The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONuON. TUESOAY EVENING, DECEMBER 3, 1%7.

tism. It is the first of the three theological vir-
tues ; that is, of the three spiritual habits infused
into the soul by the Holy Ghost, whereby it is
united with God. The Council then declares that
faith is " the beginning of the salvation of man,
the foundation and root of all justification."
In this we see its inestimable worth. It is a
gift of God and therefore beyond our natural reach
and powers. It is vital to our union with God, and
therefore to eternal life. It is a grace of the
Holy Ghost, and therefore of a delicate and sensi-
tive nature, needing all fidelity and watchfulness
to preserve it inviolate. It is " the beginning of
our salvation ;" for without faith it is impossible
to please God ; that is, to know Him as He has
revealed Himself to us, and therefore to love Him
as we ought. It is the foundation of all justifica-
tion, because the charity of God is poured forth
only into hearts where faith is. It is the root
of our justification, because hope and charity spring
from it, and are nurtured by it to our sanctifi-
cation in justice. It is faith which gives us light
to know God, His truth and His will, His revela-
tion and His kingdom. It acts in the soul by
four new intellectual gifts, which fill the soul with
a speculative and practical knowledge of God. It
bestows upon the soul certain intuitions and in-
stincts, by which it is united and conformed to the
truth and will of God. The gifts of intellect and
wisdom, of science and counsel, all depend for their
exercise upon the habit of faith. Between the
soul illuminated by faith and the truths of re-
velation there is a conformity and a correspon-
dence which may be called a sympathy and a
harmony, so that when the doctrines of the
Church are proposed to a soul illuminated by the
virtue of faith, they are received with a predispo-
sition that is a promptness and a piety of heart.
This is true of all the faithful. It is true of the
child, whose mind first opens to the truths of the
Creed. It is true of the theologian, studying re-
velation as a science. Let it be observed that we
are speaking of faith not as the matter of our be-
lief, but as the spiritual habit of the soul, by which
we are moved to believe. Now in both these
senses it is a gift of God and a grace of the Holy
Ghost, the most precious because the most vital to
our whole spiritual life. It were better for us
never to have received it than to lose it. It were
better for us to die than to run voluntarily into the
danger of losing it.
The grace of faith may be lost, just as the grace
of humility, sincerity, and purity, and the like.
Every grace may be lost by the sin which is oppo-
site to its nature. Any mortal sin will destroy
sanctifying grace. A mortal sin of charity expels
the love of God from the soul ; a mortal sin of
despair extinguishes hope ; a mortal sin of unbelief
destroys faith.
Now there are two ways in whibh this may be
done—the one is by destroying in the soul its
belief of the Catholic truths and doctrines one by
one ; the other is by weakening and paralysing
the habit of faith. We are all promptly aware
of the sin and danger of tampering with Catholic
doctrines ; but many are not equally alive to the
danger of exposing the habit of faith to in-
fluences contrary to its nature and to its vitality.
Faith gives to the soul a certain intensity, cer-
tainty, and firmness in believing, and in adhering
to the objects believed. St. Paul describes this
power of faith as enabling us to look, " not at
the things which are seen, but to the things which
are not seen," and to see " Him who is invisible ;"
and he defines faith to be " the substance of
things hoped for," that is, it makes them tangible
and palpable, as if they were objects of sense.
Dear brethren and children in Jesus Christ,
you will need no words to remind you how vividly
a Catholic child is penetrated by this habit and
illumination of faith, and how, as the reason and
heart unfold in the atmosphere and light of the
Catholic Church, this consciousness of the pre-
sence of God in the world and all its operations,
in the Church and all its endowments, in the
Blessed Sacrament and all its graces, of the whole
faith with all its realities, becomes more certain
and controlling than the objects of sense. You
carefully and jealously guard and nourish your
faith by every help which can sustain and perfect
it. You make it a conscience to turn aside, as if
blind and deaf, from all solicitations to doubt, and
from all persons or influences which can chill or
cloud, weaken or paralyse, the habit of faith in
your hearts. Anything which could make it less
firm, less certain, less intense, you would regard
in the highest degree as a danger. To expose
yourselves willingly to it you would know to be a
sin. On this principle you test books, friends, in-
timacies. What you cannot avoid you meet with
an attitude of self-defence ; what you can avoid,
you feel bound in duty and prudence for your
own sake, in fidelity and gratitude to our Divine
Redeemer, tory from with all vigilance and self-
denial. The rule you lay down for yourselves
you every day apply all the more carefully to
your children, because you know them to be less
able to protect themselves than you are--less
mature, more flexible, more unstable.
Now, though the grace of faith may be des-
troyed only by its proper opposite, that is of un-
belief, yet the firmness, certainty, intensity, the
intuitions, the instincts, the sensitiveness, the deli-
cacy of faith may be destroyed by intellectual
and moral opposites which fall far short of unbe-
lief. Criticism, curiosity, rashness in questioning,
objecting, and speculating, self-onfidence, con-
ceit, dependence on self, adhesion to private judge-
ment, ridicule, sarcasm, satire, levity and mocking,
the penetrating and secret influence of cultivated
un-Catholic minds, much more of sceptical and
rationalistic minds—all these act powerfully in
the country to enfeeble and to paralyse the faith of
Catholics. There are three chief agencies which
act with immense power and subtilty upon our
faith in England : public opinion, the press, and
Protestant education. The last is the most dan-
gerous, because is the most creative, and acts upon
the minds of our people at an age when they are
least able to resist it. Of all the forms of edu-
cation in this country hostile to the habit of faith,
none can be conceived so powerful, so subtile, so
fascinating, and so assimilating as the system of
our national universities. Many are fully alive
to the dangers which threaten the morals of youth
in systems so lax and undisciplined, but the dan-
ger to faith is still more menacing and inevitable.
Let it be always borne in mind that it is not only
infidelity, or rationalism, or scepticism, or partial
unbelief that we have to guard against. We are
bound to protect our youth from everything that
can enfeeble the vigour and vitality of their faith,
or dim the intuitions, or deaden the instincts of
their intellect and their conscience. There would
be a terrible future before us, if the Catholic men
of the next generation were to grow up acclima-

