The Irish standard., 1894-03-17

anyone stO COuQ MlI HJus 2 ~ A4uuICAA 10
power to pardon sin, when tho sinner 81
i presses his sorrow aud oonfeeses his sins
But the Church has 20 power to abro
gate the moral lsw, and toSdeclare that
vice is virtue, or virtue vice. At nj
period Of the eventful history Of thu
Church was any claim ever made that
the Church had power to permit people
to. do wrong. The divine power to par
don sin, which Jesus Christ impaired 4
his Church. certainly also implies the
power 70 remit the temporal penalty due
to sin, af,er the sin is forgiven.
Our civil authority Furnishes offensee
against the law, by the sentence Of ON
civil courts, and pardons the offender
through he pardoning power vested in
the executive of the state or nation.
The same authority also grants indul-
gencee, by RENTING q part or the whole
of the penalty, or by committing the SEN
tence, when the culprit gives unmistak.
able signs Of repentance aud amendment
Of life.
No one imaglnes that the state encour-
ages crime by encouraging repentance
and extending clenency to the contrite
.evil-doer. But by q strange perversity
of the human mind, perversity born OF
malice, ignorance and unreasoning pre-
JUDGE, the Catholic Church is accused
of encouraging vice by granting indul-
genoes. 1t is hard for us, who know of
the tireless efforts put forth by the
Church to reclaim the people from sin,
to listen patiently to those who wickedly
accuse this ancient bulwark against evil,
OF indulging the people in the commits
sion of sin. In this active and progress
sive age, in our beloved country, we
An erican Catholics fnd it hard to bear
when we see our public school rooms
made use of to disseminate lies against
us and against the old Church We 80
dearly love. Books unworthy the name
OF histories are used in public schools,
either az text books or as books of refer
ence, that still, in this enlightened age,
repeat the threadbare lies that the Cath
olic Church sold or sells indulgences. It
is foul crime against children to instil
into untutored minds lies and base cal
umnies against any church or any form
Of religion. I protest against the Ameri-
can public scnool room being made the
channel through which to instil poison
into the minds and hearts of American
children. I protest especially in behalf
of those children who are not Catholics.
1t is an objectionable crime agsis at
them in particular that they should be
taught in our free public schools false
impressions about the most ancient of
christian churches, and be led to believe
that the lying fictions they read are facts
of history. Such children may never
have an opportunity OF learning the
truth and are victimized by lying scrib-
blers, who, parrot like, repeat the false
hoods more clever calumniators have in
vented. Our Catholic children suffer
less harm from such lying text books,
for they are taught the truth in their
Sunday schools, or learn it fully from
explanations of Catholic doctrine in later
years.
When we protest against being lied
about in our public schools, we are &C.
cused of being enemies of the public
school system. The system is not to
blame for being thus perverted. Glass
books in our public schools should not
manifest partisan prejudice against any
religious denomination. The Catholic
Church does not sell indulgences, never
attempted to sell them, and could not by
any possible subterfuge make them q
subject of barter, for the first requisite
for gaining an indulgence is the state oil
grace, freedom from sin, which is not 8
merchantable entity.