Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1922-02-10
THE POPE ARTICLE.

The Editor of this newspaper |
thrust his pencil into hornets nest,
30 to speak, when he wrote his sho,t
article about the election of the |
Pope. One correspondent says that
we should turn our guns on condl- |
tions among our own folks. Anoth-
er, that the editor should "infor,h
himself" etc., clearly intimating that
he was talking about something he
knew nothing about.
No criticism of Catholic poop
was made. There are good people in
the Catholic church and bad ones
too, as there are in all the churches
Our criticism had to do with the
Pope's claim of apostolic succession,
and his absurd claim of being the
special and only representative Ui
God and Jesus Christ, on the Garth
claiming power to grant forgiveness
of sin and deliverancc, (for sum o,
money! from purgatory. ETC., etc.
The history of the Roman church
is history of blood and persecution
Of dissentcrs from time immemorial,
and people who do not know thls
have not read history. There are
good but misguided people in the
Roman Catholic church, who have
never investigated it's history or its
doctrines, its worship of the Virgin,
its confessional, it's doctrine of alb
solution, it's discounting or wors.,
Jesus Christ, the only savior of sin
ners. And these criticisms are not MS
drastic or severe as those offered
and propagated by the Romish church
against Professionalism. The friend O.
the one has been essentially the en-.
envy of the other.
As we write-weeks after the
death of the Pope his successor lia.
not been chosen. The object of the
Conclave seems to be to select
successor who shall be popular with
the italian and other great nations
from political point of view, and,
of course the selection thus made
will be right along the line Of "apos-
tolic succession" The writer of these
lines has no desire to be unfair, but
honestly confess that, with the New
Testament open before us, we can
soc no reason or excuse for believ.
ing in the infallibility of the Pope
and "the Mother church," the grant Z.
ing of "indulgences," purgatory, dbl
imaginary place into which the dead
pass and out TO which the Priest
can deliver the soul for sum OF
money, or of transubstantiation
that is, that, the bread and winr
of the communion is not a symbol
but changed into the real body
and real blood of Christ, and other
practices and teachings all of which
places every Christian and all pro-
testants outside of the Kingdom,
and consigns us all to hell.
One of our irate readers says. re-
ferring to our editorial: eve not
only claim that the Pope is the sue
cessor to the apostles, but can prove
It," Let the proof come at once.
And, now, here is marvellous
thing, hard to explain. The Roman
Catholic church. is one of the most
kindly moral and charitable of all
organizations and at the same time
has put on the rack, burned at the
stake, threw to wild beasts, behead-
ed and other wise murdered hun
dreds of thousands of SO called she
retics"-men and women who oppos-
ed the doctrines of this self STYLED
Mother church." With OH. hand
the church has passed out lavishly
blessings and unlimited charities
and with the other hand, dispensed
curses and unlimited miseries. This
IS mystery which we do not under
take to explain, only state the his
torical facts.
Since the above was put in tyne
the "Conclave" has succeeded in
electing Pope-one Ratti, an Ital-
ian. Ceremonies will be held next
Sunday. No American participated
in the election.
THE "sHoE-sTRING" DISTRICT
Should the redistricting bill to be
a