Basic causes of group antagonism between Protestant and Catholic lie partly in the fact that the government of the Catholic Church is outside of the United States, and partly on account of the attitude of the church itself toward certain American institutions, notably the public-school system and the laws in this country governing marriages. If the Catholic Church was under an American head, with no connection with any foreign organization, there would be but little ground upon which the professional Catholic-baiter could stand, but the fact that it is governed from Rome furnishes the chief objection to the system. In spite of this however, it lies in the power of Protestant and Catholic leaders to “get together” and endeavor to eliminate the present growing friction. In my study of the Ku Klux movement, I found that one of its greatest bids for popular favor was in its attitude to the rise of Catholicism in America. The fact that such a thing can be true, should be a matter of serious reflection to the Catholic and to the Protestant. In the succeeding years, if this feeling is not allayed and the differences reconciled it means mischief.
I believe in a real Americanism based on a deeply rooted love of country, and a broad respect and mutual understanding on the part of the people. I believe firmly that all of the internal dissensions and discords in this country, where group is arrayed against group could be completely eliminated by the application of the philosophy and love of Jesus Christ. “Invisible Empires,” “Ku Klux Klans,” and all organizations seeking to advance one group at the expense of another, pale into oblivion and nothingness, when the voice of the gentle Nazarene speaks down the centuries, breathing a sweet message of brotherhood alike to the white man and the negro, the Gentile and the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant, giving to each the same message, and voicing a common creed:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Transcriber’s Note: Punctuation has been corrected without note.