WITH WHOM IS THE

CATHOUC CHURCH

UNPOPULAR?

No. I

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS
HUNTINGTON INDIANA



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WITH WHOM IS THE

CATHOLIC CHURCH

UNPOPULAR ?

Analysis Of A Common

Objection

“I have never been interested in

the Catholic Church because of its

unpopularity.”

This declaration expresses a state

of mind, which controls millions of

people.

But let us analyze such a frame of

mind. If it be logical, then the same

millions could not have been follow-

ers of Christ in His day because of

His unpopularity. There must, there-

fore, be something wrong with it

from the Christian viewpoint.

If such a frame of mind be logical,

the same millions could not have ac-

cepted Christianity in the days when

the Apostles were still living, yet

would they not swear that the early

Church was right?



2 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

The Church of Christ has been un-

popular with certain classes from the

day of its birth until our present

time. But with whom? With Scribes

and Pharisees
; with Herods and High

Priests of other religious bodies
;
with

organizations, which would destroy

Christianity itself. These, in turn,

have always influenced the masses as

they did in Christ’s day; as they did

in Nero’s day
;
as they did in the days

of Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, Henry

VIII, Calvin, Campbell, Marx, Lenin,

Calles, Azana, and other religious and

political leaders.

At any time in history, whether it

was a thousand years before Protest-

antism was born, or after its estab-

lishment in several countries in Eur-

ope, whenever an ambitious emperor

or king, or prince found the Church

in his way he joined causes with some

ecclesiastic, who also was on the

point of rebellion. Civil rulers and

evil-minded ecclesiastics did this in

the days of Christ, in the days of the

apostles, in the late middle-ages, and

are doing it in our day.



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 3

Some civil rulers after seeking di-

vorces from their wives or other

favors which the Church could not

grant, severed connections with the

Church, while they were wont to al-

lege other reasons, such as : “We have

found this man (meaning the pope)

perverting our nation and forbidding

to give tribute to Caesar” (Luke

XXIII, 2.)

How often have we seen rival reli-

gious leaders imitate the jealous

churchmen of Christ’s day and de-

clare: “If we let Him alone, all will

believe in Him; and the Romans will

come and take away our place and

nation.” (John XI, 48)?

How often have we seen conscience-

less aspirants for high office attack

the Church for fear it would later

attack their tyrannical or unjust

rule?

What Did Christ Say

About It?

What does Christ foretell about the

unpopularity of His religion? He

says:



4 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

“If they have called the goodman

of the house Beelzebub, how much

more them of his household?” (Matt.

X, 24-25)

He says: “If you had been of the

world, the world would love its own;

but because you are not of the world

. . . therefore the world hateth you”

(John XV, 19).

He says : “You shall be hated by all

nations for My name’s sake” (Matt.

XXIV, 9).

He says: “If the world hate you,

know ye that it hath hated Me before

you” (John XV, 18).

He says : “The world hateth Me be-

cause I testify of it that its works are

evil”—a good cause for which to be
hated (John VII. 7).

He says: “For they shall deliver

you up in councils, and they will

scourge you in their synagogues. And

you shall be brought before govern-

ors, and before kings for My sake. . .
And you shall be hated by all men for

My sake.” (Matt. X, 17).



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 5

“Yea, the hour cometh that whoso-

ever killeth you, will think that he

doeth a service to God.” (John XVI,

2 ).

He says : “Blessed are they that suf-

fer persecution for justice’s sake; for

theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when men shall revile

you, and persecute you, and shall say

all manner of evil against you falsely,

for My sake: rejoice and be exceed-

ing glad: because your reward is

very great in Heaven.” (Matt. V, 11).

Again We Ask “With
Whom?”

With which present-day forces is

the Catholic Church most unpopular?

Is it not with forces which are

fundamentally as anti-Protestant as

anti-Catholic
;

as anti-religious as

anti-good government? She 'is op-

posed most by the Communist, the

radical Socialist, the anarchist; by

atheistic organizations and, of course,

by public men who hope to profit by

the ascendancy of these forces.



