Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-13
EXPLAINS USE Of
IMAGES IN Church
Priest Tells Why Catholics
Venerate Statues and Pic
tures-TaIks of Divorce.

The use and meaning of images in
the Catholic church were explained
nv Rev. John b. Harvey, c. S. p,
last night in st. Bridget's Church'
where he is delivering series OF lee
tnres this week on the Catholic faith. |
Father Harvey also spoke of the |
stand of the Catholic church in re-
gard to divorce.
Questions about these subjects
were dropped in the question box IN |
the church, and were answered by
the lecturer.
The query in regard to images was:
Gods commandment forbids images;
vour church is full of them. How
do YOU explain or excuse your dis
obedience?"
Father Harvey answered.: THE So
called commandment reads: Thou
shalt not make unto thee any craven
image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the
waters under the earth. Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them nor
serve them
This is not the second command
ment, but merely the explanatory
part of the first commandment, that
we worship the true God and nave no
strange gods before Him. For rea-
sons of their own, doubtless because
at first sight the text seems to be
of use against the Catholic church,
some of her opponents thought fit to
Introduce a division of the command
ments differing from the one that
had been held for 1900 years.
"These words are not to be taken
as law prohibiting entirely the
making of images or likenesses. II
il did then we would be Obliged TO
saw that almost every Individual OF
the human race-from the child VINO
with his pencil makes crude ike
ness of his teacher, to the master
whose skill and brush make the can
vas hve-has violated this peculiarly
important commandment of God.
Moreover. we would be obliged to
add that God himself has directed
men to break his law. In the book OF
Fxodus. XIV, 10, we find Him COM
handing that two cherubims should
be made out of beaten gold to stand
| on either side of the oracle. In Num-
beers, XXI, 8, it is related how He babe
Moses to make a brazen serpent and
set it up for a sign that all VINO
| looked upon it might live.
"From this and other instances 1t
| ought to be clear that God did not
| forbid the making Of images, but
only the making of them for idola-
| trous purposes Thou shalt not adore
them nor serve them. These words
are the key to the entire passage.
What God really prohibits Is not the
bowling down before them nor the
having of respect to them, but the
having before them in alteration, the
| Of honor
belongs to Him alone, the making
of strange gods out of them. OF
+bis sin Catholics are never guilty.
They use images as helps for the in
creasing of their knowledge ana love
of God. They respect and Venerate
them, honoring the saints and God
himself through them. Every mark
of reverence we pay to them, ike the
respect we manifest toward the nag!
is given not to the image or synpoI
in itself but to that for which II
stands"
In reply to the question as the
Catholic church opposed to divorce
under all circumstances? Father
Harvey said:
"When a marriage has been yalidly
| contracted and contaminated, the
Catholic Church forbids any divorce
which implies that either party ma;
a right to remarry while the other Il
living. The church's law in this con
nection is simply a reaffirmation Of
the law enacted by Christ: What
, therefore, God hath Joined together
: LET not man put asunder' (Mark 1O:s)
"Whenever good reasons are urged
in support of such step the church
permits what may be called a partia
divorce. While never permitting re
: marriage to even the innocent part!
, in a divorce case, the church allow
fhe securing Of a legal separation OF
such grounds as cruelty and in
fidelity."