The Irish standard., 1901-01-26
T. w. HIGGlNsoN.
An Open Letter to the Bost0nian from q
Priest.

A'SS
ton, makes interesting reading:
Dear Sir: Although your career a.
sense has always been to me a subjecr
of admiration, circumstances have
caused me to defer, until recently, the
perusal of your writings. They have
given me the pleasure it was natura
to expect, and as l wish to make ac
acknowledgement thereof, together will
slight return "for value received
it seems to me that some information
on Catholic doctrines, which you have
misunderstood, might do double service
as grateful Offering.
The article which l have in mind is
Living by the Church" in Book and
Heart" and especially the following
passages:
'And yet it sometimes comes across
the mind, after chat with one of them
(the priests of the ncighboring parish)
how our whole mental attitudes are
so utterly remote, the one from the
other, that it almost seems a wonder
that we should meet on the same
planet, to say nothing of the same
street. What two beings can be fur
ther apart, one asks, than human
soul which glories in being absolutely
subject to an external authority. and
one which cannot see either the need
or the possibility of such an appeal?
1t is not possible to have an authority
outside Of ones own private judgment,
for what can select or accept that au-
thority save that private Judgment?
SO long as you are resting on
your own faculties you must rest on
them, and to imagine you can substi-
tute somcthing-as an infallible church
or even an nfalljhle book-tloes not
really help you in the least, because
the same reason and conscience which
put it there can at any moment take
it away or disregard it. Every
church, claiming infallibility, whether
for Pope or book, is hampcred by this
fatal logical defect-this vicious cir
cle,' as the logiciams say, that it has
to employ reason and conscience to
set up the very authority which is to
override reason and conscience.
| used to think. as many do that the
Roman Catholic church, with all it's
merits, produced people less truthtcll-
ing than were elsewhere found; but
was rather taken aback by the remark
of young Irish girl, one of two sisters
whom l had seen go through college
with the greatest credit had said
something on the subject to her, she
being thoroughly candid and ingrnr-
GUS soul. DO you really mean?' she
said. that you put little less faith
in peoples word for their being Catho-
lies" Yes I said L fear do 1T
is very strange she thoughtfuly To-
piled. that is just the way my sister
and | feel about PrOtcstants"
Your position may he reduced to
three points: First, the role of reason;
second, the scope Of infallbility. AS
to the first point, you would be an Or
thodox Catholic were you Il trifle more
radical. For instance, you mention
treason and conscience" as two scpa-
rate faculties. Catholics regard con-
science as the conclusions drawn by
reason from the study of morality
According to st. Thomas Aquinas, who
lived some 700 years ago, conscience
is dictamen rationis Ga. II;r, qu XIN.,
art. W. Elsewhere he says: "Regula
ct mensura humanOrum actnum est ra-
to-" Reason is the standard and mea-
sure of human acts. Ga IIn, gu. &c,
art. ~. Quotations Of similar purport
might be multiplied indefinitely, but
these suffice to show how pcrilously
near you are to Rome.
AS to the second point, you possibly
confuse the doctrine Of the church with
It's discipline or organization The lat
ter differs from the former somewhat
as quarantine regulation does from
decision of the United States su-
preme court. 1t merits and receives
the respect according to any other
body of men equally disinterested and
intelligent Only to the official or ex-
cathedra decisions of the Pope on
faith and morals do we concede infalli-
bility. Now the sphere of this infalli-
bility is the realm which lies potcn-
TALLY or actually beyond the reach Of
reason. Our position then, is not as
you imagine, that of a weak-eyed man
glorying ia the need of spectacles but
rather that Of an astronomer fortu-
nate in the possession of telescope.
Reason is not therefore, "oyerriddcn"
or supplanted, but supplemented by
Papal infallibility.
Finally our difference centers wholly
In Its origin. To say that treason sets
up this tribunal to override itself" is
to misrepresent our doctrine. Reason
merely proves the historical fact that
God set up this tribunal, not as you
have seen, to override, but to supple
ment reason. Reasons attitude to.
wards Papal infallibility is that of an
astronomer into whose range Of vision
a comet has flashed. He perceiyes but
mt