The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-15
Continued from page ID
A Catholic Stacker

A Catholic Stacker
| one cannot meet are not to be labeled
stealing" but such actions are not
are SO persistent and annoying and
they have even been known to drag
individuals into open court, thereby
causing much talk and scandal
He Really Exists.
This species of Catholic is not a
Pigment of the imagination but a real
ity. Much of the virtue or goodness
which they possess is only natural,
deserving an earthly reward, not a
heavenly one. They are Catholics be.
cause their parents were or because
tracise them if they were not. They
so to Mass on Sundays out of habit,
they go to the Sacraments once year
or perhaps oftener because they have
an innate aversion for non-Catholic
burials, and because, although they
will not admit it openly, they have a
fear of dying in the state of mortal
sin. There is, however, so much of
the world in their lives and so little
of the spirit that they have formed a
habit of looking at all they see from
a worldly viewpoint with the result
that the spiritual element is almost
entirely lost sight of.
Spiritual things cannot be measured
by a material or worldly standard any
more than we can measure a liquid
with sieve. If they happened to live
in close proximity to one of Gods
chosen ones to whom it is given the
power of working miracles, they
would doubtless praise Him for cur
ing the sick and alternating the suffer
ings of disease or want, but His holi-
ness of life would not be a source of
admiration. Communities of monks
would be praised because they till the
fields and reclaim the waste land but
their chant of the Divine Office during
the watches of the night seems rather
unnecessary and even useless Clois-
tered Nuns are commended for help
ing the poor but their lives of per-
petual prayer hidden away from the
distractions of the world are not to be
considered worthy of imitation. They
are proud of Catholic colleges and
schools when in competitive examina-
tion they show marked efficiency in
secular branches but their teaching of
Christian doctrine and Church history
takes up entirely too much time. And
so in everything the Stacker Catholic
finds occasion to criticise and censure.
Not Brave Enough to Quit.
The Stacker Catholic, while continu-
ally apologizing for the conduct and
doctrines of the Church, will not
openly disavow his allegiance to it.
There is an element of fear in his
makeup, and he dares not cast adrift.
The Church, though capable of much
Improvement and readjustment, is, af-
ter all, the Church of Christine will
not deny this fact. While openly adj
miring the progressiveness of other
religions he never attempts to affiliate
with them, and when the shadows on
life's pathway begin to lengthen and
the hands on the clock of time. tell
him that his day is nearly done we
find him crawling to the foot of the
cross. In the face of danger, for ex-
ample, a storm at sea, he is somehow
not so ashamed of his rosary or the
sign OF the cross. In the operating
room the surgeon must wait with the
anaesthetic until the priest has gone.
The table beside his bed of sickness
is streWn with articles of devotion
and the priest is most welcome call
er when he is dangerously ILL., No
longer critical or apologize, without
sham or buster, he is for the first
time in his life plain Catholic, glad
to receive the Sacramento of the
Church and the consultations which
that tender mother provides even for
her foolish and hayward children
when about to begin the journey into
the country from whose bourne no
traveller returns"
In the third chapter of the Apoca-
lypse we read one of the most striking
and severe passage in the Scriptures,
L would thou vert cold or hot. But
because thou are lukewarm, neither
cold nor hot, / will begin to vomit
thee out of my mouth" Is it not rea-
sonable to suppose that in these words
the Catholic Stacker may read his own
condemnation?