The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-05-02
"MUTILATED CIVILIZATION"

The hand of man has never painted picture Of
human impiety and degradation more terrible than
that which the Holy Ghost has drawn with the pen
eli of light in the beginning of the Epistle of St
Paul to the Romans. The world then knew not God
and because it had not the knowledge of the true
God and did not worship him. it became corrupt
and fell into the very abyss of lust and cruelty
Today, outside the Catholic Church. the world is
threatened with the loss of its Christian civliza-
tion and a return to something worse than the In
telectual conditions of the heather. It's moral
state cannot by any association of conditions reach
lower level than that touched by Greek and Ro-
But our civilization is threatened with the
evocation of monster which the ancient world
hardly knew by name There was Polytheism and
Pantheism, but Atheism was rarely to be found or
heard Of
Now however, we have schools of scientists and
men wise in their own conceit who profess to know
nothing Of God, who contend that He is unknown
and unknowable; and that that which no man can
know, he is not bound to know
We have come to time when men boast of prog
ress and gorify themselves in material civilization
They not satisfied to condemn all that has gone
before US in modern civilization. but. and bv way
my of civilization. because when these men nreach
progress, the Church shakes her head and asks of
these men what they going to substitute for the
civilization of Christianity She asks of these wise
men: If we are progressing. let us know what and
where we are going; let us know what we are de- I
parting from; if are to have another and
higher civilization, tell us what are the principles Of
your new civilization, and what. according TO Won
is to be the result?"
II II IS to be civilization based upon the Unity
OF Truth the liberty of worship and the education
OF the intellect the viii and the heart. then Garth
ones were and are among the foremost Apostles
ana Evangelsts Of such civilization: but if If is
10 be material civilization. without the govern
lhent OF the Will. and of ravenous greed to baan
up wealth for the indulgence of human life then
the Church and her members stand for opposition
to this mutilated civilization.
The times in which we live are times :, ,-l,;.l
here IS, in Europe and America an orga,;zod ,.oa
stent and deliberate conspiracy 70 dos4rar a..
hnstlan civilization of the world which, Ill
low mas been Its dignity and protection Thai vast
'nu organized conspiracy IS made up of those who
lever yet believed IN Jesus Christ and of mann. VII
ad been illuminated with the light of Christie,
attn who had apostatized from If. who bod ST.
nfoTn away Christian morality, and were then
aiSeraDly misled and perverted by the craft and !;
unnlng' by the speech and writings Of ,ne,, NJ, !
enounced the existence of Jesus Christ # not ~
roo Himself Let Us add to these the great r+i4,,d
hght-headed people who are full Of uoder,, tlo-
RES about liberty and freedom of thought. neonlo i
lsuPerncla! culture, who are caught bv marty 9
'0cD "oros and who band themselves together 70
md their help to destroy the Christian religion and
hrlstian civilization without knowing what tbe,,
re doing. The professors of the Chicago univer- Il
ty the Loebs. the Triggs the Zebuons whom the n
mcago World irreverently terms aIong-baired n
eaks and the specialists who write learned deser "
uons on the Maxsry of the Mastodon and the n
1rtebrae OF frogs are fair representatives of an a
her class Of men whose aim is the separation Of "
e Christian faith from the public order of the Il