OCR Text |
Show The Question Box at Non-Catholic Missions : One of the most important and inter- , esting features of a successful mm- j Catholic mission is the public answering j each evening of the questions of non- . Catholics through the medium of the question box. At the Congress of Missionaries to non-Catholics held at Winchester. Tenn., Father Conway. C. S. P., said: i "We often fail t. realize that possibly j one question answered of an evening was the starting point of a convert's , return to rtie true fold. Father Bart-lett Bart-lett of Baltimore himself a convert from Quakerism told me that it was the nailing of one lie regarding the immorality. im-morality. of the nuns and clergy that led him. a young man of 21, to study the Catholic Church. The question box nails many a lie and answers many a I difficulty, thus practically giving many a convert his first glimpse of the truth and beauty of the Church of God. " 'Until tonight," said a Campbellite minister in southern Illinois to me one evening, "I had always thought that infallibility in-fallibility implied the Pope's power to declare new dogmas by inspiration." "I was sure that Catholics adored the Virgin Vir-gin Mary and ihat they believed the Pope could do no wrong," said a college bred woman to me in Richmond. Ya. "I was glad to hear your statement,' said j a fairly intelligent Protestant of Chi-' cago, 'that the Secreta Monita of the Jesuits was indeed a forgery. Many of the immoral principles that I as- j cribed to Catholicism I read in that j book." 'Why the prayers of your morning morn-ing service are indeed beautiful. I j must apologize, indeed, for calling its j symbolism mummery, merely because I was ignorant of its meaning' thus an- other after listening to the reading of ! the liturgical prayers." I Following are a few queries asked at ja recent mission to non-Catholics in j New York: "May Catholics read all parts of the i Bible and take it as they understand it. ! or do they have to take the priest's in-! in-! terpretation of it?" I Catholics may and do rend all parts of the Bible. Concerning its interpretation interpret-ation and its meaning, they must hear I and accept the meaning of the Catholic ; Church in all matters of faith and of j morals. Catholics do not have to take ! the interpretation of the individual I priest, since he has no more right to interpret in-terpret the Bible for the faithful than I the layman. The infallible voice of the j Church, expressed either in a general ' council or by the Pope himself as the I representative of Christ, is the only authoritative au-thoritative interpretation of scripture. "Does the Catholic Church teach predestination?" pre-destination?" We must understand first what is meant by predestination. If by predestination pre-destination is meant that 'God creates some souls to be damned, no matter what they do, the Catholic Church does not hold such a doctrine. God certain- i iy knows all things and foresees them, j Nevertheless. He creates men free. God will not deprive them of this great gift. If He did. they would cease to be men. The constitution of our country guarantees guar-antees liberty to all citizens. No doubt its signers foresaw that some would abuse this liberty, but no one can say that their fore-knowledge is the cause of crimes against liberty. We may draw a comparison with God. This j fore-knowledge does not move a man i one way or another. It leaves him en- I tirf 'y free. I. "What is the meaning of the infalli-j infalli-j bility of the Pope?" The supreme judge in all disputes as to the teaching of Christ is the head of ! His Church. The successor of St. Pe-i Pe-i ter is the head of the visible Church on j earth. There must be a supreme court i of final appeal if unity of faith is to be i a possibility; a house divided against Itself must fall. When that court , speaks the Church is committed to its j decision by the very nature of things. I If that court of final appeal ever I teaches as Christ's gospel what is not ja part .of that gospel, then Christ's ! word fails. Christ has said to His ! apostles and their successors who have j always constituted the teaching au-j au-j thorrty of the Church: "He that hear-i hear-i eth you heareth Me." If at any time. I when we listen to the voice of that j teaching authority we listen to an er-1 er-1 ror, then Christ has failed and has I Himself led us into error by His pre- j cept to listen to His Church. "'The j gates of hell may not prevail against My Church. The Holy Ghost will teach her all truth." "Can Mass and prayers bring a person per-son to heaven who has led a very low life? And what is the object in paying a certain sum to have a Mass said t'oi the dead?" If a man dies in mortal sin God in His justice condemns him to hell forever. for-ever. "The wicked shall go into everlasting ever-lasting fire." and then till the Masses and prayers that could be offered could not redeem him from that eternal hell. If a man repents of his sinful life towards the end of it and yet his soul not being entirely purified nor made in every way worthy of God's presence, he is sent to purgatory to be cleansed there, and the Masses and prayers of the faithful upon earth may urge Cod to have mercy on his soul ami lead him the sooner to the joys of paradise Catholics pay no sum of money for a Mass. The Mass cannot be bought. Rut Catholics do make an offering of ten-times ten-times when Mass is said for them and that offering is made in the spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude. The Mass is not bought. An ottering is made when the sacrament of baptism is conferred or that of matrimony is received. re-ceived. The money does not buy the baptism nor the marriage no mote than does the offering for Mass buy the Mass. "How can your priests forgive sins, when Christ says He alone forgiveth si ns?" Christ said quite the contrary. It was the enemies of Christ who wanted to know how He dared to forgive sins. He replied to His critics by a miracle: "that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." Christ told the palsied man to take up his bed ami walk. It is not for us to prescribe the manner of the pardon par-don of sin. In the world of nature Cod uses secondary causes and secondary agents for all natural communication between Himself and the human mind. It is because man is constituted as he is with body as well as soul that Coil speaks to man through these secondary causes. .Man remains man when he worships God and when God deals with him. God must deal with him in religion in a manner analogous to all ! His other dealings witn man. There-j There-j fore, the need of an Incarnation, and of a visible Church, and a sacramental system, and so of a Sacrament of Penance, Pen-ance, through which alone can come I the assurance of pardon. Christ has given His word: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins 3-ou shall forgive they shall be forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain they shall be retained." Do you believe that all non-t "atholics are going to hell, or at best some "half-way station?" The Church believes that God wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. No man can be condemned except for sin. Truth is one and there can be only one true church, but we cannot and do not believe, be-lieve, that those who have not had the opportunity to know the complete gospel gos-pel of Christ will be condemned for not j knowing, through no fault . of their I own. If their faith is honest, they be-! be-! long to what is called the soul of the church God searches the heart. If they have the grace of God. as they may well have, and belong to the soul of Christ's Church, as they often do. they must share in the same eternal joy of heaven that God promises to all His servants. The grace of God all comes from a common source. The church says only that she knows her position to be beyond reasonable doubt. If a man knows that position thor- ougniy and recognizes .tne credentials of the Church and then refuses to accept ac-cept it, he refuses Christ. As Christ Himself says: "If any house or city will not hear you. shake off the dust from off your feet. Verily, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah Gomor-rah in the day of judgment than for that house or city." It is plainly a great sin to reject the truih if one rec-ognies rec-ognies that it Is the truth. It is the sin against the Holy Ghost the unpardonable un-pardonable i.in that will be forgiven neither in this world nor in the next. Sin alone can be the cause of damnation. |