THE following from this noted Catholic prelate is quoted in “Lord’s Day Papers,” a monthly publication issued by the Wisconsin Sabbath Association:—
“I have noticed with much regret that in movements of citizens to enforce the Sunday laws of the country, Catholics are not in large numbers among the foremost combatants. This may rise from some singular political ideas held by them, but no political ideas must prevail against such obligations as those binding us to the observance of the Sunday.”
And the “obligations binding us to the observance of the Sunday,” as the archbishop and all Catholics see them, are that the day has been set apart by the Catholic Church as a religious day, resting upon precisely the same authority as do other feast and fast days of the Catholic Church, and no more binding than these in its obligation. This is why Archbishop Ireland wants the Sunday laws enforced upon Protestants in this country. Another noted Catholic writer has said that the observance of Sunday by Protestants is “an homage they pay in spite of themselves, to the Catholic Church;” and Archbishop Ireland, the Wisconsin Sabbath Association (professedly Protestant), and all others working for the enforcement of Sunday laws, want Protestants in the United States forced to pay homage “in spite of themselves, to the Catholic Church.”
But we don’t want anything of this kind.