The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-03-15

Great and many as are the fcontf dictiont
:. among Ritualistic Anglicans, il isimpoesibls
I rot 60 hUp4that greet work for good ia fast
gaming ground among them. We do not
! speak so much of the clergy, as Of the laity,
the latter being In all Catholic truths far III
advance Of the former. Day by day we OBJ
serve among the earnest men Of this school
4 moro and more struggles toward the centre
OF truth towaral a union with the Holy See,
which alone, Of all the religious powers the
world has yet seen, has withstood the tenn
pest from without. If the more advanced
of this influential party could only open
their eyes to the light which shines like the
sunfOr those who win seek It'll they could
only read the history as it is written, and
not as they try to believe it is written
their union with the Catholic Church would
be but question Of days.ss' : What Keeps
really religious, earnest minds among the
lRitualists apart from us is simply the strong
Protestant seed which, owing to the teach
ing they receive in their youth, has taken
root in their hearts md ie'so difficult to era
dictate! The word &c Rome " hightens them.
To a certain length they. will cast off the
errors that sprung up with the RefoTmation,
i33st no further. They cling to the called
Church of England, and shut their eyes to
THO faet that the opinions they profess are,
after all, only held by a small portion Of
their clergy, and by not more than two or
three Of their bishops. They forget that,
If they remain in the Establishment, the
mere accident of a change of residence may
and in thousands of Instances does-oblige
them either to hear heresy preached and the
sacrament prOfaned, or to remain away al |
together from public worship. And what |
do they get in exchange for thisf The pri- |
viiege of belonging to the most thoroughly
secular state ruled. communion in the world, |
in which the confusion Of different doctrines |
is almost as great as the different tongues
spoken at Babylon, and to which anything
like unity, in matters of what they and we |
term the essentials of faith, never can be
restored. But we believe there is a brighter
future opening for the Catholic-minded men
to the Anglican Church. Why God is
delaying the movement, he best knows
but that movements vast exodus from
the Establishment to the one only Catholic,
Apostolic, and Roman Church-wil ere
long take place, there can hardly bea doubt
among those who watch the signs of the
times. That it is even now going on by in
conversions, we all know. Itsis
that, within the limits of the
Diocese of Westminster, more than 1000 +,
persons were formally received into the
Church during the year just passed. Of
these about half belonged ia, the upper and S
middle classes. NCuriously enough, the
tide Of returning to the old faith has at last
begun to flow in sundry parts of Ireland.
Let the Ritualistic party but go ON in their L,
present path, and sooner OF later they
must find that they will have either to 90 2
oackto Professionalism OF forward, to Rome, Z
or to stand still will be impossible. Which :
Dad they will prefer we need hardly say,
OF already many hundreds among them are J
early selecting the only safe One.-CtthO- t,
ic Register. u