By REV. A. F. MACKAY, M.A.,
Vice-Chairman, Foreign Aid Committee.
IN her path to World Catholicism, which has always been her goal, the Roman Catholic Church invokes the mediaeval principle of religious intolerance. When the occasion suits her she may ally herself with Democracy, or the Pope may make an open attack upon Totalitarianism; she may be on the side of one political party or another; but it is only for the moment or from consideration of tactics. She is the striking example of a power that bends to one side or another with subtlety and suppleness, while in pursuit of the one rigid aim. She is neither the ally nor the ceaseless opponent of Fascism or Communism, but pro-Catholic and nothing more. It is often forgotten that the R.C. Church is a mediaeval institution that has survived into modern times.
In his “Roman Catholicism and Freedom,” Dr. C. J. Cadoux refers to the remarks which Father Ronald Knox made in the Introduction he wrote to Maycock’s “Inquisition,” as representing the views of the outstanding spokesman for Rome in England to-day. He observes that religious persecution “sounds nonsense, of course, to those Protestants (and they are numerous) who think in the back of their minds that the religious truths they hold are not really certain, only probable opinions. But the faith which is strong enough to make martyrs is strong enough to make persecutors . . . in the abstract a culpable apostasy which threatens to propagate apostasy is a sin worse than murder.” Under certain conditions, therefore, “it is possible that some European country of the future might banish innovators in religion as they were banished from France under Louis XIV . . . They would certainly prohibit public attacks on religion; conceivably they would deport agitators from their soil.” In the following year, 1927, in his “Belief of Catholics,” Knox returned to the same subject of Rome’s right to suppress all contrary religious beliefs and the measures she might think proper for her to do so. “A body of Catholic patriots, entrusted with the Government of a Catholic State, will not shrink from repressive measures in order to perpetuate the secure domination of Catholic principles among their fellow-countrymen.”
It may seem incredible that any body of people should hold a policy of such gross intolerance. Such things belong to the Dark Ages of the Church, but hardly possible now. That it may be seen that these are not the excesses of a propagandist for Rome, it may be better to go to the fountain-head of authority, to Rome itself. In an article which appeared in the April issue, 1948, of the official organ of the Society of Jesus in Rome, La Civilita Cattolica, which the Sentinel of Toronto reproduced this year, the authoritative position of the R.C. Church on the question is laid down. “The Roman Catholic Church, convinced through its divine prerogatives, of being the only true church, must defend the right to freedom for herself alone, because such a right can only be possessed by truth, never by error. As to other religions, the church will certainly never draw the sword, but she will require that by legitimate means they shall not be allowed to propagate false doctrine.” “In some countries, Catholics will be obliged to ask full religious freedom for all, resigned at being forced to cohabit where they alone should rightfully be allowed to live. But in doing this the church does not renounce her thesis, which remains the most imperative of her laws, but merely adapts herself to de facto conditions, which must be taken into account in practical affairs.
“Hence arises the great scandal among Protestants, who tax the Catholics with refusing to others freedom and even de jure toleration, in all places where they are in the majority, while they lay claim to it as a right when they are in a minority. We ask Protestants to understand that the Catholic Church would betray her trust if she were to proclaim, theoretically and practically, that error can have the same rights as truth, especially where the supreme duties and interest of man are at stake. The church cannot blush for her own want of tolerance, as she asserts it in principle and applies it in practice.”
This is an important statement which clears away all misunderstanding and defines clearly the official position of the R.C. Church regarding freedom of worship and religion. Protestants are denied any claim to belong to the Church of Christ, they are not recognised as having any civil rights or even the right to exist in the state, and any measures used in their suppression are justified on the ground that the Church of Rome is the only true church. These are the principles which are being put into practice to-day in every country where the R.C. Church is the dominating power, for “she asserts it in principle and applies it in practice.” While breathing the spirit of the Inquisition, it is nevertheless good to have such an up-to-date definition of the Roman Catholic outlook on the subject of other denominations.