6 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

We have instances in Russia, in
Mexico, and in Spain. At the time the

present provisional President of the

Spanish Republic was selected we

were told in the daily papers:

‘The shift in the Government

brought bands of communists and

anti-clericals singing the ‘Red Flag'

through the streets of Madrid.” The

same press dispatches told us that

many delegates fought vigorously for

a government favorable to the

Church, but “were overrun by the

socialist steamroller.” All through

the press reports we note the under-

lying reasons for opposition to the

Church. It is said, for instance, “too

much property belonged to the

Church”; “too many children were

being educated in religious schools”;

“there has been no divorce law in

Spain.” In other words, the time has

come to attack both her faith and her

morals, not in the name of a better

religion, but of irreligion.

Are there actually reasons why

people who have sympathy for the



With Whom is the Church Unpopular? 7

Christian religion generally, such as

members of Protestant religious bod-

ies, should rejoice over persecution of

the Catholic Church? Do not be de-

ceived: if any single Protestant or-

ganization commanded the spiritual

allegiance of nearly all the people in

any given country, and that organiza-

tion stood for religious instruction

and the practise of morality in ac-

cordance with the standards of the

gospel, it would receive the same

treatment the Catholic Church has

received at the hands of hidden

enemies of Christ,

Why Do Civil Rulers

Oppose Her?

Civil rulers would never have made

war on the Church, if she had been

willing to become their tool. The

principal reason why civil rulers-

wished to be supreme in the spirit-

ual as well as the temporal order was

that they might hush the voice of the

religion over which they presided,

the predominant religion of the land,.



8 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

and use it to promote their own

selfish interests. The Greek Schisma-

tic Church never developed much out-

side the territory of its establish-

ment, because it was too closely allied

to the civil governments of that area.

In Jugo-Slavia to-day, the Greek Or-

thodox Church predominates, and is

encouraged by the king, who himself

is only a nominal member thereof,

because that church will always do

his bidding. Catholics in the same

country, more religious and nearly as

strong in number, have little favor

with the government, but principally

because their Church will not desert

the teachings or the moral law of

Christ in order to please him. Do you

suppose there would have been any

persecution of the Church in Mexico

if the Church were willing to bow

sycophantly before Carranza and

Calles while they lent themselves to

the promotion of irreligion and per-

sonally profited by loot and even dir-

ected murder?



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 9

Character Of Enemies Should

Make Her Respected

The Church should really become

popular because of the character of

her professed enemies. Were not the

anarchist Ferrerites of Barcelona,

who waged war on the Catholic

Church, some years ago committed

to principles subversive of orderly

civil government as well? The Com-

munists of Russia, opposed to religion

of every form, are particularly hostile

to the Catholic religion, knowing that

it alone has inherent power to endure.

If you would not defend the in-

fidelity of Renan or Voltaire or Rous-

seau or Diderot, then you cannot de-

fend the opposition to the Catholic

Church which they stirred up. If

you have no sympathy for the Grand

Orient in Latin countries, whose pri-

mary purpose is to promote inter-

national atheism and warfare on re-

ligion generally, then you cannot be

in sympathy with the aggressive

warfare which was waged against

the Church at different times during



10 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

the past century in Spain, Italy, Por-

tugal, Mexico, Central America.

As a true-blooded American are

you really proud of the secret propa-

ganda conducted against the Catho-

lic Church by the Know-Nothing

Party, by the A. P. A. Party, by the

Guardians of Liberty, by the Klu

Klux Klan, most of whose members

insisted on their identity being con-

cealed, and most of whose leaders

would have been as strongly for the

Catholic Church as against it, if such

policy paid them as well in coin of

the realm?

There was a day when practically

all civilized nations belonged to the

Catholic Church, and all these nations

were happily united under a Christian

League of Nations. Without any

force, but by spontaneous common

consent, the head of the Catholic

Church was their Supreme Court of

Appeal when their civil rulers were

guilty of malfeasance in office. The

Church was popular among all those

who followed the Christian way of



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 11

living; the head of the Church was

trusted more than any other power.

Hostile Propaganda

For Centuries

Therefore the unpopularity of the

Church in our day, or at any other

time, when not due to the strict dis-

cipline of the Catholic Church, must

be and is due to hostile propaganda

for national or selfish purposes.

This prooaganda originated with

civil rulers, who broke with Rome in

the sixteenth century, who became

wealthy by the confiscation of pro-

perty of the Church, who banished

the clergy of the Church in order

that the people might not be instruct-

ed in the Catholic faith, and who

directed movements to educate the

people in an opposite direction, both

by literature and preaching, who re-

warded the anti-Catholic and penal-

ized the Catholic.

