Protestantism

Basic Protestant Principles Examined

In The Light Of Catholic Faith

The Bible Alone: Is It True?

The above is an ambiguous question. As Catholics, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and therefore it must be true. But the principle that the Bible alone is true, ('Sola Scriptura' in Latin) without the authority of the teachings of the Church and Sacred Tradition, was key to the so-called Protestant Reformation.

All non-Catholic Bible-believers who take their religion, or Christ Himself seriously, will have to face up to this fundamental problem; WHY BELIEVE THE BIBLE? They usually find it convenient not to dwell on such a question, for this reveals the great weakness of non-Catholic Christianity, its foundation is unscriptural, unhistorical and unreasonable.

One convert from the Bible-believing Christianity to the Roman Catholic Church, Mr. Scott Hahn, did ask seriously this question. One day he was challenged by a student while teaching in his seminary class. He was asked politely "Professor Hahn, where does the Bible teach that it alone is the infallible guide to truth (or Word of God)?" Scott Hahn was disturbed by the question, and he went to the best scholars of the Protestant Churches in America, only to find the same few quotes that do not prove the non-Catholic position. In fact they show their error in the refutation as given below. Some frankly admitted that it is not a principle in Scripture, but is a given postulate, for the only alternative ( the Roman Catholic Church and Tradition) is absurd, thus unthinkable.

After Mr.Hahn had thoroughly studied the question, read many Catholic books, and started praying the Rosary, he was well on the way to conversion. His wife called upon his best friend, and once equally anti-Catholic Scripture scholar, Gerry Matatics, to help rescue Scott from becoming "Luther in reverse" as Mrs. Hahn feared. They exchanged reading matter, and both decided to become Catholic at Easter of 1986. Since then, both their wives and children have become Catholic, and Gerry Matatics follows the Traditional Roman Rite of Mass, admirably defending it. Both have an apologetics program all over the world, and are bringing many others, even former Protestant Ministers, into the Faith by demonstrating its biblical foundations. Some have indicated that this issue was the first reason for their conversion - someone showed them there is NO biblical case for Sola Scriptura.

Mr. Hahn now teaches at the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, renowned for its conservatism, yet also a bit charismatic. Several of the seventy professors follow exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass, and with these Scott Hahn is sympathetic, yet he attends so far the New Order. The following is condensed from his eight classes given and recorded at the University to prove the insufficiency of the Bible alone. It falls in three parts: biblical refutation, historical refutation, and rational refutation.

A) SOLA SCRIPTURA IS UNSCRIPTURAL:

1. Sacred Scripture shows the primacy of Tradition, quite explicit in St. Paul.

"Therefore brethren, stand fast, and hold to the Tradition, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle." 2 Thess. 2:14

"Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: It is a more blessed thing to give rather than receive"( Acts 20:35), shows that Tradition records even the words of Christ, not found in the gospel. Indeed, St. John concludes his gospel account saying: "There are many other things which Jesus did..."(Jn 21:25), which belong to the oral Tradition, left to the magisterium under the guidance of the Holy Ghost: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you (Apostles, but also their successors) into all the truth" (Jn 16:13). St. Paul goes on promoting Divine Tradition: "For I delivered unto you first of all which I also received..." (1 Cor. 15:3), and later in vs. 29, he speaks of an oral tradition (without commenting on it) of those who were "baptised for the dead" (possibly doing penance for the souls in Purgatory).

2. It also shows the primacy of the Church as the foundation of the Truth, not Scripture:

"The house of God which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim 3:15). "I will build MY Church" (Matt. 16:18). "Tell the Church, if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican" (ie. excommunicated, Matt. 18:17). "He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth Him that sent me." (Luke 10:16)).

3. St. Paul also shows the primacy of the Apostolic preaching before scripture, which, as developed by the popes and councils, we call the magisterium: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema", ie. let him be damned to hell ['Good News' version], (Gal 1:8,9).. Thus whoever preaches Sola Scriptura is cursed by the Apostle!

