The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-11-30
IN HONOR OF TIE VIRGIN
Refutlng the Belief Of Nom Catholics Con;
earning line mother of
Christ.
LESSONS OF TEE OLD cATAconBs
A Beautiful Sermon Preac he'd In New
South Wales by an Eminent
Divine.
In a recent sermon Cardinal Moran

of Sidney, at Granville, ~ S. W.,
preached an eloquent discourse in which
he considered the calumnies with which
certain nom Catholics persistently assail
! the devotion of Catholics to the Mother
| Of God. Cardinal Moran on this point
said:
They say THAT in honoring the Blessed
Virgin we are ido1ators, and they accuse
us Of paying divine homage to the Bless
ed Virgin. All. the Protestant sects no
matter how they suffer among them
selves, may be said to pin their faith to
this Mariolatry of the Church of Rome.
Like Mesopotamia of old Mariolatry has
become a. word to conjure by. 1t is only
| a few days ago that the Protestant bishop
OF Goulburn, DR.. Chalmers, in the dis
course to which I have already referred,
declared *tthe Roman worship Of the
Blessed Virgin to be an insuperable bar
rier to the reunion of Christeado1n, and
he took the occasion to explain the doc
trine of the Catholic church to be that we
constitute the Blessed Virgin an. object
of supreme Worship" that we ''exalt her
to the throne of the everlasting Cod
head in word, THAT we admit 1.-The del
fication of Mary" Now the Catholic
church has declared "a Thousand times
times that we had no such doc
trine, and that it is contrary to holy
faith to pay such divine honors to the
Blessed Virgin. We honor her, indeed,
as being exalted and privileged in most
special way by Goa, but with our whole
heart we proclaim that to God alone su-
preme worship is due. There was q
small sect in Africa in the fourth century
known as the Collyridians, who, as we are
told by St. Epiphanius, proclaimed that
the Blessed Virgin should be adored. The
Catholic church cut them off from her
fold. and anathenized their teaching, just
as Luther and Henry VIII. were anathe-
mixed and condemned in latter ages.
Again, when the Council of Trent defined
the sinlessness Of the Blessed Virgin, it
expressly added that this was a special
privilege OF ssanctjty conferred on her by
the Creator. In our own days, the doc
trine of her Immaculate Conception was
defined, but in the very words of the
definition it was declared that this i'm
munity from original sin was q special
grace and favor OF the Most High granted
to her through the merits of our divine
Redeemer. Hear how distinctly the
Catholic doctrine on this head is set forth
y
out the whole Australian church: I'VE
honor Our Blessed Lady more than all
other saints, because she is the Mother Of
God, but we never give her divine or su-
prerne honor which is due to God alone"
And again the teaching of the church re-
garaing the Immaculate Conception is set
forth: The Blessed Virgin Mary, by a
singular privilege Of grace, bestowed on
her through the merits Of her Divine
Son, was preserved free from original
sin, and this privilege is called the I'm
mgculate Conception
If we look back through the history Of
the church we will find that in every age
the faithful have loved to link together
the tributes OF their piety and devotion to
the Blessed Virgin and the divine worsh ip
which they offered to our Blessed Virgin
in her inspired canticle proclaims that all
generations shall salute her as Blessed
and thrice Blessed. It is not in the Cath
Ollie church alone that this prophecy is
fulfilled.