“So long as we were permitted to hope,” he says, “that we should have only the priests to deal with, there was less reason for doubt as to the policy of executing the laws in all their rigor; but the situation was wholly altered when it became manifest that the congregations held the same views as the bishops and priests.… It is easy to see that all violent, even though legal, proceedings of the government against these convictions of the Catholic people can only weaken those proper, and in the last instance alone effective, measures through which the May Laws can successfully put bounds to the growing power of the church. These measures—viz., a better education of the people and a higher culture of the priests—can, from the nature of things, exert their influence only by degrees. Not till the next generation can we hope to gather the fruit of this seed; and not then, indeed, if the reckless execution of the May Laws calls forth an opposition in the Catholic populations which will shake confidence in the just intentions of the government, and beget in the congregations feelings of hatred for everything connected with this legislation. Such feelings will unavoidably be communicated to the children, and the teacher will in consequence be deprived of that authority without which his instructions must lack the persuasive force that is inherent in truth. In such a state of warfare even the higher culture of the clergy must be useless. Those who stand on the side of the government will, precisely on that account, fail to win the confidence of their people; and the stronger the aged pastors emphasize the Canon Law of the church, the more energetically they extend the realms of faith even to the hierarchical constitution of the church, the more readily and faithfully will their congregations follow them.
“It cannot be dissembled that the government, through the rigorous execution of the May Laws, is raging against its own flesh and blood, and is thereby robbing itself of the only means by which it can have any hope of finally coming forth victorious from the present conflict. It may be objected that the resistance which is now so widespread cannot be much longer maintained, and that all that is needed to crush it and bring about peace with the church is to increase the pressure of the law. Assertions of this kind are made with great confidence by the liberals of both Houses of the Landtag whenever the government presents a new bill; and the liberal newspapers, which never grow tired of this theme, declare that the result is certain and even near at hand.
“Now, even though we should attach no importance to the contrary assertions of the Catholic party, it is yet evident, from the declarations of the government itself, that it is not all confident of reaching this result with the aid of the means which it has hitherto employed or of those in preparation, but that it is making ready for a prolonged resistance of the clergy, who are upheld and supported by the great generosity of the Catholic people. The ovations which the priests receive from their congregations when they come forth from prison are not falling off, but are increasing; and this is equally true of the pecuniary aid given to them. It is possible that much of this may have been gotten up by the priests themselves as demonstration; but the displeasure of the still powerful government officials which the participants incur, and the greatness of the money-offerings, are evidence of earnest convictions.
“Nothing, however, so strongly witnesses to the existence of a perfect understanding between the congregations and the priests as the fact that, though the law of May, 1874, gave to those congregations whose pastors had been removed or had not been legally appointed by the bishops the right to elect a pastor, yet not even one congregation has up to the present moment made any use of this privilege. When we consider that the number of parishes where there is no pastor must be at least a hundred; that in itself such right of choice corresponds with the wishes of the congregations; farther, that the law requires for the validity of the election merely a majority of the members who put in an appearance; that a proposition made to the Landrath by ten parishioners justifies him in ordering an election; and that, on the part of the influential officials and their organs, nothing has been left undone to induce the congregations to demand elections, not easily could a more convincing proof of the perfect agreement of the people with their priests be found than the fact that to this day in only two or three congregations has it been possible to hunt up ten men who were willing to make such a proposal, and that not even in a single congregation has an election of this kind taken place.”[259]
This is indeed admirable; and it may, we think, be fairly doubted whether, in the whole history of the church, so large a Catholic population has ever, under similar trials, shown greater strength or constancy. Of the peculiar nature of these trials we shall speak hereafter; the present article we will bring to a close with a few remarks upon what we conceive to have been one of the most important agencies in bringing about the perfect unanimity and harmony of action between priests and people to which the Catholics of Prussia must in great measure ascribe their immovable firmness in the presence of a most terrible foe. We refer to those Catholic associations in which cardinals, bishops, priests, and people have been brought into immediate contact, uniting their wisdom and strength for the attainment of definite ends.
Such unions have nowhere been more numerous or more thoroughly organized than in Germany, though their formation is of recent date. It was during the revolution of 1848, of which we have already spoken, that the German Catholics were roused to a more comprehensive knowledge of the situation, and resolved to combine for the defence of their rights and the protection of their religion. Popular unions under the name and patronage of Pius IX. (Pius-Vereine) were formed throughout the fatherland, with the primary object of bringing together once a week large numbers of Catholic men of every condition in life. At these weekly meetings the questions of the day, in so far as they touched upon Catholic interests, were freely discussed, and thus an intelligent and enlightened Catholic public opinion was created throughout the length and breadth of the land. In refuting calumnies against the church the speakers never failed to demand the fullest liberty for all Catholic institutions.
On the occasion of beginning the restoration and completion of the Cathedral of Cologne, the most religious of churches, the proposition that an annual General Assembly of all the unions should be held was made and received with boundless enthusiasm. The first General Assembly took place at Mayence in October, 1848; and thither came delegates from Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and all the other states of Germany, whose confidence and earnestness were increased by the presence of the Catholic members of the Parliament of Frankfort. For the first time since Luther’s apostasy the Catholics of Germany breathed the air of liberty. The bishops assembled at Würzburg, gave their solemn approbation to the great work, and Pius IX. sent his apostolic benediction. Since that time General Assemblies have been held at Breslau, May, 1849; Ratisbon, October, 1849; Linz, 1850; Mayence, 1851; Münster, 1852; Vienna, 1853; Linz, 1856; Salzburg, 1857; Cologne, 1858; Freyburg, 1859; Prague, 1860; Munich, 1861; Aix-la-Chapelle, 1862; Frankfort, 1863, and in other cities, down to the recent persecutions.
These assemblies represented a complete system of organization, in which no Catholic interest was forgotten. Every village and hamlet in the land was there, if not immediately, through some central union. We have had the honor of being present at more than one of these assemblies, and the impressions which we then received are abiding. Side by side with cardinals, bishops, princes, noblemen, and the most learned of professors sat mechanics, carpenters, shoemakers, and blacksmiths—not as in the act of worship, in which the presence of the Most High God dwarfs our universal human littlenesses to the dead-level of an equal insignificance, but in active thought and co-operation for the furtherance of definite religious and social ends. The brotherhood of the race was there, an accomplished fact, and one felt the breathing as of a divine Spirit compared with whose irresistible force great statesmen and mighty armies are weak as the puppets of a child’s show.
We have not the space to describe more minutely the ends, aims, and workings of the numberless Catholic associations of Germany; but we must express our deep conviction that no study could be more replete with lessons of practical wisdom for the Catholics of the United States. Organization is precisely what we most lack. Our priests are laborious, our people are devoted, but we have not even an organized Catholic public opinion—nay, no organ to serve as its channel, and make itself heard of the whole country. Many seem to think that the very question of the necessity of Catholic education is still an open one for us; and this is not surprising, since we have no system of Catholic education. Catholic schools, indeed, in considerable number, there are, but there is no organization. The great need of the church in this country is the organization of priests and people for the promotion of Catholic interests. Through this we will learn to know one another; our views will be enlarged, our sympathies deepened, and the truth will dawn upon us that, if we wish to be true to the great mission which God has given us, the time has come when American Catholics must take up works which do not specially concern any one diocese more than another, but whose significance will be as wide as the nation’s life.