St Agnes High School - Agnita Yearbook (West Chester, PA)

Page 16 text:

THE AGNITA THE STAFF ARRANGING PICTURES AND SELECTING ARTICLES Standing: Joseph Quill, Mary Frances Grubb. Seated: Ralph Green, Eleanor Bostelle, Patricia Hart, Edward Hoffman. TYPEWRITING AND READING PAPERS Standing: Alice Marie McKinley, Francis Joyce. Seated: Leon Hutton, Ann Coggins, Marie Ammann, Winifred Mason. 10

Page 18 text:

THE AGNITA. DEMOCRACY AND CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES By E. EDWARD HOFFMAN An innate desire for order is characteristic of the mind of man. This is tied up with the fact that man is a reasonable being,- and yet how contradictingly he sometimes acts! He has ravaged the continent of Europe,- flattened the homes of Japan,- left naked the islands of the Pacific,- and made bloody the waters of the oceans. Why are these uncivilized deeds so? For the simple reason that there is no single temporal ruler whom men look upon as having the capacity to the right to tell them the things they ought to do, or ought to leave undone. The Church would suffer similarly were it not united under a single ruler. The necessity of the Pope is not at all questionable, neither is the necessity of our obeying him questionable. The only point about which controversy might arise is that concerning the question—in what must we obey the Pope? This question is answered quite satisfactorily in the words of the immortal Pope Leo XIII: The Almighty has appointed the charge of the human race between two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil: the one being set over divine, and the other over human things. Each in its kind is supreme; each has fixed limits within which it is contained.Whatever belongs, either of its own nature or by reason of the end to which it is referred, to the salvation of souls, or to the worship of God, is subject to the power and judgment of the Church. Whatever is to be under the civil and political order is rightly subject to the civil authority. Therefore, we can conclude that it is possible for Catholics to obey the Pope and the President. We can obey the Governor of Pennsylvania and at the same time obey the President of the United States, for both are rulers of the same people, and yet their power lies in different fields. Since the Governor and the President are both civil rulers, there is a likeness in their rule. It is the degree of authority that varies. However, the Pope and the President rule entirely dif- ferent spheres, and each is supreme in his own field. Hence we see that not only is it possible for Catholics to obey the Pope and the President, but that it is essential that they do. Did not Christ Himself command that we give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and to God that which belongs to God? In other words He tells us that we must give the State whatever is its rightful due, and God what is His rightful due. At present, many of our countrymen are concerned about the fact that Catholics are subject to a foreign authority. How can Catholics who profess themselves bound to obey this infallible tribunal be good citizens? How can they be considered loyal when they owe obedience to a foreign authority which is not even recognized in our Constitu- tion? Here the question answers itself. The men who drew up our Constitution knew that the power of the Church and the State are distinctly separate, and wisely they kept them so. 12