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Show ;( . fty Illlnistm and Squires j I Rev. C. Van der Donckt, of Pocatello, Ida., in Catholic Sentinel. Before entering upon our subject, we ies must say another word about attend ant jnp Protestant service. A plausible ex ile use occasionally put forth by Cath'o- d jics, especially ladies, is that they 'nt v-ent with a non-Catholic friend or 'ts wiest i-o her chum with a view of lic Tirir.ging her to mass or vespers the ; i following Sunday. Such action runs ; I counter to the revealed principle: "It ' I js not lawful to do evil that good may come from it." All Catholics may do to accompany their friends as far as the Protestant church door: and, if . I liet-efsary, it would be proper to ar-I ar-I range for some one to bring them " jiome after the service. s ii vvuio ma.1. aLiiuiicss, anu especiai- v couples of whom one is a Catholic it gr.d the other a Protestant, call upon M preachers to perform their marriage V ceremony. Catholics who do so, not f or.ly commit a mortal sin, but they thereby incur excommunication. Church members should know that the 1 right to absolve such trespassers is reserved re-served to the bishops. Those Catholics who get married by a justice of the peace likewise commit a n ortal sin, but do not incur excommunication, excom-munication, although they become liable to it; that is, the bishop has a ; riirht to excommunicate them for that j offense, should he deem it wise to do so. Their absolution, however, is like-vise like-vise reserved to the bishops in this ec- (, siastical province of Oregon (em- I Kacing. besides the state just named. I anmi;iiin, .Montana ana Vancouver s if Hindi, if the Catholics under consid- l era t ion get married by a squire in 1 i-('8 where there is a resident priest. The foregoing facts point clearly to the conclusion of which all should be 1 aware, that it is a far greater sin for a a Catholic to get married by a preacher 1 tb.in by a squire. The reason is be- 4- f use the latter is simply a civil of-f of-f ' jii-t-f. whereas the former is a repre-1 repre-1 .s.-ntHtive of a counterfeit church, i whom it is very sinful for a Catholic I thus to acknowledge as a dispenser of I x sacred thing or a minister of religion: fT, by thus honoring the dominie, he recognizes the false church the parson represents. Members of the true church ivho commit this crime practically deny ihir church, and in denying it they d'-ny Christ, who founded it. and turn from our Lord to satan. Both Luther ;:nd Zwingli. the fathers of Protestantism, Protestant-ism, state in their writings how the devil helped them to break away from their old Mother. thf Catholic church), j Where shall we find burninc words .! Inly to stigmatize Catholics ryJHy of : The crime of turning from God'r church ie human counterfeits thereof? How j" ; can they do so without virtually apos-j apos-j i-.tizing and excommunicating them- II sr-lvec? Lifelong shame and disgrace J Another thing it behooves Catholics U be informed of is that when a Catholic Cath-olic marries an unbaptized person before be-fore a squire or a preacher (there are in the United States many thousands j of Protestants who have never been ' - christened) the marriage is invalid; And until that Catholic becomes recon-cH'-d to the church, and obtains a dispensation dis-pensation fmm this annulling impediment impedi-ment of marriage, called difference of vorship. through the bishop, who re-r,-ve from the pop the faculty of dis-jv-ns.s. couples so united are living: in mneubinae-e and not in the state of lawful wedlock. Marriage is indeed a sacred thing. It vsR honored twice by divine interven- I tion, when the Creator instituted it in , Eden, and when our Savior raised it to , the dignity of sacrament at Cana. St. I Paul likens the union between the husband hus-band and wife to the intimate union e-xisting between Christ and his church; I and he concludes his admirable description, de-scription, saying: "This is a great sacrament, sac-rament, but I speak in Christ and the church." Eph. v., 22-32. Also, several j hundred years before our Redeemer's : advent, Tobias and Sara sanctified their marriage by a three days' prayer, "for," ; quoth that youth to his virgin bride, "we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens hea-thens that know not God." Tob. viii. 4-0. How sad to think that some Catholics Catho-lics who ought to be more justly called saints than the Jews of the Old Testament, Testa-ment, should apparently do all in their power to rob and strip their matrimony of every token and trace of sacred-ness, sacred-ness, and should deliberately seek to be united like pagans, while good Catholics Catho-lics or their missionaries often travel several hundred miles for the sake of the nuptial blessing. Thrice happy are they who fittingly prepare to enter upon this new phase of life by making a general confession, ani whose union is sealed by receiving into their hearts our dear Lord, who, with his immaculate mother, presided at the ever memorable Galilean wedding wed-ding feast. The strongest ties have been welded I for years between pastor and members of his flock, especially the younger ones. The latter he' baptized, he prepared pre-pared them for and admitted them to confession, communion and confirmation. confirma-tion. Frequently at the risk of his own life, he anxiously ministered to them by night and by day in contagious disease. How justly he shared in their parents' joy and pride upon their first communion and confirmation. Now, he fondly thought, the plowing, the sowing sow-ing and the weeding is done; anon the rich harvest of a staunch, practical life will wave in the breeze. Alas! O j bitter disappointment! His cherished hopes are blasted, and the parents are heart-broken; for, in an evil-advised hour, the ungrateful children, bent upon rushing into marriage, turn their backs upon their kind and solicitous spiritual father, and call upon a minister, min-ister, who never labored nor cared for them, and who may be sneeringly referred re-ferred to them as papists. What a stab into the priest's heart, like unto the pangs of a parent forsaken by son or daughter, not so much because of the personal slight as because of the awful scandal and sacrilege, and the keenest pain inflicted upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem's obstinate ob-stinate sinners. What a stinging, though well deserved de-served rebuke that would bring the blush of shame to friends and relatives would it be if the priest, when afterward after-ward requested to go to the sick bed of such thankless and . disobedient Catholics, should say: "Go to Preacher So-and-so (naming the one by whom he or she was married.) Of course, no priest would display such resentment, though the temptation might flash into hisTmind. Why should our people thoughtlessly Increase the trials and tribulations .of this valley of tears by heaping coals of fire upn their heads and deliberately provoking God to send them sickness, trouble and reverses in punishment of their rash deeds? |