Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

man."Church And State ConventionAn Address given in Constitution Hall, Washington, D. C.January 21, 1954 (Installment III)by Emmett McLoughlin(Continued from last week)The Joy of American FreedomYes, the threat of Roman Catholic power is seriously great fortunately the power of Americanfreedom is still greater. This has been proven by mysuccessful open break from the Catholic priesthoodand by the fact that, in spite of everything the hierarchy^has done, or threatened, I have been able tocontinue to live in that same city as an accepted citizen and have been backed up by the twenty membersof the Board of Trustees of Memorial Hospital in myadministration of that institution.I would like to summarize those experiences inthe words of the epilogue of the "PEOPLE'S PADRE"the book I have written on my story and whichwill be released on March 22.Five years have passed since the eventful evening when 1 stood in the rectoryof St. Mary'schurch in Phoenix and offered farewell to my fellowFranciscan priests. They have been the happiestyears of my life, years of struggle, of work, of relaxation and of love in an unbelievably happy marriage.Many sincere Roman Catholics are perturbedabout their church. It is their birthright and theywant to be proud of it. But (secretly or among theirclose friends) they deplore its financial rapacity, itspolitical alliances, its archaic moral doctrines whichthey either ignore or permit to ruin their lives andtheir marriages. They continue to hope that it willchange, that it may become more charitable, lessaggressive and more realistic in faith and morals.I have shown that thousands of priests and millions of the laity, realizing the futility of a change forthe better have done the only thing they could do.They have regretfully taken their hands from theplow and have looked back.I have pictured the tyranny of fear that bindsCatholic priests to their religious posts long afterthey have become disillusioned and yearn for thefreedom and normal life of America. I have tried alsoto show the miasmic, medieval, mental blanket whichthe hierarchy has spread over Roman Catholics whoblindly follow them, stifling their freedom ofthought, of worship and in medicomoral aspects,freedom of action and of life itself. I contendthat this foreign thing is far more subtle, farless forthright but just as inimical to the American concept of life as Communism itself. It isthe indirect cause of Communism by keepingwhole nations in ignorance and poverty andby developing the techniques of fear, indoctrination and mental whichtyranny the Kremlin has usedso successfully. Its hierarchical and Spanish inquisitions with but a change of centuries, of weapons and198of inquisitors, are being continued today in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia.For my own personal self, putting the thoughtsof recent years on paper has proved a mental catharsis. Looking back, my years in the priesthood and inthe seminaryseem like time spent in a dungeon, aprison whose floor was the burning, seething fire ofhell, whose walls and roof were made of the stonesof mental rigidity, and whose air was not light andfree but heavy and foul with the musty stagnation ofmedievalism.The past five years have been those of a freeman, a man restored to his birthright of Americanliberties, liberties which in his 41 years of life underthe American flag, he had never been permitted toenjoy.It became almost a childlike pleasure to shop ina grocery store, to help plan a meal, to have a home,to paint a window, to sleep late on Sabbath, to planta shrub in one's own yard, to choose one's clotheswithout restriction, to entertain friends without consulting a superior, and to love and to be loved.I am an American again, not a foreign subject onAmerican soil.I can work and struggle with the healthy hardships of competitive business. I can love America andwithout asking a bishop or a provincial I can enjoyher mountains and streams, her noisy cities and quietprairies, and especially the sea, nature's own symbolof freedom.I can also love God and continue with freedom inthe service of my fellow man. For that freedom isnow my heritage also. It is the freedom of America,the freedom that I too, with all free men must guard.Like Thomas Jefferson, I "have sworn upon the altarof God, eternal hostility against every form of tyrannyover the mind ofEMMETT McLOUGHLINThe book "PEOPLE'S PADRE" (Beacon PressBoston) can be ordered now from :Martindale's Book StoreAdam's HotelPhoenix, ArizonaHorner's Book Store132 North 1st AvenuePhoenix, ArizonaBaptist Book Store390 North 1st AvenuePhoenix, Arizonaor your favorite book store.The EndCOVENANTER WITNESS