The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-09-05
CATHOLIC HISTORY.
CONTINUED from page u

tablshed institution for preserving intact and adj
vanclng the Christian religion and that church may
be described visible well-defned and organized
moral body, or society, established by Christ the
lmperlshable soul of which is the Holy Ghost
10 the non-Catholc who views the Catholic
church as simply human institution her perpetu-
ty and lndestructibility will remain an insol
uble problem The Catholic however, is confronted
with no rational difficulty he compares the church
to the human body, dfferentiating, of course the
natural from the supernatural, the human from the
divine
As the vital principle of the human body is
the indestructble soul animating all its parts and
every atom of its physical being the mperishabe
soul of the Catholic church is the Holy Ghost.
Now so long the soul remains with the body,
man lives and acts. and so long as the Holy Spirit
the animating principle of the corporate body of
the church abdes within it, the church cannot per-
ish. And, have the ever-abiding word of our
Blessed Redeemer that the HOLY Ghost would be
with the church until the end of time, the church
must live while time endures.
Nor is her Immortality limited by locality for
her influence, within her own sphere. is rs far
reaching the all powerful arm of the Eternal
Father
That distinguished French philosopher Joseph
De Maistre. from the study of the religious
movements of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth CEN
turtles with the conviction that "Heresy can never
successfully compete with. hold its own against
the Catholic church, unless supported by the strong
arm of military power"
Equally strong is the expression of wonder on
the part of the Protestant historian James Anthony
Fronde. In his work on the Revival of Roman
ISM he tells that "The tide of knowledge and
the tide of outward events have set with equal force
in the direction opposite to Romanism. Yet. in
spite of it, perhaps by Of it, as a kite rises
against the wind, the Roman Catholic church has
once more shot up into visible and practical conse-
quence. If she loses ground in Spain and Italy,
she is gaining in the MODERN energetic races which
have been the stronghold of Professionalism. Her
members increase, her organization gathers vigor,
her clergy are energetic and aggressive. She has
taken into her service. her old enemy. the press
What is the meaning" he asks, ''of so strange a
phenomenon. Is it because science is creeping like
snake upon the ground eating dust and bringing
forth materialsm. that the Catholic church. in spite
of her errors keeps alive the consciousness of our
spiritual being the hope and expectation of our i'm
mortalty!''
In another part of this remarkable essay he
claims that: "Rome counts her converts from
Professionalism by tens while she loses but here and
there an uni1nportant unit"
Some years before the tide of conversions had
set in toward the Catholic church III Europe and
America, and when Mr. Fronde was beginning to
emerge from obscurity, Lord Macauev was examin-
ing the mystery of the indestructbilitv of the
Catholic church. "There is not" he exclaims. "and
there never was on this earth an institution of
human policy so deserving of examination as the
Roman Catholic church"