| OCR Text |
Show j Bvite Priest Answers j Bitte Presbyterian A y i I f in a recent edition of a Butte morn-I morn-I (S I i," pa)i r ai'l'Pred a report of a lec-I lec-I 4 .-. Ze nv now E. J. Groeneveld of the a nr Presbyterian church, entitled, V '-xiv AVe Are Not Roman Catholics." i 1 n.-l'iivinp to this the Butte Inter- A f -viouniiiin published the following from 4 i;,.v. Father P. A. Quesnal of St. Jo- a a M,:hV 1'nrish: V , ;.-j0 jiic Kditor of Inter Mountain: ,s if ).;;! Sir After reading the lecture ;S. A f ; (.f yy.- t ;roeiieveld, published in the Y i jioi'iday Standard. 1 realize once more a f 'why i'rctcHtaiits are called Protestants. ! KcV-tunatcly lor the peace of the world, I l .,1,1s! Protectants are content with let- ! , f ;Slf: it lie understood that they nro- 3" 4 I v,u ;,r,,i following their beliefs with- A I cut 'alia kins that of the church from vUi'-h they seceded. 4 j , ), ; aM"iiaIly, however, some such as d ! vr. ' ;riH'i:ev( Id seem to feel the neces-a neces-a !' shying their castors into the 7 j J.!.'- and reviving at gument and con- f r',,".;-. Perhaps they find that as 4 cy;.i;,.- of a church militant, things A J ;, j'i,, iii-. onie too peaceful if they did T . j j!;tir ii i an occasional fight. Vi'hat- j v,.r n-.-i.v bp 'he motive, it is. however, ; ; ., , uiiseiiuence; it is sufficient that ; Hid'- many who believe that min-4 min-4 j j;,.,..;,; riui'-s do not lie so much in 7 j ,,,kn"- ease of the spiritual wants of ) ,nn on prega t ion as in worry-$ worry-$ j,V ,,!.(. ut the beliefs of others. $ " Almost 2,000 Years Old, T i -j (;,i nut think that the Roman , , ih'i!:' e)iiir h. which 'the completion 4 , ,;' t,;v c-ntury will see 2,000 years es- I ti.iish.-.i. needs defense on my part, V ' l S; rialiy from such attacks as that of i : i-neveld. M J ' cn-ht minds through the centuries fl I ; in, niuted these attacks. Men like M (;::iii:ial Newman, the author of the I ft l,(";iuiiful hymn, "Lead. Kindly Light." P i, , . s i' nt a lifetime in the studv of m j .iit. subjects that Mr. Groeneveld !j I , tenches lightly. I might say flippantly. K . Ordinal Newman was once a H i j-,,,:. slant. He was recognized as one j i j (lf !),. al'lest minds and eminent di- j j viii- s i ; his age. His conclusions were J j ., 1 1 - opposed to those of Mr. i ": -,i'.i. ii. Id. Mr. Groeneveld may as- Miiiii that between the cardinal and n j jiiii:' !f most will choose the opinions! : -ef Mi. Groeneveld, but we leave that ij I t,'i t!"- world. 4 j nil iv is nothing new in the pro- i i tlJ.ls of the lecture, nothing but what ? )1MS i n said a thousand times since j ; tl. ,iays of Martin Luther. Why the j ' p-ntleman should repeat the protests '1 cannot say. Her certainly has not 1 ' a'lvameil anything to make people H think further in the, matter. N -His repeated protests have been re- fiited a thousand times by Catholic """ 1 Hiitimrs. We would reeommend that he iiii'l "The Faith of CJf Fathers," by rariinal Gibbons. I'.i-cause. however, of the flagrant ia.-k of gie and reason in many of A his statements 1 feel called upon to X say a few words in answer. Infallibility of the Pope. 'V ; 'Mi s. Groeneveld protests against the v f infallibility of the Pope, because, pre- X f sumably, he thinks that this would Y, i give the Pore too much temporal a i jniwer. f I -in answer, I would state that to ' X ! . fullow an infallible Pope is not as un- V V ' r,.Hs.in.'ble as to follow an infallible f ; l'.iM". as the Protestants xlo. 1 V ' -Mr droeneveld says Peter never 3 claimed infallibility. Why should he , v ; do it? There were no Protestants in '' f his day. Truth was then as clear as 0 ; inv to the followers of the church. , V aking of confession. Mr. Grone- 0 I v-M says it was not instituted by . f Christ. How does he know this? Does A l h- have an infallible Pope to tell him? Js history his infallible Pope? He says A lurthir that St. Paul does not men- ti"n confession in ay of-hia epistles. A j ivt in- call his attentioii to St. Paul's Y, J i-i'istle to the Gorinthians, v, IS, in a ; which he says: "But all things are V ii; ici.i, v. ho hath reconciled us to a hiiiiself by Christ and hath given to V i us the ministry of reconciliation,' and T ' fmilur. 