Ir_ .U'iI .... "" .. , .. 'd.xu"p �lje �rutb· �bout ctCatbolit� New Edition, July 1, 1935 CONTENTS Foreword -----______________________________________________________ 1 Church or Bible ---------------_________________________________ 2 Questiop.s and Answers, Masonry, K. C. Oath ----------------- � --4-5 Why Be a Catholic 6 The Visible Church 7 The Rosary Explained ,.______ 10 Confession .. 11 Purgatory 12 Adoration of Mary 13 Catholic Countries Unprogressive __ 14 Why Priests Do Not Marry � , 14 Protestant Marriages ---------------------------------- 15 Departure of Non-Catholic Bodies from Apostolic Teaching , 16 History of Sects 20 .. The Bible an Authority only in Catholic Hands ' '______________________________________ 21 The Church and Science 28 Abstract of Title from St. Peter to Present Pope 29 • Is the Catholic Church the Church of the Ignorant? 32 Catholic Beliefs Back Cover What Protestant Historians Say Back Cover Modern Minds Shall Pass Away, But- Back Cover FOREWORD Dear Non-Catholic Friends: Before you mislay this Booklet ask yourself three questions: AM I RIGHT? Four hundred years ago all English speaking peo­ ple were Catholic. Many of the greatest minds of the age-scientists, philosophers, reformers, poets, critics, etc., have become convinced that the Catho­ lic Church is the Living Representative of The Greatest Mind of all time, Jesus Christ, The Son of God. ARE THEY RIGHT OR AM I? AM I JUST? As an American I do not deny, even to murderers, the hearing I refuse to the Catholic Church. I con­ demn her upon the evidence of her enemies only, and in doing so I forget that men once so con­ demned Jesus Christ Himself. IS THIS JUST? AM I PRUDENT? JESUS founded a Church to teach all nations (Matt. 28.19.); (Mark 16.15), and to endure "to the end of the world". (Matt. 28.20.) To Her teachers He said, "He that heareth you heareth Me". (Luke 10.16.). "He that believeth not shall be condemned", (Mark 16.16.) . . History tells me that she is the only world wide Church that has preserved her identity, authority and worship from Apostolic times, and that she is the only Church founded by the Infallible Son of God. She is, therefore, as different from other Churches as Her Divine Founder is different from other Church founders. AM I PRUDENT IN FAILING TO INVESTIGATE HER CLAIMS? Rev. Joseph B. Ward, 175 High St., Lewisham, London, S. E. 13 1 CHURCH OR BIBLH? Which was appointed by Christ to teach mankind the- true Religion l When our Divine Saviour sent His Apostles thru­ out the universe to preach the Gospel to every crea­ ture, He laid down the conditions of salvation thus: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned." Here then our Blessed Lord laid down two conditions­ Faith and Baptism. (Mark. 16 :16.) What is this Divine Faith which we must have in order to be saved? It is to believe, upon the author­ ity of God, the truths that God has revealed. Now if a man is at liberty to believe any kind of religion provided he be a good man, then what use for Christ to send out His Apostles to teach all nations? Are men and nations at liberty to reject the teaching of the Apostles? Therefore if a man would be saved he must profess the true Religion. Now if God commands me under pain of damna­ tion to believe what He has taught He is bound to give me the means to know what He has taught. Has God given us such means? "Yes", say all Protestants, "He has". And so say the Catholics. What is the means God has given us whereby we shall learn what He has taught? "The Bible say our Protestant friends and nothing but the Bible." But we Catholics say "No"; not the Bible but the Church of God". For if God had intended that man should learn his religion from the Bible, surely God would have given that book to man. Did He do so? He did not. Christ sent His Apostles thruout the universe and said: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe a.Il things whatsoever l have commanded you. Matt. 28 :19. Christ did not say, sit down and write Bibles and let every man read and judge for himself. T'hat in­ junction was reserved for the sixteenth century, and we have seen the result of it in the founding of about 500, religions by men, all quarreling with one an­ other about the interpretation of the Bible. Jesus never wrote a line of scripture nor did He command His Apostles to do so, except when He di­ rected St. John to write the Apocalypse 1 :11, but ordered them to "teach all nations". Matt. 28 :19. In Matt. 18 :17, He does not say "He that will not read the scriptures, but "he that will not hear the Church" is to be considered a heathen and publican. The Apostles never circulated a single volume of scripture, but going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord cooperating with them. Mark 16 :20. Tis true our Lord said on one occasion: "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye Irave eterna] Hfe, and the same are they that give testimony to me". This passage is quoted in favor of private interpretation but proves nothing of the kind. Our Saviour speaks here only of the Old Testament because the New Testament was not yet written. He addressed, not the Apostles, but the Pharisees, and reproaches them for not admitting His Divinity. All Religions out­ side the Catholic Church teach that the Bible is their rule of faith, and that men cannot be saved without the Bible. The Church established by Christ existed about 65 years before St. John wrote the book of Revelation. During these 65 years how did the people know what they had to do to save their souls? Was it from the Bible th e'y learned it? No, because the Bible was not yet written. They knew it precisely as we know it, from the teaching of the Church of God. Before the art of printing and papermaking were invented about the fifteenth century, everything had to be done with a pen upon parchment or sheepskin, and in those days a Bible would have cost about $8000. Not one in 50,000 had a Bible. Would Our Divine Lord have left the world for 1500 years without that book if it were necessary to man's salvation? Most assuredly not. But sup­ pose that all had Bibles. What good will that book be to one half of the people of the world who can­ not read? Now with regard to the King James edition learned Protestant Preachers and Bishops have written vol­ umes to point out the errors that are in it, and various denominations acknowledge it. Some years ago there was held in St. Louis a convention of