The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-12-28

TIE IRISH STA
white" The very nature OF our minds
is such, hence it becomes an authority
in the search after truth. So that there
are no such things as free thought
and free thinkers. Whats>becomes
then the liberty (you say if there is no
then of liberty lyon say if there is no
seat of liberty; those who admit the
existence of liberty place it in the
will. Liberty consists in the capacity
of the soul to will or not to will. Po-
litical liberty consists in the right of
each one to follow the bent of his will,
so long as he does not trench upon the
rights of others.
Q. How can become a Catholic?
A. Call upon the priest and he will
give you the necessary instructions,
telling you how to know the truth and
how to live up to it.
Q. What was the name Of the first
Pope, and in what year did he take
his seat?
A. The word Pope is ''baby" word
"Papa," taken from the Greek. The
first man to receive the title was
probably Adam, the first father, and
there are many popes or spapas'' here
tonight. However. taking the word to
designate the visible head of the
Church. the first was Peter, who was
so appointed by Christ, and when
Christ left this world Peter became
the visible head of His Church. He
went to Rome about A. D. az.
@. Why does God. who knows all
things, past, present and future, cause
to exist persons who He knows will
lead such lives as must condemn them
to hell?
A. To God all things are present:
there is nothing past Or future. 1t is
easier to raise difficulty oftentimes
than to understand it's solution. Our
limited mind cannot fathom all the
mysteries in God. Father Lambert
answers this difficulty in these words:
'The first thought that occurs here
is that He who has the power to Gre
ate cannot be catechised by anything
that He creates. You must admit that
to he, to exist, is Il good thing i'll it.
self. Therefore to cause things or
persons to come into existence is a
good thing. Then the Supreme Being
has a right to call into being by His
creative act whemsoever and whatso-
ever He wills. No one can deny this
who admits that existence is n good
thing or better thing than non-eXist-
ence. When 1 speak of the right OF
the Supreme Being I simply come
down to low plane of thought, for,
strictly speaking, the Supreme Being
has no rights whatever, because he
is The Right, the source, origin and
measure of all rights. When we talk
of rights we refer to relations be-
tween eXistcnces. creatures. But the
Supreme Being is neither an existence
nor a creature. He is simply the Be-
ing, necessary, eternal, infinite, the
source of thought and of things. Hav-
ing no equal and being entirely
unique, He bears no relation to any
thing except that of cause, and things
and thought bear no relation to Him
except that of dependence. To talk
about His rights is to make the finite
intellect, cropping as it is in darkness,
doubt and uncertainty, the measure
of the infinite intellect, the source Of
existence, certainty and truth. A mo-
mcnt's reflection will show us how
absurd this is.
Existence being good thing, God
has the right to create eXistences. In
telligence being good. He has the right
to create intelligences. Liberty being
good, He can give liberty to intelligent
existences. Then to create intelligent
free existences is good. This settles
the question of right. 1t is just here
that comes in the difficulty of your
question. How can the Supreme Be
ing create intelligent, free eXistences
when He knows that some of them
will abuse their liberty and deliberate
ly and with malice aforethought place
causes that of their very nature lead
to eternal painful consequences to the
placer of those causes? The answer is
very simple. 1t is this. Existence is
Il real good. Liberty is Il real good
But existence and liberty make evil a
possible, a mere possible, therefore the
Supreme Being had a right to do a
real good even though from that real
good possible evil might follow
This possible evil happened, you will
say. but why did God permit it to
happen? I reply that in giving His
Intelligent creatures liberty He had
to include the possibility of it's hap
pening. He had to deny His intelli
gent creatures liberty to give it tc
them with the possibility Of their abus
ing it. He elected to give it to them
and hold them responsible for its
abuse. But why create a man that
He knew would abuse it? Because
the existence of that man is in itself
Il good and will continue for eternity