Also , "Withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the Tradition which they have received of us". (2 Thess. 3:6). This amounts to the old fashioned excommunication vitandus!=keep away!

4. The Apostle St. Peter speaks of the inadequacy of Sacred Scripture without the double support of the magisterium and Tradition: "There are...certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and the unstable wrest (ie. twist out of context), as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:16). Hahn makes the apt comment "A TEXT OUTSIDE THE CONTEXT IS A PRETEXT". Also "No prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation..." All Sacred Scripture is called prophecy by a synedoche (part for the whole), just as all the Old Testament is a figure of the New.

5. The Protestants confuse human and divine traditions:

Human traditions are condemned by Our Lord when they "nullify the Word of God" (Mark 7:13), yet He demanded that even the new Christians should obey the corrupt leaders of the Jews in all that was traditional, ignoring their additions and bad example, until His New Church is commissioned. "The Scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do ye not. For they say and do not."( Matt 23 :2,3.). Where, pray tell, is there Old Testament evidence of a chair of Moses?? ('Cathedra' in Latin) There is no written record, Our Lord is quoting a well-known, authoritative and binding Sacred Tradition! Jesus Christ was the first Traditional Roman Catholic (High)priest.

6. Protestants refuse the magisterium appointed by Jesus Christ as seen in the historical records of the gospel accounts: The magisterium is necessary to define things in the deposit of faith that are unclear or become disputed later on, through all the ages. For example, the question arose what is still necessary, desirable, or allowable of the Old Testament religion. It was settled by a direct vision given to the Pope, St. Peter, about abolishing the division of foods into clean and unclean.(Acts ch.10). The Pope called the first Council at Jerusalem to work out further details of the new Apostolic policy regarding gentile converts, and it decided a few "necessary things, abstain from blood, from things strangled and from fornication." (Acts 15:28,29). How are we to decide, 1950 years later, which of these are binding still, which have been abolished since, which are moral or just disciplinary laws? Only the magisterium can decide such things. The latest use of this infallible magisterium was in Dec 1994, declaring women priests an impossibility, de Fide.

This council shows us that the Church was making magisterial decisions, binding on the Faithful, before the Scripture was even written. St. Cyprian comments on this, saying how heretics and schismatics corrupt souls: "You deserter of the Church, enemy of mercy, killer of penitence, doctor of pride, corrupter of truth, traitor to charity..." (Ep.1 ad Cornelius.)

The charism given to St. Peter was to be handed down even to unworthy successors, just as it did in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaias tells us (ch 59:21) "This is my covenant with them saith the Lord: my spirit that is in thee and my words that I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of thy seed, nor out of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever."

The office of High Priest continued, such that even St. Paul showed respect for the man appointed for this, evil as he was. Paul called him an insulting term "Whitewashed wall", then is checked by the servant "'would you revile the High Priest?' and Paul answered 'I did not know, brethren that he was the High Priest; for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.'"(Acts 23:5). St. John notes that Caiaphas was speaking with the spirit of prophesy (ex cathedra) even in spite of his evil will, when he asked for the death of Christ for the salvation of the people. "He spoke not of himself, but being the High Priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation." (Jn 11:51).

Bible-believers claim that this prophetic charism is now gone, but how do they know? How do they know who even ranks among the prophets? All regard as a great prophet the famous Elias and his spiritual son, Eliseas (Elija and Elisha in modern Bibles), yet Sacred Scripture does not record even one of their letters! Why not, if the written word alone is the Word of God? In fact, one Old Testament patriarch, Henoch, prophesied, saying "behold the Lord cometh with thousands of His saints." (Jude 14), but where is this recorded in the Bible before St. Jude? Nowhere! So clearly the Apostle was relying on the Oral Tradition to authoritatively report the words of the patriarch.

Finally there is the statement of St.Paul to his new young bishop St. Timothy, about those we would call today the Modernists, who "having an appearance indeed of godliness (devotion,piety), but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid (excommunication!)...always learning and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth. Now, as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses (Where is this in the Old Testament??), so also these (Modernists and Protestants) also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the Faith" (2 Tim. 3:5-8.)

