The Texas
Freemason, Sept., 1914.

(Editor’s Note—The malicious falsity of this article
will be recognized at once by any one who has attended
the funeral of a “service man” in a Catholic church. The
American flag is always placed on the coffin—the Papal
flag has never once been seen in such a connection).

I am aware that this sort of thing does not, as a
matter of fact, represent the convictions and feelings of

a great many Masons. Hardly a week passes but what
the office of OUR SUNDAY VISITOR receives letters

I

from individual Masons stating that they do not con-
ceive of Masonry as a body antagonistic to the Catholic
Church. Frequently we are asked to give data concern-
ing statements quoted from Masonic publications, be-
cause individual Masons, readers of OUR SUNDAY
VISITOR, can hardly believe that official Masonic papers
can have adopted so openly anti-Catholic an attitude.

Some write to deprecate the attitude of their leaders,
and even, now and then, some fair-minded Mason appears
in public, in print, or on the platform, in an effort to
conciliate. Such an one, only recently, made the follow-
ing significant statements:

“Right Worshipful Ossian Lang, Grand Historian
of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, sur-
prised many of his Masonic friends at a gathering
of the members of Hudson River and Newburgh
Lodges in Masonic Temple on Monday night, when
he delivered to them a general talk on the order.
Moderation and Masonic charity were two of the
themes considered.

IN JUSTICE TO K. OF C.
“In considering the former he took up the cause

of the Knights of Columbus, saying there was a
feeling among many of the craft that could and
should not exist if Christian brotherhood were to
continue. While there is nothing in the Masonic
law that prevents members of the Catholic faith



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 41

becoming members of the Masonic order, there is
something in the tenets of the Catholic Church that
prohibits the faithful from assuming the Masonic
oath. As Protestants and Catholics have the same
rights to organization, there is no good reason why
the members of the Masonic bodies should carry a
feeling of jealousy or animosity against the Knights
of Columbus. Yet the publications of the Masonic
body have been very ready to make false statements
against the Knights of Columbus, and have done
much to engender ill-feeling between the two that
should never exist in a Christian community, where
the simple fact of religious belief is the chief stumb-
ling block. Mr. Lang took the opportunity of show-
ing how thoroughly wrong the position taken is,
and called upon his hearers to cast prejudice to the
dogs and show that Christian charity which they had
vowed at the Masonic altar to accord to all mankind.
He spoke of the absurd reports made concerning the
oath given in the degrees by the Knights of Colum-
bus and related at length how the Knights had
opened the secrets of their order to a committee of
which the head of the Knights Templar in the United
States had been one, and how that committee had
pronounced the stories as ridiculously false.”—The
Newburgh Daily News, Dec. 14, 1921.

MASONRY IN POLITICS.
Recently Masonic activity in behalf of the Smith-

Towner Bill, and similar legislation, has shown that
Masonry is actively in politics, and that it carries out its
anti-Catholic propaganda along the same lines as do the
other (Trganized forces of the anti-Catholic campaign.

I have mentioned the similarity of the platforms of
the various organizations interested in this campaign.

The “American Federation of Patriotic Societies” has
published its “platform” which we printed, from The
Federation Bulletin of July, 1916. A glance at it will
make quite clear the remarkable resemblance between
the avowed aims of Masonry, in respect of the Catholic
Church, and those of other anti-Catholic societies. Now
the fact that the Masons are working actively along
these lines may be taken to indicate that they are
actuated by the same motives which account for similar
activity in other organizations.

The reasons for the Church’s ban on Masonry are
not generally understood in this country, where Masonry
appears to be far different from the frankly agnostic



42 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

and atheistic Masonry of Europe. True, there was a
time when American Masonry repudiated European
Masonry, but, according to The New Age for November*
1917, that breach has since been healed, so that Masonry
throughout the world stands as a unit. Recently the
newspapers of the country announced that a formal
reconciliation had been effected between the American
Masons and the atheistic Grand Orient of France, the
Mohammedan Grand Lodges of Turkey and, in fact, all
Masons throughout the world. The item as given in the
newspapers was as follows:

American Masons may be, as individuals, good
Christian men, but that does not prevent them from
being, so to speak, in full communion with the anti-
Christian Grand Orient Lodges of France, and with the
Jewish and Mohammedan Lodges throughout the world*

World Masons Organize

Geneva, Dec. 13, 1921.—An International Ma-
sonic Association has been formed as a result of the
recent International Conference here. It is com-
posed of the Grand Lodges of New York, Alpina
(Switzerland), France, Luxemburg, Vienna and Bul-
garia, and the Grand Orients of France, Netherlands,
Belgium, Italy, Lusitania (Portugal), and Turkey.