'He liath placed in us the V ; u,,id i f ivconciliation; for Christ there-"' there-"' f tun- we are ambassadors, God as it V ! W'iv exhorting by tis.' It is evident n i Iroai this that St. Paul speaks of con-0 con-0 1 :iw,u,. v" "Mr. Groeneveld says that he never 0 s r-ad in inspired history where an 'i aj'Ostle or an evangelist heard confes- O j s y' . I In reply, let me tell Mr. Groeneveld 12 : tliat. stri.-tly speaking, the doctrine of Y ci fession is not a historical subject, g : i:. sidi s. in those days there were no A '": I'lut-stants.. There was no question a ! as to the divine origin of the doctrine; y ) no :n. i esiaty for mentioning the fact to C I the public when none of them were . f protest inc. The Catholic church fol- - X h'ws the same policy now. Her priests j J do not advertise the confession. v ' "Mr. ;roeneveld quotes, 'His word 0 ' lias c.Hiie unto me.' Let me also read A John xx. Tl, 'lieceive ye the Holy Ghost, V I whnsH sins ye shall forgive they- are V '"rtriven them; whose Pins you shall V ii tain, they are retained.' Q f I As to Purgatory. j v f 'Speaking of purgatory, Mr. Groene-j 0 v ': i s words cannot fail to be a source i a oi aiipisi nient even to non-Catholics. Ij V v'u;.l thank him personally for the v i ;:.! ::;iii nt he pays our church in stat-0 stat-0 i i: that 'the doctrine of purgatory is 0 'iMd from the heathen.' I never a j t ha t mentioned before, even by )l. I ''- !'.. liies. V ! ' "! would like to ask Mr. Groeneveld v to r-ad St. Matthew, xii, 32, 'And wfeo- V i---v shall speak a word against the ( Soi, ef Man it shall be forgiven him; A that shall speak against the V '!o:y ''.host it shall not be forgiven y i 1 ::n. ii-:;hi-r in this world nor m the 0 I vo, ;., .,, (.mo.- A I ' ; Mr. Groeneveld please explain ; '!': ss "in the worl " 'n come," te- j c,;''i -ii here in the. l-io.i which is I) "ii ".'i!ation of his f .iih. aid, in ex- ! 'org ,t show how it "in.inates the u - "f purgatory?' All Catholics Believe It. i . Gi'" neveld says the Blessed A Mary needed a Savior herself, j o : -h,. did, and all Catholics be- v if she is immaculate in her " :i 'I 'lo.i it is by a privilege of God ' : o1;lo; ji. merits of her divine Son, i '' -..rding the growth of the Prot- i ' h 'in dies. 1 shall be charitable! f ' -v 'bat Mr. Groeneveld's figures! I ' . i.-uit f,f a misunderstanding on ' - i m shall, for the sake of argu-f argu-f "o. : rst presume thev are correct, J tn- u ask if these 1S5.000.000 Prot- ; 'bat he speaks of are all united V: ' '"' hui ch, believing and teach- : ': in- saipe doctrine, or is it not a j thai in the United States alone t , " i'"'o' -stant church is divided into : '"'' '!, .-mo an(j 400 different sects, j ' "' ' 1 bem differing in doctrine and I .i'.',1" s ::s widely or even more so I -n t hey ,i from the doctrinal teach- "f "' Catholic church? I !"t me submit the following .1 i,f ' ken from the issue of the '"Wana Catholic of March 22, 1902. ! !:.".' 1 ' ontributed to that paper: - r: , ",,01M empire, so long the i r.C,f'u ",Vv ,jf 1ne Occident, has lost i Greece, Roumania, .Servia. Bul- ; T'V"'- l:,,sni- Herzegovina, Egypt, t r.",n's:,'.'" Algeria, which belong to the 2 ! Tn.' v v '"' at ,oaKt to tne Christians. t " '"""-rranean sea is anew a Chris- t ! ' The empire of China had, f ' i-l ' :'-n-000 Catholics: in 1900 she I s 1h' l'i nearly 1.500,000. ) Two Million Converts. i ' i chi,!i",i'l!"s,iin- from Afghanistan . to 1 J v ilh t' X- hl 1K0- -4").00O Catholics. I j t-ev, u'n,M-o missionaries: in. 1900 f ! I ii.is'4,i!,.f0n'000 Catnolicf!