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Show I On Saints and Images. F Some weeks ago, in commenting I upon th.'" statement in a Methodist I journal that the late Methodist Bishop t MeCabe never passed a portrait of ; , bra ham Lincoln wit'-"t;t saluting it. wo remarked that the vt;- people who i ommend such a display of respect for ibe memory of a great American call j "atholiis idolaters when they salute j a statue or picture of Christ the j Ilersed Virgin or the saints. The ' Pittsburg ("hritian Advocate, a Meth- nriist weekly, is stirred to wrath by our remark, and oven goes so far as to Insinuate that, we do not truly repre-; repre-; sent Catholic doctrine; that, in fact, ve and other Catholics are not honest ? Mid try to explain, away our "worship 1 of saints, relics, l iases." etc. Here is .lust what the Pi '-burg Christian Ad- "v orate says: "In this ma ' Roman Catholic Cath-olic friends se c o up or explain :ivi!V their wor! r '" saints, relics, j mages, etc. V; nff this matter one rr two thing- is rly true; either ; thev are. grosslv renresented ana j mii-understood. or tuJ is not an inge- U ,)US statement. Wbih is the truth? "Will our brother of News affirm I lhat the feelinc and the attitude of t Itonianists when they 'salute a statue I .,r picture of Chr'st. the Blessed Vir- I gin or the saintf.' is the same as. and M i.othing more thn the respect and leverence Protestants feel for Luther. ; r,r Weslev. or Celvin. or than patriots l teel for Washington or Lincoln? Will !i - Ho dare not It is not more re- U pect and veneration they show, but it I is- adoration, and that is idolatry, be- , raue it is in violation of the Second i Commandment. That is the real dis- '! linction whi.h they s-oek to cover up. J Come now, friends, he honest and Hate the case as it is, and do not try S t 1o explain it away." ! Coming from a Christian Advocate W ' that is rather unchristian and ungon- U i llemanly language. The Mhodist ( '.editor might as -.veil have called us a ; '.falsifier and be done with it. He hajfi 5 ' that we Catholics seek to "case up g r.d "explain away" our worship . of I fcdnts, relics, linages etc Apparently! . he believes he knows Catholic doctrine better than Catholics themselves do. for he insists it is not veneration we show the saints, but adoration, and that is idolatry. Perhaps there is no other Catholic teaching that has been explained more fully for non-Catholics than this very honor and veneration y-e pay to God's saints and to their images in our churches. Rut many non-Catholics non-Catholics will insist that their distorted distort-ed views are the correct ones and that, in fact, we do not know what we believe. be-lieve. Our friend of the Pittsburg Christian Advocate will probably bo willing to admit that the Council of Trent is a prety fair authority on Catholic teaching. Well, the Council of Trent tSess. XXV) declares: "that the images of Christ and the Virgin Vir-gin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and kept especially especi-ally in churches, and tljat due honor and veneration are to Te given them; not that any divinity or virtue is believed be-lieved to be in them on account of which they are. to be worshipped, or that anything is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be reposed in images, im-ages, as was done of old by the gentiles, gen-tiles, who placed their hope in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which these' images represent; in such wise that by the images which Ave kiss, and before which we uncover the head, and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and we venerate the saints whose similitude they bear." Now that ought to be plain enough for even the Methodist editor in enlightened en-lightened Pittsburg who will have it that Catholics adore images. But he may persist that at any rate we worship wor-ship saints, instead of God. The following fol-lowing beautiful passage from a letter written by the late Bishop Stang of Fall River, Mass., on his deathbed ought to make clear to any intelligent man the difference between the homage hom-age paid to the saints, who are the servants of God, and that given to God Himself; "I trust in the boundless mercy of Jesus: in the blood which He poured out for me on Calvary. May it wash out all my sins! And thou, sweetest Mother Mary, whom I hope, to see in thy immaculate beauty in heaven, come to the rescue of thy unworthy un-worthy child. O holy Joseph, my best father and protector, assist me on my' journey to Jesus. My holy patrons, William, Lawrence. Aloysius and Francis, my guardian angel, all angels and saints of God, intercede for mo a poor shiner." We would sugest flint the next time the Pittsburg Christian Advocate's editor edi-tor feels like writing anything about Catholic teachings it. might be prudent for him to consult some book that states the doctrine exactly. Thus he will be spared making himself ridiculous. ridicu-lous. Catholic- News. |