The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-01-30
RationaIIsrn-No. 4.

are no. longer agitatedz; theological dispu-
tntion seems to be -hushed in the nom
Catholic world, and silence, drear and
sepulcbral, pervades the camp of heresy,
save when broken by the drowsy yawn OF
some theologic fossil, who has not per-
ceived how far the world has shifted during
his long Illumination. The fact may not
be denied, that all the old issues between
/ Catholicity and crumbling Professionalism
are closed. Professionalism, as q religion,
never had (from the very meaning of the
word religion) a substantial existence. 1t
always lived, as it lives now, mere para
site of some political faction, party or
power; and as often as political influences
have oscillated, we find the plant creature
ever ready to conform to the new phase in
| which old error made its appearance. The
Professionalism of the sixteenth century is
the Rationalism of the nineteenth, and, by
the admission of its ablest opponents, the
field of religious controversy is now cleared
for final, decisive struggle between it and
the grand old Catholic Church: Rational
ism-the legitimate but not the ultimate
result of Professionalism, which soon Will
sumed, the fact cannot be ignored, such
hideous proportions Of late, that the present
Gcumenical Council was mainly convoked
to remedy the evils with which it threatens
society, and restrict the area of its destruc-
tive influence. On Raticnaism, therefore,
we may, without trauscending our limits as
journalists, legitimately present our read
ers with a few considerations.
Rationalism elects revelation altogether;
it denies the supernatural order, because it.
does not come under the observation of the
senses what we, poor simple believers
cherish as divine faith, the hallowing power
of which we so often experience when per-
secuted, oppressed, or, what is more trying
still, misunderstanding i've arc waited on its
untlring wings to the land of peace and rest,
of which it has already naturalized us the
inchoate citizens. This divine Faith, Ra
tionalism sneers at as silly superstiti
Man-and here, were we not man ourself,
we might be tempted to agree with him
the Nationalist classiies as q comedy balloon,
and if you hint at anything mysterious
being connected with his origin and the
destiny awaiting him hereafter, he will
cape at you with the philosophic stolidity
of an alligator, and, should you come too
close to him, not unlike the alligator, will
duck his head under the water, or, if in
dying condition, under the blanket. Talk
of mystery to a Nationalist Tell the sun
clad savage of the Oronoco, who, by the
same token, is the improved monkey of the |
that the element which rusFres
down that headlOng river is, in other zones, !
sUinepGu INTO ice, ana that on Its rocky I
surface the ponderous elephant may stalk
at ease, and the result Will be the same. |
Beyond the horizon of his own vision the |
nationalist knows nothing, wants to know |
nothing; for him the little lantern, whereby |
his uncertain steps are guided in the mid |
night of his ignorance, Eliminates the |
universe. Outside of that rim, in which |
the fringes of light and darkness are en-
tangled with each other, nothing can exist,
because nothing can be seen distinctly. In
the wild rawlings of his insanity, we might
expect something more rational from the
inmate of lunatic asylum.
Be it known, however, to the Nationalist
that there is revelation there has always
has been a-revelation, and that without a
revelation there could be no Nationalist.
Of this4anguage itself is q proof, SO that
n every syllable he utters the nationalist
makes an act of Faith: Credioi, propter
laod Locnt,ta SIM 81 beIiere, end for that
'e0son I speak" Psalms, rs. The truth,
which the nationalist either rejects alto
yether or regards as that which the indi-
Iidual chooses to consider it, is no more
dependent on our perceptiye faculties than
'onder glorious sun, beaming in the soft
med splendoF of the evening, is indebted
or his brilliancy to the blind beggar at tue
gate. Nay,.-our faculties, our intellect
specially, could not exist without the
Truth, and it is in the light of truth that
We are conscious of possessing them.
Truth is objective and legislative, as will
De shown hereafter, not subjective and con-