605 articles from the existing collection.
No. As I have said, all things else being equal, an Italian would be the more suitable for a position to be occupied in Italian territory. And as a rule Italian Cardinals are every bit as pious and learned as others. Being international, the Catholic Church abstracts from national considerations. All are equal on that score. For…
Do you see that there must be a God? Do you see that you are one of His creatures? Prayer is conversation with God, and an act of religion. To ignore prayer is to ignore God and deny His rights. Being an adult male does not exempt from this duty. Men are not less the creatures of God than women and children. Nor will heaven be l…
A plenary indulgence, of course, would be able to liberate a soul from purgatory. But we cannot know that we have satisfactorily fulfilled all the conditions necessary for the gaining of a plenary indulgence, and we cannot know for certain that God has actually accepted it, it gained, on behalf of the particular soul we have in …
Some take it moderately; some do not take it at all. I have known one Bishop who would eat none but brown bread, and another who would never touch it as not agreeing with his health. The advice given by one Catholic Bishop to another I have recorded above in giving you St. Paul’s words to Timothy.
Why do Catholics believe that good works are necessary for salvation! Does not Paul say in Romans 3:28 that faith alone justifies!
She does not. But the Catholic Church to-day is as it was in the time of the Apostles, “not many noble, not many of the worldly wise, not many powerful.” Most of her children are drawn from the class Christ loved so much—the working class. And in civil life the majority of these workers happen to have Labor sympathies. But these…
Quite. Christ is God. Yet God ordered the Jews to build at Jerusalem a magnificent Temple. During His life on earth, the Son of God commended the poor widow for her contribution to the needs of the Temple. When Judas blamed the woman for wasting precious ointment in Christ’s honor instead of giving it to the poor, Christ rebuked…
Let us take it for granted that she is aware of her child’s sorrow. Could she be aware of it and perfectly happy at one and the same time? She could not, were she subject still to conditions of earthly life as we know them. But in heaven she is subject to entirely different conditions. Jesus Himself certainly knows of the child’…
Loyalty to the Catholic Church does not divide a man’s loyalty from his country. In religious matters a Catholic obeys his Church; in temporal affairs, the laws of his country. They are services in two different spheres.
The commandments do not. But the hopeless tangle most Protestants get into where this first commandment is concerned shows clearly that it needs to be stated precisely, without any substantial alteration. It is not a question of words, but it is a question of law, and Catholic children at least know and can clearly state the law…
CHAPTER 5. — SIN.
No. Catholics tell their own sins only. The Priest finds it hard enough to listen patiently to that much, without wishing to hear all household secrets, nor will he allow penitents to speak of other people’s misdeeds. In any case no Priest can make use of knowledge acquired whilst hearing Confessions. One of the strictest laws o…
You must try to see this through Catholic eyes. A non-Catholic does not, as a rule, believe that his is the only true religion, and on the principle that one religion is as good as another, his conscience does not forbid that his children should be brought up in the Catholic religion. But a Catholic is in a very different positi…
I admit that it has much less influence than it should have, but their not thinking of it does not alter the fact.
She is greatly to be admired. “Die rather than offend God” is heroism. Far better die serving God than live offending Him. No one has greater love than to give one’s life for God, and of such a woman St. Paul’s words are surely true, “a woman shall be saved through childbearing, if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctifica…
The Catholic religion. Baptism, if valid, makes a Christian. Now Catholicity is the only true form of Christianity. Therefore everyone validly baptized is radically a Catholic, even though he be unaware of it.
I charitably say that their good works are often very pleasing to God, and they themselves also, for many of them have the utmost goodwill and devotion. But charity does not oblige me to say that the true Church of Jesus Christ was founded by General Booth. However well-intentioned these good people may be, they are mistaken. Ch…
That we must love as God has loved us shows at once that not any kind of love is lawfully indulged. Christ never loved us so as to break God’s laws because of us. Such love would be unlawful. God and conscience come first always. No human love can come before one’s love for God, and he who loves God observes the laws of His reli…
No one can honestly accuse the Catholic Church of not endeavoring to do her part in this matter.
Although Christ was crucified between two thieves, He had friends amongst the rich, and often dined in the houses of the wealthy. If the rich to-day are unjust, and violate God’s laws, Christ would condemn them according to the measure of their iniquity. He would not condemn them otherwise. He never condemned riches as such. Whe…
He does not sin again because of his Confession; nor does his fall say that he was not truly repentant when he confessed. Christ said something about forgiving seventy times seven. How often would you forgive? And isn’t it better to try, fail through weakness, and repent, than to abandon all efforts to return to God’s grace?
That is true, if God failed to do so. But He did not. Your reason tells you that Christianity teaches certain mysterious things. You ask on what authority it so teaches. You are told that Almighty God has revealed those doctrines. At once the fact that the doctrines are extraordinary becomes of no account. God must know, and is …
It can function in any state, whatever its form of civil government, provided of :ourse that the government in question at least leaves the Church to itself, and does not persecute or expel it.
That is not true. No Catholic is physically compelled to abstain from meat on Fridays. It is a moral obligation, adding the virtue of obedience to that of Chris-ian mortification. On your method of reasoning you should say that a man should voluntarily abstain from stealing, and that it is wrong to do so because God has said, ‘T…
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