The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-11-07
Father HyacInthe and the Church OF tn,
Future.


The letter which some weeks ago the Pere
Hyacinthe addressed to the chief of his order
fell, it was said, like bombshell, startling
Christendom and spreading dismay through
the serried ranks of Catholicism. The expec-
tations which that letter created have not been
fully met in the interval but the expectations,
naturally enough in the circumstances, were
pitched a little too high. Catholics were
unnecessarily downcast Professionals were
unduly elated. 1t is not yet necessary that
The eloquent work should be lost to the
Catholic Church 1t is far from certain that
he viii ultimately be won over to Protestant
ism. The letter which was read at the Evan
gelical Alliance meeting on Thursday sets the
good Father right with the entire Christian
world. No one can read that letter
without fully understanding the secret
Of the Fathers power in the pulpit.
His thoughts breathe; his words burn; and
we feel as we read that he commands tho
respect of our intellect and the homage of our
heart. In the narrow ecclesiastical sense he
can never be Protestant; but it is just as i'm
possible that his broad, generous soul-with
its detestaton of wrong, its lingering liking
for past which, after all, is not wholly with
out beauty and its glowing as piratons toward
tho brilliant and promise-laden future-should
ever again be cooped up within the confines
Of a closter or even within the pale of the So
called Catholic Church. Christianity claims
him henceforward as her own; but he can
never again, unless he forgets his true self, be
the slave Of any party or Of any sect Rome
is too small for him, and Professionalism is
wanting in the one essential which is required
to meet the ideal of his soul.
We are disposed, on the whole, to accept the
Fathers latest letter as in some sense indi-
eating his future policy. 81 continue" he
says, faithful to my Church" 81 have
lifted mp my protest against the excuses viii ch
dishonor il and seem bent on its ruin" II
have never said that the Christian communions
separated from Rome were disinherited Of the
Holy Ghost and without part in the immense
work ofthe preparation ofthe Kingdom of God.
In my relations with some of the most pious
and the most learned Of their members ] have
experienced, In those depths Of the soul where
Illusion is impossible, the nutterable blessing
of the communion of saints. The Father
sees and admits division, and regrets it; but
external INSTRUMENTATION in space and time
/ ''vanshes like dream before that which unites
us within-the grace Of the same God, the blood
| Of the same Christ, the hopes Of the same eter-
nifty There are prejudice5, alterations, irri-
tations, experienced alike by Catholics and
Protestants, ''but under the eye of God, who
seeth what we cannot see under His hand
which leadeth us whittier we would not go,
we are all laborlng in common for the upbuild-
ing of that church Of the future which shall
be the church of the past in its original purity
and beauty, but shall have besides the depth
of its analysis, the breadth Of its synthesis, tho
experience of its tolls, its struggles and it,
grieis through all these centuries TIL,
Father, looking upon the Church Of Rome ant