The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
The difficulty of combating it is very great. The mass of the
people are caught by words without taking note of the meaning
attached to them.
{11}
Where they find the consecrated terms of faith and piety, they
naturally conclude that faith and piety are there. But to a great
extent the enemies of Christianity oppose Christianity under
Christian names. It is characteristic of this age that infidelity
disguises itself in a Christian garb, and utters its blasphemy in
Christian phraseology, its falsehoods in the language of truth.
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, comes as a
philanthropist, talks of humanity, professes to be the champion
of science, intelligence, education, liberty, progress, social
amelioration, and the moral, intellectual, and physical elevation
of the poorer and more numerous classes--all good things, when
rightly understood, and in their time and place. We cannot oppose
him without seeming to many to oppose what is a Christian duty.
If we oppose false intelligence, we are immediately accused of
being opposed to intelligence; if we oppose a corrupt and baneful
education, we are accused of being in favor of popular ignorance,
and lovers of darkness; if we oppose false liberty, or license
presented under the name of liberty, we are charged with being
the enemies of true freedom; if we assert authority, however
legitimate or necessary, then we are despots and the advocates of
despotism. The press opens its cry against us, and the age votes
us mediaeval dreamers, behind the times, relics of the past, with
our eyes on the backside of our heads, and the truth is drowned
in the floods of indignation or ridicule poured out against us.
Our success would be hopeless, if we could not rely on the
support of Him whose cause we seek to the best of our ability to
defend, and who after all reigneth in the heavens, and is able to
make the wrath of man praise him, and can overrule evil for good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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