34 articles from the existing collection.
The Catholic Church has long held that the natural world, with its intricate order and harmony, points to the existence of a supreme lawgiver. The complexity of ecosystems, the precision of physical laws, and the beauty of creation suggest a purposeful intelligent design. For example, the consistent behavior of gravity or the de…
Catholic theology firmly teaches that God is love, and His act of creation stems from His desire to share that love with others (CCC 1). Human beings are not accidents or burdens but are intentionally created in God’s image and likeness ( Genesis 1:26-27 ). This foundational truth counters any notion that God seeks to punish peo…
Even where natural religion is concerned, the lack of ability and of time for study amongst the masses of men, and the differences of opinion and absurd errors even of philosophers where the natural principles of religion and of morality are in question, would argue to the need of some help by revelation. But we could not prove …
Right. But whilst love may excuse the man who makes a mistake, it cannot say that the mistake is not a mistake. I deny that truth is error, or that error is truth. But I make every allowance for those who mistake error for truth.
God is the author of the natural moral law, and I have already shown that birth-control is opposed to that law. However, in Gen. XXXVIII., 10, we read that Onan was slain by God for this sin. “And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing.” The gravity of the punishment shows the gravity of the crime, and Co…
The progress and mutation of an essentially variable human language is unavoidable. And God did know that the changing mentalities of subsequent generations would lead to confusion. To obviate the danger He could do one of two things. He could stabilize human reason and prevent each human being from mistaking the original sense,…
The Catholic Church holds that the Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit through human authors. This belief rests on the concept of divine inspiration, where God guided the writers to convey His truth without overriding their human faculties. The Church teaches that this process ensured the Scriptures are free fr…
Man is a living being, endowed with a sensitive material body, and a spiritual soul which is immortal of its very nature, and which rejoices in the two spiritual faculties of intelligence and freewill.
The fact that God is love does not forbid the imprisonment of a criminal nor the hanging of a murderer. If love for the murderer does not prompt it, at least love for law and order, and love for other citizens suggests it. I am obliged to love my enemies, but not their crimes. Christ loved His enemies and prayed for them. Yet He…
We have already seen that there is a God. Inability to comprehend every detail in the universe does not prove that there is no God, but merely the limited capacity of the finite human mind. However, the human mind can propose certain principles which go a long way towards the removal of difficulties. Firstly, evil is really the …
St. Bonaventure did not serve the creature more than the Creator. In commending his soul to Mary he was not commending it to anyone opposed to God. He did it because of God, who chose Mary as the second Eve. Eve brought us forth to misery and to death; Mary brought us forth to happiness and to life when she brought forth our Sav…
There are many indications, the chief of which I shall give you very briefly:
The ordinary laws of justice which prevail between men cannot be applied to Christ in this matter. It would perhaps be unjust for an ordinary man to do such a thing, granting that he were capable of such power. But God alone is capable of such things, and the very divinity of the power Christ exercised on that occasion is proof …
Being all-powerful, there is no reason why He ought to do our bidding as if we were all-powerful. Being just, He is not going to give us a tin trumpet and let us think that to be our real good when it is not. Being loving, He will not usually allow man to have those riches which may cause difficulties in the way of salvation. I …
Since there is a future life, it has a lot to do with morality. Man is endowed with reason and is bound to exercise foresight. The future as such, whether here or hereafter, is a reasonable motive for present conduct. I refrain from eating certain foods now, because reason tells me that future indigestion will result. That is re…
God says He does. But the Pope is not infallible because voted for. He is elected by votes, and when elected he receives infallibility from God. The Pope does not derive his infallibility from those who elect him.
At least he did not say that he was God Almighty! He simply meant that, through no merits of his own, he had been promoted to a position which had annexed to it the promise of Christ, “Whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound also in Heaven.” Pope Leo was speaking of his commission, not of himself. Gladstone said to Queen Victori…
Now I must ask you to take this reasonably. That there will be millions of human beings proves the existence of God. How can their number disprove it? Each being is a reason for God’s existence, and if anything, the multiplication of beings is the multiplication of reasons for His existence. Meantime I am not aware how many mill…
His perfect fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament; His personal character; His teaching; His miracles, and chiefly His resurrection; His work in establishing a Church which has outlived empires and human institutions against tremendous opposition; the perpetual vitality of His sway over human hearts.
Catholics believe that the universe is the creation, and the exclusive dominion, of an infinitely powerful Spirit Being, called God, because the evidence which points to that conclusion is so overwhelming that there is no room left for even the slightest vestige of doubt. First, there is the evidence of logic. Through the proces…
The Divine Mind does not “work.” God does not have to reason slowly and painfully to conclusions, as do men. His Divine Intelligence is a permanent and simultaneous act of perfect knowledge embracing all things, past, present, and future. We cannot fully understand God’s being, knowledge, and plans. However, St. Paul rightly sai…
This life is not the only one of which we have knowledge. We can have knowledge in two ways, experimental knowledge, or knowledge based upon reason and authority. I have experimental knowledge of America for I have been in America, but I have no experimental knowledge of Africa. Yet you cannot say that I have no knowledge whatev…
God is certainly good, and if He permits evil of any kind it is only because He knows that He can draw greater good from it in the end. The human race misused its freedom, abandoned God, and found not happiness but misery. It is good to be just, and God’s justice permitted this misery. Also, in His wisdom, He may permit a child …
Man is created to praise, love, and serve God in this life, and by doing so to attain eternal life with God hereafter. This is not our only life. It is but an infinitesimal part of it.
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