The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-06-07
Is it mortal sin for boy to kiss a
GIRL if she has promised to marry

is it a mortal sin for boy to kiss a
qirl if she has promised to marry
him?
Explain the case and circumstances
to your confessor
Are there proofs that the Blessed
Virain was assumed into Heaven?
The fact of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin into Heaven rests
chiefly, if not wholly, upon tradition
By this is meant that it is not Known
definitely the day, the year or the
manner of Our Lady's death. Neither
is the place known with positive GER
tainty, though tradition points to Jeru-
salem. The Church bases her BELIEF
in the corporal assumption OF Mary
upon the writings Of the Fathers, both
East and West the customs and be-
liefs of the early Christians, and the
constant and unchanging tradition OF
the whole body OF the talthful from
the earliest times.
How can a saloonkeeper receive
Communion when by the nature of his
business he is helping to destroy
souls?
II is not the business Of saloon
keeper to destroy souls, any more
than it is the business of a druggist
TO destroy health: each Of these per-
sons handles commodities that under
certain conditions prove detrimental
TO their users. If either directly en-
courages or deliberately participates
in such effects he is guilty Of co-opera-
ton in ariother's misfOrtunes. One
should not be too quick to condemn
an individual for the evils that some
times cling to his profession.
If man were drunk when he was
married would he be really married?
Thai would largely depend on what
stage of drunkenness he had reached.
Marriage is a contract, and whatever
yitiates the contract inValidateS the
sacrament. You must be in posses
sion of your senses to enter into a
valid contract. If the drunkenness is
such to deprive a man OF the eXer-
else of his senses, so that he really
does not know what he is doing, his
drunken state would invalidate the
marriage. but a man may have con-
sumed too much liquor and still retain
the use of his senses; he could know
what he was doing and have the will
10 do il. Such man would be val
idly married although he may have
been under the influence Of drink.
% Were the nation to demand that
a citizen commit some sacrilege, would
the citizen sin or be right in obeying
(2) How does true Christian regard
public authority?
Pope Leo XIII wrote: 1T is a high
crime indeed to withdraw allegiance
from God in order to please men; an
act of consummate wickedness to
break the laws of Jesus Christ, in
order to yield obedience to earthly
rulers. or. under pretext OF keeping
the civil law, to ignore the rights OF
The Church: we ought to obey God
rather than mem (Acts V: 29). This
answer, which of old Peter and the
OtleH ADOSLlGS were lSCu w SA'C 'iAo
civil authorities who enioined I'M
righteous things, we must, in like cir
cnmstances, give always and without
hesitation. No better citizen is there,
whether in time of peace or war, than
the Christian who is mindful of his
duty: but such a one should be ready
no suffer all things, even death itself,
rather than abandon the cause of God
or of the Church.
"Hallowed therefore in the minds OF
Christians is the very idea OF public
authority, in which they recognize
some likeness and symbol as it were
of the Divine Majesty, even when it is
exercised by one unworthy. A just
and due reverence to the law abides
in them, not from force and threats,
bur from a consciousness of duty; for
God hath not given us the spirit OF
fear Il Tim. 10"