The 'Los Von Rom' Movement

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 22, 1 June 1905, Page 29

The 'Los Von Rom ' Movement

A prominent Philadelphian, who has been for some years a resident of Germany, supplies the ' Standard and Times ' with some particulars of the ' Los von Rom ' movement in Austria, of which we heard so much a few years ago. The writer says :— . Germany proper is a poor place from which to disqusa the question. It is purely Austrian. The difficulty here is, it seems to me, not so much ' Los von Rom 'as ' Los von Luther.' The lion-like stand of the Catholics of (Germany is not only protecting themsel\es, tout is causing, I believe, much detriment to the Evangelical or Lutheran Churches, whose dominies probably see their power and their influence proportionately diminishing, hence all the powers of anti-Catholicism are brought to bear to avert the crash, with a bitterness which is hardly comprehensible to the American mind. This is in brief the secret of all the action against the Church in Germany, and the liberal attitude of the Emperor is one of the bitterest pills that the sects and other ' non-sectarian ' species have to swallow. I need not enumerate all these movements against the Church ; you know of them all through your German exchanges. Dying Out. Now aal to Austria. I cannot speak by the card, because I have no direct means of information which would enable me to answer you with exactitude, but I feel perfectly safe in saying that your contention is correct, and the whole movement is political. Of course the propagators of the movement miake a great noise— stage thunder being one of the elements of their programme—just as there was a great uproar over tine 'Old Catholic ' movement, and I think both movements "Will fiz/le out in the same ignominious manner together, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the Los von Rom ' will end as the ' Old Catholic ' has already _onded . I think I know Germany tolerably well. I have lived here nearly nine years, and am largely acquainted, not merely with its great and populous centres, but a large proportion of its places' of minor interest which are seldom hdard of in America. Now in all my tra\ela in all this time in all parts of Germany, how many ' Old Catholic ' churches do you think I have seen ? Just three, to the best of my recollection. One, I belie\e, in Erfurt and two in the Grand Duchy of Baden, one of these beine: at Baden-Baden and very slimly attended, and the other at Consitansce. The one at Constance was the best of the lot ; for, generally speaking, they are, I think, old abandonee! places that are not of much use or value. The one at Constance, St. Augustine's, was large and fine, though out of repair. It is now restored materially, redecorated, and returned to the real old Catholic warship. Of course I do not mean to insinuate that there are not more ' Old Oatholic ' churches, particularly perhaps in Switzerland, with which lam not so familiar, but I think you would find that their proportion to the sum of real Catholic churches is about parallel with the proportion that I have seen. Now this dilg!res(siotn is all made to show that 5 think Ihe ' Los son Rom ' movement is in about the same strength as the ' Old Catholic' with perhaps more of Ihp religious element in the ' Old Catholic ' and only political elements in the ' Los von Rom.' In plain language, it is one of the phases of Freemiason ' Liberalism,' which has now started out to subdue the earth and has had its greatest triumph in France, thanks entirely to the simineness o>f its victims. Otiie of the latest de\elopments concerning the ' Los von Rom xis in point. It is the custom to collect large sums of money annually in Germany for the current expenses, development, etc., of the Protestant churches, said funds being applicable only to the parish, local circumsnri'Dtion, or whatever it is called, in which or for which the collection is made. It has recently leaked out that these funds instead of being ajipUed to the local parishes have been dherted ancl sent over the Austrian border for the propagation of ' Los von Rom,' and so the German Government has now swooped down on this proceeding and forbidden any further such misappropriation.