# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth convention

the Pope to decide.) "Nor does it relate to the nature and motions of the planets, nor does it relate to purely political questions" (which these are, the Pope of course again has to decide alone), "such as what form of government a nation is to choose, or for which candidates we are to vote. Consequently the infallibility of the Pope by no means violates civil authority. For the jurisdiction of the Pope relates to spiritual matters, whereas it is the business of the state to care for the temporal welfare of the subjects." (*Glaube der Väter* [The Faith of Our Fathers], p. 93.) In particular the Roman clergy extol the endeavor of their Church to uphold the religious and civil liberty of our country. The same cardinal writes: "By religious liberty we understand the free right to worship God according to the demands of an honest conscience and to practice a form of religion that is on the whole in accord with our duties toward God. Every act that violates freedom of conscience is rightly called intolerance. This religious liberty is the indisputable right of every man, because it corresponds to a strict duty which God has laid upon us. — A man enjoys civil liberty when he is independent of the arbitrary will of others and is governed by just laws, which have been introduced for the welfare of society. So long as he, in company with his fellow citizens, observes the laws of the state, any exceptional restriction laid upon him in the exercise of his civil rights is a violation of his civil liberty. — Now I maintain — and believe I can prove it from history — that the Catholic Church has always been the zealous protector of religious and civil liberty, and that wherever infringements of these sacred human rights have been committed by believing Catholics, such injustices, far from being sanctioned by the Church, were committed in palpable violation of her authority." (p. 142.) Again and again the prelates of the Roman Church stress their love for civil and religious liberty, their abhorrence of the Church's interference in the secular affairs of the state and the people. They denounce as bigots all those who scent any danger in this respect from the Roman Church and warn against it. — What is the situation in this matter according to the truly authentic utterances of the Church, according to the utterances of the Popes? To be sure, the Roman Church teaches expressly that according to God's will and order there are and ought to be two realms in this world, the secular and the spiritual realm, which are to be well distinguished. It likes to cite, and often cites, the word of Christ: "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's!" In his encyclical "Etsi multa luctuosa" of the year 1873 Pius IX writes: "Faith teaches, and human reason confirms, that a twofold order of things