- with 2,000 i ln f,,,Hli;l nd N-(.w Zealand, which', I jirjf. ' hn,JW neither' A Catholic nor a . Jailhfuif,11"ts- 1:'00' 1'00,00 of lhe ! ; ln Xh" E''ups of innumerable islands ( in Oceanica the Catholic apostleship does not exercise its zeal, but since 1SS0 uiese islands count 100,000 faithful, and tne whole of Oceanica numbers 8,130,000 Catholics. "Japan has 43,000 faithful, governed by five bishops. "c.Seria and Tunisia did not possess, in ISoO but 7,000 Catholics, and Egypt but 7,000. In 1900 these countries count r.00,000. of which 400.000 count for Algeria. "Pouth Africa, divided into eight dioceses, dio-ceses, counts 40,000 faithful. A Tremendous Growth, "Madagascar in I860 did not have one native Catholic; in 1901 the large African Afri-can island counts nearly 400,000 Ma2-gacnes Ma2-gacnes Catholics, or catechumen. "South America contained in 1300 more than 40.000,000 Catholics. "The United States in 1800 had but I one bishop, two priests and 30,000 Catholics. Cath-olics. The figures in 1900 were ninety- two bishops, of which twelve are archbishops, arch-bishops, 9,000 priests and 14,000.000 Cath-o Cath-o hcs. In 1800 Canada had 63,000 Catholics, Cath-olics, in 1900 she had 2.000,000. in Newfoundland New-foundland the Catholic church did not exist in 1800; she had in 1900 72,000 faithful. faith-ful. I England with Scotland had, in 1800, but six apostolic vicars and 120,000 I Catholics. In 1900 there are 2,000,000 I -"1"ul"- anu more man 3,uuo priests. "Germany, in 1S00, had 6,000,000 Catholics Cath-olics and a few thousand scattered around; in 1900 she contains a compact bulk of 20.000.0d0 Catholics. "In 1800. Holland, where a priest could not say mass except in a room watched closely, there were only 300.000 Catholics, Catho-lics, without a bishop, being under the direct care of an apostolic delegate. In 1900 she counts 1.488,000 Catholics, governed gov-erned by five bishops and 2, 794 priests, I enjcying the most complete liberty. x 1 "In Switzerland, in 1800, the number of the Catholics w as 422,000. Today they are 1,223,000, with 6,000 priests and six bishops. . ''.'. "In 1800 there were but 200 Catholics scattered throughout Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 1S93 Denmark counted 4,000 Catholics with a Jesuit college; Sweden, 1,145 Catholics and Norway, &3r. v "In 1S00 the total number of Catholics in Rcumania, Bosn:a, Herzegovina, Rulgaria. Sfrvia. diocese of Athens, was 60,000;"it is, in 1900, 530,000. 'Under the disgusting and cruel government gov-ernment of the Turks, the Catholic communicants were increased fourfold. At Constantinople, in Bulgaria, at Smyrna, at Alep, in Armenia, the Cath-' olios of different rites pass, in 1900, from 146.000 to 421,000. "To those eloquent statistics let us add this detail: Pious IX erected, during dur-ing his reign 130b ishoprics, twenty-nine vicariats and thirteen prefectures apostolic. apos-tolic. Leo XIII, since 1878, has established estab-lished also two patriarcats, thirty-one archbishoprics and 101 bishoprics, sixty-one vicariats and twenty-four prefectures pre-fectures aposotlic. In Conclusion. "In conclusion, let me ask the Rev. Mr. Groeneveld one question: Could the Catholic church after almost 2,000 years of successful existence stand admittedly admitted-ly the greatest religious organization in the world today if its doctrines and teachings were not based upon infallible and unimpeachable truths." "P. A. QUESNEL, "'St. Joseph's Parish. ' Butte, Mont., Nov. 25, 1902. |
