Facts of Faith
By Christian Edwardson
Chapter 25
Making America Catholic
(243) The Roman hierarchy knew that the older Protestants, who
had read about the persecutions of the Dark Ages, and who knew some of the
inside workings of the papal church, would never become Catholics. Rome's hope
lay in capturing the younger generation. If the Papacy could cover up those dark
pages of its history, when it waded in the blood of martyrs, and could appear in
the beautiful modern dress of a real champion of liberty, as a lover of science,
art, and education, it would appeal to the American youth, and the battle would
be won.
The Jesuits, who through years of experience in Europe, have become
experts in molding young minds, are now establishing schools everywhere, that
are patronized by thousands of Protestant youth. They have also undertaken the
delicate task of Romanizing the textbooks of our public schools, and books of
reference, in order to cover up their past, and to whitewash the Dark Ages. That
Romanists desire to cover up their past record of bloody persecution is
acknowledged by that honorable Roman Catholic author, Alfred Baudrillart, Rector
of the Catholic Institute of Paris. After giving a frank statement of the many
persecutions of which his church is guilty, he says in the words of Mgr. d'Hulst:
"'Indeed, even among our friends and our brothers we find those who dare
not look this problem in the face. They ask permission from the Church to ignore
or even to deny all those facts and institutions in the past which have made
orthodoxy compulsory.'' - "The Catholic Church; the Renaissance and
Protestantism," Alfred Archeveque Cardinal Baudrillart, pp. 183, 184.
ROMANIZING TEXTBOOKS
In the first place, all general histories used in our public schools and
high schools had to be revised to eliminate every trace of the objectionable
features from their pages. Plain historical facts of the Middle Ages, - such as
the popes' interference with public government (as in the case of Henry IV,
Emperor of Germany, A.D. 1077, and King John of England, A.D. 1213); the
persecution of Waldenses, Albigenses, and Huguenots; the Inquisition; the sale
of indulgences; and the Reformation, - all had to be eliminated or rewritten so
as to exonerate the Papacy, and brand its opponents simple as political
offenders and revolutionists, who suffered at the hand of the civil government,
instead of being persecuted by the Church for their religion.
(244) Such radical changes could never have been accomplished so
quietly if Protestantism had not been asleep. At times it became necessary to
create public sentiment against a certain textbook through newspaper articles
written by some learned Catholic professor, and then pressure was brought to
bear on school boards to eliminate it, substituting for it a Romanized book.
Thus Swinton's "Outlines of History" was thrown out of the schools, and
"Anderson's History" was blacklisted, but later revised according to Catholic
wishes, and brought back to take the place of Seinton's. Myers's "Medieval
and Modern History" was also censored. At first the author refused to change
it, claiming "history is history," but later it was revised and came into quite
general use for a time. not all of this was done in the dark. As one example of
protest we refer the reader to Senate Document on Public Hearing before the
United States Committee on Education and Labor, Friday, Feb. 15, 1889, and
Friday, Feb. 22, 1889, on "Senate Resolution No. 86: Proposing an Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States Respecting Establishment of Religion and
Free Public Schools," which unmasks some of this work. We shall now point out
two of the vital changes made in our textbooks.
The Catholic Church will never acknowledge the Reformation of the
sixteenth century as a reform, but brands it as a "revolt" against the
authority of the pope, and as a "revolution." A sure earmark, therefore, of all
Romanized textbooks is the fact that they never speak of the Reformation as a
work of reform but as "the Protestant Revolt," "the Protestant Revolution," "the
so-called Reformation," or "what is called the Reformation." Let any one look it
up in the schoolbooks used by his children, and see for himself.
