The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-15
THE BLESSED SACRAMENT AND
CATHOLIC UNITY.

Cardiff, Wales, the Bishop of New
port said: Catholic unity is
perpetual miracle. Nothing on the
earth seems to be it's adequate
support; nothing in the heavens holds
it in it's place; yet it has been in the
world from Whit-Sunday of A. D. 33.
You might have prophesied, that the
tiny communities which sprang up in
Syria and Asia Minor in the lifetime
of st. Paul would have developed a
score of schisms within century of
his death. In the days of persecu-
ton, when meeting and messages and
intercommunication of every kind
were all so many warrants for i'm
prisonment, forfeiture, torture, and
death, could any man have foretold
that united and one-minded society
was slowly growing that would be
able to put 31S ''overseers" into one
room in the fourth century who would
speak with one voice on the most
abstruse points of theology utterly
strange to the Roman and Greek
civilizations? When the Roman EN-
perors adopted the Church, would not
mere man have shaken his head
and said the Church would either
stiffen into superstition or every tribe
and people that defied the Empire
would at the same time fling off the
faith or make havoc of the creed?
The Middle Ages.
The missionaries that converted
Europe from the sixth to the tenth
centuries, how could they say the
same thing, and more wonderful still,
school those infinitely diverse bar
barians to come to think the same
thing? In Europe of the Middle Ages
the miracle does not seem so striking.
There was the lord and there was the
Bishop. Having achieved religious
unity somehow, and having settled
down into what was, on the whole,
a stable society, strongly held to-
gether by the sword, it was not so
surprising that for the centuries dur
ing which this state of things lasted,
} Europe remained united in religion.
} When the breakup come the miracle
} was renewed. For the last four hun
dred years it has been true to say
that the Church has held together in
spite of hostile governments, without
any support from the civil arm, in the
) face of complete license of opinion, of
, speech, and of the press.
The Modern Period.
The more completely we examine
, the details of Catholic history during
| these years, the more the wonder
grows. How did Catholicism in
France manage to emerge, untarnish-
: ed, undiminished, fully alive, and
/ completely Roman, from the chaos of
the Revolution? To look nearer home,
| what were the chances in the dark
: days of the eighteenth century that
| our forefathers, prosecuted, spiritless
, and isolated, would not have utterly
| lost their hold on the Catholic tradi-
ton? And in the days in which we
: live, how are our Catholic multitudes
held together? Not by force, not by
overwhelming public opinion, for
opinion and speech and books OF
science (so-called) and the whole
modern spirit is absolutely against
) u.s. Is it not true, on the whole, that
all the great forces of the modern
: world are against the Catholic Faith !;
) money, commerce, politics, arma.
, ments, the press, organized labor and
t the general unrest of this genera.
) ton?
l am not proposing to give a
theological lecture on the unity of the
Catholic Church. We all know that
: it is the effect of the constant pres.
ence and operation of the Holy Spirit
7 of Jesus Christ. But the divine power
5 that works for unity is embodied in
persons and in institutions that are
/. human, visible, tangible. And there
is one aspect of means and methods
by which Christ maintains His
7 Church's unity which we'll merits the
: attention of this Congress, because il
seems to point to a new and fresh
pressure of that mighty hand of God
which is never diminished in its
3 weight nor shortened in its reach. ]
} mean the institution of the Most
2 Holy Eucharist. That institution, TAX
!. ing in its full extent, sacrifice, com
2 pleted by communion, was intended
!, to work many marvellous effects in
D the soul of man and in the world al
4 large. But believe that we are now
: in these days, becoming more and
t more conscious what a powerful in
/; strument 1t is for the preservation OF
t Catholic unity.
Our Hope for the Future.
4 In different times past the Holy
: Eucharist has exercised a unifying
D influence in different ways. In oul
f own days frequent Communion is
t bringing with it an increase of super
. natural loyalty to the whole of the
! Kingdom of God on earth. Frequent
f Communion means the training of the
. young in the creeds. Il inspires the
3 determination of clergy and people te
! have Catholic schools even when they
+ have to maintain their schools By