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Show ! I nott-atbolic Queries, and nmwn mm CIT (San Francisco Monitor.) ' . Has not vour Church, in striving: to maintain an lop Mat impossible uniformity of belief, ever been the enemy of natural science? I pcri . How do you reconcile the teachings of the Church slKl with the teacht'Tig.s of modern science? pc of U The Calholic church is not nor can she be the Ir''-' J:11 . enomy of science. The 1 ruths of natural science Jt:J. "j cannot contradict the truths of revelation, for the n.tnil", same God is the author of both. Any apparent chuivn conflict, therefore, between science and religion ltf K-tic arises from the fact that theolog-iens have put forth i?eS-wi-"t' il.r-ir own views for the doctrines of the Church, or ..." jic fcientiyts have cither been ignorant of the Church's ey com ; teaching or put forth unproved hypotheses for un- o!. iL vt donhted truth?. On lias subject the Vatican Coun- mK-tP v r,;i sa-Y: (Sc'ss- 11T- -b- ir on Faith and Reason): nv'iK tu "Hut although faith is above reason, there can never all is bp any real discrepancy between faith and reason, "i Mat pi'noo ibe same God who reveals mysteries and in- ri!l fuses fnilh has bestowed the light of reason on the j .''.H.VjrL human mind; and God cannot deny Himself, nor j ling can truth ever contradict truth. The false appear- j tiiatf flm.,, 0f m.i a oontradictlon is mainly due, either j d Til to ,'w !;n"flS faith not havinp been understood j :iK'itv( and expounded according to the mind of the j 1ly. 1 Chmvli. or to the inventions of opinion having ;,nrT i ' Wn laken for the verdicts of reason. We define, c Vie Ti ihercfore. that every assertion contrary to a truth !'. ,Hi-i of oidighlencd faith is utterly false." ;nid ilia The Catholic church has no direct mission to ",ut thc trar-li the truths of astronomy, biology or geology, us."'1';'p ; or ibe revelation of God. V-t sJie claims the right iia lor to proscribe all false scientific .ysterns which are 7. Hssim s opposed to the deposit of faith. The true scien- ,".l!4tP1 i tist. as a rule, is the most moftest of men. never I'fha't is 'Iniining absolute assent to what he knows is mere- s that i ly a working hypothesis for the advance of science. i' t to 1 j',t the popularizcrs of science, who reach the peo- Ui'wc 1' tlironph the magazines and the lecture plat- sj.riUg. form, are often the most dogmatic of men. demand- . said ing acceptance by all of hypotheses they themselves ly h tt j,,.,, incompetent to demonstrate, and declaiming ''j. ( sigainst Christianity for refusing to swallow whole- j'a,.1' shIc their theories of a day. 80 the Vatican coun- icr Call cil continues: "The Church, which together with 1h? tho Apostolic office of teaching, has received a TinKh ( barge to guard the deposit of faith, derives from .Tst! C - God the right and duty of proscribing false science, full th ! anv should l1 deceived by philosophy and vain S(vI ,n fallHcy" (C,.l. ii. S). loaHv If men in ibe name of science, although with-Ung'of with-Ung'of nui its warrant, deny the existence of God and the Thursd; unity of the human race, or maintain the evolu-sI" evolu-sI" a' ,,f man. body and soul, from the monkey, the 'hbndr infidliblo Chuicl.'of God in the name of truth de-no de-no cath noiiiiccR th'in as false teachers. But if, for exam-irilmted exam-irilmted jlf-. men declare the six days of Genesis to be long "rintioi (:r.cis. and not days of twenty-four hours each, the -Lo 1 iVr 1 'Church has no quarrel with them. They have con-i) con-i) out : tradicted none of her dogmas. 1 can As a matter of fact, the Church has rendered j llt!1 " great services of science, as we can see from the eth "fact that the great universities of Italy, France, ,f.rty w England and Spain were founded before the Refor- 'e own mat ion. Indeed, even in the seventeenth century - ibe great majority of scientists belonged to the ,,'riy 1 secular and regular clergy. (Vaughan. "Science prope and Religion': Zahm, "Science and Religion"; li'if iT Znhni. "Bible, Science and Faith"; Ronayne, "Re- v ligion and Science": Wiseman, "Science and Re- 'oratifit vealcd Religion"; Brnnan, "What Catholics Have N''ar' f ' l:.'o for Science"; Mollov. "Geoloey and Eevela- MtP 1!!V .... ' Htever "ion. 1 well as How can sin be pardoned by merely telling it? Mujildi ' annot be. according to the Catholic church, the lay' Judas was not