B) SOLA SCRIPTURA IS UNHISTORICAL

We have seen above how the Faith was spread by the Apostolic preaching and teaching even before the written Word of God. This is logical, and there must be no contradiction in the oral or the written Word, since all is the Revelation of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, to humanity. He commanded them to "Preach the gospel to every creature...", which is not a command to write letters or gospels, nor is it limited to any time or place; the Catholic Church takes its name and origin from this.

The apostolate of Gerry Matatics is to show how every possible objection against the Catholic Faith can be proven from Scripture to be without foundation. Yet he was especially impressed with the historical argument, from the Fathers of the Church. First, the very nature of why we believe which books belong to the canon (list of writings) of the Sacred Text. The council of Hippo in the year 393 defined the canon, excluding several wide-spread erroneous gospels. How do we know today whether they were right or wrong? The councils of Carthage in 397 and again in 419, finalised the canon, and again at Trent in the Sixteenth Century.

We have it ONLY on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church that those seventy-two books we call the Bible, are in fact the Word of God. Protestants actually dare to alter, by reduction, this canon of the Word of God. Missing from their Bibles are seven full books like Wisdom and Maccabees, and several chapters of the other books, like Daniel and Esther. Recall the words of Our Lord in the last book of the Bible "If anyone would diminish the words of the prophecy of this book, God will take away his part from the Book of Life" (Apoc 22:18) and beware! This is not to mention the corrupted translations, often deliberate distortions of the Sacred Text to fit their convenient doctrines. (cf, Ward's "Errata of the Protestant Bible" of 1844)

In the first Century AD, we have the witness of St. Papius (died 130), that Tradition is necessary. He says, "It did not seem to me that I could get so much profit from the contents of books, as from a living and abiding voice" (ie. the Church's magisterium). This and the following quotes are taken from a classic text of the Church Fathers, much expanded into three volumes heavily researched and indexed, called "The Faith of the Early Fathers" by W.A. Jurgens, 1984 Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN USA. These books are constantly promoted by G. Matatics, and sell out wherever he goes. This quote of St. Papius is in J. #94.

In the second Century after Christ, St. Ireneaus (died 202) testifies to the need for Tradition before Scripture (J. 210, 211). Also St. Athanasius (died 373) is a witness (J# 791). He calls the results of the Council of Nicea, the Word of the Lord, remaining forever! (J # 792). Also St. Cyril of Jerusalem (died 386) claims that the Holy Ghost inspired even the Septuagint (Greek version rejected by the Jews and Protestants, yet favoured by the Apostles and Our Lord Himself in around 300 of the 350 quotes in the New Testament from the Old ) See J. 819

Also in the second century somewhere between 155 and 200, we have the evidence of the Muratorian Fragment, discovered in 1740, possibly written by St. Hippolytus. It witnesses to the traditional order of readings at Sunday Mass, and shows the confusion among the many churches (all Catholic) on this question of Scripture, before the authoritative decisions of Rome came along centuries later! Today the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the 1940's, are confirming the Catholic position on Scripture and Tradition, yet most books on this are unreliable, unless you search via TAN or ANGELUS press, and a few others.

Very much more could be said of the Church Fathers, but I urge the reading of this wonderful set by Jurgens. If it is not available, Matatics recommends a Penguin Classic on the same theme available from any public library. The study of the Fathers shows that what traditional Catholics teach and practice was the universal faith of the first Christians. It is indisputable, unemotional, and has led to the conversion of very many, including the great Venerable Cardinal Newman of last century. His autobiography the "Apologia Pro Vita Sua" is still converting intellectuals who are honest and upright today. Thousands have become Catholic through the prayerful seeking of truth, and the study of the Fathers.

C) SOLA SCRIPTURA IS ILLOGICAL

Several reasons why the prime principle of the reformation is totally irrational are given below.

