The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-01-30
is ONE RELIGION AS GOOD AS AN.
OTHER.

Persons who have had experience
in discussing religious questions with
the world at large soon arrive at q
conviction that there is an easy-going
set Of people whose aspirations sell
dom rise above the material, says the
Tablet; while there are others who
pretend to he seekers after truth with
such avidity that they like to be
known as religious reformers. Be-
yond the multiplicity of beliefs they
assume to have arrived at the one
true religion of feeling as opposed
to faith. They talk much of getting
back to Christ" CT shaking off dog
ma, which is always indicative of big
otry," and of hating "fanaticisrn." a
term they apply to the. defense one
makes Of time-honored doctrines.
Their fundamental principle is, that
one religion is as good as another.
This principle the Church opposes,
and she has the words of st. Paul
as authority for her stand. She says
that there is but one true religion,
and that this religion must be upheld
and adhered to, and that no other re-
ligion can be substituted. This posi-
ton savors of intolerance, but truth
must necessarily be intolerant OF
everything that would destroy truth.
Concerning this matter we should rec
ommend what Rev. Bernard J. Often,
s. j., says in his work, Does it Mat
ter Much What Believer"
con the supposition that one religion
is as good as another, it must needs
be admitted that falsehood is as good
as truth. For of the hundreds of ex'
| listing religions there cannot be found
two that agree in principle and
practice. What one teaches as
true, others reject as false; what one
commends as holy, others condemn as
impious. According to Anglicans for
instance, Christ is a divine person;
according to Unftarians and Socinians
he is a mere man. BY Lutherar1s in
FAINT baptism is considered valid; by
Baptists it is rejected as invalid
Catholics held that bishops were di
vinely instituted to rule the Church;
| Presbyterians teach that bishops were
not so instituted And so all along
the line, when one religious body
teaches a certain doctrine, others al
most invariably deny it and hold the
| contradictory as true. Yet it is the
very principle in philosophy, and Of
common sense as well, that two CON
Trajectory statements cannot both be
true at the same time. If it be true,
for example, that two and two make
four, it cannot at the same time be
true that two and two do not make
| four. And so also If it be true that
| Christ is a divine person, or that in
FAINT baptism is valid, or that Bishops
were divinely instituted to rule the
Church it cannot at the same time be
true that Christ is not a divine per
son, or that infant baptism is not
valid, or that Bishops were not divine.
ly instituted to rule the Church. Hence
as existing religious systems teach
de facto opposite and contradictory
doctrines, some OF them must neces.
sarily be false; consequently, if it be
true, as Indifferentists hold, that one
religion is as good as another, it must
also be true that n false religion Is as
good as the true one, or that falsehood
is as good as truth, unless, indeed, we
are prepared to maintain that no re
ligion is good, which. is the very op
posite of what Indifferentists have
i been holding heretofore"
9-H