pardoned, although he confessed his ,1HVO- '; crime (Matt, xxvii, 4). Confession indeed is only 'niTines' ' ow 1ni'('1 parts of the Sacrament of Penance, i. find by no means ibe most essential, the other two 1 wi" u being contrition and satisfaction. Without con- sunanv' Irition or "sorrow and detestation of sin, with a 1 ever tirm purpose to sin no more" (Council of Trent), 'uniti-e. there is no forgiveness possible. The Catholic f (him) must have a true, intense sorrow for each and every pnsp 10 mortal sin he has committed;. the motive of his sor-'li'iff sor-'li'iff ' row must be supernatural, resting not on the natu-J.''1 natu-J.''1 ral consequences of his sin, but on the fear of hell, li js. t the o-s of heaven, or the love of God and Jesus 1 will Christ, lie must hale and detest sin as the great-,'.-"; ,"Pf rst f'v'il i the world, and sincerely promise tct avoid vivek it sin? the occasions thereof for the future. He take. ' must be ready also to make good the past by re-r re-r , pairing any injury he may have done his neighbor This'v ' n's character or his jiroperty, and satisfy God !? in in in union with the infinite satisfaction pf Jesus '!iy Christ, by )orforming the penance enjoined by his lljn (ll confessor. Otherwise the more confession or tell-that, tell-that, ing of sin is of no avail for pardon, the absolution n l1 r of God's priest is null and void, and the penitent ifNcpf ; hut adds the guilt of sacrilege to his original h. iiiai : guilt. 's H' Is not confession degrading and opposed to Christian Chris-tian manliness and independencs? This elo On the contrary, it is the noblest act of a true ' man and a Irue Christian to conquer his lower and 1 ITd'hr ': sinful sell' by a heartfelt acknowledgment of sins -hop M ; committal. It is indeed humiliating, but true hu- i e the j mility is ih depredation, but a Christlike virtue: "'' : "Learn of 'Mo because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt, xi, 20); especially calculated to con- r ...; jv qiior the ju'ido of sin. Suppose you had two boys, l,-tie. who had seriously violated your commands. One t0 ;l gives 110 hint of his disobedience, and the other Bishoj cannot reiire to rest that night until he has sobbed At the. out everything. Would you consider this confes- av sioii degrading? Nay, rather the common expres- r.i.ced ! ''Own up and be a man." When a man con- u-inion victed of murder confesses his crime, do you con- m ialiFt i sider him less the man for that reason? iHtt' on Th(. best proof, however, is the fact that the ! s!un( I noblest and most perfect types of men in the world iapi'l. fire those seen frequently at ihe frrt of a Cath- Thc su ! olio jriest. rying out to God, as the imblican in mr c r i 1'h ,'""1','': "O God. be mercitnl to me a sinner" iV Cy,.t (l.uke xviii. f-14). The Savior indeed praised the idesive; humble publican who confessed, rather than the "Social proud Pharisee who only boasted of his good deeds, on nf't "This man went down to his house justified rather rcclaimi than the olher." tie ri&ht I have often heard that Catholic? have to pay money juiorge'l for confession. Is this tni5? -Mbr'rt ou ought not to believe all that you hear, for, ;e free. fl - the Scrijiturcs say, "a faithful witness will not ist twei icv but a deceitful witness uttereth a lie (Prov. I xiv. ."). 1 rememlR-r a Protostaut in a country town .r v. ;inc once saying that he had heard the regular tax for .aland, confession was $2. I told him I had in one week '"iw-cia heard upward of 600 confessions ($1,G00), which V-h u indeed would yield quite a comfortable income. Xo; i ,ia wi it is not true, but a calumny due either to ignor- iization; ance or malice. A Protestant gentleman in Xew J-'", Tork oncc ,oli1 onp of ,ne Paulist Fathers that his -oeiaiisti sr-rvant had demanded money from him more than . ady tc once to pay tie priest in confession. "How then," tained 1 .. says he, "can you xleny the fact ?" He never thought ' eioUf1 1nP alnii1tive, that the servant in question sim- ;tn it r P-v as he could readily have found out had he irenmer inquired of her whereabouts. To demand mpney 'V,':sr7: for confession would be the grievous sin of simony. v..i,j,!n . The laws of the Church are most strict on 'this m anility point, some bishops even threatening with suspen- 1,:!1,y feion any confessor receiving money in the confes-pional confes-pional due for ordinary debt because of the false common impression this might give to non-Catholics. the twe How can your Church be Cod's thurch, when it sjirUiK. grants permission or an indalg-ence to commit pin? ' ss.