The Black Pope_A History of the Jesuits by Mary Francis Cusack

Author:Mary Francis Cusack [Cusack, Mary Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Religion
Google: TE5GAAAAYAAJ
Publisher: Marshall, Russell
Published: 1896-05-14T23:00:00+00:00

Statue of Ignatius Loyola Erected in Canada.

This symbol stands there a menace to civil and religious liberty in the province of Quebec, and an insult to the Protestant minority which, after all is the financial backbone of the country.

Government in Quebec is according to Canon law. It is not what is the will of Queen Victoria, but what is the will of Leo XIII. Here, in the midst of a simple-minded, peace-loving, religious, but in no sense wealthy population, are Sulpicians, Redemtorists, Oblats, Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines and Trappists, who have come to settle in this poor province, to feed upon the poverty of the people, and to reproduce here the worst conditions of life in old Europe. The attitude of the religions in this Province is not “live and let live.” On the contrary the clergy encourage the growth of the most extreme intolerance and exclusiveness. Quebec, according to their teaching, must be French, French only, and ultramontane. In this way they are goading the people on to a kind of religio-racial madness. Educated, liberal-minded Roman Catholics who understand English thought and know the Protestant position and the fairness of its spirit, deplore the extremism of the people as fostered by these foreign orders—orders which have been hived in Quebec and provided for out of the public chest.

Rome is asking every day for more concessions, more liberty, more money, all in the name of religion. She is assuring us in public that she has become more liberal, but it might be well to ask what is she doing and teaching in private. After all she does not find it necessary to make much concealment of her intentions and plans. She knows her public, and she uses her knowledge to her very great advantage. An Englishman’s great characteristic is his love of liberty; Rome knows this, and trades on her knowledge. But should not Englishmen ask—What will Rome do with all this money and all this liberty? In the matter of education, Rome has so far made all her demands for separate endowments on the plea of religion—she has a right, so she says, to teach her own people the form of religion which she believes. But if matters were reversed, would Rome give us the same liberty? Rome herself has declared that she would not, again and again; We do not consider it a sacred duty to persecute the Roman Catholic Church: Rome considers it a sacred duty, and indeed it is one which she cheerfully undertakes, to persecute us, when she has the power.

Why then should we put this power in her hands? But Rome wants liberty to teach some other things besides her religion, and to this point special attention should be given. The heads of the Church know well, none better, that to appeal to an Englishman on the ground of liberty of conscience is the surest way to win. But are the English people willing that Rome should teach history, and science, and in fact every branch of education, according to Rome, and not according to fact.

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