The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-12-24
QUESTION BOX ANSWERS
By Rev Bertrand L. Conway, Paulist
ertrand L. Conway, Paulist

fully against his conscience, gravely in
suits Christ, and is guilty of grievous
SIN. Again a man who graveIy doubts
about his own belief and refuses to
study the Catholic claim, sins against
! the light.
How absurd to think that we believe
! all Catholics are TO be saved by the
] very fact of their being Catholics. when
the Council of Trent teaches expressly
/ against Luther that no one can ever be
! absolutely certain of salvation. (Sess.
Vi, de Just, can. 15.)
With regard to pagans, it is the
teaching of the church that God sin
cerely wills all men to be saved. and
that he gives sufficient grace to all
men, pagan or Christian, for salvation
/ 1t follows, therefore, logically, no pa
/ gan is lost except by his own fault. 1t
! is an old axiom of the schools, God
will not refuse his grace to any man
that does the best he cam (what lies
! in his power) Du Blanchy, "Exera
/ Ecclesiam non est saIus'; HerEen-
rother. Church and State" vol. xvii.
par. 3D.
Intelligent non-Catholics recognize
clearly the true sense of this formula,
and the boundless charity and hatred
of intolerance that marks the spirit of
the Catholic church. Mallock writes:
There is no point, probably, connected
with this question, about which the
general world is so misinformed and
ignorant as the sober but bounu.ess
charity of what is called the anathe-
matizing church. So little indeed is
this charity understood generally, that
to assert il seems a startling paradox.
1t is the simple statement of a
fact. Never was there a religious body,
except the Roman, that laid the intense
stress she. does. on all her dogmatic
teachings, and had yet the justice that
comes of sympathy for those that can
not receive them. .. The holy and
humble men of heart who do not know
her. or who in good faith reject her
she commits with confidence to Gods
uncovenanted. smercies; and these she
knows are infinite. The ana
themas are on none but those who re-
ject her with their eyes open, by tam
pering with a conviction that she really
is the truth. These are condemned,
not for not seeing that the teacher is
true, hut because, having really seen
this, they continue to close their eyes
to it. They will not obey when they
know they ought to obey, CTS Llfe
Worth Living?" CHI. XII, 2S3-2S5). A
Catholic could not state the doctrine
more clearly.
If I can be saved outside the Cath
Ole church, what is the use of my join
ing it? ---------...--.-.---
One might as well ask: If can
swim across the Hudson river, why
should l pay cents to ride in a ferry
boat?
Jesus Christ was a divine teacher,
who commanded US to believe all his
teachings under penalty of damnation,
and divine organizer who commanded
US to join his society, the Catholic
church. He that believeth not shall
be condemned mark xvi, $50; Teach
ing all things" Matt. xviii, 20); IF
he will not hear the church, let him be
to thee as the heather or publican
Matt. Xviii, 10. The Catholic church
alone preache the entire gospel. and
in her inner and outer life is the ordi-
nary way OF salvation God gave to men. |
As a nom Catholic, therefore, you are, |
even if inculpably outside the church, |
deprived of much of Gods revelation, |
and many of his helps for salvation; V. |
g., Penance, the Eucharist, the Sacri- |
flee of the Mass.
Again, if Gods grace urge you to
join his true church, and you hesitate |
about studying her claims because you !
dread the opposition of relatives and |
friends, the anxiety and worry of pro-
tracted study, the loss of political or !
social position, the burden of new obli- !
gations-like obligatory Sunday mass
or confession-there is no possibility /
of your salvation, because you are
false to conscience. How many a doubt
ing soul, utterly unable to swear on
the gospel that their sect is the one
true church of Christ. and unwilling
to die for that belief, yet refuses to do
away with his doubts by study and
prayer. We. cannot remain Indifferent
to our eternal welfare without forfeit
Eli g