min­ isters to which all demoninations were invited, the object being to arrange for a new translation of the Bible. In that convention a very learned Presby­ terian stood up and urging the necessity of a new translation said, that in the present Protestant Bible there were no less than thirty thousand errors. Protestants say the man who reads the Bible prayerfully has truth. Let us suppose: here is an Episcopal minister; he reads the Bible in a prayerful spirit and he says it is clear and evident there must be bishops, for without bishops there can be no priests, without priests there can be no Sacraments and without Sacraments no Church. The Presbyte­ rian, a sincere and well meaning man, deduces from the Bible that there should be no bishops, only Pres­ byters. A number of sects hold that baptism by im­ mersion is correct while others approve of baptism by sprinkling. Next comes the Unitarian who calls them a pack of Idolators worshipping a man for a God and he quotes several texts from the Bible to prove it. I have here brought together a number of de­ nominations understanding the Bible in different ways. What then, if l brought together 500 de- a Rev. Arnold Damien. S. J. nominations all differing. One says there is no hell. Another says there is a hell. One says Christ is God, another says He is not, etc. IS ANYONE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO DELIEVE THAT THE CHANGELESS AND ETERNAL HOLY GHOST IS DIRECTlNG THOSE .FIVE HUNDRED SECTS TELLING ONE YES AND ANOTHER NO. DECI.JARI�G A THING TO BE BLACK AND WHITE, FALSE AND TRUE, AT THE SAlUE TIll'lE. If the Bible were intended as the guide and teacher of man, would St. Peter have declared that "In the scriptures are things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own de­ struction". 2 Peter, 3 :16. If sa Ivation tl�pends upon believing truths, can we suppose that God would have each individual de­ termine what these truths are? In His Kingdom there are no sects but harmony and unity, yet His Kingdom on earth, established by His own Blood, should be a house, "divided against itself". Five bundred contradictory sects 'with about 1000 offshoots during the past 4001 years because of understanding the Bible in different ways. When George Washington and his associates wrote the constitution they did not say to the people, "Let every man make his own explanation of the consti­ tution." What did Washington do? He appointed his Supreme court to give the true explanation of the Constitution to all citizens, from the President to the beggar, and it is this alone that has pre­ served the Union of the United States. So our Divine Saviour established His Supreme Court, His Supreme Judge to give us the meaning of the scriptures and the Son of the Living God has pledged His Word that the Supreme Court is in­ fallible in Matters of Faith and morals. John 16 :13. I have now proved to you that the private inter­ pretation of the scripture cannot be the guide or teacher of man. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. Don't you Catholics adore relics and Saints l We don't. If we did we would be idolators. Now idolatry is worse than murder, for murder is di­ rectly against one's neighbor, idolatry is directly against God. 2. Are you not narrow to believe that yours is the only true Church of Christ? We are not. Are you narrow for believing your God to be the only true God? Truth is one and can't be mixed with untruth. Since Christ set up but 4 4. Your Church is intolerant. Yes: she hates untruth, vice, humbug, and what­ ever Christ, her Bridegroom,. hates. She therefore condemns books that contain false doctrines, or are calculated to injure the morals of peoples. Again, if men make use of politics to suppress or violate her rights or Christian Morality, then she exercises her rights from above, to protect her children and herself from evil. one Church, we refuse to believe more than one Ch urch to be true. 3. What about so many bad Catholicsf What about the millions of saintly ones who attend Mass daily before going to work? Our Lord told us not to be scandalised when we see "cock] e and wheat in His Church". But why blame the Church for bad Catholics? All the bad Catholics of the world are not the Catholic Church. Then, they are bad because they forget their Catholic duties and dis­ grace their exalted condition, a matter of "fallen angels", not to be seized with much eagerness: so long as there is life there is hope for them. Is it not more profitable to speak about the unnumbered Ca tholic Martyrs and Saints? 5. Why can't Catholics be Masons? One reason is that Masonry is a man-made religion with a doctrine and a ritual of its own; hence Catho­ lics cannot belong to it any more than they can be­ long to, say, Islam. 6. You don't deny the oath of the Fourth De­ gree, K. of C.? We do emphatically. Since 1922 an oath of this kind has been invented and spread all over the coun­ try to poison America against Catho lics generally and the Knights particularly. Our Courts have proved that oath to be the "'invention of an impious and venomous mind". Numbers of fa.ì r-m tnd ed 32nd and 33rd degree Masons, past Grandmasters, such as Mot­ ley Hewes Flint, Dana Reid Weller, William Rhodes Hervey and Samuel E. Burke, of California, have in­ vestigated the alleged oath and declared it to be "scurilous, wicked and libelous". (Congressional Rec­ ord, Vol. 52, P. 2817). 7. What is the use of Monks and Nun8? Their lives are lives of prayer as those of Angels in Heaven. Every Order has its own peculiar spirit and work. You find our Monks and Nuns spending themselves in the service of their neighbor, in schools, hospitals, homes for the aged, refuges of the unfor­ tunate and neglected; the care of prisoners, orphans, lepers; the safeguarding of virtue among the unpro­ tected. No lives are more benevolent to poor suffer­ ing humanity. S. Can't you keep your religion to yourselve�, leaving non-Cathloics alone? We can't. 'Ours is the Gospel of the Holy One who said, "Go ye and teach all nations ... Ye are all brothers . . . Love each other as your­ selves !"; and not the Gospel of Cain who said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" We are for truth, virtue, peace, Legitimate Authority, (everybody his due, tax to whom tax, honor to whom honor, in short, for all the cures needed by Society). RATHER THAN OBSTRUCT OUR MISSION, COME AND BE A TORCHBEARER OF TRUTH, A HEALER OF WOUNDED HEARTS, A ""VORI