Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
Far from desiring political power, Rome would not accept it if it were offered to her. She would merely tell the governments of this world that it was their duty to run their countries, not hers; and that her only interest was that they should run them in a way which did not conflict with the divinely-revealed commandments of God and the natural moral law.
From a political point of view that belongs to the realm of fairy-tales. Although governments come and go, at least the Constitution remains; even did Rome's imagined desire for political power also remain.
I do not doubt that that is the way you see it. But you are not seeing things as they really are. Not objective reasons, but deep and ingrained prejudices make you speak in such a way. Recently a Catholic nursing sister, hearing of a bed-ridden and neglected old woman in the slums of Sydney, went voluntarily to her aid, washing her and all her clothing and house-linen, and cleaning up the room itself, whilst the old woman kept muttering: "I hate Roman Catholics." When the nurse said to her: "But why do you hate Catholics?" the old woman replied: "I don't know. But I was always taught to hate them, and I do." "But I'm a Catholic," said the nurse who was doing so much for her. "Oh, you're all right. I don't mean you. I mean the priests," the old woman answered. "You may say anything you like against me," the nurse answered gently, "but not against our priests." "All right," the old woman replied. "But I hate Roman Catholics," she resumed, as if she were singing some sort of a refrain she had learned in the dim past and of which she had never really understood the significance. And it is that kind of refrain which echoes through all such statements as yours
You are wrong. The aim of the Catholic Church in this country is that as many people in it may be brought to see the truth of the Catholic religion and to avail themselves of its spiritual blessings. In other words, the Catholic Church does not want Catholics to have this country, she wants the people of this country to have the Catholic Faith, with a spiritual and eternal inheritance of far more importance than any earthly country ever could be. All good Catholics desire this, not for their own sakes since they already possess the gift of the Catholic Faith, but for the sake of their fellow citizens who do not yet possess it. Tell me this. Do you believe in the truth of the Protestant religion you profess? If so, would you not like all others to have what you believe to be its advantages and blessings? If you do, why blame Catholics for having similar zeal and charity according to their own convictions?
That will be news to Catholics! Never, in Catholic schools or elsewhere have they been taught that they should aim at securing political control of this country in the interests of their Creed; and never have they given any signs of entertaining such an idea. Their Bishops and parish clergy do urge them to be true to their religion in the interests of their own souls whilst devotedly fulfilling the civic and national duties their country requires of them. Anyone who would interpret that as indicating political ambition betrays his own political rather than religious outlook.
You could not point to any Catholic who has been worked into such a position by the Catholic Church. You have no grounds for believing that the Catholic Church thinks she could gain any special advantage even did Catholics, in the fulfillment of their civic duties, attain to such positions. Nor could you point to any Catholic man in such a position who has made use of his office to do anything on behalf of the Catholic section of the community which a conscientious non-Catholic would not have felt obliged to do.
Not the Catholic Church. People who happen to be Catholics have not felt that because they are Catholics they must remain separated from their non-Catholic fellow citizens in any of the phases of civic life. So you will find Catholics, as you say, in every phase of life from politics to sport. If you like to take a sinister view of that and call it "infiltration," your own prejudices are to blame. But you should at least be consistent and not accuse the Catholic religion of being a dividing influence in the community whilst complaining that it hasn't divided Catholics from non-Catholics in any of the ordinary phases of civic life!
In a country where no religious tests prevail and parliamentary representation is not on a religious basis at all, there can be no such thing as an unduly large number of any given religion elected to parliament. The people of Australia vote for political candidates apart from all consideration of the religious beliefs of those candidates. If, among those elected, more did happen to be Catholics than could be proportionately expected, Catholics could be said to have undue numbers in parliament only provided the Constitution prescribed representation on a religious basis. But it does not, much apparently as you would like it to be so. It is you who insist on identifying politics and religion, not the Catholics whom you accuse of doing so.
That any political party should try to devise ways and means of securing the votes of Catholics affords no argument that the Catholic Church herself is a political organization. If the Catholic Church herself were trying to devise ways and means of capturing a political party for her own purposes there might be some room for criticism. But a move, not on the part of the Catholic Church, but on the part of the politicians, is another matter.
That is not true. Catholics as citizens have the same civic and political rights as any other citizens. They have the right to proportionate reDre-l sentation in the government of the country. Now if Catholics were > numerous in a given electorate, and a given party had a capable Catholic in its ranks loyal to its own political outlook, it would be but political wisdom to nominate that Catholic for such an electorate. The motive of the party would be simply a greater assurance of having an additional member in the House.
That does not follow logically at all. There could be grounds for such an inference on two conditions only. Firstly, if the party nominated a Catholic merely because he was a Catholic, in order to discriminate against non-Catholics. Secondly, if the Catholic Church herself officially issued instructions to Catholics that they were to vote for the Catholic candidate irrespective of his politics, and not for the non-Catholic candidate to whatever party he might belong. But neither of those two conditions is true. The Catholic Church leaves her people absolutely free in such matters, save where some candidate is the professed enemy of all religion and manifests his intention of injuring particularly the religion of Catholics or of trying to introduce legislation opposed to the natural moral law. Even then she contents herself with warning Catholics that they are not free in conscience to vote for such a candidate, without issuing any positive instructions to vote for one or other of the reputable candidates.
The absence of fanaticism in well-balanced Protestants should not be mistaken for timidity, whilst the stirring of the Protestant conscience is much more likely to be assisted, not by sowing distrust of Catholics in civic life, but by winning them to a positive interest in the religious teachings they accept, and to a sincere effort to live up to the highest ideals their respective Churches put before them. And the more who would do this, the happier we Catholics would be, granted that they cannot see their way to become Catholics also. A sincere and earnest Protestant, doing his best to live up to his convictions, is far preferable to one who is dead to any sense of religious obligation.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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