tised to the latitudinarianism or indifferentism of
public opinion, or toned down to the lowest] stan-
dard of necessary Catholic doctrine. Such inevi-
tably would be the state in which, if any escape,
the greater part of our Catholic youth would come
forth from our national universities.

We therefore, in obedience to the Holy See,
enjoin you, reverend and dear brethren, to use

your utmost endeavours to restrain Catholic

parents, if any indeed be found, desirous of
sending their sons to the national universities. On
you as their teachers and guides this duty is im-
posed with strict obligation of conscience. And

your pastoral care will vigilantly watch over those

who are in danger of being misled or fascinated by

public opinion, or fashion, or unwise counsel in this

matter. You will labour to train your flocks ac-
cording to the maxim of St. Ignatius, not only to
believe and to love with the Church, but to think

and to feel in accordance with its mind and

spirit. From you they will learn to prize the
sensitive and filial faith of a Catholic, as seven-
fold more precious than intellectual culture and

worldly advantages. No intellectual gain would

compensate for the loss not of faith indeed, but of

the instincts, intuitions and delicate fidelity of a
Catholic spirit. Over these you will watch with
vigilance, and warn all, both parents and sons, of
the peril and sin of voluntarily exposing to risk
this great grace of our regeneration.
It is no doubt true that a fuller and more pro-
longed course of higher studies, under the guid-
auce of the Catholic Church, hs needed by our

youth. And this we may confidently expect the
Catholic Church in England will provide. Fifty
years ago it had hardly a college in England. In
fifty years it has formed six greater and seven
lesser colleges, as well as a whole system of
schools for the poor. Every year adds to the ex-
tent, maturity, and excellence of the studies. The
sap is rising, and the old tree is throwing out once
more the full spread of its branches. It is only a
question of time when the University in Ireland
shall obtain its full recognition, and an university
in England be founded. The arch is ready to re-
ceive its keystone. Fifty years ago who would
have ventured to believe what we see at this day
in our multitude of colleges and schools? Fifty
years hence Catholics will look back in like man-
ner upon us. We must be firm and zealous in
our day, as our predecessors were, and posterity
will complete our beginnings.
May every good and perfect gift from the Father
of Lights be with you, to guide you in the way of
truth.

Given at Westminster and ordered to be read
in all churches and chapels of the diocese on the
Sunday before Advent, 1867.
►1 HENRY EDWARD,
ARCIIBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.

been living in rather an anxious state for some
weeks. Now that the Garibaldians have been so
thoroughly beaten, I do not think they will ever
lattempt to come to Rome again. The position of
the Pope has of course been immensely improved
by the way things have turned out. It still seems
very doubtful how matters will end in Italy, and
everyone expects a revolution. Rome, however, is
quite safe ; as we have enough French to defend it,
or even to carry on war, if the Italians are foolish
enough to go to war with France. lam delighted
to see such enthusiasm everywhere for the Zouaves,
for they have really turned out well and fought
admirably. Their numbers are increasing every
day, and we have now nearly three thousand. At
present there are two thousand prisoners, and
among them nearly two hundred who are wounded,
who have been brought into Rome. They have
established a hospital for them at St. Onofrio. Our
own wounded are likewise about two hundred, so
that there is plenty to do still. I went with X and
Z to-day to Monte Rotondo to see some of the
wounded Garibaldians who could not be brought
into Rome. They are, however, doing well, and
have been to confession. The horrors that were
committed in the church were awful. They de-
stroyed everything, covered the altars with filth,
and the Tabernacle was broken open. One man
who was killed in the battle was found with the
lunette of the monstrance, with the Blessed Sacra-
ment in it ; and on others were found bits of
ciboriums or chalices that had been broken up.
Fortunately, this has all come to an end, and except
the prisoners, there is not a single Garibaldian in
the Pontifical States."

" Nov. 14.—We have had a terrible time of it
lately, and if the French had not intervened we
should probably have all been massacred. At least,
it was the holy intention of the Garibaldians to
massacre all the priests, and sack all the churches.
Garibaldi was at Monte Rotondo with 10,000 men.
Viterbo, Velletri, and Tivoli were occupied by
Garibaldians. Their plan was to make a rendezvous
at Rome, to meet at the gates at the same time.
Most of the barracks had been undermined, and
under them were barrels of gunpowder. In every
quarter of Rome were concealed a vast number of
arms—guns, pistols, daggers, hatchets, Orsini
bombs. The guards of one of the gates had been
bought over. All the worst characters in Rome
had been bribed, so that when the Garibaldians
were outside an insurrection was to have been got
up inside Rome. Fortunately, the French came in
just in time to save us. Our escape has been quite
providential. It is true that our little army has
behaved admirably, but it could not have saved us.
As it was, they were obliged to leave all the pro-
vinces in the hands of the Garibaldians. The Roman
question is that which God alone can settle, as He
has done on this occasion. He moved Napoleon to
intervene, and his troops arrived only just in time ;
£0 I think He will direct events in such a manner
that all will come right in the end."