Loyalty to the Catholic Church Above Loyalty to Country

This is from the October 1921 edition of the Converted Catholic Magazine.

In a sermon published in “The Western Watchman” (St. Louis) of June 27, 1912, the editor, Rev. D. S: Phelan, LL.D., then dean of the Papal press propagandists in this country, said: (Italics ours. Bold, the webmaster’s.)

“And why is it that the Church is strong; why is it everybody is afraid of the Catholic Church? And the American people are more afraid of her than any people in the world. Why are they afraid of the Catholic Church? They know what the Catholic Church means. It means all the Catholics of the world, not of one country, or two countries, but all the countries of the world. And it means more than that: It means that the Catholics of the world love the Church more than anything else, that the Catholics of the world love the Church more than they do their own governments, more than they do their own nation, more than they do their own people, more than they do their own fortunes, more than they do their own selves. We of the Catholic Church are ready to go to the death for the Church. Under God she is the supreme object of our worship.

“We Are Catholics First”

“Tell us that we think more of the Church than we do of the United States; of course, we do! Tell us we are Catholics first and Americans or English afterwards. Of course, we are! Tell us, in the conflict between the Church and the civil government we take the side of the Church. Of course, we do! Why, if the Government of the United States were at war with the Church we would say tomorrow, ‘To Hell with the Government of the United States, and if the Church and all the Governments of the world were at war we would say, ‘To Hell with all the Governments of the world!’ They say we are Catholics first and Americans decidedly afterwards. There is no doubt about it. We are Catholics first, and we love the Church more than we love any and all Governments of the world; and we love the Church more than we love our fathers and our mothers; we love the Church more than we love our own children.

“I love the people of America: I love the people of every nation; I glory in their loyalty; but let the governments of the world steer clear of the Catholic Church; let the emperors, let the kings and the presidents not come into conflict with the head of the Catholic Church. Because the Catholic Church is everything to all the Catholics of the world; they renounce all national ties when there is a question of loyalty to her. And why is it the Pope is so strong? Why is it that in this country, where we have only seven per cent, of the population, the Catholic Church is so much feared? She is loved by all her children and feared by everybody.

“Why is it the Pope is such a tremendous power? Why, the Pope is the ruler of the world. All the emperors, all the kings, all the presidents of the world today are as these altar boys of mine. The Pope is the ruler of the world. Why? Because he is the ruler of the Catholics of the world, the Catholics of all the world, and the Catholics of all the world would die for the rights of the Pope. He is the head of the Church, and they would die for the Church. And the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ, and they need not have any misgivings on that score; there need be no misconceptions there—the Catholics of the world are Catholics first and always; they are Americans, they are Germans, they are French, or they are English afterwards.”

Just how far this Papal writer’s statements were accurate in respect of the individuals making up the lay membership of the Church, there is, of course, no means of knowing. But he received no censure from his superiors for these utterances so far as the public knew at the time. Nor did he retract or modify them in any way in consequence of remonstrances from individual Catholics.

An important point to bear in mind is that we must assume that all the teachers in Catholic educational establishments stand for these pronouncements of the authorities of their Church, especially those of the Popes, and that fact in the opinion of many of our readers makes the continuance of their work with the young a menace to this Republic and its free institutions.

(End of text from the Converted Catholic Magazine.)

In my opinion, this article clearly identifies the Roman Catholic Church as a political organization. If you would say, “The Christians of the world love Jesus Christ more than they do their own governments” I would certainly agree with that. We are indeed supposed to love the Lord more than anything. But we don’t go to war with the government or commit acts of violence toward the government, we just refuse to obey any government mandate that go against our conscience, things we know are morally wrong and against what the Bible says. That’s what all the martyrs throughout the centuries did.