The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-26
THE COMING COUNCIL.
From the n. Y. World,


Is II. G.. also among the prophets? ''We
desire to record a prediction, says the Irj-
Juae, ''that the Ecumenical Council will
either be postponed, or that its results will
prove signally meage and Disappointing
Apparently, few stray copies of some CONT
mental journals which have been discussing
certain abstruse questions concerning the
approaching council have found their way
into the ITjGlle Office, and being there pc
rused by some one whose ideas concerning
Catholic theology have been derived from a
study, in early life of ''Maria Monk" ''Foxs
Book of Martyrs" and John Knox's sermons,
have led to the production of that farrago of
nonsense which appeared in the Trt5UHe of
last Monday morning, commencing with the
prophecy we have quoted. If, by what
the Tribune calls the results" of the
approaching council, it means the unanimous
decisions Of the council in regard to the def
milton of articles of faith, then there is not
the slightest danger that these results will be
at all 'meagre and disappointing to any one
save such people as the writers on the IFj-
bulle, and, had they taken the trouble to con-
suit any well-informed Roman Catholic, lay
man or priest, theywould have been informed
| that this is all that the council can do, all
that it is expected to do, and all that any of
the preceding councils have done, which is
| binding on the consciences of the faithful
The moment that one begins to talk about
the possibility or probability of the council
procaiming a new dogma of faith, he dis
| plays his ignorance of the Roman Catholic
| theory of councils That theory is that in
the bosom of the universal Church reposes,
and always has reposed all truth;
that to this nothing can be
added and nothing taken away: but
that, from time to time, it is expedient to
elucidate and develop this truth by afirma-
tions and definitions, serving to rebut error
to expose misconceptions, and to crystallize
dogma into definite proportions. Thus it was
not until the Church had been established for
several centuries that the dogma of the Trinity,
as accepted and believed by all orthodox
Christians throughout the world at the pre-
sent day, was defined by a general council.
1t was no new dogma; the Church had held il
and taught it from the beginning: but, as
errors had crept in concerning it for want of
a precise definition, a council deemed it ne.
cessary that this precise definition should be
made. The same is true of the entire body
of Catholic belief, as set forth in the authori
tative teachings of the Church to-day; ant
even what careless and superficial writers
term the ''new dogma of the immaculate con
ceptiOn of the Virgin is a belief as old as tn,
Church herself The Tribune displays a
once its ludicrous ignorance of what it i
talking about and the source Of its concep
tiOns Of. Roman Catholicism by saying tina
the Pope might obtain the assent Of tn
council to any dogma of speculative theo
logy, but that he would have difficult
should he ''wish the use of the steam engin
interdicted to Catholics" The youngest stu
dent at any Catholic school could shoy
the Iriblne that, in the whole body of Romal
Catholic theology, there is and can be no
thing speculative" and, as it is we'll some
times to answer a fool according to his folly
it may be sufficient to remind the TriJWl
} that, as the art Of steamboat nayigatio
Catholic, who ran steamboat in the harbo
of Barcelona in 1913, and as the Pope of thG
, day issued no bull against the engine, it
, moi probable that Plus TX will be any NOR