Our First Parents — Original Sin – Primer Catechism
CHAPTER 6. — OUR FIRST PARENTS. — ORIGINAL SIN.
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Every original article remains available. Choose a question and take your time.
Catholic countries, burdened by Church institutions, cannot progress.
They have done so, and they do. And what do you mean by Catholic countries being thus burdened? The women of Jerusalem wept, in their health and strength, as they saw Jesus carrying His cross. But instead of accepting their compassion, He said, “Weep not over me, but over yourselves and your children.” Catholics, too, say to you…
Being tied to dogmas, are you not the least fitted of all men to speak about religion?
No. Other men give their own personal opinions, which are not necessarily any better than the opinions of their fellow men. I am able to give the exact doctrine of Christ, and Christ said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.” The Catholic Church also says, “My doctrine is not mine, but that of the Christ who sent me.…
You suppose, of course, the validity of your dogmas concerning the person and work of Christ.
Those dogmas are valid. I do not suppose their validity.
Why are Protestants, who believe in Scripture, so convinced that Mary had other children?
They are not inspired by love for Christ, or for the mother of Christ, or for Scripture in their doctrine. Their main desire is to maintain a doctrine differing from that of the Catholic Church. But it is a position, which is rapidly going out of fashion. Learned Protestant scholars to day deny as emphatically as any Catholic th…
One cannot keep on praying and denying oneself indefinitely.
We must all keep on praying as indefinitely as this life lasts. Always to pray and not to faint is Our Lord’s command. As for denying oneself indefinitely, many people do in this matter, and have to do so, when circumstances forbid anything else. Self-denial is burdensome. Children are burdensome. The choice allowed by God depen…
Do you mean that he is the mouthpiece of a General Council, or that he is infallible independently?
The Pope is not merely the mouthpiece of a Council. He may, and usually does, consult other Bishops before giving an infallible decision. But he need not do so, and in the ultimate analysis the infallibility of a definition is due to his own personal authority. The infallibility of the Pope simply means that in his official teac…
But you cannot tell me that the Catholic religion is carried out to-day in accordance with the quite simple teachings of Jesus!
Catholicity does not differ from what you call the simple teachings of Jesus, although they were not so simple as you suppose. However, the Catholic Church teaches all that Christ taught, whether His teaching was explicit or implicit. Essentially she exists just as He would have her exist. There may have been many secondary deve…
With their infallible Church, Catholics do not need God at all.
They do. In order to live up to their religion, Catholics need God’s grace and help individually all along the line. Their infallible Church teaches them with certainty what they must believe and do, but even this infallibility of the Church would be a farce without God. She is infallible because, and only because, God preserves…
I have known Secular Priests to leave large sums of money.
Priests who do not join Religious Orders may own and administer their own property. They have vows of chastity, and obedience to their Bishops, but they do not take the vow of poverty. If such a Priest inherits wealth from his family, he may reserve it to provide for himself in case of illness, old age, or incapacity. Such large…
Would you personally vote for the systematic inspection of convents by the police?
No. Nor would any reasonable man. Why should the private dwellings of any citizens who transgress none of the laws of the land be subjected to such an indignity? But submit your reasons for the inspection of convents to the Chief of Police. He will soon put you right. The police do not even want to inspect convents. Should any v…
I am referring to the doctrine of the Trinity. You have no sufficient reason for believing in that contradictory doctrine.
No contradiction is involved in the doctrine of the Trinity. The reason why we believe it is because God says that it is true, using terms which express it as nearly as possible in human language. As God ought to know His own intimate nature, His describing it is the best of possible reasons for believing in it.
But we Protestants believe that if a man lives a good life, no matter what Church he accepts, he will save his soul.
Some Protestants believe that. Many do not. Good Protestants can be saved, but if they are good they are Protestants in good faith who have the will to do God’s will, and are not Catholics merely because they do not realize their obligation to join the true Church.
Might not Christ have been mistaken?
No sane man could so delude himself. Such an hallucination, being not temporary but permanent, would suppose in him a pathological state of insane enthusiasm. But Christ’s wisdom and balance of mind absolutely excludes this. His wisdom at the age of twelve astonished the doctors of the Law. The people were lost in admiration of …
You mention not only the unity but also the holiness of the Catholic Church. Here at least your position becomes impossible. Indeed, how much of the spirit of Christ is found in any Church to-day?
It is to be found whole and entire only in the Catholic Church, as a Church, for the Catholic Church is holy in her Founder, in her teachings, worship and discipline, and can alone inspire a completely Christian spirit in men of goodwill. This, however, does not imply that every member of the Catholic Church is holy. Many, to th…
Convents should be open to public inspection.
Inspection of what? Even if admission were free to the public, the public would not wish to inspect convents. It is rather dreary work to walk through empty corridors, inspect ordinary kitchen tables, wooden chairs, and bedrooms which differ little from the common boarding-house variety. In fact it would be a pity to destroy you…
You say that religion is necessary. I say that it is positively evil and degrading. It restrains our freedom.
Sincere religion spells freedom—freedom from vice, from all injustice and want of charity. There is no absolute freedom. You must be free from vice and subject to virtue, or free from virtue and subject to vice.
You cannot deny His words9 “The Father is greater than I.”
I do not wish to do so. Christ was at once God and man. In His created human nature He had deliberately subjected Himself to God’s will. But, since in Him there was but the one personality, He had to use the personal pronoun “I,” whether referring to His divinity or to His humanity. If He referred to His divinity He wag equal to…
Did not St. Paul say, “I have laid the foundation .. .but let every man take care how he buildeth thereon”? I. Cor. III., 10.
St. Paul declares that he personally laid the foundations of a particular branch of the Church at Corinth. But Christ had founded the whole Church upon Peter. Each must take care how he builds, and St. Paul took care that the Church at Corinth would be in full accordance with the universal Church founded upon St. Peter. Anyone w…
Spinoza said that if God created the world for an object, He desires something He lacks, which denies His infinite perfection.
Spinoza’s objection is not valid. He fails to distinguish between God’s essential constitution, which is necessary to His being, and His free operations resulting in created things. If God’s creating operations were necessary, Spinoza would be right. But God did not create in order to acquire perfection necessary to Himself. He …
Is not rationalism on the increase, people becoming indifferent to your Christianity?
Outside the Catholic Church, yes. The Protestant principle, “Do not be toI3 by the Catholic Church what to think on religion, but be free to think for yourself,” is proving fatal to Protestantism. Men have simply asserted their freedom to think Protestantism itself, and indeed all religion, useless. Catholics, who do not accept …
Would work for an hour he servile, but not for ten minutes?
The term servile refers, not to the time spent in the work, but to the nature of the work. If the work is of a servile nature in itself, it cannot be done even for ten minutes without genuine necessity. If not servile of its very nature, it would not become servile if done for ten hours.
God dispensed from other laws given to the Jews.
He has never dispensed from such laws as involve the principles of natural morality. The violation of some laws is wrong because God has forbidden a thing, or commanded some disciplinary measures. But contraception is not wrong because God forbids it. Rather God has forbidden it because it is wrong in itself; and God could not d…
What does the silver ring worn by Nuns mean?
That they prefer to give their hearts entirely to Christ rather than to any earthly lover. As the ordinary wedding ring signifies that a woman has vowed absolute and permanent fidelity to her husband, so the ring worn by a Nun signifies that she has vowed fidelity to her vocation of poverty, chastity and obedience.