Hagerty remained defiant of his superiors, declaring that "bishops and priests exceed their authority when they use the influence of their position to oppose a movement whose highest purpose is the industrial liberation of the wage slaves of the world." Catholics were "not bound to pay any attention to them in such matters," Hagerty asserted, adding that the papal encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII against Socialism "have no more authority than that which attaches to the opinions of any private theologian."