The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-09-22
LEO XIII REPEATS HIS WARM
ING TO CATHOLICS TO STRENG-
THEN THEIR CHURCH.

The Pope has written a letter to Car
dinal Respighi, Vicar of Rome, about
the proselytfsm carried on in certain
Protestant sects american Methodists
and BaDtists) and the Waldensian
body.
The letter opens thus: From the
very onset of our Fontifcate we have
had occasion to point out as one of the
most deplorable evils brought by the
new order of things TO this capital of
the Christian world the active proselyt-
ISM displayed on the part of heresy
and the peril to which the faith of our
people was in consequence exposed.
And addressing our Cardinal Vicar on
this subject Gan alIusion to the ponti-
neal letters of June rs, 1878, and March
70, 1879 we repeatedly impaired to the
faithful eXhortat tons, counsels and
warnings, putting them on their guard
against the many efforts which scots
OF all kinds, introduced from abroad.
were here making, under the shelter
of the public law, in order to spread in
the minds of believers the poison of
denial and error.
1t IS now clear to every one from
the evidence of facts that the design
harbored by these hereticaI sects.
which are manifold emanation of
Professionalism, is to fix the standard of
religious discord and rebellion in the
Peninsula. and chiefly in this Alma
Urbs. in which God Himself, by an adj
mirable disposing of events, placed the /
center of that faithful and sublime /
unity which was the object of the
prayer addressed by our Divine Savior
to His Heavenly Father John xvii.
lI-2D, and which the Popes jealosIy
even at the cost of their lives.
and despite the opposition of men and
the vicissitudes of time"
The sects mot being able to rely 1pon
the strength of the truth, avail them
selves for the extinguishing or weak
ening of the Catholic faith, of the I'M
protected tenderness of years, of in,
sufficient education. of the privations
If Indulgence and of the simplicity of
many who are exposed to fiattery, at
fractions and seduction.
I'm the face of the facts we feel
irst of all, the need Of publicly de-
laring, as we have done on other oc-
asions, how painful is the condition
# the head of the Catholic Church
who is) constrained to behold the
rec and progressive advance of heresy !
this Holy City, whence should be
pread throughout the whole world !
he light of truth and of example, and d.
Which should be the honored seat of
he Vicar or Jesus Christ AS though 6
ne torrent of unwholesome teaching
nd depravity. which daily and with =
npunity comes from books, professors Y
hairs, theatres and journals, were
OF enough, to all these causes of per- a
ersion there has been added the in =
dious activity of heretical men, who q
conflict among themselves find ac-
'rd only in traducing the supreme S
authority, the Catholic .
ergy, and the dogmas of our holy G
'ligion, the meaning of which, and u
ill more the agust beauty, they are c
nable to understand. !
ON this account the faithful who
ON all parts, even the most remote. t.
me on pilgrimage to Rome in order a
find here comfort for their piety and y
eir faith, are deeply affected at see
6 this soil, which has been bathed
it'll the blood of the martyrs, invaded T
sects of every kind, intent only =
ION roofing up from the soul of the p
ople that religion which, none the be
IS, has been declared the religion of eli
e state, and which forms the princi- ls
l object of their love and veneration. ta
You will easily understand, my al
'rd Cardinal, how painful this state al
things is to our heart, and how IN
ely is our desire to see appropriate N,
nedies applied, and such as NAV be
lie. if not to altogether remove the '"
IL, to at least lessen its gravity and NJ
terness. And it is for this reason A.
1t we received great consolation from
excellent work, to which we orr Fr
yes gave the inspiration and i'm Th
Use. which is called that of the Pres
'ation of the Faith, and still more AN
m the good results, which it has be- Br
TO give, owing to the untiring care nh
those who direct it or who belong TO
Let all endeavor to strengthen the TIL
lracter OF the Catholic people by in -