(245) To give the readers who may not have seen the textbooks
used in our schools today an idea of what the Protestant children are taught, we
shall take the "History of Western Europe," by Professor J. H. Robinson,
as an example. It has the following chapters on the Reformation of the sixteenth
century: chapter 24, "Germany Before the Protestant Revolt"; chapter 25, "Martin
Luther and His Revolt Against the Church"; chapter 26, "Course of the Protestant
Revolt in Germany"; chapter 27, "The Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and
England." Chapter 25 says: "As Luther became a confessed revolutionist, he began
to find friends among other revolutionists and reformers." - p. 393. Chapter 28
takes up the effort of the Catholics to destroy the Reformation by a
counterreform, by the work of the Jesuits, and the bloody persecution of
Protestants in Spain, in the Netherlands, and France. This chapter is entitled:
"The Catholic Reformation," and yet it comes the farthest from deserving the
title of reformation of all the above-mentioned chapters. In these Romanized
textbooks the historical facts of the Middle Ages are entirely reversed. The way
the last-mentioned chapter extols the Jesuits shows who has put their stamp on
the book. Senator Thomas E. Watson truthfully says:
"In the public schools the Catholics have stealthily introduced
textbooks written by Jesuits; and your children are being taught that the Roman
church was misunderstood in the past; that its doctrines are not fatal to
humanity and gospel religion; that its record is not saturated with the blood of
innocent millions, murdered by papal persecutors, and that there never was
such a monstrosity as the alleged sale of papal pardons of sins. Educate
youth in this Catholic way, and the consequences are logical." - "Roman
Catholics in America Falsifying History and Poisoning the Minds of Protestant
School Children," p. 5. Thompson, Ga.: 1928.
SALE OF INDULGENCES
(246) Histories used in the public schools in the United States
up to the year 1900 were opposed by the Roman Catholic Church on the ground that
they were not stating the truth about "indulgences." These histories simply
stated that Martin Luther began the Reformation by opposing Tetzel's sale of
indulgences, which is a historical fact.
"An Introduction to the History of Western Europe," by Professor
J. H. Robinson, says:
"It is a common mistake of Protestants to suppose that the indulgence
was forgiveness granted beforehand for sins to be committed in the future. There
is absolutely no foundation for this idea." - p. 391. Ginn and Co.: 1903.
This statement is copied on page 311 in "A General History of Europe,"
by Robinson, Breasted, and Smith, a textbook quite generally used of late. We
shall leave it with the reader to judge whether such statements actually
represent the Protestant conception of "indulgences," or whether they are part
of a program to cover up historical facts; and we would respectfully ask: Are
not American youth entitled to know the unvarnished facts of history?
The historical facts about "indulgences," gathered from unquestionable
sources, are found on pages 162-172 of this book. It is here shown that the idea
of "indulgences" had so degenerated between the eleventh and the sixteenth
centuries, that they were actually sold for money. Tetzel's "Indulgences" read:
I "absolve thee...from all thy sins, transgressions and excesses...and I restore
thee...to that innocence and purity which thou possessedst at baptism; so that,
when thou diest, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the
paradise of delight shall be open." - Coxe's "House of Austria," Vol. I,
p. 385. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
REVISING BOOKS OF REFERENCE
(247) The next step in the papal plan was to revise all books of
reference, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, and larger historical works, so
as to mold the minds not only of pupils but also of teachers and of preachers.
An example of this is seen in the revision of the New International
Encyclopedia. The editor of the Catholic Mirror (at that time the
official organ of Cardinal Gibbons), in a lengthy editorial, dated Oct. 28,
1905, tells of how the publishers of that Encyclopedia co-operated with the
Jesuits in revising it. He quoted the following letter from the Rev. Thomas J.
Campbell, S. J., which he had just received:
"Dodd, Mead and Co. sent their representatives to us, and not only
expressed a desire to avoid misstatements in their encyclopedia, but asked for
some one to excise whatever might be offensive....Mr. Conde B. Pallen took the
matter in hand, and was afforded full liberty to revise and correct not only the
topics which dealt professedly with Catholic subjects but those also which might
have even an indirect bearing on them....The firm has done all in its power to
make it acceptable to Catholics." - Quoted in "Liberty," Vol. V, No. 3,
pp. 34, 35. Washington, D.C., 1910.
After this was done, every effort was made to get this New International
Encyclopedia into the hands of all Protestant ministers in this country, who
were unaware of its Romanized features. Its molding influence was soon seen in
the striking similarity in viewpoint (on many subjects) between the Roman
theology and that of the Protestant pulpit and press, and this is becoming more
so now after practically all encyclopedias have been Romanized. Even
Webster's Dictionary has not been allowed to speak its old familiar truths
any more. We read:
"Time was when complaint was common that injustice was done to the
Catholics in 'Webster's Dictionary.' There is no room for such a thing in
the new 'Webster's International Dictionary,' issued by G. and C. Merriam Co.,
Springfield, Mass., because Vicar-General Callaghan, of the diocese of Little
Rock, has revised and edited everything appertaining to the church." - "Freeman's
Journal" of New York, May 28, 1892. Since then a Catholic official has been
regularly connected with the editorial staff, whenever a new revision was made,
as can be seen in the preface of later editions.