Historians of those days were the

official historians of the ruling

powers, who were ordered to praise



12 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

the persecutor and condemn the per-

secuted. While history was written

in this one-sided way the records of

the Church, the story of Church his-

tory covering centuries, documents

calculated to injure both the charac-

ter and the story of the new writers

and their abettors, were ordered de-

stroyed. Historians since that day

have, for the most part, based their

narratives on the records sedulously

preserved by heirs of the original of-

fenders—records which, according to
one of the most eminent of histor-

ians, disclosed a clear “conspiracy

against the truth”.

But Is The Church Really

Unpopular ?

Despite the open hostility directed

against the Catholic Church by or-

ganized effort and promoted con-

sciously or unconsciously by church-

men of other religious organizations,

the Catholic Church is by far the

most popular church in Christendom.

It claims a membership of some 325,-



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 13

000,000 people belonging to practical-

ly every race and nationality. It is

the only Church which can claim

practical universality. It is the

Church of the common people, of the

poor, who, in the words of Christ

“would always be with us” and to

preach to whom, also according to

His own words, was His principal

mission. On any given Sunday of the

year it is safe to say that there are

three or four times as many people

in the Catholic churches as in all the

Protestant churches combined.

Her temples are the only ones

which are visited by large numbers

on weekdays, and in which the pro-

phecy of the Prophet Malachy is lit-

erally fulfilled, through the fact of a

“clean oblation being offered to the

Almighty from the rising to the set-

ting of the sun” someplace. Never is

there a moment of our day or night

in which God is not worshipped pub-

licly in the presence of a considerable

number of people.

The Catholic Church is, therefore,

the most popular Church with about



14 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

two-thirds of all the Christians in the

world, even if it is the most unpopular

with the other one-third, and with the

groups of people who are enemies of

the cross of Christ and enemies of

religion itself.

Good Works Should

Make Her Popular

Those who are not aroused to sym-

pathy for the Catholic Church by the

beauty of her faith, by her long rec-

ord of loyalty to the Master, by the

saints she has produced in every cen-

tury, should be attracted to her be-

cause of what she is doing to-day and

has always done for suffering hu-

manity. Until the care of the deaf

and the dumb, the blind, the feeble-

minded, the orphan, the aged, the

poor, the unfortunate, was converted

into a business by the state, it was a

service of love performed in sweet

charity’s name by the Catholic

Church.

Even to-day she conducts more

homes for each one of the groups just



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 15

enumerated than all other religious

and fraternal organizations taken to-

gether. More than half the hospital-

ization attention in the United States

takes place in her institutions. It

need not be stated that hospitals are

not operated for profit. They afford

the modern outlet for the care of the

sick whom many old Religious Com-

munities of Women formerly nursed

in their respective homes. A religious
motive inspires Catholic mercy and

charity, whether dispensed in an in-

stitution or in the homes of the af-

flicted.

That motive is the service of

Christ through “the least of His

brethren,” in whom He is represent-

ed. The religious motive is inspired

by the pleasure which our divine

Savior says He receives from service

performed for the needy and the suf-

fering in His name; “For I was hun-

gry and you gave Me to eat; I was

thirsty and you gave Me to drink;

I was a stranger and you took Me in,
naked and you covered Me; sick and

you visited Me; I was in prison and



16 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

you came to Me. . . Amen, I say to

you, as long as you did it to one of

these. My least brethren, you did it to
Me” (Matt. XXV, 36-40).

The care of the afflicted by the

state or county is handled as an econ-

omic and social necessity, as a need

which must be met by no individual

or religious organization in particu-

lar, and therefore, of necessity must

be met by the Community. When the

Catholic Church does make it her

business to provide for the religious

and spiritual care of any class of un-

fortunates, she does it because she

believes that the furtherance of

spiritual and corporal works of

mercy should characterize the religion

of Him, Whose life is summed up in

the words: “He went about doing

good and healing all that were op-

pressed” (Acts X, 38).