-nt.la This old fable of Protestant tradition still '"V lingers in the mind of 'many Protestants, although morals '3HS Jf'n iimG aui time again. Many Koran rfighbo the un! will remember how Cardinal Xewman nailed the calumny with regard to the catalogue of sins fastened fast-ened 011 the door of the Church of St. Gudule's, Brussels ("Present Position of Catholics," pp. 108-118). 108-118). The catalogue, written in French, turned out after investigation to' be the price paid, not for sins, but for the use of chairs. And yet a Catholic lawyer law-yer had but lately to correct the same calumny repeated re-peated by a correspondent of a Chicago daily with regard to a South American bishop granting an indulgence in-dulgence to commit-sin. So persistent is the unthinking un-thinking or" malicious disregarding of the eighth commandment. '' Catholics know that an indulgence is in no sense whatever the remission of sins, past, present or future, fu-ture, nor does it do away with the eternal punishment punish-ment due to sin. The most elemental concept of God renders ifc impossible to imagine Ilim giving a person permission to commit sin. If our objector would take the trouble to read any catechism of our Church he would find it clearly stated, that unless un-less a Catholic is free from mortal sin and in God's grace and friendship, he cannot in the slightest degree de-gree gain an indulgence (Baltimore Catechism," lesson xxi, questions 1 and 2). An indulgence is the remission by the Church of the whole or part of the temporal punishment due to sin, valid before God because of the divine authority Christ gave His Church Matt, xvi, 1!: 'xviii, 18). It is gained only by one in a state of grace, in virtue of the application of the superabundant super-abundant merits of Christ and His saints to all of the Communion of Saints. Thus, in the first days of Christianity, the Church imposed upon repentant sinners severe public pub-lic penances, such as exclusion from the church service, denial of the Eucharist, fasting on bread and water for a tenn of years, for the grievous crimes of murder, apostasy, surrendering the Bible Bi-ble to the pagan persecutors, and the like. We read, however, that frequently the bishops remitted, wholly or partially, these penitential works, if a penitent manifested extraordinary sorrow, if a persecution per-secution was imminent, if one of the martyrs about to die requested it, if the penitent was unable to undergo the penance because of bodily infirmities, or if death were imminent. This is essentially the Catholic doctrine of indulgences today. From the eighth century this public . penitential discipline was gradually done away with, until it disappeared in the thirteenth century. Penitents who manifested sincere sorrow were absolved before be-fore the penance enjoined was performed. The severe se-vere public penances were commuted into prayers, almsgiving to churches, monasteries and hospitals, pilgrimages, raking the cross to free Christ's sepulchre sepul-chre from the Saracen (Council of Clermont, A. D. 1098, can. 2), making the Jubilee (A. D. 1300), etc. This divine power exercised by the Catholic church with regard to the temporal punishment decreed de-creed by divine law to the sinner, is somewhat akin to the power which every well-ordered State exercises exer-cises for the common good of society, by remitting wholly or in , part the punishment decreed by the civil law to the criminal. Thus our President, or governor, has in certain cases the right to grant a complete pardon to criminals by law condemned to life imprisonment. And in every prison we find the State remitting part of a criminal's sentence for good behavior. Just as the State possesses the right to condemn or acquit the criminal, and to regulatp in every way the punishment? due his crime, so the Catholic Cath-olic church possesses the divine right to pardon -or retain it (John xx) and to remit wholly or in part the punishment it deserves in the sight of God (Matt, xvi, 19; xviii, 18), all according to the penitent's interior dispositions toward God. (Le-picier, (Le-picier, "Indulgences" ; Thurston, ''The Holy Year" ; Bellarmin, "De Indulgentiis"; Beringef, "Indulgences.") |
