Note: We have to
remember when we read this that it was written in 1941- Today people may think
it is all water under the bridge, and it mostly is if you like to forget
history. The world has been blinded into
being lukewarm, not caring either way about so many things. Even the truth is
not a concern to the masses. Time often erases the true depths of deception and
evil. New evils and new deceptions come to light, and the past is less and less
important. All of history is a testament to truth-even hiding the truth is a
part of history. May God help us all to be able to discern the truth in history
and its importance for us today.
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.
