The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
These men dare to say that the church in France has been “brought to
ruin”: that it is “Rome and its agents who have procured that ruin,” and
by means which they “will expose on a future occasion.” They aver that
there is not a canonical authority, but “an absolute despotism,” “a
hateful absolutism” exercised by “the bishops over the inferior clergy”
(in which statement we cannot but perceive a reflection of the perpetual
episcopal nightmare which troubles the ritualistic dreams at home); the
said inferior clergy being described as “veritable pariahs, who from one
day to another, at the caprice of a bishop, can be reduced to become
crossing‐sweepers or cab‐drivers”—a “reduction” which we are allowed to
suppose must be very common from the additional declaration that “it is a
principle with the bishops to crush the wills of their clergy,” while they
themselves, “being merely the prefects of the Pope, have in their turn to
submit to a tyranny no less painful,” the Pope making himself “lord and
master more and more”; in fact, “the only person who is free in the Roman
Church, ever since the Council of Trent, is the Pope.”(17)
Elsewhere in this same exponent of reckless ritualism we find the
following singular justification of the tone so habitually adopted by that
party towards their spiritual superiors: “We hear a good deal about the
reverence of the elder tractarians for bishops and dignitaries, but we
fail to see the merit of their conduct when we reflect that it cost us a
disastrous exodus Romewards.” An apparently unconscious testimony to the
inevitable tendency and final result of respect for lawful authority.
But we will no longer detain the reader over specimens of High‐Anglican
journalism, further than to remark the admiring sympathy expressed by this
party for the self‐styled “Old Catholic” movement, and especially for the
apostate Reinkens—a sympathy to be expected from men who, instead of
escaping from schism, seek to justify it, and, feeling themselves
strengthened by the rebellion of others, applaud each fresh example of
revolt.
Thus a long and laudatory notice on the new German schismatics commences
as follows: “The text of the Old Catholic Declaration at Bonn, on reform
in general, ... is published, and is, on the whole, extremely
satisfactory. At present the movement bears a remarkable resemblance to
the ideal English Reformation; and we pray that it may keep a great deal
nearer to its theory than we have been able to do.”
As a pendant to the above we will mention two “resolutions” moved at a
meeting of the “Society for the Reunion of Christendom,” recently held in
S. George’s Hall, the first of which was as follows: “That the only
adequate solution for the internal distractions of the English Church, as
of Christendom generally, is to be found in the restoration of corporate
unity in the great Christianity commonwealth.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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