The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-03-24
Till RARAI SYLLABUS !
With Recitation Of the Errors Which 1t Condemns ,
front the o Falcoui.
Translated from the italian of 1Falcort.

Twenty-sixth error: 1.-THE Church has
no innate and legitimate right to ac-
quire and possess property"
Refutation-The Church was institut-
ed by Christ as a society, being there
fore, of divine origin. Her right to ac-
quihe and possess property-a right
which is common to all moral societies
is God-given, and as a consequence,
independent of all civil regulations.
But" say our adversaries, eve do
not deny that the Church is of div
inc origin; we merely maintain that
she should not violate the law estab-
lished by her Founder, which law ex-
| pressly forbids her to possess property
of any kind: Do not possess gold, nor
silver, nor money in your purses; no
scrip for your journey, nor two coat,
nor shoes, not a. staff Christ furnished
in his own life an example Of the man.
ner in which this law should be put in
to practice; the foxes have their holes,
and the birds of the air their nests,
but the Son of Man had not wherein
to lay his head. He depended for sus-
tenance wholly upon the kindness Of
charitable persons. st. Peter obeyed to
the very letter the law established by
his Divine Master, and hence could,
truthfully say to the blind man at the
gate of the temple, Gold and silver,
have none"
The law and the example referred to
by our adversaries were not for the
apostles and other members of the
clergy alone. They were intended for
the laity as well. Christ Himself said:
THAT which 1 say to you, 1 say to
ALL" and st. Paul assures US in his
letter to the Romans that those ''who
God foreknew, he also predestined to
be made conformabIe to the image Of
His Son." Those who are so Jealous
for the interests of the Church are,
therefore, bound by that law, as well
as eccleslastics; and if they are cor
rect in their Interpretation of it, they
must, in order to reach Heaven, them |
selves renounce all earthly goods, and
possess no gold, nor silver, nor money /
in their purses, nor scrip for their jour
ney, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a /
staff. For otherwise they will not re-
semble their prototype, will not be con- !
formab1e to the image of Gods Son, |
and cannot, consequently, be partak- /
ers with Him in the glory of His King !
dom.
But the arguments advanced by our
in support Of their position,
are childish and silly. The nolite posi-
deatis, upon which they rely 50 strong
ly, was particular in it's nature; it was
a command given the Apostles by their
Divine Master for the purpose
Of teaching them that they
should impose implicit confidence in
Him, who could sustain them by a mir
acle, and they did in fact, return from
the journey upon which He had sent
them, boasting that the very demons
we're obedient to their word. The law,
prescribed for the Apostles on this par-'i
ocular occasion should not, then, be
construed into a general rule of con-
iuct for the Church; it should only
inspire us with the trust that He viii
rot, when necessary, fail to exercise
His omnipotence in her behalf, as He
lid in the first three centuries of her
existence, preserving her and causing
Ter to flourish and grow in numbers de-
pite all the efforts of prosecuting ty-
ants: Sanguis Martyreum est Semen
Besides the supernat- s
lral means with which God supplies
His Church, He desires her to also en-
10y natural or human means and I
mong these are the acquisition and 7
possession of property. g
The statement that Christ had not t
thereon to lay His head is most true, a