SOME time ago, the Catholic Monitor accused the AMERICAN SENTINAL of “steady and unlimited abuse of the pope of Rome.” To this we replied that “the only mention that we have had occasion to make of the pope has been in connection with his scheme to unite the Roman Catholic Church with the power of the United States Government, to do with this nation now as ‘the church’ has done done with other nations in the past, and so to bring Europe and all humanity once more under the power of the papacy; and in doing this we have only stated the facts as given from the pope through Catholic channels.” But that “these plain facts, however, plainly stated, set the papacy in such a wicked light before the country that it is easy enough for Catholic papers to see in it only ‘steady and unlimited abuse of the pope of Rome.’”
We further said that “the only other occasion that we have had, or used, to discuss the pope was when, last year, he addressed ‘the Princes and Peoples of the Universe,’ and gravely informed us that ‘WE [that is himself] hold the regency of God on earth.’”
In our use of the address, “The Princes and Peoples of the Universe,” the Monitor thinks it has found evidence of great [164] obtuseness, if not both ignorance and heresy. It accordingly reins us up, in its own vigorous style, as follows:—
This refers to one of the pope’s encyclicals. Now let us tell the American Sentinel that there is no encyclical addressed to the princes and peoples of the universe. There is one addressed Principibus Populisque Universis, but any school boy who has got as far as hic haec hoc would be able to tell it that this does not mean the princes and peoples of the universe. If the American Sentinel is not able to interpret the title to a modern document written in so simple a language as Latin, how can we expect it to interpret prophecies which have been written in every corrupt dialect from the vulgar Chaldee of Daniel to the Hellenistic Greek of St. John?
It may be that our knowledge of Latin is so defective as not to be able in all things to bear the Monitor’s superior criticism. It may be, indeed, that we have not “got as far as hic haec hoc;” and it may be, therefore, that we are, indeed, “not able to interpret the title to a modern document written in so simple a language as Latin.” But whatever may be our knowledge or lack of knowledge of “so simple a language as Latin,” we were not quite so simple as to suppose that our own translation of a Latin passage from the pope would be accepted by Catholics as correct,—especially when such translation was used as the text for a criticism of the vital claim of the pope which is but the claim of the papacy.
In this matter, therefore, we did not attempt any translation of our own; but thought to use one obtained from such an authority in Latin that even Catholics themselves would not question its correctness. And thinking that Cardinal Gibbons was probably well enough acquainted with “so simple a language as Latin” to translate the encyclical, we thought that a translation certified by him could safely be used. Accordingly we waited until a standard Catholic paper had printed the authorized translation from the Cardinal himself. The Northwestern Chronicle was the first such paper in which we found the authorized translation, and this is the one we used. In the issue of that paper dated July 20, 1894,—page 5,—the Cardinal’s authorized translation of the encyclical is printed in full with introduction by the editor, and note by the Cardinal. This introduction, note, and the opening words of the encyclical are as follows:—
We present below an exact English translation of the Latin text of the encyclical recently bound by his holiness, Pope Leo XIII. obtained through the courtesy of Cardinal Gibbons. It is accompanied by the following note thereon from the cardinal,—
“It is not easy to do justice to all points of this very beautiful, suggestive and far-reaching apostolic message of the holy father without reading and re-reading it, as all may do with profit and delight.
“The admiration inspired by the bread and noble Christianity which marks this supreme appeal of the venerable pontiff to unity, charity and Christian peace cannot but be mingled with amazement if we recall the advanced age of its august author and consider the clearness of style, the simplicity and force by which the message is distinguished.
“But it is the lofty thought so admirably expressed by Leo XIII. in this encyclical that will most arrest the attention of the princes and peoples to whom it is addressed. Looking back upon the eventful past of his pontificate as from a height, the holy father seems to embrace all races and all nations in his charity. His appeal to the Greek Catholics and the Protestants may meet with no immediate response, but it will hardly fall upon deaf ears.
“Most significant, and to us Americans of peculiar interest, is the holy father’s definition of the lines which should mark the respective spheres of the civil authorities of Christian States. In this and in mutual tolerance lies the best hope that the world will some day see the promise realized: ‘Fiet unun ovile of unus pastor.’
J. CARD. GIBBONS.”
The encyclical reads as follows:—
“APOSTOLIC LETTER
To the princes and peoples of the universe:
Leo XIII., pope.
Greeting and peace in the Lord.”
These are the identical words that we copied, and which we used, when we said that the pope “last year addressed ‘the Princes and Peoples of the Universe’ and gravely informed us all that ‘WE [that is himself] hold the regency of God on earth.’” The translation is the official one and authorized by Cardinal Gibbons himself; and the Latin address is translated, “To the Princes and Peoples of the Universe.”
Now as this is not the AMERICAN SENTINEL’S translation at all, but the Cardinal’s, or at least that of the Cardinal’s official translator and authorized by the Cardinal, let us read the Monitor’s broadside over again with the application not to the AMERICAN SENTINEL where it does not apply at all, but to Cardinal Gibbons where it really applies. So read it runs thus:—
Now let us tell Cardinal Gibbons that there is no encyclical addressed to the princes and peoples of the universe. There is one addressed Principibus Populisque Universis, but by school boy who has got as far as hic haec hoc would be able to tell him that this does not mean the princes and peoples of the universe. If Cardinal Gibbons is not able to interpret the title to a modern document written in so simple a language as Latin, etc., etc.
That is the true reading of the passage from the Monitor. But is it true that Cardinal Gibbons is not able to interpret the title of a modern document written in so simple a language as Latin? Is it true that Cardinal Gibbons has not got as far as hic haec hoc? And is it therefore true that there is no encyclical addressed to the princes and peoples of the universe? These questions and their answers lie between the editor of the Monitor and the Cardinal Gibbons. [166]