1. Sola Scriptura demands a closed canon and certainty for it to be a valid and workable principle. But WHO SAYS WHICH BOOKS BELONG TO THE BIBLE? As we saw above, it was the authoritative and infallible Councils of the Catholic Church under the Pope, which decided the question. Were they infallible then? Why not now? With due limitation as defined by Vatican Council 1.(Db 1836)

2. Moreover, given a closed canon, even if the Apostles themselves had decided it (which they did not), how do we know that we have an accurate translation in the various changing languages of today? Anyone who has studied another language knows the many difficulties involved. Try putting into French the saying "its raining cats and dogs" and see if the French understand what you mean! Even in one national language, there is need of an authoritative body to interpret the laws, or else the result is anarchy. We Catholics know we have a substantially accurate text, yet not perfect in every detail. How can we be sure of the Word of God? By that teaching authority Christ established, only.

3. Even if there was such a complete and closed canon of Sacred Scripture, for the non-Catholic position it means they would have to be self-authenticating documents. That means they must say they are inspired by God, and we must believe it just because they said it! Yet we know that very few books of the Bible say they are inspired, and several have no more devotional inspiration (quite different meaning) than accounts of wars or genealogies! In fact many passages of Scripture are nothing but accounts of wars or genealogies!

Luther's test for authentic inspiration was, "Does it bring man an assurance of salvation?" For Calvin it was the internal evidence of the Holy Spirit! This is the same way the Mormons get people to believe the fancies of Joseph Smith, taken from a Minister's novel, he called the Book of Mormon; by the nice feelings they get when they read it. This does not mean biblical inspiration. Compare a chapter of the Imitation of Christ with a chapter from the book of Philemon by St. Paul. The first is inspirational in the modern sense, but not in the theological sense, and vice versa. This is how Religion became a private affair, purely subjective and of less and less influence for Christ the King over civil life, because of this principle of rejecting Holy Roman Catholic Tradition.

4. Can the Protestants not see how unreasonable it is to deny the power of infallibility to the popes, yet to allow it for the authors of the New Testament? On what grounds do they do this? Some of the NT authors were not Apostles (St.Luke, St. Mark), yet the popes and bishops are direct successors to the Apostles of Our Lord, with the divine promise, "I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world". (Matt. 28: 20).

5. The Protestant position leads to anarchy and to atheism via religious liberty. It effectively makes every man his own pope, and has led to literally thousands of conflicting sects making Christianity look ridiculous. Each generation brings the principle to its more logical conclusions. That is why this generation is so material and godless that we truly have reason to fear for our lives from the next generation. They may well impose euthanasia upon all non-conformists (or non-hedonists). Clearly the objective basis of religion has been eroded by the unbiblical doctrine that the Bible alone is the Word of God.

WHAT TO DO?

Learn your Faith, pray the Rosary, come to the Traditional Latin Mass, support the true reform movement in the Church, keep away from liberalism, modernism and Protestantism in all its forms.

The Church protects us like a loving mother, so she forbids us to join any Bible Society of Protestant influence. She even prohibits the reading of vernacular bibles, published without approval and suitable annotations: cf. Pope Gregory XVI (Db 1632. Also Pius VII quotes St. Augustine, "For heresies are not born except when the true Scriptures are not well understood, and when what is not well understood in them is rashly and boldly asserted". (Db 1604). The Pope goes on, "If we grieve that men renowned for piety and wisdom have, by no means rarely, failed in interpreting the Scriptures, what should we not fear if the Scriptures, translated into every vulgar tongue whatsoever, are freely handed on to be read by an inexperienced people who, for the most part, judge not with any skill, but with a kind of rashness."

LETTER FROM A PRIEST

OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X,

TO AN EX-CATHOLIC, NOW PROTESTANT MINISTER, IN REPLY TO HIS PROBLEMS WITH THE CATHOLIC FAITH.

Written the night of Christmas, 1994. Using the King James version of the Bible, yet recommending the Vulgate/Douay-Rheims version.

"...Since you told me your spiritual itinerary, let me tell you mine. I was also born in a Catholic family, and baptised as a baby. Baptism does give the gift of Faith, even to babies. Indeed, Our Lord Jesus Christ said: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19:14). Put that together with what St. Paul says: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. 11:6) If children can come to Jesus and have the Kingdom of Heaven, and one needs Faith to approach God and be saved, then it is clear that children can have Faith: God gives it to them in Baptism.