(248) Suppose, in the next encyclopedia, we ask brewery officials
to edit everything pertaining to temperance and the liquor question, and ask the
officials of Wall Street to edit all that pertains to capital and labor, would
we then get a more correct and unbiased representation of these subjects? We ask
why, then, should Roman Catholic officials edit everything pertaining to the
Protestant controversy with Rome?
At the First American Catholic Missionary Congress, held at Chicago,
November 17, 1908, Dr. William McGinnis outlined the program of the
International Catholic Truth Society for making America Catholic: (1) by
Romanizing our schoolbooks, (2) by revising our books of reference, (3) by
controlling the daily press, (4) by capturing the libraries. He said in part:
"A few years ago the publishers of an encyclopedia in twelve volumes
entered the office of the Truth Society and said: 'We realize there are many
misstatements and errors regarding things Catholic in this work, but we put the
whole edition in your hands and will accept every correction you make and every
addition which you wish to insert.'...So, likewise, one of the largest
publishing houses of the United States, a house that supplies perhaps one third
of the textbooks used in the public schools of America, asked that certain books
might be examined and erroneous statements and unjust charges against the Church
be corrected....And we are happy to say that in practically every case these
misrepresentations of the Church that otherwise would have gone into the minds
of millions of children were courteously corrected by gentlemanly authors." - "The
Two Great American Catholic Missionary Congresses," pp. 427, 428. Chicago:
J. S. Hyland and Co., 1914.
Many Protestant parents would not send their children to Catholic
parochial schools, but they will allow them to be taught the same thing from
Romanized textbooks, without any protest!
(249) We ask, What made the afore-mentioned publishers so anxious
to have the Catholics revise the public schoolbooks and encyclopedias, which
they intended to publish? Why did they not go to some Protestant organization to
have the books revised? Was it because Protestants are not educated? Certainly
not! But these publishers knew from experience, that, unless the books were
Romanized, Catholic societies would stir up such opposition against their use,
that it would result in financial loss to the publishers. Dr. McGinnis tells the
secret when he relates how he had urged the Knights of Columbus to "wake up" and
"form a committee," to examine the "histories of education in use in high
schools and normal schools." He says: "The spirit of Knighthood was not dead in
that Council, the subject was investigated, the book I had quoted from was the
textbook of the class, and, after much discussion, it was removed from the
curriculum of the school." - Id., pp. 423, 424.
Any one who will take the trouble to examine the textbooks used in our
public schools before 1900, and compare them with those used after this
Romanizing propaganda began, will discover the fact that the Romanizing features
have been introduced gradually into a series of textbooks, the one taking
the place of the other as fast as the public could assimilate the Catholic
sentiments and phraseology, and the same is true regarding books of reference.
MUZZLING THE PUBLIC PRESS
Dr. McGinnis also spoke of their plans regarding the daily papers. He
said: "We may consider briefly the program of the International Catholic Truth
Society in reference to two great agencies in the formation of the minds and
hearts of the great American people, - the press and the public libraries.
"Our daily press...mold[s] the thought and influence[s] the will of the
country....We do demand that the great Catholic Church, in her saving doctrines
and in her marvelous activities, should be brought more prominently before the
American public." - Id., p. 419.
(250) Dr. McGinnis further stated that arrangements had been made
with the Vatican for Catholic reporters all over the world to furnish material
for the "Truth Society" to be used in the daily press, and then he says:
"With a membership of two or three thousand scholarly, zealous priests
and laymen, and the headquarters of the Society acting as a clearing house,
calumnies would not remain unanswered, misstatements of doctrines would be
corrected." - Id., pp. 420, 421.
