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Show ILWiTKDiNS FOR LEW : For the Diocese of Salt Lake. r , t BY OUR RT. REV. BISHOP. -V4-f -ff f v4-f4--f4-4 - The following are the Lenten Regulations for the Diocese of Salt Lake for the year 1900: Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, falls this year on the 2Sth of February. Febru-ary. 1. All, the days of Lent except Sunday are fast days of obligation. 2. All persons under 21 years or over 60 years of age. those who are engaged in hard labor, the sick and convalescent ar.d those who cannot fast without injury in-jury to their health, are exempt from the obligation of fasting. 3. All bound to keep the fast shall take but one meal a day except on Sundays. Sun-days. 4. The meal permitted on fast days should be taken about noon. 5. A collation is permitted in the evening. 6. When the principal meal cannot conveniently be tnken about noon, tne order may be inverted so that the collation may be taken about noon and the dinner in the evening. 7. General usage has made it lawful to take in the morning a cup of coffee, cof-fee, tea or chocolate with a small piece of brad. 8. Necessity and custom have authorized the use of lard instead of butter in the preparation of all permitted foods. 9. By dispensation the use of flesh meats is permitted at all meals on Sundays and once a day at the principal meal on Mondays. Tuesdays, Thursdays Thurs-days and Saturdays, with the exception of Ember Saturday and the last Sat urday of Lent. 10. Persons exempt from the obligation of fasting may partake of flesh meat at all meals on days when the use. of meat is permitted at the principal meal. 11. Flesh meatf and fish are not to be used at the same meal during Lent, even on Sundays. 12. The use of butter, cheese, milk and eggs is permitted every day in Lent. 13. By virtue, of an insult granted by the Holy See March 13, 1S9.", working-men working-men and their families are allowed the use of flesh moat once a day on all the fast and abstinence days throughout the year, with the exception of all Fridays, Ash Wednesday, the Wednesday and Saturday of Holy Week and the Vigil of Christmas. Those who are exempt from the obligation of fasting fast-ing are permitted to use meat more than once a day on all day; except those hefore mentioned, namely, Fridays. Ash Wednesdays, the Wednesday and Saturday of Holy Week and the Vigil of Christmas. Those who avail them-Holves them-Holves of this Indult are not permitted to use flesh meat and fish at the same meal, and are earnestly exhorted to perform some other act of mortification, such as abstinence from intoxicating liquors. 14. The Paschal time extends from the first Sunday in Lent until Triplty Sunday, inclusive, during which time all Catholics who have attained the proper age are bound to receive Holy Communion worthily. 15. To afford the faithful opportunities of gaining the graces of the Lenton season, it is hereby ordered that in addition to the usual Sunday devotions, Lenten exercises be held on two evenings of each week In all the churches of the Diocese, to which are attached resident pastors. On one of the evenings an instruction is to be given, on the other the Stations of the Cross, and permission per-mission is hereby given for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on both evenings. 16. The faithful are reminded that besides the obligation of fasting imposed im-posed by the Church, the season of Lent should be in a very special manner a time of earnest prayer, of sorrow for sin, of abestension from amusements, which, not sinful in themselves, are permitted during other portions of the year, and of generous alms giving to the poor. I 17. To comply with the Decree of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, a collection will be taken up on the first Sunday of Lerri at all the Masses and at Vespers for our Holy Fathjr, the Pope. L. SCANLAN,' Bishop of Salt Lake. CATHOLIC DOCTRINE EXPLAINED. A party anxiousjy inquiring into the claims and truth of tho Catholic Church, has sent the following question to The Imtermountain Catholic: I. Why) should I become a Catholic? Was not tho church that wag good enough for my parents, good enough for me? Why is it, once a Catholic, always al-ways a Catholic? Why confess to a Priest', who is a mere human being like yourself, and ask him to forgive your sins, when you can go up to your room alone and pour out your soul to Him and be forgiven without the intervention inter-vention of a Priest? AN INQUIRER AFTER TRUTH." The questions above propounded by an anxious inquirer after truth, deserve de-serve more than a passing notice. We are told that "error harmless where truth is free to combat it," yet with its multifarious forms, as arrayed against truth which is one, it is not always easy to bring it down to particulars. particu-lars. This is evident from the variety of questions given above. An answer to the first should ret tie this momentous question, for it, of necessity, solves all the other difficulties. In reply to the question, "Why should I become a Catholic?" the inquiring mind, if satisfied that the reasons giveni are good, will see in that answer a solution for all other obstacles. That all, believing in Christ, as the divine founder of a religious creed, should become members of the Catholic Church, is evident. He established Hia own right to the belief of humanity by His miracles, and that especially by giving life to His own dead body on the Morning of the Resurrection. As His work was to continue for all