But Faith is a gift of God that can be lost: indeed remember that the Hebrews believed in God after the crossing of the red sea ("And Israel saw that the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." (Exodus 14:31), yet afterward many of them (indeed almost all of them) fell into sin, including the sin of unbelief, and for this cause were punished many times and died in the wilderness. It is the purpose of a good Catholic education, to foster the growth of that wonderful seed (see Matt. 13:31) put by God in the soul of a child at Baptism. If a child does not receive such an education, he may lose first of all the grace of God by sin, and then even Faith, which unfortunately happened to you. But one can always return to true Faith in God.

Thanks be to God, my parents gave me a good education, with family prayer, and truly learning the Catechism, and also reading the lives of the Saints which are nothing else than the Gospel put into practice! I had the true faith in Jesus, but without much personal effort, just a little bit, like everyone has the knowledge of his mother-tongue, without thinking much about it. When I was twelve, I remember clearly asking myself: "Well is it really true, all that I believe; I do believe all that, but is it true?" Through the grace of God, I realised that as a youngster of merely twelve, who was I to question my Faith: so I said, "I will continue to believe, and will check when I will grow up." Through other graces of God, I never questioned the true faith in Christ again; though checking I did, and it only confirmed the truth of the Christian message which is contained in full only in the Catholic Church.

You ask me the question, or "challenge": "Have you personally accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour, turned from sin and turned to the living risen Jesus Christ?" Why do you think I entered the seminary? I will answer very clearly: Yes I did! You exhort me to search the Scriptures. Well, I do that every day, and I am confident that you do it too. so please check the following:

(1) The Church. You wrote: "The church is not a mystical body. It is the body made up of all born-again believers." St. Paul says clearly that the Church is "the Body of Christ" (Col. 1:24) and you yourself say that it is the body of Christ. The Catholic Church uses the word "mystical" in order to distinguish between the (physical) body of Christ, flesh and blood born of the Virgin Mary, and the Church. Reading carefully St. Paul's letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, and many other passages of the New Testament, I do not see why one would find a problem with this expression. But let us not quarrel on words.

(2) You write: "No amount of going to church, no amount of good works, no amount of ritual and tradition, no amount of religion could satisfy a holy God - only Faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour could." Here you have the core of the protestant heresy: the Catholic Church with the Scriptures teaches that Faith is necessary, but not Faith alone! Luther and the protestants added to the Holy Scripture the word "alone" , (Romans 3:28), and thus denied many other passages of the Scripture that explicitly teach that Faith alone is not sufficient.

One needs a distinction: our works alone are unable to please God, the Catholic Church perfectly agrees. It is the works of Christ that can satisfy, and He did satisfy on the Cross, sufficiently for the salvation of the whole world. We receive Him by Faith (Jn. 1:12). But the protestants add the word "alone", which is nowhere in the Scriptures1: God does not want our faith "alone", on the contrary, St. Paul says: "Though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (I Cor. 13:2). Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says the same thing: "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7:21-23). He who calls Jesus Christ "Lord", has the Faith; he who does miracles in His Name has the Faith, yet this is not sufficient to go to the Kingdom of Heaven!

In one word: Faith is necessary: no salvation without it (Heb. 11:6); but it is not sufficient! There would be so many proofs of this in the New Testament that is would be too long to write them all here. Just one more: at the last Judgment (Matt. 25) the criterion is not faith, but good works! I am confident that with honesty and above all with the grace of God, you will see this.

