The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-12-09
ALL ROADS LEAD 70 ROME.
written for The Catholic Bulletin BY
Miss Alta Churchill.
Concluded

was offered to him. He took the book
to his room, and what he read in it's
pages, he regarded as no less astonish-
ing than what he had heard in the
sermon of the morning.
MY Dear Reader: Che read -
Perhaps this is the first time in your
life that you have handled book in
which the doctrines OF the Catholic
Church are expounded by one of her
own sons.
A strange feeling of intimacy came
with the words; it was not book, it
was a person that addressed him-a
person with an uncanny knowledge of
himself!
''You have no doubt heard and read
man things regarding our Church;
but has not your information come
from teachers justly liable to suspi-
cion? ]. II. Hence, without intending
to be unjust, is not your mind biased
against us ?"
This was true also; there was no
question about that yet evident as
this was, it surprised him to realize
it.
''The Catholic Church Che read on)
is persistently misrepresented by the
most powerful vehicles of information
i -. In a large portion of the press,
and in pamphlets, and especially in
the pulpit which should be consecrated
to truth and charity, she is the victim
of the foulest SANDERS. Upon her
fair and heavenly brow her enemies
put hideous mask, and in that guise
they exhibit her to the insults and
mockery of the public; just as Jesus,
her Spouse, was treated when, clothed
with scarlet cloak, and crowned
with thorns, He was Knocked by a
thoughtIess rabbIe."
Frank paused in something like con-
sternation. He felt personally guilty
before that accusation. He turned to
the text itself with an earnest mind,
and heart, almost touched by con-
triton.
AS he read he found that Elizabeth
had been quite correct in insisting that
the Apostles Greed, which he had
often SO thoughtlessly repeated, must
have a definite meaning, which should
be understood by those protesting it.
The Faith Of Our Fathers, it appeared,
did nothing else than set forth and
interpret that Greed. The explanation
of the Blessed Trinity, and the Incar-
nation was fairly familiar; but the
oli,cidaf;on IF Coma u01y Catholic md
Apostolic Church was entirely new
to him. The fact was that the matter
had always been hazy. Often he had
wondered and heard others ask, why,
in their church, they declared their
belief in the Catholic church? The
customary explanation offered was
that it referred to all the Christian
bodies, but he saw that that was too
unsatisfactory to be considered. If it
meant merely belief in what every
body claiming to teach the Christian
religion taught, it meant believing a
mass of contradictory statements; if
it meant any one of them without dis
tinction, it was superfiuous absurd
ity. In creed, profession of faith,
each chapter would be sure to have
definite meaning; it was unreason-
able to suppose that it would contain
vague statements. Here he found a
definite and clear exposition of the
clause so troublesome to Professionals:
the Catholic Church means-the Cath
Ollie Church! There is Church in
existence today, that calls itself, and
is everywhere acknowledged to be,
Catholic; it had been in existence in
the fourth century when that creed
had been adopted at one of her Great
Councils; it had always been in ex-
istence, since our Lord established
His Kingdom upon earth. To what
beside that Church, then, could that
explicit statement of the Greed reason
ably be thought to refer? Sufficient
ly obvious as all this appeared, he
found further testimony: st. Angus
tine, whom his co-religionists acknowl-
edged to be a pillar of early Christian
ity, had, in the fifth century, uttered
words about which church was the
Catholic and true Church of Christ
that might have been spoken, instead
by Catholic prelate of the present
day in refutation of the Protestant
claims:
"We must hold fast TO the Chris
tian religion and to the communion of
that church which is Catholic, and
which is called Catholic not only by
those who belong to her, but also by
all her enemies. Whether they will
it or not, the very heretics themselves
and followers of schism, when they
converse, not, with their own, but with
outsiders, call that only Catholic
which is really Catholic. For they
cannot be understood unless they dis
tinguish her by that name by which
she is known throughout the whole
EARTH
Evidently, he reflected, there had
been heretics in all ages. He smiled
as he found that he was thinking of
himself and his feIlow-P rotestants
under that appellation. His thoughts
made him uncomfortable; he felt a.
stranger to himself.
The hours slipped by unnoticed
while Frank studied the Catholic
Church: the evidences of her divine
institution, her sanctity, her existence
from Apostolic times. her mission as
teacher of truth, and as guardian and
Interpreter 0N the Holy Scriptures
The inquiry with its mighty signifi-
On MO- nc, 1nrs fn,. liz. nhrrranl than