The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-04-11
MODERN PROGRESS.
Father Pardow, S. j., on the Attitude
of the Church

!
of the Church
| The course of Lenten sermons Father
| William O'Brien Pardow, S. J.. is de-
hvering at st. Patrick's cathedral, New
| York City, has attracted a great deal
/ of attention throughout the city, with
the result that every Sunday at high
Mass the cathedral is crowded to its
full capacity. Father Pardow's subject
last Sunday was The Catholic Church
and the Age" but he began mis- ad-
dress by referring to newspaper com
nents on his previous discussion of the
church's attitude to science In part
he said:
Il have no doubt that some of nv
hearers have been accustomed to pic
ture Calico on the rack of the Inuuisi-
ton Modern investigation has relegat-
ed this picture to the nursery. There
was no rack, no torture, no dungeon.
More than a hundred years before Ga
i-llleo's time the movement of the earth
around the sun was taught by cardi-
nal of the Catholic church. Nicholas of
Cusa, and Copernicus, who gave the
name to the system, was a Catholic
priest. This does not look as if the
church was opposed to the doctrine that
the earth moves.
In all this discussion which has been
going on for years, when so much is
said about the opposition of the Catho-
lie church to science, is it not strange
that those who state that they are anX-
1ous to have the world get at the truth
never inform their readers or hearers
of the Protestant opposition to science?
Yet kepler. who was a Lutheran, had
to leave the Protestant University of
Tubfngin because he taught the motion
No a,.th
Catholic College of Gratz, and was Of
fered a chair in the University of Pa
Qua by Catholic Venice Is it not
also strange that nothing is said about
Luther's own opposition to the sys-
tenn? Yet Luther, writing about the
famous Catholic astronomer, Coperni-
Gus, speaks as follows People give
ear to an upstart astrologer who strives
to show that the earth revolves, not
the heavens, nor the armament, nor the
sun and moon. Whoever wishes to APP
pear clever must devise some new sys-
tem which of all systems is, of course,
the very best. This fool wishes to re-
verse the entire science of astronomy,
but sacred Scripture tells us that Josh
ua commanded the sun to stand still,
not the earth
p The twentieth century is anxious to
know the exact truth. The exact truth
Is this: The Pope urged Calico to
maintain the movement of the earth as
an astronomical hypothesis, but Calico
insisted that the Pope should declare
MS system as the only one that was
really founded on the Bible.
Besides it's claim to be scientific, the
age also boasts of other characters
tics. Every age is supposed to have
some special mode of thought. Like
most sayings which pass muster with
out challenge, this one carries a good
deal of error mixed with some grains
of truth Scratch a Russian and you
will find Tartar. So, scratch little
of the veneering of the nineteenth CEN
find beneath the surface what st. Pc
ter found when, nineteen hundred
years ago, he knocked at the gates of
Rome; what st. found when he
faced the cultured audience of Athens.
Underneath the tinsel and the show
You will discover the concupiscence of
the eyes and the pride of life.
This explains the opposition of the
world to the church in all ages. The
age wishes society to be governed sim
ply and entirely for the sake of this
world. Such is the philosophy and prac-
tice of the world. But the church
L
puts in the first place the individual
and society in the second. The church
considers that if she is to benefit the
world at large she should center all of
her powers on each individual soul.
This age has been facing very funda
mental problems, the clashing of con-
tending interests, labor and capital, be-
lief and agnosticism. Principles that
underlie the very foundations of the
church and the nation are being called ,
in question on all sides.
Our president has lately uttered a |
note of warning which has re-echoed |
throughout the world. He has called
to the fact that. if the United |
States counted for it's future life only |
on Anglo Saxon blood, we should soon
have to take our place alongside the
third-rate nations. He was teaching
Catholic doctrine.
1T has been frequently said that
what supports the nation is not the
battleship with its thirteen-inch guns |
but that the real power is the man be
hind the gun. This is true, but it is not |
the whole truth. There is a power |
greater than the man behind the gun;
that is the woman beside the cradle.
This is the question that the age
must face for the hand that rocks !
the cradle rules the world. If woman
were not true to her responsibilities /
and obligations there would be no man
behind the gun.
Are not members of the Protestant |
clergy coming to our Catholic priests, !
asking them to lend their assistance !
in taking action against the awful |
plague of divorce which threatens our
land?
II am not sure. because the Stars
and Stripes top every public school, |
that therefore true patriotism is taught |
to the children of the nation. We |
Catholics are patriots, and his blood !
be on the head of the man who declares |
the contrary. Catholic blood has been
poured out like water when the coun-
try called for it. We Catholics want |
the whole flag, and we support all the |
principles which underlie a good gov
Father Parlow preached his last SER
mon of this course at the cathedral |
Sunday morning, March 20, on 1.-THE
Catholic Church and the Bible
He Got Out.