An Open Letter to the Honorable Alfred E. Smith in The Altantic
Charles C. Marshall to Al Smith in the Atlantic
April 1927
Charles Marshall, a prominent lawyer, wrote a major piece in the Atlantic magazine questioning whether Al Smith could truly be independent of the Roman Catholic Church.
…The deduction is inevitable that, as all power over human affairs not given to the State by God, is given by God to the Roman Catholic Church, no other churches or religious or ethical societies have in theory any direct power from God and are without direct divine sanction, and therefore without natural right to function on the same basis as the Roman Catholic Church in the religious and moral affairs of the State. The result is that that Church, if true to her basic political doctrine, is hopelessly committed to that intolerance that has disfigured so much of her history. This is frankly admitted by Roman Catholic authorities.
Pope Pius IX in the famous Syllabus (1864) said: ‘To hold that national Churches, withdrawn from the authority of the Roman Pontiff and altogether separated, can be established, is error.’…
Furthermore, the doctrine of the Two Powers, in effect and theory, inevitably makes the Roman Catholic Church at times sovereign and paramount over the State. It is true that in theory the doctrine assigns to the secular State jurisdiction over secular matters and to the Roman Catholic Church jurisdiction over matters of faith and morals, each jurisdiction being exclusive of the other within undisputed lines. But the universal experience of mankind has demonstrated, and reason teaches, that many questions must arise between the State and the Roman Catholic Church in respect to which it is impossible to determine to the satisfaction of both in which jurisdiction the matter at issue lies.
Here arises the irrepressible conflict. Shall the State or the Roman Catholic Church determine? The Constitution of the United States clearly ordains that the State shall determine the question. The Roman Catholic Church demands for itself the sole right determine it, and holds that within limits of that claim it is superior to and supreme over the State. The Catholic Encyclopedia clearly so declares: ‘In case of direct contradiction, making it impossible for both jurisdictions to be exercised, the jurisdiction of the Church prevails and that of the State is excluded.’ And Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus asserted: ‘To say in the case of conflicting laws enacted by the Two Powers, the civil law prevails, is error.’…
We quote Pope Leo in his encyclical letter on The Christian Constitution of States:‘Over the mighty multitude of mankind, God has set rulers with power to govern, and He has willed that, one of them (the Pope) should be the head of all.’ We quote Pope Leo in his encyclical letter on The Reunion of Christendom: ‘We who hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.’
It follows naturally on all this that there is a conflict between authoritative Roman Catholic claims on the one side and our constitutional law and principles on the other. Pope Leo XIII says: ‘It is not lawful for the State, any more than for the individual, either to disregard all religious duties or to hold in equal favor different kinds of religion.’ But the Constitution of the United States declares otherwise: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’
Thus the Constitution declares the United States shall hold in equal favor different kinds of religion or no religion and the Pope declares it is not lawful to hold them in equal favor. Is there not here a quandary for that man who is at once a loyal churchman and a loyal citizen?
Pope Leo says that the Roman Catholic Church ‘deems it unlawful to place the various forms of divine worship on the same footing as ‘the true religion.’ But the Supreme Court of the United States says that our ‘law knows no heresy and is committed to the support of no dogma, the establishment of no sect.’ (Watson v. Jones 13 Wall. p. 7)
Americans indulge themselves in the felicitation that they have achieved an ideal religious situation in the United States. But Pope Leo, in his encyclical letter on Catholicity in the United States, asserts: ‘It would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church.’ The modern world reposes in the comfortable reflection that the severance of Church and State has ended a long and unhappy conflict, when the same Pope calls our attention to the error of supposing ‘that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced.’
Is our law, then, in papal theory, no law? Is it contrary to natural right? Is it in conflict with the will and fiat of Almighty God? Clearly the Supreme Court and Pope Leo are profoundly at variance. Is it not obvious that such a difference of opinion concerning the fundamental rights between two sovereignties operating within the same territory, may, even with the best intentions and the most sensitive consciences, be fruitful of political offenses that are odious among men?
Source(s):
Charles C. Marshall, “An Open Letter to the Honorable Alfred E. Smith,” Atlantic, April 1927.