Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4
"Bishop Keane, on his return from his visit to Rome last October, says in an interview published in the Catholic Standard of October 13, 1894, upon the same subject:
"Bishop Keane talked very freely about his recent trip abroad and especially about the great interest the pope takes in America and the affairs both temporal and spiritual of this country. The pope believed the political welfare or properly the temporal welfare, of the world to be guided by God equally with the spiritual welfare.
It is his policy to conciliate the two as much as possible.
In carrying out his purpose the pope wishes to adapt the church as
much as possible to the existing conditions which characterize the world at present and to provide for those which characterize its future. The world he likens to the man, in that the church represents the soul and the state the body. A man would be foolish to cultivate the soul and pay no attention to the body and likewise the church cannot afford not to take cognizance of the conditions surrounding it. As the body of the man grows, his soul develops; and as the age of the world advances, the conditions surrounding the church are subject to equal changes. Consequently it is the purpose of the pope to keep the temporal power and the spiritual power from conflicting."
The pope then still holds his claim to be God's agent in the conducting of these affairs.
The pope then still holds his claim to be God's agent in the conducting of these affairs.
He sets up what he declares to be God's will respecting the church and respecting the temporal and spiritual powers and then he is the one who, for God, is to manipulate them and say how they are to go on together; he is the one who is to keep them from conflicting."
A.T. Jones
