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Show WHAT IS MODERNISM? Last week the daily papers published a dispatch dis-patch from Rome, stating that the election of the Reverend Dr. Hanna, president of St. Bernard's Theological Seminary, Rochester, to the coadju-torship coadju-torship or as assistant bishop of San Francisco, would not be ratified by the Holy Sec until he could satisfactorily explain or retract statements in some of his published writings, carrying upon their face the bar sinister of Modernism. We hold our judgment in suspension touching anything coming to us from Rome by the Atlantic cable, unless it be certified to by the Associated Press. When an Irish or Irish-American ecclesiastic ecclesi-astic and scholar is charged with a leaning to heresy, here-sy, we are not disposed to lend a credulous ear to the accusation. Centuries of persecution, of sorrow sor-row and suffering for the faith, have worn the mark of the crucifixion on the breast of the Irish priest, and he cannot, if he would, remove it. We know there have been apostate Irish and Irish-American priests, but we also know that when the hour of death comes they plead for reconciliation to their mother, the church, proving that they fell away through weakness or frailty, but never lost the faith. Now, what is this Modernism with which Father Fa-ther Hanna is said to be tainted ? Well, it's an old heresy, or, rather, pieces of heresy, under a new name. It is one of the multitudinous aliases under which Protestantism masquerades early in the morning of the twentieth century. Some seventy years ago the places where intoxicating liquors were sold were known as "public houses;" then when the public houses fell into disrepute, the name was chahged to "tavern," then to "inn," to "buffet," to "saloon," from the French salon, a place of meeting, to "bar," to "Smith's wine rooms," or Maguffin's "sample' rooms," and when the note of discredit continued to follow the names, the dealers dropped the titles altogether and now we have the "Poodle Dog," the "Dew Drop In," the "White Elephant," and the like. But you'll notice the stuff retailed over the bar doesn't change, except, ex-cept, maybe, for the worse. It's the same with heresy. It's nomenclature is always changing, but it continues to retail the same old stuff, giving new names to its mixed drinks, the base of which is always alcohol or error. Now this old heresy, under the new name of Modernism, is concocted of denials. It denies that Christ instituted the sacraments or founded his church on St. Peter. It denies that the Supreme Pontiff inherits his spiritual power directly from our Divine Lord. It denies that the dogmas and teachings of the church are a direct revelation as contained in the deposit of faith from the Holy Trinity. It denies that Christ knew that he was the Redeemer. Re-deemer. It challenges the historic truth of the divine realities of the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. It shakes these all up as a bartender bar-tender would a "John Collins," pours the mixture into a spiritual cut-glass tumbler and tells tis to swallow it down in one or rwo gulps and see how good you'll feel. Modernism will have its vogue for a few years and then well hear no more of the name. But the stuff is Imperishable; it will be handed out to future fu-ture generations under another name. A Catholic who bothers himself with these heresies is cither supremely su-premely ignorant or incurably idiiotic. When the Pope, the Representative of Jesus Christ on earth, condemns anything, it is enough for us. When ho tells us to "stand from under," it is a warning that we're going to pay attention to, for in nineteen hundred years he has made no mistake, and we are wise enough to believe him rather than the man who was born yesterday and is hunting a reputation. When Rome speaks and givc3 judgment, that ends it. We'll keep to the safe and beaten path, beaten because it is safe and safe because it is beaten. For nineteen hundred years men have struck outjnto the gloomy desert of error and very few of them ever returned to report. re-port. Those of them who found their way back always al-ways said, "Follow the old trail."v |