upon us; that is, as far as loyalty to our Catholic beliefs, principles, and convictions permits.
Let us now see how this general principle may be applied to individual matters.
We may consider politics from a fourfold point of view: as politics in reference to mere worldly affairs, to those which concern religious and ecclesiastical matters alone, to mixed questions, and to conditions and circumstances at elections
3. Politics occupy themselves, in by far the greatest part, with mere worldly affairs; for example, with military and financial questions, postal arrangements, railways, forestry and agriculture, the tariff, trusts, and industries. But even in these matters faith and religion have no little influence, and certainly ought to have it, in so far as all these things should be ordered and arranged according to the immutable laws of Christian justice, and that no private or party interest should be considered, but only what will best contribute to the welfare of the community, of the city, state, or country at large.
4. As to matters which deal with purely religious and ecclesiastical questions, no politics should enter into them; i.e., the State ought not to interfere in them. The Catholic, therefore, as a citizen of the State, ought in questions of a purely ecclesiastical nature, to speak and act in accordance with this conviction.