What then is needed? St. Paul answers: "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by charity"2. (Gal. 5:6) The bond with Christ, with God, is essentially a bond of Charity: "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." (Col. 3:4) And St. John says: "And we have known and believed the charity that God hath to us. God is Charity; and he that dwelleth in charity dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 Jn. 4:16) Christ came to give us life (Jn. 10:10); without Charity there is death, with Charity there is life (see 1 Jn. 3:14-15). One understands thus better what sin is: sin is an offence against God, it is incompatible with the love of God; by destroying that love of God which is the life of the soul, sin causes the death of the soul; by breaking that bond of perfection, sin separates from God ("But your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isa. 59:2). We need Christ to give us that life back, to renew that bond of love; He saves us from sin. This salvation requires Faith, but not Faith alone, it requires "Faith working by charity" as St. Paul says. Thus Faith, Charity and good works are required, and yet all three are the effect of the grace of Christ: Faith is a gift, charity is a gift (Rom. 5:5), good works are given to us: so in all things it is Christ working in us and through us (as it is the vine producing the growth of the branch and the fruits through the branch).

1 Eph. 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." St. Paul speaks here of works without Faith, he does not mean that Faith should remain without works; indeed the very following verse shows that good works are required of those who have the Faith: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2:10) Together with the Scripture, the Catholic Church condemns both: faith without works and works without Faith!

2 I use "charity" rather than love to translate the Greek word "agape"; charity is here understood not in a material sense (almsgiving) but in its high meaning of "love of God above all things and of thy neighbour for God's sake." The word "love" is too often profaned in English and in many modern tongues; "charity in the above sense is better. Almsgiving is just a direct consequence of this high charity: if we see Jesus in our neighbour in need, our heart goes to Him, and we serve him in them: "And the King shall answer and say, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. 25:40)

3 Hence the need to partake in the sufferings of Christ, as St. Paul also says to the Romans: "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; IF so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Rom. 8:17)

Thus when you write: "No amount of going to church, no amount of good works, no amount of ritual and tradition, no amount of religion could satisfy a holy God," the Catholic Church agrees that these things are useless without Faith, but She says that they are the natural consequence of Faith. You can see these practices in the Scriptures itself; 1) going to church: they used to gather on the first day of the week to pray (Acts. 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2); 2) good works, there would be many quotes but just one: Rev. 2:4.&5, 3) as for Rituals, St. Paul says he "will set in order" what is to be done at these Eucharistic meetings (1 Cor. 11:34).

The Solution: LIFE OF CHRIST IN US

All the errors of the protestants could be easily understood and corrected if one realises that what is needed to be saved is that Christ lives in us. This requires both Faith AND charity (Eph. 3:17). Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), without Him, we are dead; separated from him by sin, we are dead.

It seems that for protestant theology, once they have made an act of faith in Jesus "as their personal Saviour", that is it, they need no further works. But this is against Scripture, since they would be as the barren fig tree, which Our Lord cursed (Matt. 21:19, see Lk. 13:6-9). Above all, it is a misunderstanding of this "life of Christ" in us. Indeed, Baptism is a new birth; now once a child is born, he must grow! The whole Christian life is that growth of the life received at Baptism: it is a "life of Faith" (Rom. 1:17), a life giving "in all things the example of good works" (Titus 2:7), a life that requires "striving" according to the wonderful example of St. Paul (I Cor. 9:24-27). St. Paul considers that he did not yet attain the goal, but he strives forward (see Phil. 3:12-17), he "walks" in the way of God, which is Christ (Jn. 14:6), towards "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). A true Christian must "walk in the light of Christ" (see Jn. 8:12) in the path of the Commandments of God (Ps. 118:32) by steps of love, of Charity (a beautiful expression of St. Augustine, taken from Eph. 5:2). Salvation is at the end of this walk at the light of faith (the light of Christ) in the way of the commandments of God (this is the imitation of Christ: I Cor. 11:1) by steps of love: indeed "He that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt. 24:13). This is the Christian Life, according to the Gospel; the Catholic Church is perfectly faithful to this doctrine of the Scriptures.

