The Irish standard., 1890-05-10
The Oathollc il g Controversy.

a The vantage-grou Of truth which
the Catholic possesses is minimized IN
controversy with non-C Catholics by the
foreign arms he is forced to employ.
His best and most proper weapons OF
defence, strange to say, can never be
forged from Catholic sources owing to
the general prejudice against the Church.
Catholic authorities may reflect on every
page of their writings consummate
ability, deep research, pure love Of truth
and all the qualities which can commend
an author to q truth loving people, and
still be absolutely valueless in debate.
To no other representatives, however
poor, of religious beliefs is such q gross
affront offered. Credence is always ac-
corded the Indian medicine man, the
Brahmin, the Chinaman dlscoursing on
the race he represents or the religion he
|5professes. And Justly SO since. no one
|lbetter than he can be aware of either
Ethe one or the other. By what rule OF
Elogic therefore arc Catholic authorities
Enot received and believed and con-
[sidered decisive and de6nitive ON
Catholic subjects? AS a matter of
fact they are peremptorily ruled out Of
[ the arena of controversy. Nay more.
/ So far has this prejudice against Gath
Ollie teaching gone that the encyclopedia,
which endeavors to present Catholic
doctrine as it is protested, is set down as
being work of the Jesuits and written
in the interest of the Catholic Church,
and consequently it becomes valueless
in polemics Thus unconsciously pre-
JUDGE hands over to us the strongest
argument IN favor of the truth of our
holy Faith. For what weightier argu-
ment in favor of the truthfullness of any
doctrine can be made or imagined than
this that the doctrine is found to be such
that to fairly present it is to champion it?
All that the Catholic Faith demands is a
fair presentation of its tenets, but this
it rarely obtains.
For what after all is the chief employ
ment of Catholic clergymen, journalists
and publcists generally? Is it the ex
position in chosen words, the illustration
| in opposite metaphors, the grounding
| with solid arguments Of the belief Of the
Catholic Church? Net at all. Our
whole time is consumed in answering
false charges which our opponents
| would never make did they take the
trouble to examine Catholic teaching
with fraction OF the diligence they en-
ploy in studying the different forms Of
heathenism Who will take the trouble
to see thousands and thousands confess
| ing freely their sins week after week la
! every city of the United States and still
make the charge that the priests absolve
for money? Who will examine our
school system. see it's merits from a
secular point of view and realize tho I'M
mense labor it entails on a poor church
to maintain it and then assert that the
Catholic Church is the enemy of educa-
ton? Who can study the history of the
Bible in the past or note that the Gath
olic Church is the sole champion of the
whole Bible in the present and still call
Catholics enemies of the Bible? Not
one Protestant in ten Thousand we can
safely affirm wonld fail to exonerate us
on these and other points could the
truth be stated to them. But they will
not examine for themselves neither will
they hear the truth from Catholic sources.
And if by chance we do obtain a fair
presentation of our doctrine before them
they will not believe that we do believe
what we emphatically assert we would
defend with our lives. We see ID this
fact justification of the Catholic doc
trine on tradition. Professionals scott at
the idea of truth, not explicitly contained
in scripture, being handed down from
the first ages under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit with infallible accuracy.
This belief however is not hard to us
since we see and feel that the prejudice
engendered by Luther's preaching over
three hundred years ago has been handed
down full and entire It was for this
reason Brownson defined Professionalism
as the tradition of g rejadice.
Such being the case it naturally follows
that the admissions in favor of the Cath
ollc Church, which are now and then
found in Protestant authors, are neces-
sarily rare The occasional ray OF light
piercing the malefic mist Of prejudice
can likewise b. only transitory fash
and the Protestant author may be OK
pected for every kind word he says to
say many q bitter one. Otherwise he
would not remain Protestant. Ifthere-
fore we cite in controversy Protestant
authorities it is because we would in vain
cite Catholic ones, and when we do quote
the former we have no intention OF
quoting them as champions of the whole
Catholic Faith, but merely as opponents
of that one feeble ray Of light which,
despite the blindness Of prejudice, they
wore able to discern in the effulgent