The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-08-17
A REUNITED CHURCH.

recent proposal coming from a secular min
lister, to have the Pope call conference represent
ing all the churches in endeavor to find way;
and means to stem the growing infidelity of the
world and the consequent lack of common honesty
and Christian ideals among the people, at least rec
ognizes the Pope as the head of mighty force fol
good. Whether conference of this character wouiC
result in reuniting the Christian churches under tht
| leadership of the successor to st, Peter is, 81
course, question which only trying can answer
That the Christian world is not now as idealistiC
Christian it might be is only too evident to any
one who observes the doings of the people. Nc
doubt the leading cause for the suggestion that the
Pope put forth this extraordinary effort is recog
milton of the loss of spirituality as evidenced by
disclosures of graft and corruption in civic and
business life which have stirred the nation to it's
depths.
1t is useless at this late date to regret the work
of reformers who broke away from Gods church
and organized themselves into church bodies in OPP
position to the teachings of the Catholic church.
1t is also useless to speculate what would be the
present condition of society if there had been no
reformation. The reformation is an accomplished
fact and it has taken only four centuries of heret
zeal teaching to bring the world into its present
deplorable condition of unbelief.
For the good of society, to promote equity and
justice, if not for the far important work of
the salvation of sinners, the present status of the
Christian UNCONVENTIONAL churches needs to be
looked into. In the first place, their Christianity
is pleasant one The people believe what they
IL L
seek broader church, wherein hell is elm
mated being contrary to twentieth century en-
ightenment. Jesus Christ has been reduced from
divinity to mere man and God is held as another
name for Nature all in the light of scientific
knowledge, so called. Between the Catholic doc
trines taught by Christ and his apostles through
out the twenty centuries of the Christian era and
the most "liberal" church which calls itself Chris
tan, one may find all shades of religious belief
religion to fit nearly every conscience and furnish
a mask for nearly every species Of hypocrisy the
world knows.
If the call for a conference is for the purpose
of reuniting Christendom through system of com
promises, then will it prove a disappointment 20
those outside the pale of the Catholic church. Firm
in the knowledge that it is right intrenched upon
the Rock of Peter the Catholic church make
no compromise; it must go on to eternity, and 1t
will go on as it was founded by the Son of God
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
But if the call represents sincere desire to return
to the teachings of Christ and thus present to the
world a united force to combat the forces of the
devil, then do we welcome it.
Reconciliation and reunion of all the churches
can never be complete until great unbiased
mind carefully analyses the causes leading up to
the reformation 1t must be recognized that the
old union of church and state was an accident il
the development of civilized government and was
not essential part of Catholic doctrine that the
separation in no way impaired the divine side Of
Catholicism; that the temporal authority exercised
by the Pope was sought by rather than thrust upon
the people. If we had careful analysis OF the
politics of the sixteenth century, knowledge of
economic conditions. could read the intrigues of
temporal sovereigns to perpetuate their authority
over their subjects, could their wickedness and
violation of all laws human and divine, could hear
the people cry out at the injustice, perhaps we
might see the church made the scapegoat for all
the evils the people suffered, and the cry, Down
with the papacy,' means of hiding the real OPP
pressors the kings and queens and temporal rulers,
who may have been not only primarily, but entirely,
to blame. The emancipation which was sought and
which the people believed would follow the disrup
ton of the power of the church only after the
reformation of temporal rulers: America is not
the land of liberty because of the sixteenth century
but because the oppression of the Brit
ish king was overthrown There was little tenn
poral good accomplished by the reformation. Peo
pie have since been oppressed even more sorely by
rulers of different lands and by trusts and corpora
items today, and the loss to the reformers of an in