Lafayette's Prophecy
"A well-known writer speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hierarchy as regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which especially threaten the United States from the success of her policy:"'There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then, first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government with those of the Catholic Church.'" (The Great Controversy, p. 564)
"Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: `The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error--a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.' The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathematized `those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,' also 'all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.'"The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O'Connor: 'Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.'. . . The archbishop of St. Louis once said: 'Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.'. . . "Every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the Catholic Church takes an oath of allegiance to the pope, in which occur the following words: 'Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord (the pope), or his aforesaid successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose.'" (A quote from Josiah Strong in The Great Controversy, pp. 564, 565)
From The Presbyterian - May 17, 1893by Julia W. De Witt
“If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed they will fall by the hands of the Romish clergy.” These words were uttered by General Lafayette, who, although a Romanist by birth and education, proved his love for this country and her institutions by his deeds, and has left on record his admiration for, and faith in, its civil and religious freedom.
It is our boast, as a nation, that the Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty to each of its citizens, and yet we have recently witnessed the arrival of a Papal Delegate at our National Capital, not only invested with supreme authority, but the Pope has caused to be published, throughout the land, that this Pontiff has the power to inflict any sentence he may see fit on certain of our citizens, “notwithstanding constitutions, apostolic ordinances, or any other, to the contrary.”
We might lay the flattering unction to our souls that there is some ambiguity in the phraseology of this mandate, did we not recall the denunciations of a preceding Pope upon the “absurd doctrines in defense of liberty of conscience,” which he characterized as “pests of all others most to be dreaded,” and the still more pointed assertion of one of his bishops, that “religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.”
Page after page of similar utterances might be quoted, but a glance at Europe during the Dark Ages will prove how, realizing that knowledge was power, Rome kept that power within her grasp by preventing the diffusion of learning, and used the ignorance and superstition of the masses for the furtherance of her interests and increase of her wealth. These ages form too dark a page of history for Americans to close their eyes to the growth of principles of which they were the legitimate sequence; but with prosperity we have grown luxuriously indolent, and it is easier to float with the tide than to stem it.
The enthronement of Satolli at Washington with the pomp and insignia of power has added to, rather than detracted from the fascination of our capital; and the Pontiff and his attendants, radiant in purple and scarlet, and flashing with diamonds, are central figures at elegant dinners and gorgeous assemblies. The admiring crowds that gather around him think little of how his gems were purchased, or who supports his regal magnificence, and the glittering pageant goes on, while republican simplicity and liberty move toward the grave, as the French warrior predicted long years ago.
While hope was dying within us during the late Civil War our commander-in-chief was planning the most masterly strategy the world has ever known, and when the enemy was unitedly attacked at all points the end of our protracted struggle was at hand.
A single glance at the North, West, South and East of our land will give us some idea of the progress of the hierarchy, which is massing its forces of wealth and learning at Washington.
Last summer I saw how rapidly convents and Roman Catholic schools were springing up along our side of the St. Lawrence river; and receiving an invitation to join a party of six hundred pilgrims on their road to the shrine of St. Ann de Beaupre, my curiosity became excited; and upon inquiry, I learned that from fifty to sixty thousand devotees visit this church annually, and a large proportion are from our northern counties, and from New England.
Rome has been adding to her missions on our Western border to supply the spiritual wants of its rapidly-increasing population; and Miss Drexel’s millions, together with the labors of the self-sacrificing women she has gathered around her, are not now confined to the Indians, but are extending to the representatives of all nationalities, who are cordially welcomed into the Church of which she is so devoted a member.
Among the descendants of the French and creole families of the South there are women who are developing characteristics similar to those of Miss Drexel, and devoting both their time and talents to the work that Rome is so vigorously pushing among the Freedmen, as well as the whites, of the South.
Turning from these pictures to New England, we are not a little surprised to hear, from one of her sons, how, as if by magic, cathedrals and pro-cathedrals are springing up in close proximity to her mills and manufactories, and that the welcome that is extended to employers and employees is being responded to, even by those who once boasted their Puritan blood.
Patiently and persistently Rome and her children are working for the increase of Papal power; are we, who profess to be followers of Christ, working as faithfully to lead souls into the liberty wherewith He makes His children free? In the light of the Saviour’s example, our duty is a plain one, for He sent His disciples “into every city and place whither He Himself would come.” There was no spot so dark and degraded that He did not go into it, and no being so wretched and despised that He had not a share in the love and pity of the Master; and down through the ages His words come to us in tones of mingled command and compassion, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.”
* BOLDS AND ITALICS ADDED
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