The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-05-05
Blasphemous Attacks Made on
Inspired Revelations.
BY CRITICS OF THR PRESENT TIME
Luther's Desecrating Hand is
Entirely Responsible,

In a recent sermon delivered at St.
Patrick's Cathedral, New York, Rev
Father Pardow, S. j., took for his
theme "The Bible at the End of the
Nineteenth Century," and said in part:
The closing years OF the nineteenth
century have outside OF the Catholic
church seen some very radical changes
in many points OF religious belief, but
the question that has suffered most from
this wave of religious vandalism has
been the Bible. To realize how far
reaching the change has been we must
| go back some thee hundred years. Mar
tin Luther's battlecry as he rose in re-
bellon against the church was "Thc
Bible, the whole book, and nothing but
the Bible" What follower OF Luther
! would dare to raise that cry now in the
| face OF the so-called "higher criticism?"
| THAT the teaching OF modern critical
research" says recent Protestant writ
or, "has seriously modified the Protes-
tant view concerning the absolute au-
thority Of the Bible is admitted on all
sides. Modern Protestant theology does
| not place as its foundation stone the in
fallibi]ity OF a book" This, then, is
the clear admission that the principles OF
the so-called Reformation were wrong,
for the reason alleged to justify the
Reformation was precisely to give the
infallible Bible to the people.
The Catholic church has always
taught tina. it is against reason to have
every man, woman and child pick and
choose his and her religion from book
which cannot explain itself and which is
often very hard to understand. On no
point have more calumnies been uttered
| against the church than on this question
| Of the Bible. Even now in these days
OF cnlightening, when people can read
and write, we are sometimes asked
whether Catholics are allowed to read
the Bible. The accusation that the
| Catholic church chained the Bible has
been drummed into the ears even OF
children iii the nursery for the last 500
years, and the battle for an "open BIZ
bic" is now considered to be the glory OF
Professionalism. But it is high time for
men to be more critical, and not to ac-
ccpt mere assertions in lieu of proof
The fact is that before the invention OF
printing, i'll 1893, not one person in ten
thousand could possess Bible, as the
slow process of copying by hand rem
dcrcd the book very expensive. Here,
the church, to let the people read the
Word OF God for themselves, had a
large Bible chained to the pillar OF the
cathedral The "chaincd Bible" there
FORE when examined critically, meant
an "open Bible" When the city au-
thoritics chain cup to the fountain is
it to prevent the people from drinking
or precisely for the opposite reason? )
The watchful care OF the church over
the Bible was intended to safeguard the
| Word of God. The dcsecrating hand of
Luther was the cause of the blaspne-
nous attacks now so common OH the
| Bible by n-Catholics. In tossing the
| great book to the populacc for each to
| find in it what he chose Luther was
lowering it beneath the level OF ordi-
nary human literature.
There are some," wrote the Pope,
"who, notwithstanding their impious
opinions and utterances against God
and the church, the Gospels and the rest
of the Scriptures, would fain be regard
ed as theologians, as Christians and as
men of the Gospel" One would think
he was referring to a certain scientist in
England. "Thcy attempt to disguise" he
says, under these honorable titles their
rashness and insolence. Their higher
criticism resolves itself into the ref]ec-
ton Of the bias and the prejudices Of the
critics, and, seeing that most OF these
men are tainted with false philosophy
and so-called rationalism, their criti-
csm must lead to the elimination from
the Bible Of all prophecy, Of all
miracles and of everything that goes be-
yond the natural order"
Such are some of the clarion notes of
our uncompromising Pontiff. There
have been established in some universe
ties special chairs for the Interpretation
OF Dante and Shakespeare. The Con-
stitution of the United States has an
| authorized interpreter in the learned
judges of the supreme court, but every