The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-05-18
REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM.

Editor Intermountain Catholic: Knowing the
nroads made by infdety against Christianity,
knowing also that the great success of the former
is partially due TO the endless warfare between the
different sects and churches the'question suggests
itself. why do not the different churches unite III
solid phalanx against the common enemy! The
Anglican and Roman churches could compromise
by giving and taking" in their differences They
did once before during the reign of Queen Mary.
If so why not again. l read in the Lamp, the or
gan of the high church many articles which would
indicate disposition to throw down the gauntlet
and seek for reunion The recent utterances and
articles of DIR. Briggs on the papacy indicate a
similar tone. Until reunion takes place ] see no
efficient way TO stem the tide of infdelity, or de
creasng lis unnatural growth. What does editor
think of these suggestions! CHRISTIAN.
Salt Lake, May IS, 1907.
We gave space to the above communications
because it voices the concliating attitude of one
who is well disposed, and who would glory in the
triumph of Christianity. There is no doubt but
the endless warfare between Christian churches
to which he refers, has served to drive many whose
forefathers were staunch Christian believers into
the ranks if not of open and avowed unbelievers,
at least into that of Indifference or agnostcism.
The failure of Christian missionaries among the
heathens. told is due to the fact that those
missionaries disagree so much among themselves.
As to the question: "Why do not the different
churches unite in solid phalanx against common
enemy" The answer is, because the descendants
of those who first broke the union are unwilling TO
retrace their steps and come back to where their
ancestors stood before they became disunited. For
thousand years before the reformation there was
Anglican church English Catholics were sub
missive to the Holy See, and with it in doc
trine, devotion and practice. Our correspondent
refers to the Lamp. In its last ISSUE May, No. 5,
vol. ), Rev. Arthur Lloyd, NJ. A. tells How Cor
porate Reunion May Be Brought About"
IF I were commissioned to set to work at eff
fecting a reunion, l should begin by asking His
Holiness the Pope to make a restatement from be-
ginning to end of the Catholic faith. Such state
ment would contain everything upon which Ro
man and Anglican are agreed, the whole of the Nj
Gene Symbol for instance. and would so far be best
expressed in the old familiar words 1t would also
contain many things about which there is differ
ence of opinion, such as, e. g., transubstantaton
invocation of saints, etc, Here the restatement
would not change the doctrine of the Catholic
church, it would merely restate it in the language
of the twentieth century when Christian men are
seeking to return to the realization of the one
body, instead of in the angry language of the six
teenth century controversiasts What a differ
ence there is between a gentle way of putting
things and quarrelsome one9 feel sure that
many of the controverted doctrines could be
o1
be accepted by all"
We see no necessity of appealing to the Holy
Father for restatement of Catholic faith 1t is
given in the simplest language in the Apostles
Greed. Rev. Arthur Lloyd referring to difference
of opinion selects for his example ''Transubstan-
tiation, the Invocation of the Saints" He keeps
in the background the real difficulty for
"a corporate reunion and that is the
and recognition of the
Papaey a divinely appointed institution.
This is opposed to the claims of rtualsts who
maintain that Anglicanism is authoritatively and
correct Those two claims are antag-
onistic, and with two opposing claims there could
be no reunion On the hypothesis that one is true,
the other is false and truth and error cannot coal
esce 1t would be deiusien to attempt reunion
this essential point
Our correspondent directs attention to what &C.
Cured during the reign of Queen Mary. whe was
the legitimate and only surviving child of Henry
VIII, and Catherine of Aragen. When Henry
VIII. was divorced from Catherine in 1888, Mary
was adjudged illegltimate, Edward VI. son of
Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, succeeded his
father as King of England After his death, 1858
Mary succeeded to the threne The religion estab-
ished by her father and continued by her half