The church in Franco’s Spain has not been slow to welcome this re-statement of these principles, for they have already been embodied in the constitution of the country. Some semblance of liberty to practice their religion appears in the Spanish Charter (1945), particularly Article 6, which allows freedom of worship to Protestants provided it is carried on under cover and no public display is made either by ceremonies or outward sign of their places of worship. But such a concession by its vagueness only serves to conceal the terrible injustices the Spanish Protestants have to submit to. In a pamphlet issued by the Protestants in Spain, “Religious Liberty in Peril,” fully documented proof is given of these disabilities. Magistrates will not authorise civil marriages except where the parties can produce documents that they have never been baptised in the R.C. Church. That they have left the church or practise no religion at all does not exempt them from this ruling. The scandal of unvalled graveyards, which the Republic in 1931 tried to change, continues still; when civil and religious permission is withheld, burial often takes place in the open country. Protestant services are often interrupted and broken up by gangs of hooligans, usually Falangists or Requêtes, as happened in Madrid, in Barcelona, in Valencia, etc., the furniture smashed, the pastor and people beaten up, and even attempts made to put the building on fire. These attacks often take place after a pastoral has been issued by the bishop, and are connived at by the police. A group of University students distributed tracts in Madrid in which they say, “We are not content with words. For the Holy Inquisition itself was not content with words. We, the Spanish students of 1947, recognise ourselves to be truly the heirs of the spirit of the Inquisition.”
The law on education allows no liberty of conscience. E. J. Hughes’ recent book, “Report from Spain,” gives some idea of the teaching of the Spanish Catechism, compulsory in the schools. Freedom of conscience, freedom of worship and freedom of the press are listed as pernicious evils condemned by the church. And with these, freedom of education, freedom of propaganda and freedom of assembly are included because they “serve to teach error, propagate vice, and plot against the church.” And to avoid these errors the catechist is told “not to read any newspaper without previous consultation and approval of your confessor.” To the question, “Is it a sin to read a Liberal newspaper?” the answer is given, “He may read the stock exchange news.” It is superfluous to comment upon “religious” teaching such as this as opposed to true Christianity.
That the Franco Government is not altogether insensitive to the condemnation passed by the outside world on the persecution of Protestants and denial of all liberty inside Spain may account for the document issued last year by the Diplomatic Office in Madrid, on the Protestant Church in Spain. Its sub-title is, “Six Reports on an anti-Spanish Campaign of Defamation,” and is evidently the work of different hands. Obviously prepared for external consumption, many of its statements have little relation to the true state of religious bodies in Spain to-day. Much is made of the small number of Protestants in Spain and the fact that “this faith has never taken root in its soil.” But this is due to the ruthless efficiency of the Inquisition rather than to any inherent defects of Protestantism which has made the English-speaking nations great. The attempt to put down the strength of the Spanish Protestants to the number of foreigners residing in the country, about 10,000, by a doubtful arranging of statistics, fails to carry conviction. That no official returns were made to the Government of those holding Protestant beliefs reveals the desperate means they had to take to survive, and is no evidence of non-existence. On page 30 it is stated that Protestantism was introduced into the country with the British armies during the nineteenth century, but the truth is that the Gospel took hold of the Spanish people at the time of the Reformation and Romanism has always been regarded as the enemy of the country.
Other questions dealt with in the same superficial way are Protestant marriage, burial of the dead, the trial of Protestant soldiers for refusing to kneel at the elevation of the “host,” and the distribution of the Bible. Proof is easily found that there are still Protestant soldiers in Franco’s jails for refusing to bow the knee to the “host,” and the destruction of 100,000 Bibles taken from the Bible Society’s premises in Calle de la Flor Alta in Madrid by the police is common knowledge. The Spanish people are in revolt against the reactionary R.C. Church and the Fascist Government, but are kept in submission by the huge standing army maintained by Franco. They came within sight of complete freedom as a people in the days of the Republic and the vision has never faded from their memories, but has increased their insatiable thirst for the Word of God. In spite of the persecution and intolerance, the Protestant Church in Spain is gaining in strength and numbers, according to the accounts of observers, even more so than in the brief period of the Republic. The reason one pastor gives is that the people were carried away by political fervour at the time of the Republic and had lost their zeal for the Gospel.
