The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-06


ment, and q in the New, making q
books in all. If we regard "Lamenta-
lions" as a separate book, it adds one
more, making total of 70. Non
Catholics generally omit seven
books from the canon of the Old
Testament Tobias, Judith, Es-
Their, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Bar
UGH and the first and second books
of Maccabees. At times the Protes-
tant leaders have admitted some of
these books and excluded others now
found in their Bible. But at the pres
ent writing the above named books
are the only ones excluded from the
Protestant Bible. Quite recently, in
several periodicals and at various
conferences, Protestant divines a9i-
tated to have these books admitted
and apparently they met with little
success; hut the time may come when
our separated brethren will have
Gods entire Bible.
1. Is it mortal sin for Catholic
to give brides in any shape. to a nom
Catholic or a non-Catholic officer or
superior? 2. Does the sin of BRIDE
giving and hribe-taking come under
the category of the "four sins crying
to heaven for vengeance" especially
when the consequences are to the seri-
Gus detriment of their fellowmen and
co-Workers?
]. At the outset one must distin
guiSh between an innocent commits
sion or present, which is merely to
oil the wheels, so to speak, and does
not involve anything unfair or un-
just; and a guilty bride, which is
meant to secure some favor which is
unfair or unjust. This being under
stood, it does not matter whether the
person is a Christian or not, as it is
an affair of natural justice, which is
common to all humanity. The whole
question is whether the transaction
is just or unjust in its aims.
2. If it is a guilty bribe, and there
fore sinful, the degree or kind of sin
will be measured by the degree Or
kind of injustice contemplated or in
tended. If a grave injustice is aimed
at, it will be mortal sin. The eX-
preston sins crying to heaven for
vengeance" is rhetorical rather than
scientific; that is, it does not classify
species of sin. 1t is borrowed from
Scripture, and means that certain
sins are specially outrageous and de-
serve very special punishment, and
have been specially denounced by
God on that account.
How do we know that the Bible we
have today is the real Bible?
AS Catholics, we know that we have
the real and genuine Bible through
the authoritative teaching Of the
Church The Council of Trent or
dams and declares that the same and
old Vulgate edition which has been
approved by the long use in the
Church itself, is to be held for
authentic in public readings, dis
courses and disputes, and that nobody
may dare or presume to reject it on
any pretense." While this decree does
not make it a matter of faith that our
Nulgate is in absolute and strict con-
formity with the original text of the
Bible as it came from the hands of
the inspired writer's, nevertheless the
oecumenical Council of Trent gives
official appreciation to the Vulgate
edition of the Bible and declares that
this same edition contains nothing
from which erroneous teaching in
doctrine or morals could be inferred
AS Christians, we believe that the
providence of God could not permit
that His inspired Bible should be SO
corrupted as to lead men aStray from
His truth and salvation. 1t is true
that were every copy of the Bible to
perish, the Church of God would still
remain and be able and qualified to
conduct the work of Christ; neverthe
less, granted that the Bible was des-
tined to remain among men, it is hard
even impossible, for a Christian to
concede that God would cease to
have a care over His Book. Minor
errors may creep in, as they have
done so; but not such essential cor
ruptions that would be stumbling
block to the faithful AS students,
scholars, men of science, we take the
same position as regards the Scrip
lures that we hold regarding the
whole literature of antiquity. We do
not possess the original manuscripts;
we must be content with copies and
copies of copies, and we must satisfy
ourselves that these furnish us with
the genuine Scripture. Combining our
attention to the New Testament, we
possess over 1000 early manuscripts
some containing all, others only parts
of the Gospels and Epistles. Some OF
these date back to the fourth century
and few fragments even to the third
Besides, we have very ancient YER
sions, translations from the Oldest
manuscripts; these are often written
in score of languages and some GO
back even to the second century. In
addition to all this, we could recon
stTuct the whole New Testament from
the quotations in the writings of the
Fathers of the first centuries. No
other ancient book can show such eX
ceptional credentials or so prove its
claim to accuracy. In all these thou
sands of manuscripts and copies and
versions and quotations. we find thou
sands of various readings; but very
few of them are of any real impor
tance. 1t is estimated that out OF