"We realize, moreover, that refutations and corrections, valuable though
they be, are not sufficient. We want to carry the campaign a little farther. We
want to make of the press of this country a positive agency in the dissemination
of Catholic ideas.....We are now furnishing on the first and third Sundays of
each month one column or a column and a half of positive Catholic matter to
daily papers....But the 'Notes and Comments'...deal with such topics as the
conversion of some distinguished scholar, the life work of a recently deceased
Catholic who was eminent in the domain of physical science, archeological
discoveries bearing upon Christian doctrine, important congresses abroad....If
the demands of our people prove that the new feature is appreciated, the
'service' will become weekly, and it will bring light and sympathy for things
Catholic to many millions of readers." - Id., pp. 421, 422.
"The demands" must have proved successful, for instead of this
"new feature" appearing weekly, articles and notes seem to appear almost daily.
Though it is legitimate for religious denominations to make use of the public
press, for them to muzzle the freedom of the press is not legitimate! When large
religious organizations parade their great number of adherents and bring
pressure to bear on the press, threatening nonsupport if the other side appears
in its columns, while they monopolize them with their own propaganda, such
organizations lose the respect of thinking people.
CAPTURING THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES
(251) At the before-mentioned Catholic Congress plans were also
laid for making the public libraries agencies in their propaganda. Dr. McGinnis
says:
"Another force, second only to the school and the press in shaping the
thoughts of the nation, is the public library system of the United States....I
ask why, in the name of the God of truth, is the great Catholic Church excluded
from the shelves of the public libraries of the United States?...Create a
strong, legitimate demand for Catholic literature, and the public libraries will
meet the demand." - Id., pp. 422, 423.
But how did that Congress propose to "create" this strong "demand" for
Catholic books? Here is their scheme: They will supply their people with lists
of books to be asked for at the libraries, and when several hundred or thousand
people have called for the same books, it will create a demand.
"The demand for such literature must be brought to the public libraries.
We wish to emphasize the fact that the demand must be made in good faith - the
books are called for at the library because the man wants to read them. The
International Catholic Truth Society will supply general and special lists of
books, and the Spiritual Director...will...designate appropriate works for
individual members. From this widespread bona fide demand for Catholic works at
public libraries three results will follow. [It will help the members.] Their
work will be instrumental in placing these books within the reach of the great
non-Catholic American public, who will thus have some opportunity to find out
what the Church's doctrines and practices really are, and finally the increased
circulation of such literature will be a well-deserved and much-needed stimulus
to Catholic writers." - Id., p. 424. See also "Catholic Digest," March,
1937, pp. 126, 127, and "America," September 13, 1913, pp. 547, 548.
Mr. Michael J. F. McCarty, of England, gives us some interesting facts
regarding a similar work done by Jesuits in England. He says that they suppress
books of Protestant authors, and bring to the front those of Catholics, and as a
result of this systematic work, he says:
(252) "Many Protestant authors are forced to speak favorably and
kindly of Romanism....The publication of books containing friendly allusion to
Protestant Christianity has almost ceased in England, [while the other kind of
books] floods the country." - "The Jesuits and the British Press," p. 52.
Edinburgh and London: 1910.
But, in addition to this, the Jesuits always have a man, either a priest
or a layman, on the committee of almost every public library in Great Britain.
"The Jesuits' man comes provided with two lists, a black list, which
includes every well-known book, ancient and modern, adverse to Romanism; and a
white list of new books especially favorable to Romanism which he submits
beforehand to the librarian, and eventually succeeds in getting placed in the
library." - Pp. 50, 51.
It is quite evident from our investigation of the facts that the Jesuits
are the same in America as in England. Besides this the few remaining books from
the days when it was not so unpopular to state the unvarnished facts about
medieval history have been diminishing in number by being worn out or purposely
destroyed.
CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS
Those who write histories today have more source matter on ancient
history, but less on medieval, than historians had four hundred years ago; for
after the Reformation had fully aroused the papal church to action, her
emissaries, especially the vigilant Jesuits, searched out and destroyed every
evidence that was damaging to her. When Bishop Gilbert Burnet, D. D., prepared
to write his "History of the English Reformation," he became surprised,
while searching among court records and public registers, to find so much
missing, till he finally discovered the cause. He says:
"In the search I made of the Rolls and other offices, I wondered much to
miss several commissions, patents, and other writings, which by clear evidence I
knew were granted, and yet none of them appeared on record.
