The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1905-04-10
LIBERAL CATHOLICS.
Extracts From Sermon Delivered Sunday
at the Church of the Immaculate
Conception.

Nature IS one with nature
grace with grace; the world ther
witnesses against you by being gooc
friends with you; you could not
have gone on with the world Sc
well without surrendering some
thing which was precious and sacr-
ed. The world likes YOU, and all but
your professed creed, distinguishes
YOU from yorr creed in its iudg-
ments of you, and would fam sepa-
rate you from it in fact. Men say.
These persons are better than
their church; but Catholics are not
what they were; they are very
much like other men, now. Their
creed IS certainly bigoted and cruel,
but what would you have Of them?
You cannot expect them to confess
this; let them change quietly, no
one changes III public; be satisfied
that they are changed. They are
as fond Of the world as we are;
they>fake up political objects as
warmly; they like their own way
Just as well, they do not like
strictness a whit better; they
hate spiritual thralldom, and they
are half ashamed of the Pope and
his councils. They hardly believe
any miracles now, and are annoyed
when their own brethren officially
proclaim them; they never speak
of Purgatory, they avoid the subject
of Indulgences, and they will not
commit themselves to the doctrine
of exclusive salvation. The
Catholic doctrines are now mere
badges of party. Catholics think
of themselves and judge for them
selves, Just as we do; they are kept
in their church by point of honor,
and a reluctance at seeming to
abandon a fallen cause.
Such is the judgment of the
world and Won are shocked to hear
it-but may it not be that the
world knows more about you than
you know about YOURSELF" (New-
mani.
The Rev. A. A. Berle, { CON
gregational minister OF Boston,
once said: Applied to religion,
and especially to christianity, the
term liberalism has become the
symbol of-the worst forms of IRA
nonalism and nonsense. It has
been the beautiful veneer for
atheism and unbelief. 1t has be-
come the rallying point for un-
goodness and every form of crime.
Liberalism in religion IS a contra
diction in terms. If man 5 religion
has to him the authority and sig
niicance religion ought to have,
then he can no more be liberal
with it than he can with the axioms
of geometry. 1t is one of the signs
of the mental and spiritual delu-
sions that prevail that men sup
pose they can be more liberal with
their religion than they can with
their lodges, or broader with their
religion than they are with their
cash balance"
What is a liberal" Catholic? A
man or woman specifically in
sructed on the secular sideand still
more lightly on the religious side.
He knows the words of the prin-
cipal articles of faith, but not their
spirit. His religious practic IS
cold Journalism He would fear to
die without priest or Sacranents,
but he is not afraid to live with
scant recourse to them.
He suspects there is some truth
in the allegations brought by its
enemies against the Church. He
is sure that il Is narrow and I'M
progressive. He often wishes
though he would not put his wish
into words that he had been born
out of the Church. with a heritage
of inyincible ignorance.
While not bold enough to break
absolutely with the Church, he
thinks to placate non-Catholics by
showing how much more broad
minded and progressive he is than
his religion: and how hard it is for
him to find congenial associates