The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1918-04-27
DEAN OF YALE UNIVERSITY
anal YVES CATHOLIC W0R-
SHIP and SERVICES
Mastery and Lucid Exposition of Her
Strength and Service.

How Principles Of Worship, Obedience,
Faith and Sacrifice Are Developed
in Her Discipline-Dean Charles r.
Brown Thanks God for Work and
Influence Of Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic PART was
the topic discussed Sunday evening,
In the United Church of New Haven,
Conn.,, by Dean Charles R. Brown of
the Yale University Divinity school.
Dean Brown considered the spirit,
service and organization of the
Church in its contribution to the good
of the world. He said in part:
Habit of Worship lncuIcated.
THE four main contributions which
the Roman Catholic Church has made
to the larger faith are in my judg-
ment these: First, it's steady incul-
cation of the habit of worship. ALI
Christian people worship God, but
Catholics, we may say not irreverent-
ly, have the habit beyond all others.
The streets in the vicinity of any
Catholic church on Sunday morning
are thronged with people who are go.
ing to church not because announce
ment has been made in the newspa-
pers OF the presence of some unusu-
ally eloquent preacher or some attrac-
tive program of music. They are on
their way to the house of God to
worship.
'The little child as soon as he is
able to toddle down the aisle and
cross himself with. holy water and
bow before the altar is trained in the
habit of worship. Every Catholic
church stands open all day and every
day in the week inviting any passer-
by to come in and worship. When
ne enters he may find no service in
progress, but he will almost always
find there groups of people kneeling
before their Maker, seeking to un.
burden and refresh their hearts in
personal worship. l question serious
ly whether this ingrained habit of
worship can be matched in any other
branch of the Christian Church.
Habit Of Obedience.
I'm the second place, they develop
the habit of obedience to authority,
Poverty, chastity, Observation-Disclosures
are the three radical vows taken by
an army of men and women in the
Catholic Faith. For the sake of the
service they are to render they re-
nounce the sweet joys of family life
that freed from all domestic respon-
sibilities they may come and go as
the Church may direct; and they
pledge a prompt and unquestioning
obedience to their spiritual superiors
in the work of the Church.
"Now might not choose that for
myself am frank to say that l
would not. But in the face of the
recklessness and lawlessness with
which modern society has to deal, l
am not blind but that I can recognize
the immense value of this habit of
obedience to authority in rightly d.
recting the lives of millions Of people
who owe their allegiance to this
branch of the Church. When I say
my prayers l thank God for the work
and influence of the Roman Catholic
Church.
I'm medieval times it held in check
the more turbulent elements in hui
man society; it put wholesome re.
straint on the mad ambitions of mill
tary tyrants; it infused something of
the spirit of mercy into those who
would otherwise have been ruthless
oppressors of their weaker fellows.
And today in great sections of society
the same work is being done in mod
ern terms. Spiritual authority holds
in check certain evil forces before
which less autocratic methods might
find themselves helpless.
I'm three directions at least you
may see this principle at work. Over
against a raw materialism which is
no closet theory but a base mode of
life; over against revolutionary type
of social agitation like the l. w. w.,
which would burn and STAY to gain
it's ends; over against the spirit Of
an unrestrained self-indulgence, wild
and reckless sort of Bohemianism,
which fears neither God nor man, the
Catholic Church stands with a bold
front lifting up in sermon and in Sac
rament, is the appointments of it's
places of worship and in it's constant
prayers the nobler ideals of the Son
of God.
| Spirit Of Trust In the Unseen.
Third, it's promotion of the spirit
of trust in the Unseen. The, Cath
olic Church meets the human soul at
the very beginning of it's career and
| by it's Sacrament of BAPTISM for the
new born babe utters it's recognition
of the spiritual kinship of the child
with the whole body of aspiring souls
in the Church and with God and Faith
er into triune name the child is there
baptized. And through all of it's sew
on Sacramento Of Baptism and Con-
firmation, Penance and the Holy Com
munion, Marriage and Orders, on to
the Extreme Unction when the soul is