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Show SHALLOW CATHOLICS. There are certain Catholics who are forever getting worked up and flurried over anything derogatory to the Church. They are so afraid , lest the allegation may be true, and want the thing explained, and then grow skeptical skep-tical over the explanation. Somebody says that this Pope did so-and-so, and that Pope did something else, and if this be true, why then the Church is all wrong, and my goodness! what will we do! - First of all. the kind of Catholic who gets agitated over these matters is generally one whose faith is shallow and superficial, and who cherishes a. great deal of human respect with a perpetual apology to their non-Catholic friends for being Catholic! Sec-only, Sec-only, they are ignorant, about as ignorant ig-norant as their non-Catholic friends, of the Church, its constitution and its history. Now, Catholics should at the outset understand that the Church is a divine institution, infallibly guided . in its teachings, impregnable by divine promise prom-ise .against the gates of hell. She is i therefore indefectible. When then anything any-thing is alleged against her, which would violate her infallibility or inde-fectibility. inde-fectibility. Catholics may put it down as a calumny without further concern. But a distinction is to be drawn: in matters not concerning her infallibility or indefectibility, the men charged with her guidance may err, and many times no doubt have erred, as in matters of mere discipline or temporary regulation. regula-tion. When then something is' asserted in derogation to the Church, distinguish, if the matter be not of faith and morals mor-als or of her prerogative of indefectibility, indefecti-bility, a mistake is possible. At the same time, it remains to be proved; nine times out of ten, critical investigation investi-gation will show it to be a calumny, for we must" not forget that calumny has been the stock in trade of Protestant Protes-tant peoples for three hundred years, with the result that the lie is a thousand thou-sand times more likely to be alleged against her than the truth to be told. I |