Napoleon III and the Papacy [pp. 686-702]

IVapoleon II. and the Papacy.
and residing in Rome or anywhere else, can do any real service even to the Catholic branch of the church. The Catholic
communion may continue, and may be the church, even in her
view of the matter. She may continue to claim apostolic grace
in her sacrament of ordination, to the full satisfaction of the
bishops and all others concerned; but the dogma of the primacy
of St. Peter would fall, of course, with the Pope; and it is that
late-born and unmitigated falsehood which has broken down
the constitution of that church and consumed her life. And as
the patrimony of St. Peter is the temporal power, and that is
falling for ever, the holder of the patrimony may as well disappear; for what is the heir without the inheritance. The only
necessity for his continuance lies in the fact that he exists, and
there is no constitutional provision to abolish him. If once he
were removed, and Catholic people were no longer plied with
the devices of priestcraft, to keep alive in them a factitious
reverence for his unseen person, there would be found, even in
the present nature of Catholicism, no want or tendency that
would reproduce him. It is impossible that the spirit of Catholic piety, if left to its natural course, should produce in an
American Catholic the need of a Roman Pope, whom he never
sees, and whom he never hears of, except as his Holiness is forced
on his notice by the priest who uses the name and pretended
dignity for his personal ends. The Catholicism of France
makes virtually nothing of the Pope. The Gallican church
denies, in form, his power over civil rulers, his infallibility, and
the superiority of his decisions over those of councils. And this
leaves nothing for the Pope that renders his office or authority of
any practical value for the people. We would say then, in the
plain, simple language of Presbyterianism, let the Pope, in
view of the whole state of things, consider whether his usefulness in that capacity be not at an end; and, if so, let him take
his dismission, and let his session, the college of cardinals, be
dissolved. A body of men with talents and address to attain
to such places, can, with the right spirit, be very useful in other
offices, but in that they can do nothing. We do not speak thus
because we think the voluntary resignation of the Pope or the
dissolution of any portion of the hierarchy probable, or even
possible, but we take this method of expressing what we think
1860.]
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