The best way to understand this question of Faith and works is to refer to the explanation of Our Lord in Jn. 15: He is the vine we are the branches. As the branches cannot bring forth fruit unless it is in the vine, so neither can we unless we are rooted in Christ (by Faith and charity, see Eph. 3:17 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in charity"); yet a branch thus rooted in Christ must bring forth fruit otherwise it will be cut off! (Jn. 15:2) These fruits are the fruit of the vine through the branch, not of the branch alone; they are the fruits of Christ through His member, not of the member alone: we find again here the comparison of the (mystical) body: the acts of a hand or of a foot are acts of the head through the hands by the head as an instrument: without the head, the members could do nothing: but if a member does not act upon the instruction of the head, it is a dead member, a useless branch that shall be cut off.

As you can see, the Catholic doctrine exposed here in perfect conformity with the Scriptures. Saying "salvation by faith alone", Luther added "alone", which is NOT in the Scriptures, and his doctrine thus separated from the Scriptures. We must not only have "faith in Christ"; Christ must live in us (see "I am crucified with Christ(3): nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20). That life of Christ in us requires charity as St. John says (I Jn. 4:8): NOT FAITH ALONE.

In your sermon, you show beautifully that love gives, God the Supreme Lover gives supremely, and His Gift is His Son. Yes indeed, but a requirement of love is that it must be returned: "If God has loved us thus, we must love one another" (I Jn. 4:11); and that love of the neighbour requires the observance of the Commandments: "In this we know that we love those who are born of God, if we love God and do His Commandments. This is indeed the charity of God, that we keep His Commandments" (I Jn. 5:2-3). But then comes the protestant objection: who can keep the Commandments of God? Our Lord has answered in the Gospel: "for men it is impossible, but not for God" (Mk. 10:27). St. John explains that very same passage of his epistle: "and His commandments are not grievous" (I Jn. 5:3), that is, they are not unbearable, not impossible, why then? Because we are "born of God", that is Christ the Son of God living in us strengthens us unto "victory" over sin and the world: that is the victory of a living faith (I Jn. 5:4). In one word, Christ lives in us and gives us His strength to perform the Commandments: He does the work in us, as His Father does the works in Him (Jn. 14:10).

One may say: I need Faith in Jesus, but do I need the Catholic Faith? I answer: the Catholic Faith is the only one true Faith in Jesus; there is only one true Faith (Eph. 4:5), there cannot be many true faiths. Now how can one claim to really believe in Jesus if he does not accept ALL that Jesus taught? If he picks and chooses according to his own interpretation of the Bible? We must take ALL the Bible, not just some verses from it. I would go so far as to say: we must take more than the Bible, we must take ALL THAT JESUS SAID AND DID, and that "all" is not wholly in the Bible, as the Bible itself says! (see Jn. 20:30, Jn.21:25). The Catholic Church has ALL, both the written word, and the spoken word of Jesus (II Th. 2:14). Come back home!

Another objection that one could draw from your tape: "The Catholic way is too complicated! The protestant way is simpler: believe and that is all." The answer is simple: the Catholic way, which is the way of the Scriptures, is simple: Jesus! Jesus living in us. but that life takes over ALL our life it requires a fullness; it is not the first day of the conversion that we are "filled with the fruit of righteousness (merits) through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God," (Phil. 1:11) indeed it is only after that "charity may grow more and more in all knowledge and in all judgment: that ye may approve the things that are excellent, that we may be found sincere and without offence till the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:9-10).

(3) You enclosed a small pamphlet entitled "The One True Church". For a conclusion to be true, one needs to have true principles. Now at the very beginning (page 2), there are grave errors of history. It is not true to say: "during the first 300 years, no one bothered to ask, What is the one true Church? The true church was simply Christians - all believers ..." We see already in the Acts and in the epistles the existence of schisms and heretics (I Cor. 11:19; St. John is more clear: "Even now are there many Antichrists" I Jn. 2:18); also early history clearly shows that. I love reading the early Christian writings, and recently finished the complete works of St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. He was martyred under the emperor Valerian in 258, thus well before Constantine, and one can see in his writing how he fought against Novation, a heretic of his time, and also how he deferred to the Bishop of ROME, much before Constantine. At that time, the Christian Church had exactly the same constitution as... the Catholic Church: with the Bishop of Rome on the see of Peter, the Bishops in local dioceses who used to get together in local councils (Carthage thus was the meeting place for such a council, which was presided by St. Cyprian), they had priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, lectors, porters, consecrated virgins (see I Cor. 7:25...) They were baptising new-born children, a practice which they had received from the Apostles! They believed in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (the Holy Eucharist), they believed in the Sacrifice of the Mass...

