The Irish standard., 1904-10-08
pressing duties of the hour, and every
true friend of ireland will set himself
speedily and earnestly to work toward
such a blessed end.
A PROPOSITION DEFINED.

A PROPOSITION DEFINED.
An important and very able article
has recently been contributed to the
press by Rev. R. F. Clarke, s. J. In
relation to the possibility Of salvation
for those not formally united to the
Catholic church, Father Clarke says:
"In the sects which accept the de-
vinity Of Christ there not only is
possibility Of salvation, but there are
hundreds and thousands of their men,
bers who have united to Christ by
faith, hope and charity, and die in the
grace and love of God. Those belong
to what is called the soul of the
church, though not to its body"
Such as these, the reverend father
explains, are those who live and die
in good faith as to their religious sect
being the true church. The definition
of the proposition laid down is of such
great Importance that we quote the
eminent divine's exact words. He
says:
"a man is said to be in good faith
with regard to the religion that he pro-
fesses when in his heart he firmly be-
lieves it to be the true religion and
when there is present to his mind no
serious doubt which shakes his con-
fidence in 1t. He is in bad faith when
he does not believe it to be the true
religion or when he is inclined to
think that there is some other religion
which is equally in the possession of
the truth or still more so. But this
is not all. What have laid down are
the conditions Of good faith in the
present. In order to constitute the
good faith required for the virtue Of
divine faith, it is also necessary that
he should never, in the course Of his
whole life, have had such q serious
doubt about his own religion or such
a strong conviction that some other
religion was true as to lay upon him
the obligation at least of further in
quiry, and this under pain Of serious
sin. With this definition before us we
can easily lay. down the necessary con-
ditions of good faith among those out
side the church. He who has never
once doubted the truth of Protestant
ism is in good faith; he who has once
seriously doubted about it's truth or has
entertained Il strong suspicion that
the Catholic church, and it alone, is
the true church of Jesus Christ, and
has put his doubts aside and not fol-
lowed them up. cannot be said to be
in good faith. 1t is not necessary to
bad faith that he should ut the pres
cnt moment be conscious of the fals-
ty of the religion lie processes or that
he should be in Il state of doubt. He
may be perfectly satisfied at the pres
ont time Of his orthodoxy, he may
have no sort of attraction to the Cath
olic church, he may even hate and
condemn her, vet the mere fact that
at some previous period of his life he
suspected the existence of Il religion
nobler truer. holier than his Own and
that through Indifference or self-intcr-
est or pride or human respect, or some
other tie binding him down to earth,
he put that suspicion aside. deprives
him Of the plea of good faith and
makes him responsible before God for
the heresy from which at one time
he might have escaped, but through
his own fault did not. The initial
grace was given him, that was intend
ed by Almighty God to lead on to
other graces, which, if accepted,
would have eliminated in the grace
of conversion. But that initial grace
was lost to him through his own
fault. The seed was sown, but the
birds of the air devoured it,
The true teachings of Catholicity
are here we'll exemplified and the doc
trine laid down by Father Clarke is
a consoling one. Not merely is it a
solace, but it is warning in this age
of professed enlightenment when men
know so much about the decadent
cults and so little about the Catholic
church and it's precepts.