The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-10-14
SUCCESSION UNBROKEN
FROM PETER TO Plus
CONTINUED from Pace

The Church is not merely an aggregate of midi
viduas but it is the outgrowth and continuation of
the Incarnation. Its essence and life are not made
up of or consist in, its head and clergy any more
than the United States is the president senate CON
gress and supreme court Like the latter, the for
mer are the officers, organs and servants of living
organic bodies; and though used by both, not
the Church i'll the Catholic sense. nor the United
States according to common sense In the United
States. according to the constitution derived from
the logic of necessity there must be always pres
dent who is the visible head of the nation We can
not conceive Christ, the Son of God. founding a
Church and failing in the most essential point,
namely the appointment of a visible head which
human wisdom carefully provides for i'll all its
| institutions.
The proofs that St Peter was appointed the
Prince of the Apostles, the visible head of the
Church, are as clear and convincing as any ev-
dence we have that George Washington was twice
elected president of the United States. But the
heresarch, like the anarchist, aims every blow at
the head which is the center OF authority.
The editor of the advance" denies all histor-
zeal evidence His prejudces against the Church
are strong and deep-rooted. but the only questions
at issue between him and the writer are, Did Christ
establish Church with authority to teach. And,
if so, is this church the Catholic or the Baptist.
This authority, established >forecoses all de
bate on particular questions abuses which may
have sprung up from time to time and which be
long i'll no sense to the divine element OF the
Church. To condemn our form OF government be
cause one OF more of its officials who are its serv
ants violate their oaths and betray the trust I'M
posed upon Them would be on par with the con-
demnation and rejection of the Church founded by
Christ because of the actions or deeds of some OF
its officers Among the twelve apostles, one be-
trayed his Master. Here is the human side of the
Church.
The editor claims that ''the line of succession
has been repeatedly broken" Why, instead of max
ing vague assertions. does he not down to
particulars! Historically, the papacy has existed,
without any break or defect of continuity from the
days of Peter down to the present. Its unbroken
existence from that time to this cannot be ques-
toned 1t can as easily and with the same histor-
zeal evidence be proved that Plus X. Is the sue
cessor of st. Peter III the Roman See as it can be
shown that Theodore Roosevelt is the successor in
the presidency of the United States of George
Washington, Notwithstanding the schism of Jeffer-
son Davis to the contrary.
With this grand fact before our eyes, the long
list of Popes, the time their reign began and
ended-the assertion that the line of success
ion was ever broken is idle and vain. This is the
general verdict even of Protestants, namely. that
the Catholic Church the true Church, and
that she can trace her geneaogy back step by step,
to Christ. 1t remains, then for the editor of the
Little Rock journal i'll combating the Big Rock
PeterJ to show and prove when the Church con-
Quoted guided and assisted by the spirit of
truth to teach the true faith. ceased to
be the Church established by her divine founder.
He cannot deny that she is still His Church. unless
he proves clearly that she has changed But she
never changes. She has no past history. She is
always and everywhere present. Her very name
Embellishments a living and universal presence,
both In time and in space. No historical research
can convict her of having fallen into schism or of
having taught at one time doctrine which is now
obsolete, or of teaching now doctrine that was
not uniformly taught from the beginning. For
twenty centuries she has withstood the prosecutions
of pagan rulers, the savage fury of the wild bar
barians whom she ultimately civilized. the strong
storms of human passions and after this long lapse
she still is as young, beautiful and-vigosyis as
when her first Pontif returned to Rome to seal his
supreme authority with his blood. F. d.