The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-11-17

uoVe 3D. tHluk eaAlN ~ = - 80 - -
the noblest and most masculine natures,
who recoil from the incoherence and
contradiction ct teachers who gainsay
one another. But here is 8 subject on
which have no desire to enter. is !
we're asked to say what is the chief IN
tellectual malady Of England and Of the
world at this day, I should say, ubiquit-
Gus, universal douDt, an uncertainty
which came in like food after the re-
lection of the Divine certainty OF Faith.
This uncertainty has already led multi
tudes to an entire rejection OF Christian
ity; and they have not rested even IN
Deism. They have gone on to the re-
lection of natural religion. Tney have
no certainty that they have conscienoe'
or will, or soul, or law OF morality,
or that there is God. Three hundred
years hence, when men look back upon
the Council Of the Vatican, as they now
look back upon the Council Of Trent
will say even thirty years hence, when
the noise and dust of the present conflict
Lis laia,-they who have faith lett IN them
will recognize the Divine guidance under
which the Council Of the Vatican de-
clarel the existence of God, with all the
truths radiating from it, as resting upon
the witness of the visible world; and also
the Divine certainty Of the Faith, as
resting upon the witness OF the Visible
Church, and finding it's perpetual and
linfallible expression in the vice OF It's
Visible Head.
But it is now more than time to sum
up what [ hope has been sufficiently
proved.
My first answer to the charge that the
Vatican Council has made it Impossible
for Catholics to render loyal civil ale
glance. is that the Vatican Council has
not touched our civil allegiance at ali;
that the laws which govern our civil allie
glance are as old as the revelation OF
Christianity, and are regul ted by the
Divine constitution of the Church and
the immutable duties OF natnral moral
|ity. We we're bound by all these obl1ga-
tons before the Vatican Council existed.
They are OF Divine institution, and are
beyond all change, being in themselves
unchareeable. I have shown l hope,
that in the conflicts IF the Civil Powers
with the Church, the causes have arisen,
not from acts of the Church, but from
such acts as the Constitution OF Claren-
don. the claim OF Investitures, the crea-
ton of Royal Courts of final appeal, and
the like; that these invasions OF the
Spiritual domain ever have been from
the attempts of governments to subject
the Church TO their own jurisdiction;
aud now more than ever, from an uni
vers4l and simultaneous conspiracy
against it. A leader of this conspiracy
said the other day, The net IS now
drawn so close about the Church Of
Rome that if it escapes this time | will
believe it to be Divine It God grant
him life, have hope of his conversion.
For, that the Church of Rome will es-
cape out of the net is certain, and that
for two reasons: First, for the same rea-
son why it's Divine Head ruse again from
the grave lit was not possible that he
should he holden by it, and next, because
the civil governments, that are now con
spring against it, are preparing for their
7 ~ ty1
the true and evident reason why, when
some six hundred bishops from the ends
of the Church were gathered together
they defined the infalhbility of their
head-'Visum est Spiritui Sancto ct no.
bie.'"
AS will be seen from the above the IL
fallibility Of the Church and of the Pope
| is no new doctrine, but that simply as
supreme teacher of all Christians, in
matters OF faith and morals, he cannot
err. Nowhere do We tiud ia the history
of the Church that it was ever claimed,
or is claimed now, that the Pope has
any power or authority to define or di.
rect the citizens of any country as to
their civil allegiance or duties, and when
the assertion is made that we practical
Catholics are disioyal citizens, answer
that in the very nature of things and ac-
cording to the teachings of our Church,
the better Catholics we are the more
loyal and patriotic citizens we must be-.
AS an illustration I will compare the
government of the Church founded by
our Blessed Lord, to the government OF
OR country. Our Blessed Lord when He
founded His Church left as His succea-
sor st. Peter, who, with his successors
were to teach all nations whatsoever
He had commanded them, this command
was to all the apostles, but to Peter He
assigned the Office as chief or head Of His
Church, and endowed him with the gift
Of the Holy Ghost IN Especial manner,
80 that any question as to the teachings
of the Church in faith and morals he
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