The R.C. Church presents to the outside world an appearance of impregnable strength, but internally she is really weak. Her infallible claims and religious intolerance are signs that there is no spiritual vitality. In Rome, the most religious city in the world, where there are more than 800 churches and chapels, she is most execrated by the people. In his autobiography, “The Soul of a Priest,” the late Father L. H. Lehmann, of New York, casts some light upon the true internal state of the Catholic system. As a young priest he was ordained in St. John’s Lateran, the Pope’s own church, situated in the slum quarter of the city, and as he observed the internal working of the Papal system in Rome, he reveals his disillusionment. “In this parish of the Pope,” he writes, “there are comparatively few practising Catholics. Thousands of couples live together without either church or civil sanction; thousands of its children are not even baptised. Pope Pius IX is entombed in this church, but his body was carried hither in the dead of night for fear of the Roman rabble.” “If Rome be the only centre of the true faith and the sole fount of all spiritual grace and divine favour,” he asks, “how is it that true religion is so lacking in its own citizens? Why so much atheism, indecency, lawlessness, in the vast number of non-churchgoers in the Eternal City and Italy? Why so many pagan rites in the worship of the few who frequent the churches? Common courtesy was denied us from the Roman rabble as we passed along the streets; obscene insults were shouted after us even by the children of Rome.” Italy over which Rome has laid her blight for many centuries is now a mission field for the Gospel.
One of the heartening features of post-war Italy is the undoubted progress that Protestantism is making among the people. The Protestant minority is small, some 300,000 out of a total population of 45 millions, but new centres of worship in some twenty to thirty districts have been opened since the end of the war; and especially in the south and in Sicily the evangelical movement is strong. Regular broadcast services are permitted over a number of stations, something unheard of in Fascist Italy. In an article on Protestantism in Italy by W. G. Ingle, Field Secretary of the Spezia Mission, two reasons are given for this situation; the British Commonwealth and American armies of liberation which drove the Germans out of Italy; and the rise of Communism. Many of the men now preaching the Gospel in Italy served with these forces, and when their military service was completed they returned to proclaim the Gospel, which they realised is Italy’s greatest need. The political activities of the R.C. Church and her ceaseless intrigues to strengthen her control over the Government have embittered multitudes and made them more receptive to the Gospel. Communism is said to have proportionately more registered followers in Italy than in Russia itself. There seems little evidence so far of aggressive atheism or anti-Christian malice on the part of the Communists towards Protestant work; often members of the Communist Party are also members of the Protestant Churches as well. Undoubtedly, Communists regard the Protestant communities as a useful spiritual arm in their struggle to break the political power of Romanism. While this situation lasts, however, encouragement is offered to Protestant workers to refute the claims of the R.C. Church and to expose her faults. Communism still remains, whatever form it may take, the bitter foe of Christianity, and should the Protestant Church become strong enough to act as a threat, the clash would come. Protestantism is merely a tolerated religion in Italy, for laws have not yet been framed defining the status or protecting the rights of non-Catholic groups. The treatment given to Protestants varies from district to district, from the barest minimum of liberty to sporadic outbreaks of mob violence in which Catholic Action is prominent, again as in Spain with the connivance of the police.
Protestants in Roman Catholic countries, in order to keep going, must rely to a great extent on outside aid. The effects of the Foreign Aid Committee’s work in bringing assistance where it is so sorely needed, however modest the scale, is bearing fruit. The Deliverance on Protestantism of the Diplomatic Office in Madrid last year named the English Churchman, whose editor is a member of the Committee and whose columns have so often served the Protestant cause in Spain, Italy, and elsewhere, among the publications whose condemnation of Spanish persecution it seeks to controvert. The grateful acknowledgment of used clothing and scripture and scripture parts, coming from these countries indicates that the Committee is supplying a felt need. May it be the Lord’s will that these victims of the Roman Catholic Church may speedily be delivered and the evil system of Romanism finally abolished from the world.