It has been shown by abler authorities that Masonry
is, in itself, not only a religious sect or system, but a

non-Christian system. The perusal, however, ol such a
volume as “AMERICAN FREE MASONRY^^ by Arthur
Preuss, with its copious quotations from standard Ma-
sonic authors, would suffice to convince them of the fact,
even if the further fact that a man need not be a pro-
fessing Christian in order to be a Mason did not imply
that there could be nothing definitely Christian in the

tenets of Masonry.

But this is not the place for a discussion of Masonry
as such. We are here interested only in its connection
with the anti-Catholic campaign, a connection which

needs no proof because of its openness. If, then, we in-
quire for the reasons WHY MASONRY IS OPPOSED^
TO THE CHURCH, we shall see the bearing of all this
(which may have seemed a digression, but which, in view
of our purpose in this pamphlet, is really strictly germane
to the discussion of “the anti-Catholic motive”) in the



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 43

anti-Catholic attitude of Masonry, mind you, I do not
say of Masons as individuals, and in the identity of its

platform in regard to certain matters, with that of the

Socialists and that of the Rationalists. And I shall show
in my concluding chapter that these things are an indi-
cation of a deeper reason than any which appears on

the surface.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOTIVE.
We are coming to the inevitable conclusion which

faces the careful and dispassionate student of the con-

ditions discussed in these articles. We have been can-
celling out certain elements in the anti-Cutholic cam-

paign, and but one more is left, a sort of common divisor
of them all. It is The Anti-Christian Motive.

It is highly significant that the attacks of Rational-

ism, the shafts of the Freethinkers, the strictures of the

Atheists, the pointed paragraphs and subtle cartoons of
the frankly anti-Christian press, are principally aimed

at the Catholic Church. To the Rationalist, the Free-
thinker, the Atheist, the Catholic Church epitomizes and
embodies the Christian Religion as such. No Protestant
church has ever been assailed as has she. No Protestant
doctrine has even been inveighed against as have her
dogmas. And this is quite natural, for in proportion as
the doctrines of the Catholic Church are trtie, they are,
and always must be, unalterably opposed to the dogmas
of Rationalism, Freethought and Atheism. Moreover,
these out-and-out opponents of revealed Religion are
right in one thing, and that is their recognition that the
Catholic Church is the one form of Christianity which
offers steadfast resistance to their anti-Christian pro-

paganda; the Catholic Church IS Christianity—and they
hate Christianity. What wonder, then, that it is against
her that their warfare is waged, rather than against any
of the six hundred sects which hold and teach only a
partial and incoherent Christianity?

Rationalism publishes no fewer than a dozen pro-
fessedly infidel papers in the United States, and, in addi-
tion, carries on its propaganda through the more radical
Socialistic periodicals. Some of these papers are:



44 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

The People's Press, Chicago.
The Truthseeker, New York.
The Crucible, Seattle, Wash.
The Guidon, Dallas, Texas.
The Rationalist, Chicago.
The Progressive Thinker, Chicago.
The Exorcist, Oklahoma City, Okla.
The Roycroft, East Aurora, N. Y.
Twin City Reporter, Minneapolis.
The Gopher, Chicago.
The Lion's Paw, Chicago.
Life and Action, Chicago.
Mature Medicine, Chicago.
The Melting Pot, St. Louis.
National Rip Saw, St. Louis.

