I know I mentioned the next post would be about Patriotism, however this one went long, so I decided to push it till next time. This however, sets a base for that thought.
Animosity Toward Catholics
With all that was said last post about what Americanism is and certain errors of political thought put forth in the Syllabus, it needs be discussed what this means for Catholics in America. There are few more topics of discussion that need to be addressed before we talk about what American Catholics can do practically. In order to more fully understand the standing of Catholics in regard to our government, it is important to look at the attitudes of those in charge when our independence was won.
Coulombe and Biersach provide numerous quotations from our nations founding fathers indicating the hatred they fostered toward Catholics.
Indication 1: We see in the Declaration of Independence a list of gripes the King was supposed to have done to the colonists. One of which is the following, "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies". The neighboring province here references is Quebec. They are more specifically referencing the Quebec act of 1774, which gave the French Canadians the right to their religion, language and laws. This was a freedom from the Penal Laws of England, which were laws against Catholics. "Catholics lost not only freedom of worship, but civil rights as well; their estates, property, and sometimes even lives were at the mercy of any informer"(NewAdvent.Org). They are complaining that Catholics in Quebec have the freedom from laws which prohibit the free exercise of their Catholic religion.
Indication 2:
Continental congress (the new leaders of the revolution) September 5, 1774, drew up 3 addresses, one was addressed to England in opposition to the Quebec act (penned by John Jay). The address stated, "That a British parliament should ever consent to establish in their country (Quebec) a religion that has deluged your islands in blood and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion to every part of the world". Biersach goes on to make an ironic comment that in actuality this is what Protestantism did.
Indication 3:
On September 10, 1774, in a separate address to the people of Quebec congress writes "what is offered to you by the late parliament, liberty of conscience in your religion? No, God gave it to you; and the powers with which you have been and are connected, firmly stipulated for your enjoyment of it…. We are too well acquainted with the liberality of the sentiment distinguishing your nation. To imagine the difference of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us." similar too the election of Kennedy, non Catholics held an understanding that Catholicism was incompatible with a republican government and would impede its development (Faith of our Fathers, Spalding; Crisis Mag. 2011). I stumbled upon Spalding's article while researching for this blog post, in it he gives a few more examples and quotes from the founding fathers; its worth a read.
Indication 4:
The next indicator is the Suffolk resolves of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, of which Boston is the major city. The aforementioned letters fell into the hands of Bishop Jean-Olivier Briand, Bishop of Quebec. He got the entire text of both letters and threatened to excommunicate any priest who cooperated with the congress. Suffolk county got together to produce the Suffolk Resolves, which state in article 10, "Catholicism is dangerous to an extreme degree to the protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all Americans and therefore as men and protestant Christians we are indispensably obliged, to take all proper measure for our security. "
Indication 5:
"St. Alexander Hamilton the Great" (Coulomb), wrote a pamphlet called Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, which states, "The affair of Canada is still worse, the Romish faith has made the established religion of the land and his majesty is placed at the head of it. The free exercise of the protestant faith is dependent upon the pleasure of the governor in head of it and council , they might as well establish popery in new York and the other colonies as they did in Canada. They had no more right to do it there than here. Your lives, your property and your religion are all at stake." Coulombe also points out that the revolution would not have succeeded without the intervention of France and Spain. Now these countries were Catholic countries at the time and because of their intervention the Penal Laws were repealed. Furthermore, Coulomb points out the insincerity of this action, considering it was one of the reasons of complaint against the King (in regard to the Quebec Act) in the Declaration which instigated the revolution in the first place. It would seem that this acquiescence indicates their desire for independence over their Creed. In consequence of the assistance provided by the French and Spanish, let us see how this may have changed their views.
Indication 6:
Ben Franklin in a letter to Ezra Styles president of Harvard University indicates his views on Christianity. He connotes, Jesus was a good moral teacher, doubts his divinity and doesn’t really care to study it since he is near death. He grants that if believing in His divinity helps you live out the moral code, then that is your privilege. He neither mentions the Church He founded nor any theology. Again He is reduced simply to a good moral teacher; this is a good indication of the deism of Franklin.
Indication 7:
Jefferson wrote to Harrison Smith on August 6, 1810, "My opinion is, that there would never have been an infidel if there had never been a priest". This is an indication of his concern for the "harmful" influence of priests. Further on in the text he states, "the artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves and who read in the system only what is really there. " It is easy to see common theme of disobedience and free thought in regard to revelation within many of these quotations.
Coulombe and Biersach provide numerous quotations from our nations founding fathers indicating the hatred they fostered toward Catholics.
Indication 1: We see in the Declaration of Independence a list of gripes the King was supposed to have done to the colonists. One of which is the following, "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies". The neighboring province here references is Quebec. They are more specifically referencing the Quebec act of 1774, which gave the French Canadians the right to their religion, language and laws. This was a freedom from the Penal Laws of England, which were laws against Catholics. "Catholics lost not only freedom of worship, but civil rights as well; their estates, property, and sometimes even lives were at the mercy of any informer"(NewAdvent.Org). They are complaining that Catholics in Quebec have the freedom from laws which prohibit the free exercise of their Catholic religion.
