The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-05-22
OUTSIDE THE FOLD.

We have III hands at the present time a
ries of articles from the pen of our esteemed con-
tributor, +. d., dealing with the Church and those
false systems of religion outside Her fold. The
first of this series of articles will appear in our
columns next week and we feel sure that they will
form interesting and instructive reading to our
Catholic and non-C Catholic friends. especially the
latter, for it is our experience that Protestants as
q general rule know very little about the Catholic
Church Her teaching, and the little they do know
they get from polluted sources. Roughly speaking,
the Protestant world can be divided into four
classes. First, there are those who look upon the
Catholic Church the real DOGGY man. Educated
from their infancy in Protestant principles they
consider Professionalism the safeguard of liberty and
the root of all that is good and great in this world
while, the other hand, they look upon the Cath
otic Church as the symbol of slavery and Her doc
trines rank superstition This class. of course, pro-
fess that they know all about the doctrines of the
Catholic Church. You ask them where did they
derive their knowledge of Her. Was it from self
study of Her! No, she Is unworthy of their serious
considerations they heard all about her from their
minister, and he showed her up in false light, he
knew as much about her doctrines and her ritual
tons, If they did not derive their knowledge of the
Catholic Church from their minister they got it
from unworthy historians INSCRIPTIONS calumn-
atlng authors or sensational preachers whose motto
is Cause sensation and you'll fill your pocket
These people will never come and ask the priests
or the other authorities of the Catholic Church of
these things they read about in books or hear about
are true-no. Preacher Goody? or Historian One
Side has held up to their gaze the denominations of
the Scarlet Woman, and of course what they say is
truer than two and two make four
There is second class OF non Catholics who
know that the Catholic Church is the true Church
the Church which Christ has founded and vet for
certain will not join it. The first of those
reasons is: their fathers and grandfathers were
Protesants and they do not like to abandon the re-
ligion they were brought up in; it would be a slur
they think upon their relations and their other Prot
estant friends would cut them off Secondly Prot
estants of this frame of mind belong. perhaps TO
some secret society condemned by the Catholic
Church, and they cannot join the Church without
giving up this society, and that is thing they
cannot do.
third class of non Catholics are those who
imagine that 1t is not necessary to belong to any
church, that the Catholic Church is all right and ev-
cry other church, too, for that matter. A Scotch
man OF our acquaintance represents this class of
people to nicely Meeting him one day at the foot
OF high mountain the subject of conversation
turned on religion and the number of those saved.
"We will all be saved" he assured us in broad
Scotch, and turning to the mountain he said: "Look
here 1t IS just like this Suppose Heaven is at the
top of that mountain. Well | am climbing up to
it on one side. the Baptiss the other the Epsco
palians on another ledge and you are climbing the
hardest ledge of all. But you'll get there all right
and he rubbed his hands at the thought of how easy
1t all was. We could not refrain from saying to
this free and easy Scotch theoogian I'VE hope all
OF US will reach the top but we are afraid there will
be faces missing, for many will lose their way in the
fog"