Anti-Catholic forces have been very active in this

country in recent years. They are everywhere in poli-
tics, and their primary purpose is to keep Catholics from
being elected to public office, in order that their demands
for legislation hostile to Christianity's interests may
have m.ore favorable consideration. These agencies even

interest themselves in charity, not because they care for

the poor and unfortunate, but in order to de-Christianize

charity. They aim at preventing religion from being
planted into the hearts of the young, and this is also

their hidden aim in opposing the parish school.
Such are the aims of the men who run these organi-

zation. The rank and file of Masons, of Protestants, are
inveigled into the anti-Catholic fight innocently, if you
wish, but whether ignorantly or not, they are playing

into the hands of, and fighting che battle for those v/ho
are openly opposed not only tc the Catholic Church, bat

to Christianity in any form.
We cannot, and do not, for one moment suppose

that the good Protestants who join with these profes-
sedly anti-Christian sheets in their anti-Catholic cam-
paign realize the company they are in. Do Masons of
the lower “Degrees” realize that the so-called “patriotic
platform” of their Order is one which is shared by the
Atheists and Radicals of all sorts? Of course they do
not realize any such thing. Yet such is the fact. Thou-
sands of good Christian people are lending themselves to
the anti-Catholic campaign, saturating themselves with
anti-Catholic propaganda, in complete and blissful
ignorance of the real bearing of the movement against



THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE. 45

the Catholic Church. They are being used as ignorant

tools in the hands of those who wish to destroy the
Catholic Church because it is the chief representative of

the Christi//n Religion; whose real motive is the over-

throw of Christianity, both as a religion and as a moral

system.

THE SYNTHESIS.

To synthesize these various elements is a simple
task. We do but retrace our steps. The frankly anti-
Christian motive needs no further explanation. It is

quite willing to avow its purpose. The other elements in
the anti-Catholic campaign mask their aim with a speci-
ous patriotism, which a little study shows to be at best

but a blind for the spirit which permeates and actuates
all anti-Catholic activity. Masonry, as a great non-

Christian sect, lends itself to the propaganda of the
Socialists with regard to the Public School, etc., merely

by way of attacking the Catholic Church, which is the
only great Christian body able or willing to denounce its
efforts to undermine the religion of Jesus Christ. The
purpose of the Socialists in attacking the Catholic

Church is simplj be injure the one great organization
which stands irrevocably on the side of Law and Order,
as against their programmes of ultimate anarchy and
Bolshevism. The Declaration of Principles of every anti-
Catholic organization, of Masonry, of rationalistic so-
cieties, is substantially the same. They all declare for
the Public School, for Separation of Church from State,
for Tolerance. This were innocent enough, but they
wage a common propaganda against the Catholic Church
for dvefending, as they hold, the antitheses of these three
principles. The aim of the pseudo-Patriots, in their
vaunted support of the public school is inspired by So-
cialism, certainly not by Americanism, democracy, or
loyalty to the precise provisions of the Constitution.

The various Protestant denominations which ally them-
selves with the anti-Catholic campaign, are doubtless
interested in what they honestly believe to be moral and
patriotic reforms, though ofttimes their honesty of pur-
pose must be seriously questioned in view of the marked
insincerity of their methods of procedure. They believe



46 THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MOTIVE.

in the religious education of the child, but they are

against Catholic parochial schools because they are

jealous of Catholic growth. In demanding that all chil-

dren of school age shall be obliged to attend the public

schools they play (perhaps without knowing it) directly
into the hands of the Socialists, and the aim of Socialism
is to place all education in control of the State in OliDER
THAT NO RELIGION MAY BE TAUGHT TO THE
NEXT GENERATION OF AMERICANS. The Money
Motive, and the Personal Motive run through all these
others, giving each and all of them individual mouth-
pieces to spread the anti-Catholic propaganda.

I said in the beginning of these articles that no one
of the motives for the anti-Catholic*, animus was suffi-
cient, in itself, to account for the violence or the con-

tinuance of the anti-Catholic campaign. All of them
taken together do account for it. ,And all of them taken
together, and then boiled down, are reducable to this:
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS HATED BECAUSE SHE
IS THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST.

The Catholic Church is hated because she is, as she
has always been, the great exponent of the truths which
the world rejects. The spirit of the world is against the
Catholic Church now, as always, and back of what we
are pleased to call the “spirit of the times^ or the spirit

of the world, is the intense personal hatred of the Arch-
Enemy of souls, the Devil himself, bending all his
powers against the one force which effectively resists
and withstands him. There is nothing mystic or far-
fetched in this. It is the simple deduction from the facts
which have been presented here. Nor is there anything
strange or unexpected about it. The Scriptures give us
ample reasons to look for the very thing which, in reality,
we find.

(Finis).



Nihil Obstat

RT. REV. MSGR. J. H. OECHTBRING. V. G.

imprimatur

RT. REV. H. J. ALBRDING
-j- Bisbop of Fort Wayne