The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-10-17
BE REASONABLE.

When the encyclical letter of the Pope of Rome
was promulgated against Modernism" there was
great manifestation of JOY among our Protestant
friends. They hailed it with delight as indicating
spirit of opposition to the newer theories of sci
ence, and manifestng a sort of opposition to
progress in matters of the world. As matter of
fact however, there is description in the condem-
nation promulgated by the head of the church which
can in any way to impede the progress of the
world in matters spiritual, moral or scientific In
stead of trying obscure the truth the church now
seeks and always has sought, by every means within
It's power, to encourage examination of its claims as
the true church If this were not so how in
the world could it appeal to the peoples of the earth
for converts? And how could it win the vast num-
bers who annually return to its fold from every
other denomination under the sun? Everybody
ought to investigate the claims of the Catholic
church before condemning it. 1t has no dark Sc,
crets hidden away from the view of the world. 1t
courts, encourages and urges investigation of its
claims it believes that everybody should know the
truths of the church; that everybody should know
the history of the church and the reasons which are
behind its forms of worship and the meanings of
its sacraments.
The evidence afforded by the words of our
Savior, as recorded in the New Testament, is so
strong that any who reads it intelligently must
know absolutely that the Son of God established a
Church to carry on the work after He assembled to
His Father. Furthermore, the evidence is so strong
that he established only one church-not confu-
sion of some three hundred odd churches as we have
at present in America, but one church-that all
who read Understandings must know it. The
ad e
many UNCONVENTIONAL churches, each with more or
less Of the truth in them, are many if considered in
the light of human understanding of the word of
God, but when all these causes are traced to their
source, it will be found that the Bible-the word of
God-as interpreted by man, is the sole agency for
the misunderstanding which have resulted in the
multitude of sects. The reason is that the Bible
is not an infalibe teacher. The different denomna-
tons base their belief on individual interpretations
of the sacred text and as there are many apparent
contradictions in the Bible the proof of the falli
bility of the Bible as a teacher is made manifest
Jesus Christ gave to ST. Peter the promise of
infallibility to teach without error the word-to
st. Peter and his successors. In addressing ST. Pc
ter, our Lord said (St Luke xxi, SD: "Simon,
Simon. behold Satan has desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat; but | have prayed for
thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou being con-
verted, confirm thy brethren"
Jesus Christ prayed for Simon, that his faith
fail not Is it reasonable to suppose that Lord
would have prayed TO His Father for one man unless
that man had been selected to carry on the work of
his Master? 1t does not seem So And that this
man did have a great work before him is evidenced
further by the words of our Lord when he said
(Nfath xvi, 10; BLESSED art thou, Simon Bar
iona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it
to thee but my Father who is in heaven, and say
to thee: thou art Peter and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against it."
Thus we see that the infallibility of teacher
was bestowed upon the church and that the divine
commission was likewise bestowed upon Peter. For
sixteen hundred years there was but church. but
false prophets led the first great schisn and false
prophets have broken that first great schsm into
hundreds of Others, while the true church has
continuously taught the same Interchangeable doc