The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 283prevails in this country, where the temporal needsof the Church are supplied by voluntary contributions of the faithful, to the system which obtains insome Catholic countries of Europe, where the Churchissupported by the government, thereby makingfeeble reparation for the itgross injustice has doneto the Church, by its former wholesale confiscationof ecclesiastical property. And the Church paysdearly for this indemnity for she has to bear the;perpetual attempts at interference and the vexatiousenactments of the civil power, which aims at makingher wholly dependent uponitself.Some years ago, in company with the late Archbishop Spalding, on my return from Rome, I paid avisit to the Bishop of Annecy, in Savoy. I wasstruck by the splendor of his palace, and saw asentinel at the door, placed there by the Frenchgovernment, as a guard of honor. But the venerable Bishop soon disabused me of my favorable impressions.He told me that he was in a state ofgilded slavery.I cannot, said he, build as muchas a sacristy without obtaining permission of thegovernment.I do not wish to see the day when the Church willinvoke or receive any government aid to build ourchurches, or to pay the salary of our clergy for,;the government may then begin to dictate to uswhat doctrines we ought to preach. And in proportion as state patronage would increase, the sympavhyand aid of the faithful would diminish.