The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
under a reserve of doubt and suspended judgment. As for the
insinuation that we are concerned in any artful scheme for
palming off a plausible pseudo-Catholicity in lieu of the
Catholicity of the Pope, the Roman Church, and of the faithful
people of Ireland, we repudiate it as false, groundless, and
injurious. We hold unreservedly to the Pope and all his doctrinal
decisions; to the genuine, thorough, uncompromising Catholicity
of Rome and the universal church; to the faith for which the
martyred people of Ireland have dared and suffered all. Nothing
could be more opposed to that astuteness for which Catholic
ecclesiastics generally obtain extensive credit, than to attempt
such a foolish scheme in this country and age of the world as
some persons attribute to us for the purpose of nullifying the
effect of our influence and arguments upon the minds of candid
inquirers after truth. For what purpose or end could we desire to
propagate the Catholic religion in this country, unless we are
convinced that it is the only true religion established by Jesus
Christ, and necessary to the salvation of the human race? With
this conviction, it would be the most supreme folly to preach any
other doctrine but that genuine and sound Catholic doctrine which
is sanctioned by the supreme authority in the church, and which
we desire to propagate. Individuals may, no doubt, err, even with
good intentions, in the attempt to discriminate between the
permanent and the variable, the essential and the accidental, the
universal and the local elements in Catholicity; and in the
effort to adjust the relations between the doctrine and
institutions of the church and new conditions of human science,
or political and social order. But it is impossible for any
individual or clique either to master or resist the general
Catholic sentiment, and thus to cause the acceptance of any form
of pseudo or neo-Catholicism as genuine Catholicity.
{185}
Moreover, there is the vigilant eye and strong arm of
ecclesiastical authority ready every moment to detect and
restrain the aberrations of private judgment, and to condemn all
opinions or schemes which cannot be tolerated without endangering
either doctrine or discipline. The voice of the Holy Father is
heard throughout the world, and the voice of the whole Catholic
Church will reverberate to the uttermost parts of the earth from
the approaching Ecumenical Council. All intelligent persons, more
especially all inquisitive, shrewd, and cool-headed Americans,
have the means of knowing what genuine Catholic doctrine is.
Whoever should attempt to set forth a dilution of Catholicity
with Grecism, Anglicanism, rationalism, or any other kind of
individualism, as a lure to non-catholics, would, therefore,
simply gain nothing, unless a little unenviable notoriety should
seem to his vanity a gain worth purchasing by the betrayal of his
trust. The people of this country want the genuine Catholicity,
or nothing. They will not be deluded a second time by a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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