ARCHBISHOP IRELAND, speaking in the Catholic Review of August 24, says:—
“It is the policy of the Catholic Church—a policy almost as old as the church itself—to support the existing government.”
In view, however, of the fact that Italy, while undoubtedly an “existing government,” not only receives no support from the Catholic Church, but is made to feel her active hostility, an exchange suggests that certain omissions should be supplied in the archbishop’s words to express the full truth, thus: “It is the policy of the Catholic Church, … to support [herself at] the [expense of the] existing government.” And in case any government will not support the Catholic Church, then her policy is as laid down in a late papal encyclical, which says that while Catholics will “put up with” such a government, “they will never be able, without violating the most sacred duties, to uphold it by their adhesion or support.”
The Government of the United States has refused to support the Catholic Church in Porto Rico and the Philippines, and good Catholics are simply “putting up with” it as it is to-day.