(253) "But as I continued down my search to the fourth year of
Queen Mary, I found in the twelfth roll of that year, a commission which cleared
all my former doubts, and by which I saw what was become of the things I had so
anxiously searched after. We have heard of the expurgation of books practiced in
the Church of Rome; but it might have been imagined that public registers and
records would have been safe; yet lest these should have been afterwards
confessors, it was resolved they should then be martyrs; for on the 29th of
December, in the fourth year of her reign, a commission was issued out under the
great seal to Bonner, Bishop of London, Cole, Dean of St. Paul's, and Martine, a
doctor of the civil law, [which commanded the destruction of] divers compts,
books, scrolls, instruments....
"When I saw this, I soon knew which way so many writings had gone." - "History
of the Reformation of the Church of England," 2-vol. ed., Vol. I, Preface,
p. xiii. London: 1880.
Let no one, therefore, say that statements in older histories are not
true because we cannot now find sources to prove them.
The reader may not know that back of all this activity stands the Roman
Curia, one department of which is the Sacred Congregation of the Index, which
meets at Rome on stated days to decide what books are forbidden, and to make
lists of them, called "The Index of Prohibited Books." (See "Romanism and the
Republic," by Isaac J. Lansing, pp. 221-223. Pope Benedict XV, on March 25,
1917, transferred this work to the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy
Office." - "Index of Prohibited Books," p. xxxi.) The writer has examined two
editions of this "Index," one early edition, and their latest one of 1930 by
Pope Pius XI. Some books are permanently forbidden, while others are forbidden
until certain corrections are made in them, which explains the revisions of our
schoolbooks, for the "Index" says:
"Can. 1396. Books condemned by the Holy See are prohibited all over the
world and in whatever language into which they may have been translated.
(254) "Can. 1397, Sec. 1. It is the duty of all the faithful,
particularly of clerics, or those holding high positions and noted for their
learning, to denounce any book, they may consider dangerous, to the local
Ordinaries, or to the Holy See....
"Sec. 3. Those to whom such denunciations are made are bound in
conscience not to reveal the names of the accusers.
"Sec. 4. Local Ordinaries, either directly themselves, or through the
agency of capable priests, are in duty bound to keep a close watch on the books
that are published, or sold, within their territory....
"Can. 1398, Sec. 1. The condemnation of a book entails the prohibition,
without especial permission, either to publish, to read, to keep, to sell, to
translate, or in any way to pass it on to others.
"Sec. 2. A book which has been prohibited in any way may not be
republished, unless, after the necessary corrections have been made." - "Index,"
of 1930, pp. xvi, xvii. Vatican Polyglot press.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has this to say about the "Censorship
of Books": "In general, censorship of books is a supervision of the press in
order to prevent any abuse of it.
"The reverse of censorship is freedom of the press." - Vol. III, p. 519.
This "supervision of the press" extends also to articles written in
magazines and newspapers, and among the special organizations working in this
field is the International Catholic Truth Society, and the Catholic
International Associated Press. Reporting the Louisville federation convention
of the latter, Michael Kenny, S. J., in America (a Jesuit weekly) for
August 31, 1912, says of their Catholic Press Bureau:
"We have it in our power to compel our papers, the thinking machines of
the people, to tell the truth and refrain from transmitting slanders on Catholic
matters. We can prevent the wells at which the people drink from being poisoned.
We can, following the lead of the Austrian Catholic Congress, establish a
Catholic International Associated Press, (The Register (Roman Catholic),
Denver, Colo., April 3, 1938, announced the formation of the United Catholic
Organizations' Press Relations Committee, to keep vigilant oversight over
newspapers and magazines.) and to accomplish this object every Catholic of the
right spirit, reading in the daily papers calumnies of our religion and the most
brazen justification of the robber bands who drive our religious from their
homes and confiscate their property, should be willing to contribute a tithe of
his possessions. All this and more can be accomplished by federated
action....Marching shoulder to shoulder with the spirit of soldiers on the
battlefield at the call of the Church, we can successfully combat the
organizations of her enemies and make this an era of Catholic manhood." - "America,"
August 31, 1912, p. 486, article by M. Kenny, S. J.
(255) As a result of this organized effort no newspapers in the
United States will accept any news that reflects unfavorably on the Catholic
Church or its propaganda in this country, while news unfavorable to Protestants
is printed.
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