The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-15
THE TYPICAL CATHOLIC LAYMAN IN AMERICA

in France or William James in Amer
| ica-preached and extolled as the
| thought of the new era which is to
take the place of the beliefs of past
ages, and enthrone religion upon new
and more enduring SUBMITS of vision
and of efficiency. Modernism" teach
es that the soul itself is the source,
the creative agency of mans religious
belief and life. The creed of Faith
would be the up-bubblings of inborn
needs and aspirations in the soul,
which of itself rises above the visible,
| the material, and concretes into SYM
bolic formulas it's dreams and imagin-
| ings-formulas doomed to change in
expression, as the dreams and i'm
aginings begetting them change in the
clearneSs of their Wanderings amid the
unseen In this manner, religion is a
merely personal eXperience-a thing,
as shifting as the motions of time,
that never begets intellectual convic-
ton, never bestirs the heart to sacri-
fetal action. Not so with the prin-
ciples and the facts, preached by
Christ and the Church. Those are OBJ
iective truths that exist and have be-
ing independently of the human SOUL
in themselves, outside the intellect
that is asked to see them, to accept
them, to feed itself upon their splen-
doris and beauty. God, Christ, the
Church-all principles a.d facts i'm
piled in those sacred Words-are as
objective and firm, as is the sun of
midday brightness, as is the fact of
the Declaration of Independence in the
annals of American story, whether you
and | know them or not, whether you
and | admit them or not into our in
tellectual treasury. This is your act
garies must neither impair nor per
turb
| signalize another error in vogue in
present times: Faith without dogma.
Believe in God, believe in Christ. But
this dogma or that dogma matters not.
To make insistence on dogmas is
needless in the bringing into our lives
! God and Christ-harmful inasmuch as
it embitters and divides believers.
But what is dogma, the Catholic
| Church asks? 1t is the specific state
ment of a principle or fact enun-
ciated by Christ, and rehearsed by
| His Church. The rejection OF dogma
| is the rejection Of a divine truth, con-
| tanned in the deposit of revelation, a
denial of the authority of Him Who
gave the revelation. Christ said moth.
! ing in vain, commanded nothing in
vain Whatever He said or command
ed is dogma: whatever is a dogma
of His revelation is to be believed and
maintained In no other point of her
teaching, is the Catholic Church sc
phasiZes the dogmatic character of he1
creed-showing thereby that she is
the bearer Of q message which she
must not alter or minimize, under
mandate to teach all things whatso
ever He did command.
Still another error of modern days:
Liberalism in religion-an act of faith
which taking a set of doctrines fol
personal use confesses that different
set adopted by friend or neighbor is
of ones faith, the communion OIL
church within which it is practiced be
ing a matter of Indifference, to be
justified by individual taste, by Gus
tom or tradition. This is not Catholic
faith. Catholic faith is the conviction
that what it accepts is the trutl
: taught by Christ, the conviction tha
he who holds that faith is right, tha
he who rejects it is wrong. Have al
friendliness for the non-Catholi,
neighbor, respect as you should hi
, sincerity of conscience: but hold will
all firmness that that Catholic faitl
is the true faith, the faith prescribet
by Christ, obligatory upon all as
{ is upon yourself, the sole moral just
fcation of a departure from it bein
the invincible ignorance of its claim
and prerogatives. Zone faith, on
Lord, one baptism"
, An Intelligent Faith.
e Your act of faith! 1t is the bes
r the fairest of the gifts of Heaven.
is your entrance into the supernatura
world, the link that lifts you into tn
bosom of Him Who is, supremely, tn
t True, the Good and the Beautiful. TIE
: me how you treat your act of faitl
S what you do to nurture it into brighte
e vigor, how you translate it into dali
g living, how you defend it agains
4, peril, how you honor and glorify it b
y fore men and angels and l will tie
l. you to what degree you may claim {
your well-won dowry the title of til
typical Catholic, the valorous Knigl