The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-01-27

dogmatic-full OF grace, but also OF
truth; and full OF grace because full
OF truth.
All Doctrines Taught by Christ Must
BE Believed.
The cry is heard: Hold as you will
to the vital dogmas of the Christian
system: but bring not discord into
Christendom by insisting upon minor
dogmas without which the work of
Jesus in saving souls still would at
tain it's end. How desirable, for ex-
ample, the reunion of Christendom
and how easy this should be, if the
several communions-notably the
Catholic Church-were willing to
make concessions, retaining in their
respective creeds only such dogmas as
are substantial and uniting In setting
forth programme upon which all
must agree.
Well, from the Catholic Church,
even in the interest of reunion for
which Catholics earnestly sigh and
pray, no concessions in doctrines need
be expected: none will it make; none
can it make under penalty of re-
nouncing it's high mission, as the
bearer to the world of the message
entrusted to it by the Master. BY
what right should the Church Of
Jesus allow distinction of dogmas
into vital and incidental, where Jesus
made no such distinction? By what
right should the Church Judge, where
Jesus did not judge and note as Incl
dental and unnecessary of belief one
single truth fallen from the lips of the
Incarnate God? To every part of his
revelation there was divine purpose,
and this purpose none may with i'm
punity Illustrate. And, then, doctrinal
disintegregation once begun, where
shall it logically stop? If one dogma
in the revelation of Jesus ceases to
command acceptance, why should an-
other dogma continue to bring into
captivity the human intellect? And,
agsdn, given that the Catholic Church
once recedes from a point of it's teach
ing, is not the cement in it's walls ire
vocably loosened, and the whole struc-
ture of it's infallibility doomed to rush
into ruins?
No-the Catholic Church will not
alter aught in it's message, whatever
the promised reward. Let the Heavens
fall: truth must stand mistaken and
unshakable. Therein lies the claim
OF the Catholic Church to the conf
dence of men, that it is the bearer Of
the message of Jesus-a message
which, under his promise, was to en-
dure into eternity: Going, teach ye
all nations teaching them
all things whatsoever I have COM
manded you-and behald I am with
you all days even unto the consumma-
ton of the world"
The Things of Man Pass: The Things
of God Remain.
zone generation passeth away and
another generation cometh: but the
earth standeth forever" Things there
are that the Almighty God made
changeable: those things will change,
Things these are that He made un-
ehangeable: those things will not
change. Among things decreed as I'm.
changeable is the message of saliva
ton "once delivered to the saints. u
The modern world grows impatient
of the attitude in dogma taken to
itself by the Catholic Church: so used
the world is to things changeable.
Science exults in making new dis.
coveries upon earth, above earth, and
beneath the earth, and hastens to bury
! formerly held in high honor. States.
men and social economists continu-
ously are confronted with new phases
of human conditions, with new forms
of political government: the old IS
gone: the new of today will soon be
gone, to make room for the new of to.
morrow. What, then, it is asked, is
the matter with the church? Is
she not in hopeless disagreement
with the world of living men?
Is not it's fitting place to be
found amid the sepulchers of past
6C4OA oIAOA0S W OOS AANOON1 oc@4uSSNs
with a reverential goodbye for good
deeds once done, to be forbidden, how
ever, from numbering the modrn life
of humanity with the deadening mem
cries of dreams and strugglings in
ages that are no more? Fatal errors
of the modern world! infatuated with
It's doings in spheres that are given
over Ito the consideration" of men it
would with sacrilegious hand wrest
from the Almighty the sceptre of His
supremacy in all things, even in things
expressly reserved to himself either
by the exigencies of eternal truth, or
the demands of his own sovereign
will. No: the message of Jesus does
not change: it bears on things of the
supernatural over which no control is
allowed to men, upon things to which
the Incarnate decreed perpetuity even
unto the end of time.
Dogmas, Objective and Historical.