It has also been pointed out that, although Catholics have rarely been
given to revolutionary political and economic theories, the Mafia and
the Camorra in Italy, the Fenians in Ireland, and the Molly Maguires in
America were all organizations of Catholics which pursued the same
terrorist tactics that we find in the anarchist movement. These are
unquestionable facts, yet they explain nothing. Certainly Zenker is
justified in saying, "The deeds of people like Jacques Clement,
Ravaillac, Corday, Sand, and Caserio, are all of the same kind; hardly
anyone will be found to-day to maintain that Sand's action followed from
the views of the _Burschenschaft_, or Clement's from Catholicism, even
when we learn that Sand was regarded by his fellows as a saint, as was
Charlotte Corday and Clement, or even when learned Jesuits like Sa,
Mariana, and others, _cum licentia et approbatione superiorum_, in
connection with Clement's outrage, discussed the question of regicide in
a manner not unworthy of Nechayeff or Most."[13] It therefore ill
becomes the Catholic clergy to attack socialism on the ground of
regicide, as not one socialist book or one socialist leader has ever yet
been known to advocate even tyrannicide. On the other hand, while
terrorism has been extraordinarily prevalent in Catholic countries, such
as France, Italy, and Spain, no socialist will seriously seek to lay the
blame on the Catholic Church. The truth is that the forces which produce
terrorism affect the Catholic mind as they affect the Protestant mind.
In every struggle for liberty and justice against religious, political,
or industrial oppression, some men are moved to take desperate measures
regardless of whether they are Catholics, Protestants, or pagans.
Still other seekers after the causes of terrorism have pointed out that
the ethics of our time appear to justify the terrorist and his tactics.
History glorifies the deeds of numberless heroes who have destroyed
tyrants. The story of William Tell is in every primer, and every
schoolboy is thrilled with the tale of the hero who shot from ambush
Gessler, the tyrant.[M] From the Old Testament down to even recent
history, we find story after story which make immortal patriots of men
who have committed assassination in the belief that they were serving
their country. And can anyone doubt that Booth when he shot President
Lincoln[N] or that Czolgosz when he murdered President McKinley was
actuated by any other motive than the belief that he was serving a
cause? It was the idea of removing an industrial tyrant that actuated
young Alexander Berkman when he shot Henry C. Frick, of the Carnegie
Company. These latter acts are not recorded in history as heroic, simply
and solely because the popular view was not in sympathy with those
acts. Yet had they been committed at another time, under different
conditions, the story of these men might have been told for centuries to
admiring groups of children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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