Indication 2:
Continental congress (the new leaders of the revolution) September 5, 1774, drew up 3 addresses, one was addressed to England in opposition to the Quebec act (penned by John Jay). The address stated, "That a British parliament should ever consent to establish in their country (Quebec) a religion that has deluged your islands in blood and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion to every part of the world". Biersach goes on to make an ironic comment that in actuality this is what Protestantism did.
Indication 3:
On September 10, 1774, in a separate address to the people of Quebec congress writes "what is offered to you by the late parliament, liberty of conscience in your religion? No, God gave it to you; and the powers with which you have been and are connected, firmly stipulated for your enjoyment of it…. We are too well acquainted with the liberality of the sentiment distinguishing your nation. To imagine the difference of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us." similar too the election of Kennedy, non Catholics held an understanding that Catholicism was incompatible with a republican government and would impede its development (Faith of our Fathers, Spalding; Crisis Mag. 2011). I stumbled upon Spalding's article while researching for this blog post, in it he gives a few more examples and quotes from the founding fathers; its worth a read.
Indication 4:
The next indicator is the Suffolk resolves of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, of which Boston is the major city. The aforementioned letters fell into the hands of Bishop Jean-Olivier Briand, Bishop of Quebec. He got the entire text of both letters and threatened to excommunicate any priest who cooperated with the congress. Suffolk county got together to produce the Suffolk Resolves, which state in article 10, "Catholicism is dangerous to an extreme degree to the protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all Americans and therefore as men and protestant Christians we are indispensably obliged, to take all proper measure for our security. "
Indication 5:
"St. Alexander Hamilton the Great" (Coulomb), wrote a pamphlet called Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, which states, "The affair of Canada is still worse, the Romish faith has made the established religion of the land and his majesty is placed at the head of it. The free exercise of the protestant faith is dependent upon the pleasure of the governor in head of it and council , they might as well establish popery in new York and the other colonies as they did in Canada. They had no more right to do it there than here. Your lives, your property and your religion are all at stake." Coulombe also points out that the revolution would not have succeeded without the intervention of France and Spain. Now these countries were Catholic countries at the time and because of their intervention the Penal Laws were repealed. Furthermore, Coulomb points out the insincerity of this action, considering it was one of the reasons of complaint against the King (in regard to the Quebec Act) in the Declaration which instigated the revolution in the first place. It would seem that this acquiescence indicates their desire for independence over their Creed. In consequence of the assistance provided by the French and Spanish, let us see how this may have changed their views.
Indication 6:
Ben Franklin in a letter to Ezra Styles president of Harvard University indicates his views on Christianity. He connotes, Jesus was a good moral teacher, doubts his divinity and doesn’t really care to study it since he is near death. He grants that if believing in His divinity helps you live out the moral code, then that is your privilege. He neither mentions the Church He founded nor any theology. Again He is reduced simply to a good moral teacher; this is a good indication of the deism of Franklin.
Indication 7:
Jefferson wrote to Harrison Smith on August 6, 1810, "My opinion is, that there would never have been an infidel if there had never been a priest". This is an indication of his concern for the "harmful" influence of priests. Further on in the text he states, "the artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves and who read in the system only what is really there. " It is easy to see common theme of disobedience and free thought in regard to revelation within many of these quotations.
Indication 8:
John Adams writing to Jefferson December 3, 1813, "What could be invented to debase the ancient Christian-ism that Greeks Romans Hebrews and christian faction above all the Catholics have not fraudulently imposed upon the public. Miracle after miracle has rolled down in torrents wave exceeding wave in the Catholic church, from the council of Nicea and long before, to this day." "July 16 1814, "If the Christian religion, as I understand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground, as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistic Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1,500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die".
On June 20, 1815 Adams to Jefferson writes, "the question before the human race is, whether the God of nature should govern the world by his own laws, or whether the priests and Kings should, rule it by fictitious miracles. Or in other words whether authority is originally in the people. Or whether it is descended for 1800 hundred years in a succession of popes and Bishops or brought down from heaven by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove in a vial of Holy Oil.(Miracle of the coronation of King Clovis)".
On February 2, 1816 he writes to Jefferson again, "That stupendous monument of human hypocrisy and fanaticism the church of St. Peter at Rome, which was a century and a half in building, excited the ambition of Leo the X, who believed no more of the Christian religion than Diderot, to finish it; and finding St. Peter's pence insufficient, he deluged all Europe with indulgences for sale, and excited Luther to contro vert his authority to grant them. Luther, and his associates and followers, went less than half way in detecting the corruptions of Christianity, but they acquired reverence and authority among their followers almost as absolute as that of the Popes had been. To enter into details would be endless; but I agree with you, that the natural effect of science and arts is to erect public opinion into a censor, which must in some degree be respected by all."
