The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-03-24

because He travelled constantly from
city to city, and from village to village,
leaving to His disciples (and there were
rich persons among the nunber) the
care Of providing for current necessi-
ties. And although the Angels Of
Heaven were at His command, we ara
told by the Evangelist, that He always
had 'loculi" in which to place the Of
ferings Of the faithful. And the Church
has, therefore, the authority Of his ok.
! ample in the foresight and the provi-
dence with which she provides for her
various needs. The treasurer Of thu
funds thus collected by our Divine Sa-
| vior, furnished a sad precedent for The
/ Arnaldos, the Marsiglios. the Ockar9s
the WyckIiffes and for all the sac~f1e-
/ gious plunderers of the Church in our
own day. He fur exat ct Iatro. and
they deserve no better names. They
misrepresent Almighty God and. seek II,
/ fOrtify their position by Quotations
from the Scriptures. In this they n,
but follow the example Of the dissent
majors Of error in every age. who by
distOrting and travestying the Word M
God seek to make it accord with their
own opinions.
st. Augustine, commenting on this Pc
culiarfty, says: "Heresies and certain
perverse dognaa arise only when the
Scriptures, good in themselves. are
badly interpreted" Neque nature stunt
haereses ct quaedam dogmata perversf-
tat nisi dunn script1rae bouae
interpretantur non bene
The Church following the example OF
Christ and the Apostle, at whose feet
the reverend faithful laid the proceeds
of all their worldly goods, has always
pcs fezsed property, notwithstand ng the
prosecutions and despOliations to which
she has been subjected. Her right to
do SO was recognized by Constantine
the Great, who Immediately at
ter his conversion promulgated
a law commanding the resolutions OF
all the property of which she had been
deprived either by the State or by pri-
vate individuals: sine pecunia ct sine
ulla pretii petione restituantur.
It will not be denied BY our adver-
saries that the Church has a right 10
exist as they viii not venture to assert
that she is an immoral, therefor an IL
licit society. Christ, moreover, ordained
that the ministers of the Gospel should
live by the Gospel: ordinavit Dominus
lis qui evangelum annuntiant de evan
CELLO vivere. No one viii deny that this
ordinance at least is of divine right.
Now the right to employ means to
sustain life not alone of the transient
but of the permanent possession OF
property, the least being merely a cor
1llary of the first. To maintain the
contrary would be to deprive the
Church of a right which belongs to
every individual and to every rightful
it would be to make her de-
pendent for subsistence entirely upon
means. This would, how
ever, be repugnant to the wisdom OF
Almighty God, who does not unneces-
;ariIy multiply miracles. Only fools live
laying up a store for the fu-
ure. without making provision in sum
ner for the wants Of the coming win
er. 1t is, therefore, evident from the
nature of society in general, from the
Irvine institution OF this society, from
he Holy Scriptures and from the con-
tant and universal practice Of the
yhurch, that she has an innate and
sgitimate right to acquire and possess
property. The depriving her Of that
light is a eacrilege, which viii newt
bly,, whether soon or late, bring down
he wrath of God upon its perpetrators
nd their accomplices.