The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-22

out being paid? Many non-CathoIics
argue that according to US the rich can
do anything they like, pay the priest
to pray for them, and be forgiven,
while the poor who cannot afford to
pay cannot be saved.
l. Catholics do not pay for the
prayers of the priests. They do not
buy the prayers, as they buy the
services of q tradesman. No Catho-
lie has any such idea, except it has
been driven into him by the constant
repetition of Protestant ISLANDERS.
You should ask your Protestant
neighbors, who are SO ready to tell
you what Catholics think, to explain
to you why they pay their own min
listers, what they mean when they
pay salaries, fees and SO On. They
have to explain that to the infidels
and atheists, and they have no eX-
PLANTATION to offer, except what they
learn from us. The question refers
probably, to the custom of making an
offering to a priest, when one asks
him to offer Holy Mass for ones de-
ceased friends. The priest may re-
ceive this offering on the principle
laid down by ST. Paul and by his
Divine Master that the laborer is
worthy of his hire, and they who
serve the altar partake with the altar,
and they who preach the Gospel may
live by the Gospel. The Offering is
not the price of the Mass, for the
Mass is beyond all price. 1t is not
an aims, such as one gives in charity
to the poor. 1t is contribution TO
the support of the pastor, to which
the pastor has q right, since he under
takes to do for a person what that
person has no claim to, namely offer
the Holy Sacrifice for his special in
tention. 2. 1t is not true that priests
do not pray for the living or the dead
without being paid Here is prayer
called the Memento for the Dead,
which you will find in the Canon Of
the Mass in your prayer book; it
must be said by every priest every
time he celebrates Holy Mass: Re
member o Lord, Thy servants, male
and female, who have gone before us
with the sign of faith and sleep in
the sleep of peace, n. N; to them,
o Lord, and to all who rest in Christ,
we beseech Thee to grant a place of
refreshment, light, and peace, through
the same Christ our Lord, Amen
At the letters N. N. the priest re-
members any poor souls he chooses,
who are likely to be in Purgatory,
his relatives, friends, neighbOrs, the
poor, the friendless, etc. No priest
confines the remembrance at these
letters to the soul or souls he has
been asked to remember specially by
the person who made the Offering.
At the beginning of the Canon of the
Mass you will find a similar prayer
for the living, for the whole Church
both pastors and faithful people.
Then every pastor is strictly bound
to offer Holy Mass on all Sundays
and holidays of obligation for his peo-
ple And on All Souls Day, as the
name tells you, all the faithful de-
parted are specially remembered in
Holy Mass. AS to the attempt at
argument made by those Protestant
neighbors of yours, it is about as far
astray as it could we'll be. 1t mikes
I'D things so ridiculously as to show
that its authors are in that numerous
class that considers sheer and blank
ignorance OF q subject the proper
qualification for laying down the law
about the subject The rich must
obey the law of God, as well as the
poor. The most ignorant Catholic
knows that the Church does not claim
the right to allow rich Or poor to
sin. They ought to know that this
charge, so often refuted, is one Of
the stock lies that established Prot
estantism at the beginning and passes
for religious instruction among many
Professionals today. What real definite
notions of morals persist in the minds
of men today are mainly due to the
unceasing teaching OF the Catholic
Church. Again, rich and poor alike
have to be baptized, to go TO Con-
fession if they fall into moral sin, to
fulfill all the conditions Of a good
confession before they can be pardon
ed. and one of those conditions is,
as you know, firm honest purpose
to avoid all mortal sin for the future.
Not a word, here, you see, about pay
ing the priest to pray for them. And
when there is a question of payment,
remember that the poor rather than
the rich make up the Catholic
Church, which is thus the same as
when Christ in poverty established
it among the poor of Galilee. Finally,
the poor are far more jealous and
generous in proportion to their means
than are the wealthy. They are
faithful and devout in assisting at
Holy Mass, and so derive spiritual
profit, which is missed by the rich
who stay away. Your Protestant
friends need not be uneasy about the
Catholic poor. Indeed the presence
of the poor and the lowly in our
Church is often made a reproach to
us today as it was in ST. Pauls day,
and in the day of Christ Himself.
Why do Catholics believe that we
can help the souls in Purgatory by
our prayers, and by getting Holy Mass
offered for them?
Catholics believe this because the
Church teaches it, and Christ said /: