The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-11-25
A SAMPLE OF
MODERN ETHICS

Many publicists and so-called edu-
Gators of the day fondly imagine that
light in the mind connotes goodness
or virtue in the heart, and that
buxom human body must perforce,
keep the soul sane and sound. They
seem to think, too, that all that is
sinister within is exercised or does
not matter, if only all is seemly and
fair without. These are the things
that stand out, along with the bait
and promise of Demonstrating bet
terments in all the efforts of the advo-
Gates of sex knowledge and birth con-
troll, the purveyors of problem stuff
in books. on the stage and on the
screen, and even the panderers to ev-
erything debasing in man.
In their philosophy the inner head
and the outer body must keep UP their
state and show. The heart, though
| it be an Augean stable of uncleanness
or a hornets nest of treasons, STRAIT
agems and spoils, must be satisfied
with the heads repute and condition
or be ruled out Of the scope of i'm
proving activities, because to do any
thing for it is sectarianism.
1t is strange that most reformers
of today overlook the principle that
! conversion to good is primarily effect
ed within the heart; that unless there
| is such conversion, the heart is the
| fruitful source of all evil. "Out of the
heart of men" said the Master, pro
coed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornica-
| tions, murders, thefts, coyetousness,
| wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolish
ness"
Making merely his head the re-
ceptacle of divers kinds of knowledge
will never guarantee the morality of
man. To clear evil out of him, he
must have his heart, the seat of his
desires and affections, kept in dis
cipline by the will.
| There is a striking illustration of
what the hearts perversities can do
to men in an account lately given edi-
torially in the Universe, London. With
the like publicly advocated, what may
not go on interiorly where secrecy is
mans most secretly held and cherish
ed possession?
| The Tribunal.
The shocking suggestion was lately
made in the Council of an important
/ &ho@ ho TED, H.
urged to bring forward a bill (which
will give power to medical tribunal
to bring about the more speedy and
peaceful end of sufferers from can.
Ger" 1t is useless, of course, to con
front persons who can conceive such
an idea with the Almighty's "canon
|against self-slaughter," or against
murder either. But they may perhaps
be got at least to listen to the argu.
ment of mere fact against such sug
Igestions.
That argument was well put in a
recent article in the Evening Stan
dard "To make the flesh creep is
Inobody's business. Yet imagine, il
you can, the first sitting of such a
tribunal Case A'-ultimate stages
of cancer of the liver. Patient is esti
mated still to have six or eight weeks
of fight in him. Proposed by presi
Ident that speedy and peaceful end be
provided in accordance with the new
Act. Submissions by counsel on be
half Of sufferer, who is willing, and
indeed anxious, to see it through
Counsel on behalf of Minister OF
permitted to make their own choice
the Act becomes more or less of q
farce. President agrees. Thumbs
down. AS wife removed shriekins
from court Tribunal adjourns, MOI
having nerve enough to deal with res
of the agenda."
Mankind's Answer
The short fact is, as this writer
proceeds to point out, that the spiri,
iof humanity can bear and suffer al
things that are ordained for it to beal
land suffer, and it will inevitably elect
to suffer to the nth point rather
than deliberately to capitulate. PEG
Iple with minds like this councillors
lare fain to be kinder than Providence
And, despite all the pain and all the
lsorrow and all the tears in the world
lthat-in the long runs impossible.
To say this is, of course, to bring il
the Theistic argument. But tina
argument, too, is imbedded in the
lcommon conscience of mankind apar
! even, in itself, from the Christian
revelation. That it persists obstinate
1y in the masses of our people, despite
irreligion, is the ground of hope in tn,
Catholic apologist, reformer and so
cial worker.