The Savior Of Our

Civilization

It might seem, at first blush, para-

doxical to credit the Catholic Church



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 17

with saving society even in these, our

own times, when it has been generally

taken for granted that the Catholic

Church has always been an obstruc-

tionist. But lay your prejudices aside

just for a moment, and think. We
have already referred to the anarch-

istic, the bolshevistic and the socialis-

tic forces which have been hard at

work to destroy the Catholic Church.

It must be assumed, therefore, that

the Catholic Church must be equally

opposed to these forces. But are these

not the very forces which have been

doing their utmost to destroy consti-

tutional government, whether in Rus-

sia, Germany, Austria, Hungary,

China?

Catholics constitute only two-

fifths of the population of Germany,

yet the political party, which has

saved Germany from Sovietism and

even from chaos, has been the Center,

or so-called Catholic Party. Vienna

was captured by radical socialists in

the year 1922, and Austria as a whole

would have fallen before these forces

were it not for a Catholic prelate.



18 With Whom Is the Church Unpopular?

The Communists had possession of

Budapest, Hungary, shortly after the

World War, and were routed by the

unifying influence of the Catholic

Church. Jugo-Slavia was largely

saved from the radicals through a

Catholic clergyman Prime Minister.

Ask Protestant Holland how much

she owes to a Catholic leader.

Nearly every recent professional

anti-Catholic agitator in the United

States has been a socialist of the ex-

treme type. In proof of this we would

only ask you to read our booklet en-

titled “DEFAMERS OF THE
CHURCH”. Nearly every anti-Cath-

olic paper and magazine circulated

widely fifteen years ago was publish-

ed by socialists, and they became ag-

gressively anti-Catholic in order to

secure the support of people who had

no interest in Socialism, but who

could be easily wrought up by the

bogey of the “Catholic danger”.

The greatest socialist leaders who

ever lived said repeatedly that the

only obstacle to the introduction of



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 19

socialism internationally is the inter-

national Catholic Church. If this is

not saying that the Catholic Church

has been the savior of society and, to

a great degree, of Christian civiliza-

tion, what is the meaning of it ?

The Catholic Church Has

Saved Protestantism ^

If you are interested in the Chris-

tian religion at all you are grateful

that the fundamental Christian be-

liefs have been preserved to our day.

But by whom were they preserved?

Protestantism claims to rest on the

Bible, but where did Protestantism

obtain the Bible if not from the Cath-

olic Church? The Bible has been a

target of vehement attack not only

by infidels but by Protestant modern-

ists, and the most powerful voice

raised in defense of the genuineness

and the inspiration of Holy Scripture

has been that of the Catholic Church.

By her very feasts, such as Christ-

mas, Good Friday, Easter and Pente-

cost she keeps before the world the



20 With Whom is the Church Unpopular?

traditional Christian beliefs concern-

ing the Incarnation, the Redemption,

the establishment of a divine king-

dom in this world.

Who has been a defender half so
staunch as the Catholic Church of the

indissolubility of the marriage bond?

When the Supreme Head of the Cath-

olic Church speaks in defense of fun-

damentals of Christian faith and

morality his words reach not only his

own children who constitute nearly

two-thirds of all the Christians of the

world, but professed Protestants and

other non-Catholics as well. In these

utterances he defends the best that

is in Protestantism as well as he de-

fends the Catholic faith.

If by any possibility the Catholic

Church passed out of existence do you

honestly believe that Protestantism

would survive a single generation?

Nearly all anti-Christian efforts are

directed against the Catholic Church

with the boast that if she can be de-

stroyed Christianity itself will fall

with her.



With Whom Is the Church Unpopular? 21

Humanly speaking the Catholic

Church should be unpopular only

with enemies of Christianity. Her un-

popularity with others must be due

to the false impressions they enter-

tain concerning her, to the prejudices

which they have imbibed in relation

to her.

The Catholic Church is a standing

rebuke to the irreligious, to the scof-

fer, to the immoral, to the dishonest.

It is generally admitted that her peo-

ple attend public worship better, pray

more, practice self-denial to a greater

degree, train their children more reli-

giously, attach greater sanctity to

marriage, rate purity higher, con-

demn the social evil more vehemently,

defend the divine inspiration of the

Bible more consistently than any

other religious organization.

Why then should the Catholic

Church be unpopular with those who

would be with God rather than with

the world, with Christ rather than

against Him?





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