Just as little would I dare – when partisan bickering ensues over some question, e.g. over a greater or lesser extension of the franchise or over the extent of repressive measures against abuse of the press – to immediately accuse the party advocating a view opposed to mine of indulging in anti-Catholic politics. One of the greatest theologians has indeed made the attempt to write a system of politics in the spirit of the Church, according to its principles; I am referring to the work of Bousset: "Politique tirée de l'écriture sainte."* But this very work shows in a conclusive manner how difficult it is to reach agreement in this field and how changeable the opinions and systems are, while everything asserting a claim to the validity of a Catholic principle would also have to assume the character of unchangeability peculiar to Catholic teaching. In his book, Bousset has put forward principles about the rights of monarchs and the duties of the peoples to [practice] unconditional obedience and passive nonresistance even against tyrants which the great majority of Catholics today, both in Germany and France, would emphatically repudiate; but he, and probably also millions of his contemporaries along with him, would really and honestly hold such ideas to be Catholic policy. The systems here are so changeable and so awkward that it would surely be irresponsible to try committing souls to things which the Church has always left open to the judgment of the individual.
For the clergy – who, after all, assume such an important position in the Pius Associations – activity devoted to the day's politics, which frequently assumes the character of political agitation, is tied to a very particular disadvantage. I recall here the answer given to me by a Catholic Englishman who was simultaneously a resident of Ireland. At that time, when O'Connell's** agitation had reached its climax, I had asked him what he thought about the participation of the Irish clergy in this agitation. I fear, he replied to me, that permanent damage is being done in order to achieve a momentary advantage.
This was the view of a man who otherwise would be delivering a warm laudatory speech about the religious and ethical character of the Irish clergy, about their capacity for sacrifice and the unconditional trust the people places in them, but who thinks that the clergy's genuinely priestly and politically essential activity would inevitably be impaired and crippled in the long run; and if this kind of participation in politics on the part of the clergy can be excused or justified anywhere, then this would have to be the case in Ireland, where the Catholic people – abandoned by those of higher, largely hostile social standing – have nobody from whom they could expect advice, leadership, and help if not from its priests. Here one will retort that it is not the clergy but rather the (by and large) worldly associations from whom political activity is expected. But the clergy who are members of these associations would have to take part in this activity; they would certainly, at least in the rural local governments, have to do most of the work here, and is it not then a well-founded concern that the damage that would be caused thereby would frequently be greater and certainly more lasting than the benefit[?] It is unavoidable that the position of the clergyman toward his parish, his priestly reputation, will be endangered and impaired thereby. Frequently the priest will get into a conflict with a section of his parish that is following a different policy or led by another political leader, a conflict that can only be settled with difficulty, and it is not to be expected that people will always or even frequently distinguish between the political character and the soul-tending pastor, that they will maintain the same trust in the latter that they have withdrawn from the former.
A previous speaker has quite rightly referred to North America and the example of the Catholic clergy there. There the clergy, as a matter of principle, avoids meddling in political struggles and partisan bickering. This does not, however, prevent the Catholic people as a whole from following their own political direction, and it is a fact already emphasized by Tocqueville that Catholics there are part of the great majority following the Democratic party in opposition to the aristocratic Whigs.
* Politics Taken from the Holy Scripture, written by the seventeenth century French bishop, Jacques Bousset, was an apology for the absolutist rule of Louis XIV – ed.
** Daniel O'Connell, Irish attorney who directed a successful mass agitation for the repeal for laws discriminating against Catholics in Great Britain, and an unsuccessful one in favor of autonomy for Ireland – ed.
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