The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-04-04

duties of the laity under the changed
conditions now to be met by the
church when in contact with the
world around US. The task of defend
ing and explaining the doctrines and
policy of the cIurch of necessity rests
on the shoulders of the laity and the
press, and all members of the church
should be we'll instructed in the tunda-
mentals of theology and Catholic poll
tics The best work of the day III
opening the eyes of Protestants ana
unbelievers to the truth is done by IN
telligent laymen, capable OF re1utlhs
the errors so commonly entertained by
outsiders regarding the church and its
doctrines. This week the middle class
worshipers of Mammon are dealt with,
and. the con,mon charge that the
church is too much engaged in politics
is completely answered
CONVERSATION V-(Continued)
God founded the church, and takes
care that she. shall never fail" replied
Father John; but the church, though
his church. and informed and sus-
tanned by him, operates more humane
Conversion is the work of grace, ana
vet even by grace no man is converted
to perform. and if he neglects or re-
fuses to perform his part the work will
not be done The doctrine of irreslSt-
IDLE as of inadmissible grace is Cal
whistle, not a Catholic, doctrine. Ihe
church represents the Incarnation, out
OF which she springs, and therefore re-
quireS the cooperation of the, human
SO that though there are two wills, the
one human and the other divine, there
shall be no discrepancy or contraity
but perfect concord and union between
them. The poor are the especial care
of the church, but not the poor alone
are called. She opens her communion
to the rude, the simple the unlearned,
and lavishes upon them the treasures
of supernatural grace; but she has a
place and use, too, for the learned.
! God calls the poor, the lowly, the SIM
pie; He calls also the learned, the phil
osophic, and the great st. Paul was
not deficient in the learning, the science
and the philosophy of his age. st. JUS
tin Martyr was a learned Platonist.
and st. Augustine stands at the head
of all ancient and modern philosophers.
All the great fathers were the great
men of their age, men who in genius,
in ability, learning, eloquence, science.
were at the highest level of the human
mind in their times; and who dares say
that they rendered and still render no
service to religion? Is it of no mo-
ment to her to have had her Basils,
her Gregories, her Chrysostoms her
Hilaries, her Ambroses, her .Augustines,
her Leos, her Damians, her Bernards,
her Bonaventuras, her Alberts, her
Ihomases, her Scots, her Vasquez, her
| Suarez, her Valentias, her Bossuets, her
Fenelons? Was she not served bv Leo
L, Gregory l, Gregory VII, Innocent
III, Boniface VIII, Julius II, and Sixtus
Qulntus, men of high attachments. lofty
character, and eminent administrative
! ability, before whom the greatest of
your temporal sovereigns seem
dwarfed and insignificant?
You tell me the poor are the last to
give up their faith 1t has been so in
ireland, was so7'in France, in Bel
gum, but not so in England. The old
nobility, the survivors of the wars of
the Roses, the gentry, were the last
TO abandon the old church and accept
the new gospel at the bidding of the
court The middle classes, traders ar
tisans, the well-to-do burgesses, If
there is any difference have thus far
IN the history of religion been the
most reluctant to receive and the most
prompt to renounce the church. The
church finds her best friends and her
hrAnest supporters among the high who
are satisfied with their worldly rank.
The class between. manmon and Mace
Worsh1pers, are and always must be
those who offer the greatest resistance
to the church, and afford her the least
consolation. In this class terminated
the Protestant reformation. and if was
by siding with them in those .European
countries where they were strongest
tnat the sovereigns. were able to cast
on the authority of Rome and estab-
llsh the Protestant gospel.
me serious obstacle to the CONVEX
SION Oh TINS country is in the fact that
the middle class are here the great
oody of the people. Recent immigra-
| tIon mas given us a Catholic lower
class, but we have not vet higher
class. We have no nobility. and hard
iy a gentry. The mass of orr neonIa
are the English middle class and here
even more than in the mother country
nammon worshipers. An American
/ metropolis is only an English provin-
clal town. This constitutes not ONLY
tne great obstacle to conversion-for
our people welded to the world. bent
on riches, or on political distinction
will not become Catholics thouob fbev
may be excellent Protestants. or still
more excellent Nothingarians-bu If
also constitutes the chief diff1cuItv in
preserving our existing Catholic nonu
lation faithful to the church. We lose
adult Catholics through the influence
of mammon. While our Catholics orn
poor. laborers and servant girls tbav
are faithful, and most of them as good
as the day is long, but when they begin
10 prosper in the world, they-or, if not
they, their children-fau in with tha
nf
| become no better than Professionals
This is temptation against which ON
Catholic population have not as vet
been sufficiently on their guard
The responsibility on which count
IS not the responsibility which rests on
| wealth or place for its basis. but that
which rests on intelligence and virtue
The non-Catholic community looks
| upon poverty as crime and Furnishes
Il as such, and we can hardly hone to
see them seeking any other respecta-
Dlnty imam that which rests on worldly
| wealth, or worldly success. But orr
| Catholic population is not VET clean
gone; it still has a conscience. a Chris
| tan sense, and is able to aDnreciate
moral responsibility, and to reverence
| worth though living in obscuritv and
clothed with rags. Through them the
| Christian standard of resnecta biIitv
may and will be erected in this coun-
try, and with the increase of their
numbers, their intelligence. aud their
Christian virtues they will have a
| greater. influence in checking mammon
worship among non Catholics. and in
disposing them to listen with more
reverence and docility to the TEACHINGS
| of the church,
| CONVERSATION VI.
1T strikes me" said De Bonneville
as singular that Catholics are almost
universally inclined in the United KineS