The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-15

no answer. The question was: Ha
the Church been without a pope for ;
period of about seventy-five years?
This question was answered IN this
column several weeks ago. We car
repeat only this much, that the ques
ton must be answered in the mega
tive. The error arose probably from
confusing the years of exile (seventy
years) during which time Q335-1405)
the popes element V-Benedict KID
had their residence in Avlgnon
France, and governed the Church
from this city.
Why not ask the one who makes
such charge to specify the partieu
lar time, the exact years during which
it is presumed the Church was with.
out a pope. By consulting a history
of the same time the accusation
could very readily be proven false.
What is the American Unitarian
Church? When was it founded and
by whom. Was the first Church built
in Milwaukee, Wis, one of this de-
non ination?
The American Unitarian Church is
practically a form of rationalism. 1t
processes, it is true, a belief in God;
but it denies the Blessed Trinity, that
there are three Persons in God. The
society has, as distinctive feature, a
horror of dogma and consequently it
is not easy, if it be possible, to find
any specific profession of its faith.
1t speaks of Jesus Christ as a supe-
rior human character, but it denies to
him i'll its true sense His divinity.
The society arose first in Poland
and then in Pennsylvania about the
middle of the sixteenth century,
shortly after the spiritual revolt of
Martin Luther. 1t was organized in
the United States about the middle of
the eighteenth century. It's first
church was Kings Chapel, Boston,
which had been Episcopal, but which
in 1887 assumed an independent ex-
istence as a Unitarian Church.
The opinions of this society were
taught first by Jonathan Mayhem
C172O-1766) and Charles Chauncey
0705-17SO. It's chief source of
strength was in the divinity college
of Harvard University, which college
for sixty years (1S17-1S7S) was under
the control of the Unitarian society.
Its more prominent advocates were
William Ellery Claiming, Theodore
Parker and the poet Ralph Waldo
Emerson, all of whom lived in the
century.
The first Catholic Church built in
Milwaukee was in 1899, and the
country was then but thinly settled.
1t is scarcely credible that the Uni
tarians had established themselves at
this time so far in the West, when in
their strongest centres, Baltimore for
instance, they could be induced only
with great difficulty in 1912 to ac-
knowledge publicly their Unitarian
beliefs.
have been told by a non-CathoIic
of good education that the Catholic
Church had two different women
Popes. He claimed that this could be
proved by history.
If the non-Catholic be we'll educated
he will be ready to prove his assertion
by giving us the specific periods of
time during which these female popes
lived and ruled the Church. Let him
tell us the year either of them began
to reign as pope and the year she
died. When he will have done this,
he will have done more than Joshua.
Protestant and infdel writer's have
often asserted that there was female
Pope, although no serious historian at
the present day believes in this fable.
During the Middle Ages story was
started about so-called Popess, some
times called Joan. This fable is prov
ed to be without the least historical
foundation. See the Catholic Ency-
clopedia, Vol. VIII, PIP. 1919.
What degree of relationship are the
children of two half brothers? Could
they be married in the Church?
Children of two half-brothers are
first cousins or within the second de-
gree of blood relationship; and, con-
sequently, are forbidden by the laws
of the Church, as we'll as by many
state laws, to enter into matrimony.
Will children remain children in the
world to come; or, will they grow to
maturity?
The number of years that person
lives on earth will not of themselves
give us maturity in heaven. We will
be in heaven as the soul is at the time
it leaves the body. We attain spirit.
ual growth or maturity in the same
way that we obtain spiritual life, that
is, through a sacrament, an outward
sign instituted by Jesus Christ for this
specific purpose, namely, to give life, |
or maturity. Baptism confers the
former, that is, it makes us children
of God; confirmation makes us strong.
grown up, in the spiritual or
der, or soldiers of Jesus Christ. If we
are confirmed we will be mature at
the time of our death and so we will
be in the world to come.
Why is it that adultery, felony, de-
sertion, habituaI drunkenness, or fail
ure to provide does not release the in