Loyalty to the Church by Rev. Fr. P. A. Halpin

Synopsis:  Loyalty to the Church is a duty. Meaning of loyalty in its sense of mind and will and life devotion to the Church. Why a duty and among duties the greatest.

Loyalty to the Church! Perhaps now more than ever, certainly now as much as ever, does the Catholic need to be warned that temptations to disloyalty are many and violent, and that more harm is worked against not only his individual faith, but against the faith at large, by this defect, which, be it either trifling or extreme or apparent or real, pushes its victim not only near but in so many lamentable cases over the precipice of infidelity. Where loyalty is a virtue and a duty, and the fulfilment of it dearly to be cherished, disloyalty is cowardice, a crime and the beginning of many spiritual disasters. It is proposed in this sermon to show that loyalty is a duty, that disloyalty is cowardice, that it is a crime.

Loyalty to the Church is a duty. The natural reasoning of the mind as well as the voice of religion proclaims this. We call duty that obligation which cannot be evaded without going counter to principles which we know are absolute, without opposing laws which are founded in justice and emanate from a superior with the right to command. That loyalty to Mother Church falls into the class of primal duties is evidenced by a mere statement of its meaning. In general, what is understood by the expression loyalty? It is a man's attitude toward a being who has claims upon him which may not be questioned, or toward an institution of which he is a member and to which he is pledged by ties which call for love and gratitude and courage and protection. That being may be God or it may be man. That institution may be his family, his country, his Church. So peculiar is the organisation of his Church that it is the family, the country, the home of his soul. Just as soul transcends body, just as spirit is above matter, just as eternity is more than time, so do his religious ties assume a value and an importance far above any which can attach to the things of country or family or friends.

When, then, loyalty to Church is spoken of there rises in our conceptions the notion of a fidelity which is greater than we owe to anyone else, than we owe even to our fireside or our native or adopted land. This is claiming much, but not more than reason or justice may allow. What do we owe to our land or our home? In the first place compliance with all the laws that regulate both. There is the law of obedience to superiors, the law of charity toward our equals. If one or other call for a sacrifice, we are to make it. If one or other call for protection, we are to give it. As for others, they must not invade home or country. We are to repel in the moment of danger all that assails rights or privileges belonging to either. If a moment strikes when the jeopardising of our lives becomes a necessity we are to be found at our posts no matter how fraught with danger. We must carry them in our thoughts and our affections. We must throw no discredit by the conduct of our lives on their fair name. Their reputation must be as dear to us as our own, and their existence must we cherish as we cherish the individual life which is ours. This every man claims to be the reasonable position of all who do not wish to be accused of perfidy or cowardice or crime.