New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-04-25

ton. Finally there is talk about soul and
conscience owned by an infallable ati-
tl,ority. And in reply let me state that
the i1falli5le authority or the Catholic
church aceortls to every soul and con-
science full freedom. She does not, can
not grant license. She gires full free
dom tn the soul by brt aking all its bonds
Of error and by allowing it to choose
out of all the varieties ofg good that which
yields most felicity. She curtails the
liberty of the sou1 only by making it
captive to truth; and .uch is not real
captivity, for in Scriptural language the
truth makes us free. True, ah infallible
authority gives the priest exact know
ledge concerning the world to come,and
thus seems to destroy his liberty by re-
moving a field for speculation. But the
fact is that every accession to our stock
of exact knowledge, every new addition
to the sum uf truth we possess, dimin-.
ishes our liberty of thought. 1t binds
US to fixed views on the points On which
the truth has been made known to us,
and it is but to quarrel with the laws of
our own understanding to struggle
against this restriction. Take An exam
pie: We do not enjoy now the liberty of
thought enjoyed three centuries ago.
We have not now the privilege to differ
from Kepler and Copernicus as to the
movements Of the planets; are we, in
this, less favored than were the men who
lived when the theories of Kepler and
Copernicus were still open questions2
With the progress Of science has come a
proportionate restriction upon the OPT
Mons we were at liberty to entertain or
the questions they have solved. And
with an infallible authority speaking the
final word on religious problems has
come restriction upon the opinions we
were at liberty to entertain on the ques-
tons it has solved. In either case will
thinking men complaint Rather will
they not say the truth makes free. By
subscribing to an infallible authority
your correspondent thinks that the priest
becomes a slave, sacrificing his liberty
of thought. But bear IN mind and deep
ly ponder these words Liberty of thought
in any sense in which the words have
meanings. is wholly out of place where
the truth has By any means been estab-
lished. When We know the truth we
can claim no right to dissent from it.
When Il Catholic priest or layman knows
the truth, through an infallible author
ity instituted by God to make it known,
that priest or layman cannot claim the
right to dissent either from the teaching
or from the teacher. You may call the
priest slave or false character for so
oolAs5 'u1 l1-sippCdiS pidiuAy "hdt IOuu-
datien there is for such names.
What have said about the soul ap-
plies with equal force to the conscience !:
the catholic conscience enjoys the same
peace that the mind does on gaining
truth; that conscience is not torn by the
doubt and despair and yearning which
trouble, must trouble those with no guide
to follow, those who, as St. Paul says.
are tossed about by every wind of doc
trine; that conscience is at rest; for it
enjoys the peace which the world can
not give,
At the close your correspondent throws
in a lot of speculative questions as if
what we do not know could alter in the
least what we may and should know
our field of knowledge has narrow lin
it's, but we should not thereby he terri
fed into the belief that we know moth
at all, especially since we have two un-
failing lights, Reason and Revelation.
VIM. Sheran