time, those whom He selected aa teachers were to take His place and .teach, as He, divine truths, not error. To suppoae that the Son of God would select and authorize teachers to take His place, and have tho?3 teachers incompetent or liable to err, would be equivalent to saying that God was responsible for the deception, or for errors taught by Ilia accredited representatives. rep-resentatives. The last three verses of St. Matthew's gospel tell what took place between the Son of God and Hia Apostles. He declares His owa almighty al-mighty power, commands them to go and teach all nations, and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; to teach their followers to observe all things commanded; and, lastly, promised ever to be with them. Could those teachers impugn the truth, or be deceived as to the truth? Impossible, as God would be responsible. Another obligation He imposed on the world at large: "He that neareth you heare.th me, and he who despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despise th Him that serat me." St. Luke x, 16. If you discredit the Church founded by Christ you discredit Himself, and in discrediting Him you discredit His Father who sent Him. There is an obligation here plainly laid down to be directed and guided by the Church which He established, and to follow its teaching in matters of faith and morals." As the ambassador of the Father, she must ca,r-ry ca,r-ry with her credentials a guarantee to teach the truth, otherwise, by a contradictory con-tradictory supposition, man would be obliged to believe error in order to seirve God. All admit that the Catholic Church wag the one established by the Son of God. Day and date for the origin of thof Greek Church, and all others that sprung up since the tenth century, can be given. No other church, save the Catholic, has been authorized and commissioned by Christ to teach, and "how can they preach," as St. Paul expresses it, "unless they are sent." All, save the Catholic Church, are confessedly fallible; therefore, liable to err; therefore, there-fore, not divine teachers who must of necessity teach the truth in mattetrs of faith. Did not Christ promise all that to His Apostles? "I will be with you all days, to the end of the world." Mat. xxviii. He could not be with them or their successors in. error. "I will send you another Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, to teach, you all truth and to abide with you forever." Mat. xx. How reconcile this promise with the charge that the Catholic Cihurch taught error? Her Divine Founder guaranteed to her immunity from error through the indwelling of the "Paraclete 'the Spirit of Truth," who would teach her all truth and abide with her "forever." Knowing that Christ founded a Church with authority to teach, and, secondly, that the Roman Catholic Church is the one He founded, our correspondent is bound to enter her communion or reject Christianity as a divine institution. There is no other alternative. The intellectual world of today generally admits that if Christ be what Christians claim Him. to be, the Son, of God, and founded an authoritative Church, that must be the Catholic Church, since very plainly and evidently it could be no other. For this reason you shoujd become a Catholic. This solution answers the second question. Admitting the truth of the Catholic Church, the church of your parents must be in error, which could not be offered as a substitute for truth, nor good enough to take the place of truth. HI. "Why once a Catholic, always a Catholic?" Because truth never changes. No stronger argument could be made In favor of the claims of the Catholic. Church, and against all others, than that she has- not changed, and that all others have. The Greek Schismatic church hasi changed its ancient an-cient creed In siorr.e very essential points. Protestant creeds make very important im-portant changes at all their conventions, and that change is made by "resolving "re-solving so and so." No change in Catholic dogma could be made by Priest, Bishop or Pope. Hence Catholic truth is ever the same, and once a Catholic, always a Catholic. , IV. "Wliy confesfi to a Priest?" Because, first, the Scriptures sanctions it. See Num. V, 6-7; St. Mat. ill, 6; Acts of the Apostles xlx, 18. "Many of them that believed came confessing and declaring their deeds." St. James is yet more explicit: "Confess, therefore, your sins one to another," v, 16. Secondly, Second-ly, the obligations cf confession follow from the power Christ gave His Apostles of binding and loosing,- forgiving and retaining sins. "When, he had said this he breathed on them, and he said to them'-. Receive ye the Holy Ghcst. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." John xx, 22-23. "Amen. I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon e"arth shall be bound also In heaven; and whatsoever you shall, loose upon, earth shall be looaed also in. heaven." Mat. xviit. 18. Third,: The Church makes it a part of her dogmatic teaching. She could not eiT. Therefore, her infallible commands must be observed. Lastly, history his-tory and tradition both unite-in testifying that this doctrine has come down from tho Apostolic age. You do well "by going to your room, alone and pouring our your soul to God," but you will do what 1st infinitely more beneficial bene-ficial to your soul by doing what God,command3 and His Church exacts, and that is. be sincerely sorry for your grlevoiu sins, confess them to His- authorized au-thorized agent', and promise never to.offend God any more. |