Was Pius IX. just when he plotted to keep the Papal States and hinder a united Italy?
Pope Pius IX. was in just possession of the Papal States, and he was just in taking all ordinary precautions to preserve what lawfully belonged to the Church.
Moral Life
605 articles from the existing collection.
Why not preach charity, instead of speaking always with self-satisfaction of your “only right dogmas”?
With so many conflicting Churches in existence, it is a vital matter to find the truth. If the Catholic Church were self-satisfied, she would be content to have the truth herself and not bother about those without it. As for charity, it is better to exercise charity than talk about it, and there can be no greater charity than to…
St. Augustine says that the superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. Therefore those who possess superfluities possess the goods of the poor and are robbers.
The Catholic Church agrees with St. Augustine in this matter, and declares that all who possess superfluities, that is, goods which are over and above that which is necessary for the upkeep of their state in life, are obliged under pain of sin to share their superfluities with their less fortunate fellow men. The hundreds of orp…
The civil law admits divorce and re-marriage.
Civil law and divine law are not always in harmony. Politicians at times exceed their powers and make laws, which are contrary to those of God. Thus they have legislated concerning matrimony with no reference to the will of Christ who raised the marriage contract to the dignity of a Sacrament.
It is dishonest to wish to get $5,000 for $1 in a lottery.
If it be dishonest to invest $1 in order to secure a chance of winning $5,000, which may or may not be obtained, then it is equally dishonest to invest one’s railway fare in order to secure a chance of discovering a possible nugget of gold, which may or may not exist, on some distant gold field. Every investment on the Stock Exc…
Does God create every soul now in a state of sin?
No. God’s creative activity terminates in good only. But the soul cannot normally be infused into a child of Adam without its contracting the privation of the original gratuitous gifts it was destined to receive had Adam not fallen. I say normally because God did anticipate the merits of Christ in one case, preventing the soul o…
The Kingdom of God is within you.
The Kingdom of God as established by Christ is at once a visible Church in this world, and an invisible spiritual Kingdom of grace within the soul. External adherence to the visible Kingdom demands also that Christ reign by grace within the soul. But this interior grace does not dispense a man from accepting the will of Christ o…
A higher standard of life and education is demanded to-day than in mediaeval times, and one can’t do it with a large family.
That could not justify birth-control by contraceptive methods. The choice to-day is between Christ and the modern pagan philosophy. If modern godless civilization is right, and this life is all, then let us measure everything by utility and pleasure. If Christ is right, and the beatitudes, directed against worldly wisdom, are th…
The ceremonial of the Church shows a great change since the time of Christ.
You won’t find the leaves of an oak tree wrapped up inside an acorn. Christ sowed the seed, and said that the small seed He planted would grow into a vast tree. Such growth supposes external changes without loss of identity. Because an acorn has no branches or foliage, will you deny its identity with the tree into which it grows…
Was Pius IX. just when he plotted to keep the Papal States and hinder a united Italy?
Pope Pius IX. was in just possession of the Papal States, and he was just in taking all ordinary precautions to preserve what lawfully belonged to the Church.
I cannot conceive a future state altogether satisfying.
There is a big difference between imagining a future life and conceiving it. I cannot imagine or picture the future life any more than you can. The only images we could form would be derived from this life, and they would fit this life, not the next. Not without reason does God say, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hat…
You cannot know that the Church will last till the end of time!
If I relied solely upon my finite intelligence as you do, I would not know. But I know precisely because the Eternal and Omniscient God who made me, and the world, and the Church, tells us that that Church will indeed last till the end of time.
Is the Bible on the Index?
False translations of the Bible are on the Index. Catholics may read the safe translation provided for them, a translation which may be secured at any Catholic bookshop.
Workers are slaves held in bondage, their first and last thought the fear of losing their employment.
I suppose we are all slaves of life in some sense. The workers fears loss of employment; the employer, too, fears the loss of his business and the fruits of his anxious investments. We all fear to be deprived of food and the necessities of life, and God intends us to work to live. But in so far as injustice enters into the prese…
Holiness demands humility, and thai forbids such arrogance as the Pope’s claim to be the Vice-regent of God.
The Pope’s claim is not arrogant, even as Gladstone’s claim was not arrogant The Pope merely claims to be the occupant of a constitutional office established and endowed with certain privileges by Christ.
Has not the Church always hindered the progress of science by her moral prohibitions?
No. The Catholic Church has ever conserved knowledge and encouraged true science. Her doctrine is that Catholic truth is of God, and that scientific truth is also of God. There cannot be a conflict therefore between Catholic truth rightly understood and demonstrated scientific truths. But the scientific truth must be demonstrate…
I want my question answered. A rich man leaves $19000 for Masses for his soul. A poor man leaves but $1. Who has the better chance of entering heaven?
If both died in a state of unrepented mortal sin, neither of them has any chance. If both died in a state of grace, both will certainly enter heaven. All souls which depart this life in a state of grace will eventually enter heaven. However some souls need more purification in purgatory than others. The question, then, is whethe…
All that you have said seems reasonable in itself9 but this monarchical hierarchy seems so dreadfully opposed to the spirit of the Gospel which proposes Christ as the only Mediator.
Christ is the one principal Mediator. But He Himself chooses to dispense His mediation through secondary agents. There is but one king of England, but that does not deny the existence of officials to whom the royal power is delegated. If fifty officials act in the name of the king, that does not make fifty kings. Now Christ dele…
Does not Christian Science rely upon prayer through belief in Christ’s words, “Whatever you ask in My name, it shall be granted”?
I am afraid that it requires more belief in Mrs. Eddy than in Christ It relies also far more upon auto-suggestion and self-persuasion than upon prayer. After all, favors must be asked in the Name of Christ, and therefore in conformity with the Will of God. But God expects us to use the natural means He has put at our disposal. H…
The Church of England repudiates the term Protestant, and, as far as I am aware, has never used it.
I myself was brought up as an Anglican, and in the firm belief that I was a Protestant. An Anglican paper. The English Churchman is subtitled A Protestant Family Journal, The King of England is an Anglican, and in his coronation oath uses the words, “I solemnly and sincerely profess, etc., that I am a faithful Protestant.”
Catholics will be despised as narrow-minded Pharisees.
Would a Christian who refused to attend pagan rites be a Pharisee? And is it narrow-minded to limit one’s conduct according to the dictates of conscience? If so, it is better not to be what you would term broad-minded. And it is rather absurd to suggest that you despise Catholics for being true to their convictions. You should r…
Why is the Catholic Church opposed to birth-control?
She is not opposed to the controlling of the number of children by lawful means, such as by self-control and by mutual consent to abstain from the use of marital privileges. But she is opposed to birth-control as commonly understood to mean the prevention of conception, after indulgence in actions calculated to result in the gen…
Can you call a man a Christian who hoards up useless cash whilst another man starves?
No. And the Catholic Church says that a man who has superfluous goods, knows that some given man is starving, and lets him starve, commits a mortal sin in God’s sight, the fruit of which will be hell for all eternity, unless he receives a singular grace of repentance for such evil conduct before he dies.
If your Church won’t denounce unscrupulous capitalism, how can you justify your faith in the Founder of your Church, who was a carpenter, a working man?
The Church certainly denounces unscrupulous capitalism. But not all capitalists are unscrupulous. No one has ever spoken more strongly and soundly on the abuses of capitalism than Pope Leo XIII. He upheld the rights of labor, denounced the injustice of many amongst the wealthy classes, and laid down rules which men can refuse to…