John Adams writing to Jefferson December 3, 1813, "What could be invented to debase the ancient Christian-ism that Greeks Romans Hebrews and christian faction above all the Catholics have not fraudulently imposed upon the public. Miracle after miracle has rolled down in torrents wave exceeding wave in the Catholic church, from the council of Nicea and long before, to this day." "July 16 1814, "If the Christian religion, as I understand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground, as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistic Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1,500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die".
On June 20, 1815 Adams to Jefferson writes, "the question before the human race is, whether the God of nature should govern the world by his own laws, or whether the priests and Kings should, rule it by fictitious miracles. Or in other words whether authority is originally in the people. Or whether it is descended for 1800 hundred years in a succession of popes and Bishops or brought down from heaven by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove in a vial of Holy Oil.(Miracle of the coronation of King Clovis)".
On February 2, 1816 he writes to Jefferson again, "That stupendous monument of human hypocrisy and fanaticism the church of St. Peter at Rome, which was a century and a half in building, excited the ambition of Leo the X, who believed no more of the Christian religion than Diderot, to finish it; and finding St. Peter's pence insufficient, he deluged all Europe with indulgences for sale, and excited Luther to contro vert his authority to grant them. Luther, and his associates and followers, went less than half way in detecting the corruptions of Christianity, but they acquired reverence and authority among their followers almost as absolute as that of the Popes had been. To enter into details would be endless; but I agree with you, that the natural effect of science and arts is to erect public opinion into a censor, which must in some degree be respected by all."
Indication 9:
Jefferson writing to Waterhouse on June 26, 1822, "They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an Unitarian." I couldn't help cringe at the juxtaposing of Catholicism with that of Islam.
As we can see regardless of the France' and Spain's assistance the animosity toward Catholics remains the same. This is the lot of references indicative of the animosity of the founders of this nation toward Catholicism. It is a long list and very telling. There were only a few places in the colonies which were somewhat tolerant of Catholics mostly located in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. They made up about 1-2% of the population of the nation at the time. They were persecuted in some areas, and were the target of potential denial of property and civil rights unless they denounced “the dangerous and damnable doctrine that the Pope, or any other earthly authority, hath power to absolve men from their sins.(John Jay)”(Spalding). Think, if Gays can change the laws of this country the way they have, what more can the 20% of Catholics now; oh I forgot, they are Katholycs not Catholics. Even so, if we raised our voice, it wouldn't be futile. I am afraid however, the History will repeat itself with true Catholics being persecuted for the faith and not acquiescing to the idolatry and relativism of our current american culture.
The idea of America envisaged by our founding fathers was one without Catholicism. We were the red headed step child which was begrudgingly tolerated. What would have been our fate if we had won our independence without the help of France and Spain? I believe the future would have been bloody for Catholics and i'm certain the blood would not be on our hands. Needless to say, we would have defended ourselves, but against what odds? What does the future hold for a Church that is slowly dying away or at least not resembling true Catholicism. The motives of the revolution was freedom from authority, a liberality founded in free thought and a desire for self rule. A rule without the influence of King or Priest. I'm not saying there weren't abuses, I am simply saying revolution based on disobedience is erroneous.
Jefferson writing to Waterhouse on June 26, 1822, "They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an Unitarian." I couldn't help cringe at the juxtaposing of Catholicism with that of Islam.
As we can see regardless of the France' and Spain's assistance the animosity toward Catholics remains the same. This is the lot of references indicative of the animosity of the founders of this nation toward Catholicism. It is a long list and very telling. There were only a few places in the colonies which were somewhat tolerant of Catholics mostly located in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. They made up about 1-2% of the population of the nation at the time. They were persecuted in some areas, and were the target of potential denial of property and civil rights unless they denounced “the dangerous and damnable doctrine that the Pope, or any other earthly authority, hath power to absolve men from their sins.(John Jay)”(Spalding). Think, if Gays can change the laws of this country the way they have, what more can the 20% of Catholics now; oh I forgot, they are Katholycs not Catholics. Even so, if we raised our voice, it wouldn't be futile. I am afraid however, the History will repeat itself with true Catholics being persecuted for the faith and not acquiescing to the idolatry and relativism of our current american culture.
The idea of America envisaged by our founding fathers was one without Catholicism. We were the red headed step child which was begrudgingly tolerated. What would have been our fate if we had won our independence without the help of France and Spain? I believe the future would have been bloody for Catholics and i'm certain the blood would not be on our hands. Needless to say, we would have defended ourselves, but against what odds? What does the future hold for a Church that is slowly dying away or at least not resembling true Catholicism. The motives of the revolution was freedom from authority, a liberality founded in free thought and a desire for self rule. A rule without the influence of King or Priest. I'm not saying there weren't abuses, I am simply saying revolution based on disobedience is erroneous.
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