The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-10-14
NEWMAN'S FAITH
Veracity Of the Great Car
dinal Defended Against
DR.. Parkhurst's
Attack.
HIS PROFESSION OF BELIEF
Found Catholic Christianity
Satisfied All Mental Re-
MISUNDERSTANDING
the Churches.

The following extract is from the New
York .sFreeman's Journals" editorial in
reply to DR.. Parkhurst's attack on Car
dinal Newman
DR.. Parkhurst, in a recent sermon,
went out Of his way to attack the verac-
ity of the late Cardinal Newman He
said:-"A great many persons are Chris
tians without knowing the reason why"
he c~ontended, land some men who are
religious In their emotions are skeptical
in their conyictions-hearts and brains
working at cross purposes. For exam-
pie, Cardinal Newman was such a man.
intellectually, he was an unbeliever; he
lived and died so. E~motionally he was
a Christian"
If any mar In the nineteenth century
knew what he believed, and why he be-
lieyed 1t, tina man was Cardinal New
man. OF all great men of modern times
there is not one whose emotional nature
was more thoroughly subservient to his
intellect than his. His leading charac-
teristics were his intellectually and his
loyalty and obedience to the dictates OF
his intellect, even to the martyrdom of
his emotions, to the severing Of the dear
est relations of life. Intellectually he
was a Roman Catholic from the most
profound conviction of the divine origin
Of the church. In his many works. and
more particularly In his Apologize pro
vita sua, he has left no possible doubt
Of this. He was as convinced of the
divinity Of the Catholic Church as he
was Of The existence of a personal God.
Writing to a Protestant relative who
spoke Of evils existing in the Church, he
said
Il allow then (and for arguments
sake / allow more than facts warranty,
the existence Of that flood Of evil which
shocks you in the visible Church; but
for me, If it touched my faith mortally
in the divinity Of Catholicism, 1t would,
by parity Of reason, touch my faith In
the being Of a personal God and moral
governor, What would disproye to him
the divinity of the Church would equally
disprove to him the existence of a per-
sonal God.
Such was the man who, DR.. Parkhurst
tells us, was an unbeliever intellectually,
and lived n died sol On becoming a
Catholic he declared most solemnly his
belief in the divinity Of the Roman Cath
Ollie Church and in all she believes and
caches. We have his most solemn dec
l~aratlon as to what he was intellectual
Nv against the statement of DR.. Park
hurst. He was certainly a more reliable
witness as to his own intellectual attf-
tude than is Dr.. P~arkhurst; and the
world will not believe what Or. Park
bursts words imply, that he was a hypo-
critic who professed to believe what he
did not believe
..And because he could not quite give
nm being a Christian in his heart said
DR.. Parkhurst, "and could not easliy De
50 in his head, he oranges a. S KY br aIe
to be his brain. He felt Tor nfnsslI
but when it came to thinking he suolet
that function to the Pope n the
Church"
Cardinal Newman found Catholic Chris
tianity to meet every requirement OF ms
vigorous and logical mind and every as
piration of his heart. For this we have
his own authority. 1t was as a Protestant
that he could not easily be In his head.
He made no bargain with Popery. He
could not IL he would. The Catholic
Church makes no bargains with those
who knock at her door. She lays down
the conditions OF entrance and leaves no
alternative but their acceptance or re-
lection.
To yield intellectual assent to the teach-
ing of the church he believed to be divine
was no more giving up his brain than was
the intellectual assent of Peter and PAUL.
to the teaching of Christ whom they be-
lieyed to be divine, giving up their brains.
was no substitution or parting with
brains in either case. On the contrary the
inference is that in both cases they re-
tanned their brains and that they were OF
a sound and superior quality.
1t was by thinking for himself, Instead
of letting Professionalism think tor him.
Newman became a Catholic And
after that momentous event to him he
to think for himself, and to 50
good q purpose that the educated world.
rightly or wrongly, takes his thoughts
more seriously and at a higher estimate
than 1t takes those of DR.. Parkhurst.
The best kind of thinking for oneself
is to think with an authority that cannot
err. The Apostles did this kin OF think
ing when they listened to our Lords
teaching. And the Catholic does it when
thinks with the Church established
our Lord. and which he commanded
us to hear under penalty of being num-
bered among heatlens and ~publicans.
AunNn TuE cufiprHEc