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Show CARL SCHURZ AND THE CHURCH. His Misleading Statements in a Popular Kajazin?. Timely edilorial eenirnnt i- made in The V . on a series of rrt ieles attracting attention in M.-- 'lure's Mag.h:e. 'i hv are entitled 'Te mini.--eenscs of a Long Li and are- written by Ca l Sehur. r-. Mr. Schurz was born of Catholic parents. w;i "'"'"' h duly bapfized ami confirmed, mado his Fir-t Coit.-munioii. Coit.-munioii. arid ru'knowledges his. indebtedness for tin spler.uid groundwork of his sicular education ! lleinrieh Bone, g-jod Ca'hoiie, ami one of the ma--ters of the jrym-niismr! of Cologne. Yet Mr. Schur.-r left the Church, of his bapti-m. and traces the causes of his apoataey to the doubts and scruples genera tetl in his mind by the religious instr ur i.u of his early childhood, lie says: "What was nio-.t repuaiiant to me was the claire. of the Church to be not merely the only tm-j Church, but a No the only saving one. and that ther ; was ahseb.ucly no hope .f salvation outside of ir-i pale, but only damnation and eternal lu ll fire. Tlnr Socrates and Plato, that all the virtuous men amonc the heathen; that even my old friend, the .lev- ' Aaron; nay, that, even the new-born babe, if it happened hap-pened to die un-bapM.ed. must forever burn in unquenchable un-quenchable firo yes, that I. too. were I so much a-: to harbor the slightest doubt concerning their Terrible Ter-rible fate, must also be counted among the eternally ' lost against such ideas rebelled not only my ren- son, but my innermost instinct of justice. The-e I teachings seemed to me so directly to contradict ! tho most essential attribues of the all-just Deity, that they only served to make me suspicious of ah other tenets of the creed."' If this were a true transcript of the doctrine of ; the Catholic Church, the Pilot remarks, something . might be said for Mr. Schurz s scruples. How he coultl have studied "zealously," as he declares, cc-cles'astical cc-cles'astical history and dogmatic writings, and availeil himself of every opportunity to listen to preachers of renown, and still have accepted the horrible caricature above given as the teaching of the Church, will pass the understanding of every ' Catholic. It is true that, the Catholic Church ha? 1 never wavered in her claim to be the only true 1 Church of Christ and the sole medium of salvation ; but it is also true that the Church is big enough to cover all humanity, that ?he has, a soul as well as a body, and counts as belonging to her soul and therefore in the way of salvation, all who are faithfully faith-fully following the light as they see it. and keeping the moral law. No un-bnptized infant will burn forever for-ever in unquenchable lire, ne.r will any virtuous heathen. God will judue every rational creature according to his opportunities, smd will certainly not hold him guilty for the sins of others nor for his own inculpable or invincible ignorance. That Mr. Schurz in his exhaustive studv of Catholic dogmatic dog-matic writers could have missed the merciful and reasonable presentation of the teachings of th Church on this supremely important subject in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas not to speak of lesser lights is a phenomenon impossible of ex-planation. ex-planation. Even tbe "Divina Commedia" of Dante might have cleared his head. Portions of Mr. Schurz'? "Reminiscenses" relating to his renunciation renuncia-tion of the Catholic faith are held over for the , forthcoming book ; but enough is given in McCIure's to show that he is not dealing fairly with the Church, but presenting in her place a hard and narrow Calvinism utterly repugnant to her spirit. V |