The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1954-07-02
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment csr.is.r.d or lneonsid.r=s.

all right And the World Council of Churches will
hold an assembly in Evanston, Illinois, this coming
August, in which the delegates will seek to replace
their six presidents with three; it is said the Angl-
delegates will hope daintly) for only one--the
Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury who then
would be what the newspapers call kind of Protest
ant Pope
1t is astonishing how sober and solemn sectar-
ians can serenely weave themselves into tangled
networks of self-contradiction and illogcaty. If
person needed proof that God must surely have
put into the world an authoritative voice to guide
people in faith and morals he might find com
pelling evidence in the words and deeds of those
churchmen who forever declaring that there
is no such authoritative voice.
The Protestant position,--if there is such thing
in the veerng and shifting attitudes of the sectar
ian churches-s this individual find safe
guidance in reading the Bible and Judging private
ly what ii means And yet from the first Protest
ants have employed leaders to tell them what the
Bible means. They have drawn up codes and mani
festoes to embody their tenets and moral directves
And they issue these dogmas,-indeed, as
part and parcel of their statement of dogmas-they
cry out loudly and even angriy that there must be
dogmas at all
Even many modern Quakers now consider that
the "complexity of modern life makes it necessary
for some leader to take charge of their meetings
and give instruction and guidance; the Inner
light which once served is inadequate, and
God needs little help from some upand coming
minister who has the advantages of radio, TV, and
a college degree.
Surely if religion is wholly matter between
the individual man and God, there be mean
ing in synod of rellgonist delegates and no value
whatever in what such synod decides in matters
Of rehgion,-that is to say IN faith and morals.
tnsw.
interpreted by private judgment. and morals are in.
dicated by what that faith makes clear TO each IN.
dividual privately Judging
The fact is that false religion simply cannot
sert itself without falsfylng its own assertion. A re-
lgion of the sufficiency Of private judgment must
somehow be publicly announced II must be public
Judgment: a judgment OF an agreeing group that
private judgment is sufficient Unless some teacher
or teaching body has authority, or bandly assumes
authority to say so. how shall the common people
ever know that teaching authority is needed or
admissible?
One might thing that reasonable men who claim
the name Christian might agree this: Christ is
our authority; what He says guides us; since He has
aseended into heaven. accept no authority beyond
the authority of Scripture At first sight such
statement has in il show of reason But when we
come TO see what the admitted authority of Christ
has taught and established the statement
10 be reasonable For Christ actually established
Church and told TO teach authoritatively He gave
il strict commission Ito teach all nations" He
promised 10 be with il always, Il am with you all
days even TO the end of the world" He gave II au-
thorty, "He that heareh YOU heareth me- If, then,
person accepts the authority Of Christ, he accepts
the authority of ChrisS true Church.
II is merely silly to say one believes in Christ
and then proceed to regard Christ as unreliable;
to claim to venerate His word and then disregard
that word as false; TO declare that accepts
Christ" and al the same time to reject Him In that
institution with which He has largely identified
Himself The sectarian effort is doomed to that
folly and defeat which is the portion of those who
fancy. in spite of reason and experience that they
may eat their cake and have it still to eat
The people who resent the claim to infability in
the true Church resent il because they refuse to
that the infalibility is Gods infallbility pledged
TO Gods own institution. But no matter how much
they resent infallibiity they forced to assume
it themsekes-without any authority whaever-or
else 90 out OF business And so have the spectacle
of the 95th Lutheran Synod in Los Angeles infalby
declaring the dogma that the means which mar
ried pair uses TO determine the numbers and the
spacing of the births of their children matter
for them to decide with their own eonsciences
None of the methods for controlling births
has any special moral merit or demerit II Is the
spirit in which the means is used, rather than
whether il is natural artificial which defines
its 'rightness' or 'wrongness'."
The only difference between such Lutheran dog
mas and the dogmas of the true religion is that the Lu
theran dogmaS are pronounced with the voice of au
thority of a synod, while the Catholic doemas
pronounced with the voice of authority of Jesus
Christ true God as we'll as true Man. The Luther
ans, claiming that there Is no infalble religious
authority in the world. nevertheless presume 10
assume and such authority: the Catholic Church,
claiming that there is such authority naturally re-
lies upon its authentic II is easy TO see in this
situation which side logic and common sense
10 be found.
And the Anglicsns together with their Protest
ant confreres of the World Council of Churches.
the need of finding clear-cut guidance in one
voice and not in the clash and conflict of bench
of presidents Yet il is hardly reasonable TO seek
one guiding voice merely for the sake of unified
action. If the one voice lacks the authority of un-
falling truth and wisdom, it may be the means of
leading them the more surely and swiftly to ruin.
What they need and sense that they need is the
infallible voice of Christ in His true Church
But they hate that Church so cordially that they
would rather determine upon another voice and
pretend that II is Christs.