The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-26
In the Parliament of Man, the
federation of the World. +"

federation OF the World. =
Others looking deeper into
causes, anticipate a unity Of re-
ligion and of moral ideals among
all men.
We are told that the pagan
Japanese meet the Christian mis-
sionaries with sneer at the con-
duct Of the nations Of Christen-
dom. But does the word Christen-
dom stand for a concrete, definite
reality now? Has not spurious
nationalism and patriotism seized
upon religion itself as a mere
tool and a pretext? Josephism
in Austria in the eighteenth
century, Gallicanism in France,
Erastianism, avowed as a prin-
ciple in the England Of the
Established Church and in the
Germany of Bismarck and of the
Kulturkampf, were so many bold
denials of the divinely ordained
unity of Christendom. Today in
America we hear voices calling
out from Protestant pulpits and
platforms that Americans must
have an American religion with
nothing foreign about it and some
go so far as to say that this idol
airy Of our own country must be
preached to the Europeans as soon
as they find time to listen to us.
Catholics by the very force of
their name must stand for the re-
ligion which Christ commissioned
His Church to preach to all men,
They stand for one Lord, one
Faith, one Baptism, one God and
Father Of all. They pray with
their Divine Master that all men
may come to the knowledge Of
the truth and be united in the one
Mystical Body Of Christ, under
the Supreme Head, Christ Vicar
on earth. And because Catholics
are loyal to Christ and His
Church, to the Universal Kingdom
He established, is precisely the
reason for the cutlery that &C
cuses them in every land of a
want Of true patriotism.
Reputation of Catholic unity,
has implied the abandonment of
the unity Of the Spirit in the bond
Of peace. And rebellion against
Peter has meant what Peters
Master said it would always
mean: He who despises you de-
spises Me, and he who despises
Me, despises Him Who sent Me.
In the non-Catholic universities
Of the world, and alas! in too
many Protestant pulpits men no
longer hesitate to deny that Jesus
is the Christ the Son Of the living
God. Claiming to found them
selves upon the latest results Of
modern scientific thinking, men
deny that this world is anything
more than a huge dead, soulless
machine; they deny that the world
has a Creator and God and that
man has an immortal soul.
Thence flows Immediately the
ethics Of the brute, common to
atheistic socialist and Epicurean
capitalist alike: let us eat, drink
and be merry, for tomorrow we
die.
The Father of Christians dies
of a broken heart because his poor
deluded children would not hear
the voice that warned them of
the abyss towards which they
were rushing. And his successor,
full, though he be of the high
courage which Christ s presence
must give, cannot withhold the
plaintive remonstrance that this
poor world is sad enough without
men making it sadder.
Benedict XIV. bids us pray for
peace, pray and labor for a last
ing revival of the spirit of relig-
ion. IF we seek not first the king
dom of God and His justice, all
our boasted progress must inevi-
tably lead to new catastrophes.
The discoveries of genius, the
enormous expenditure of mental
and bodily vigor can only build
up new machines Of destruction,
nay, they can make of the very
flower Of each nations young
manhood, a huge, heartless ma
chine Of devastation. Holy de-
sires, right designs and good deeds
come from God, and in answer
to our prayer for that peace which
the world cannot give, may God
turn the hearts Of war-worn men
to him who from Peters Chair
holds out the hand of Fatherly
invitation. This is the future that
Catholics hope and pray for.
~