The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-05-01

aranaar q Assent.

NEW 0RLEAxs. SUNDAY. MA T. is7o.
tss1a 0xanAar u Ascent.
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The following instructive passages from DR..
Newman's new work win be read with plea
suro: @se1s4 esAt ss NHli
ns Indispensable and Elementary FAITH Of a
CAtA0lo.-"A man 10 converted to the Catholic
Church from his admiration Of its religious
That admiration remains; but, after time, he
leaxee his new faith, perhaps returns to his
90. The reason, II we may conjecture, may
tho Church's infsliibility; in her doctrinai
truth hc has believed, but in her infallibility,
no. He was asked, before he was received,
whether he held all that the Church Taught, he
to mean, whether he held those particular doc
trines which 1t that time the Church In mat
ter Of fact formally taught Whereas it really
1eant .whateveI the Church then OF ct any
the indispensable and elementary faith of .
ton into the fold of the Church. This being
defined, he feels that il IL something more than
he 6asKained for when he became Catholic,
anA accordingly he gives up his religious pro-
fession. The world win say that he has lost
his gertrude Of the divinity of the Catholic
Faith. bnt he never had it"
Beliy u DoSmatio Theology, DEGREES Of Coun-
cils, cto.-"Why should the refutations of here
sy be our objects of faith if no mind, theolo-
gicol or not, can believe what it cannot under
Stand, in what sense can the canons of Coun-
ellis and other ecclesiastical determinations be
inclndod In those cSedenda which the Church
to every Catholic and to which every
solving this difficulty, wish it first observed,
that II it is the duty Of the Church to act 'as
tho gtllar and ground of the Truth she is
the end Of time, to denounce opinions incom-
Patible wish that truth, whenever able and
subtle minds in her communion venture to pub
lish sach opinions"
Then considering tho difference between the
powers of apprehension of the learned and the
masses, he says:
1T is not the necessary result of unity of
profession, nor is il the fact, that the Church
fmposes dogmatic statements on the interior
The diabcolty is removed BY tie dogma Of the
duty Of implicit faith in her word. The One
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is an
article Of the Greed, and an article, which,
low, CON easily master and accept with a real
and operative assent. It stands in the place
Of al abstruse propositions in Catholics
miud, for to believe in her word is virtually to
believe in them all. Even what he cannot I'M
derstand, at least he can believe to- be true;
and he believes it to be true because he be-
heves in the Church. The rationale of this
provision for unlearned devotion is as follows:
1t stands to reason that all of us, learned and
unlearned, are bound to believe the whole re-
vealed doctrine in all its parts and in all that
II implies, according as portion after portion
10 Brought home to our conscience belong
ing to it; and it also stands to reason that a
doctrine 30 deep and so various as the revealed
depositam Of faith, cannot be brought home to
us and made our own all at once. No mind,
however large, however penetrating, can di-
rectly and fully, by one act, understand any
one truth, however simple" "He
who believes in depositMn. of Revelation believes
all 81, of ff,n Sf,,r, 1cipo
he cannot know them all at once, he knows
some doctrines, and does not know others he
may know only ono Creed, nay, perhaps the
chief portions only of the Creed but, whether
he knows little OF much, he has the intention
of believing all that there is to believe, when
ever and soon as it is brought home to him,
II he believes in Revelation at all. All that he
knows now as revealed, and all that he shall
know, and all that there is to knew, he en-
braces 1t all in his intention by one act of
faith; otherwise, it is but an accident that he
believes this OF that, not because it is o reveia-
ton. This virtual, interpretative prospect
i've belief is called to believe iaplicitc, and it
follows from this that, granting that the canons
of Councils and the other ecclesiastical docu-
nnents and confessions to which have referred,
ara really involved in the depositam or revealed
yord, every Catholic in accepting the deposit,ss
does smplicite accept those dogmatic decisions.
say, granting these various proportions are
virtually contained in the revealed word for
tAis lie the only question left and that it is to
BIO answered in the Affirmative 70 clear ct once
~ GO0 C6tuOuC, kIOuA VIC 1aCb vi INC CQurC0
declares they belong to it. To her is committed
the care and the Interpretation of the reveia-
taons The word of the Church is the word of
tho revelation. That the Church is the infal-
lible oracle of truth is the fundamental dogma
of the Catholic religion, and I believe what
the Church proposes to be believed is an act
OF real assent including all particular assents,
national and real and while it is possible for
unlesrued as well as learned, it is imperative
ON learned rs well unlearned. And thus it
ID, that by believing the word of the Church
does or shall declare itself to contain, every
Catholic. according to his intellectual capacity,
supplements the shortcomings of his kno ledge
without bunting his real assent to what is
elementary, and takes upon himself from the
first the whole truth of revelation. progressing
from one apprehension of 1t to another, accord
ing to his intellectual opportunities.
AT A REFUGE.-An article in the Man
chester Shadow gives an account Of GA
49, n