| OCR Text |
Show SHALLOW CATHOLICS. There are certain Catholics who are forever getting worked up and getting flurried over anything derogatory to the church. They are so afraid lest the allegations may be true, and want the thing explained, and then grow skeptical skepti-cal over the explanation. Somebody said 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 gen-erally 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. Secondly, they are ignorant, about as, ignorant 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 dlvihe institution, infallibly guided in its teachings, impregnable by divine promise prom-ise against the gates of hell. She is, therefore, indefectible. When anything is alleged against her, wrhich would violate vio-late her infallibility, or indefectibility, the men charged with her guidance may err as in matters of mere discipline disci-pline or temporary regulation. When something is asserted in derogation de-rogation to the church, distinguish, if the matter be not of faith and morals or of her prerogative indefectibility, where a mistage is possible. At the same time it remains to be proved; nine times out of ten critical investigation investiga-tion will show it to be a calumny, for we must not forget that calumny has been the stock in trade of Protestant peoples for 300 years, with the result that the lie is a thousand times more likely to be alleged against her than the truth to be told. New World. |
