The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-05-31
Sermon Of Bishop O'Gorman

tuary. Such are the things the Press
has to say about the Church. From
thls viewpoint her mission, you shall
say, is politics-ecclesiasti admin
istratlVe, architectural, artistic, cere-
monlal; her work is worldly, external
tpomp, the grandest pageantry that re-
hglon can show, and so would seem to
oelle her simple and unadofned origin.
| rake your stand on the ground of
science, Of the educationist; from that
position study the Church as she
SHOWS herself in her intellectual ac-
tlon and doctrinal pronouncements.
ana answer me, from this position.
what is her mission? To establish
schools and colleges and universities.
TO encourage the sciences; but also to
guide the intellectual tendencies of
the age and the human mind lest thew
run foul of Divine truth and revela
ton; and SO by encyclicals to make
public opinion, direct thought and cur
tall the license of intellect. bv the
Index and the Holy Office to mark
TO the world those works and theories
that are dangerous to truth; in a word
to be the engineer who holds in one
hand the lever that let's out steam to
the car of knowledge and in the other
hand the lever that puts the brakes on
its too precipitate and maddened
course lest it jump the track of right
thinking and rush into destruction.
From this point Of view her mission is
educational, and her work is to stimu-
late, control, and guide the intellectual
advance of the world. A work that at
one time pleases, at another offends
the pride of intellect.
Her Full Mission.
But neither of these views is com.
plete, neither answer gives the meas
ure OF the Church's mission and work,
grant that the Church, having for
environment political communities.
must enter into relations with them.
even when the doctrine of complete
separation of Church and State pre-
walls, for the separation can never be
so complete as to do away with all
contact relations. | grant that the
Church, being worldwide society,
must have her machinery of govern
ment, her Cardinals and Bishops and
inferior Clergy; her congregations and
curia and delegates and tribunals and
| therefore must be a vast administra-
tive engine. | grant that the Church,
being the embodiment, the sacrament,
so to speak, of interior worship, must
be ceremonial, architectural and ar
tistic. | grant that the Church, being
the infallible guardian of revealed
truth, must guide and control man in
the pursuit of knowledge, to this ex-
tent at least that he do not in his
advance run counter to what is re-
vealed, that therefore she must stake
out the boundaries of her territory in
the intellectual world and preserve
the faithful from error. But grant
ing all this, I say, it is not in these
things that consists her full or her
chief mission. If men will view her
exclusively from the standpoint of the
press writer or the scientist, they
shall mistake her, they shall know her
only as she appears on the surface,
and such knowledge is partial and in
SO far false.
Priest and Faithful.
Brethren, the truer viewpoint is
that of the priest engaged in active
ministry Of the faithful under him;
and from this viewpoint 1 ask a
third time what is the mission of the
Church? To lead man to his destiny
by taking man out of sin and keep
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