I would suggest that you read those early Christian writers, the very ones who heard the Apostles with their own ears, such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, or St. Polycarp (disciple of St. John): they had... the Catholic Faith! The word "Catholic" was already used by St. Ignatius of Antioch to design the "one true Church" as opposed to the heresies of his time, and he was writing in the very early second century! Now let no one tell me that the Apostles failed in their duty and did not teach them the true Doctrine of Christ! Therefore ... the Doctrine of Christ is the Catholic Doctrine.

(4) That pamphlet continues and shows (rightly) that the Catholic Church insists on the necessity of interpreting the Bible as the Church has always interpreted it. The interpretation of the Bible has been entrusted to the Church, as its custodian and interpreter. But that we already see in the Scriptures: Jesus interprets the Old Testament to the Apostles, and it is evident that the Apostles taught the Old Testament (before any new testament was written) giving the hearers the same explanation that Jesus had given them! If any Christian would give another explanation than that which has been taught by the Church from the beginning, then "let him be anathema", says St. Paul (Gal. 1:18). And everyone knows the warning of St. Peter against those who "wrest the Scriptures unto their own perdition," because there "are some things hard to be understood" (II Peter 3:16), hence the need to listen to the explanations of the Apostles and of those who heard the Apostles. St. Paul himself teaches to "stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." (II Th. 2:14) In this passage he clearly puts the oral tradition on equal footing (even precedence!) with the written epistle.

That one should read the Scriptures (and we Roman Catholics do, and on Sundays we always have the Epistle and the Gospel read to us in our own language and explained), does not exclude that one should also "hear the Church" (Matt. 18:17), and especially hear the Apostles - and their successors (see Lk. 10:16 "He that hears you hears Me"). Christ Our Lord (in Matt. 18:17) is most clear upon the necessity to hear the Church: "but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican!"

One must note that without the Church's interpretation of the Scripture, the protestants quickly divided into a multitude of groups, disagreeing amongst themselves: if anyone can choose the interpretation he wants, then no unity can be found. Now that is explicitly against the Scriptures which teach that there is "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism" (Eph. 4:5); and when St. Paul speaks of "one body, and one spirit", he means "one Church" (above he referred to the Church as the Body of Christ). The very multiplicity of protestant denominations shows that this is not the true One True Faith and One True Church. (5) Then this pamphlet claims "that Peter is never given a place of authority in the New Testament." Well, this shows ignorance of the New Testament! Search the Scriptures! Lk. 22:32: "But I have prayed for thee [Peter], that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." And then in St. John, Our Lord entrusts His whole flock to Peter (Jn. 21:15-17), and so three times! At the Council of Jerusalem, it is not true that James alone presided; of the Apostles, Peter spoke first, and that was sufficient to settle the argument (see Acts. 15:12), then Paul and Barnabas; James just added the testimony of the Old Testament; but the question had already been settled before by Peter.

Then that pamphlet continues and tells us that what Jesus said to Peter would not be true of his successors: that is to suppose that either Jesus would be ignorant of the fact the world would continue much longer after Peter's death, or that Jesus would not have provided for continuity in His Church, both alternatives being impious even to think.

That the word "Pope" is not used in Scriptures is not true! If you just put in parallel Mt. 16:19 and Is. 22:22, it is clear that Mt. 16 is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaias: the translation of the high priesthood from the descendant of Aaron to Peter; now the new high priest is called "a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (image of the Church, see Rev. 21:2); now "pope" means "father" in Italian, ie nothing else than "father to the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem"!

(6) There would be many other points, but as for the seven Sacraments, you can find all in the Scriptures! As for Baptism necessary for all, including little children, Our Lord says: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (Jn. 3:5) That was the practice of the Apostles, as the early Christian writers tell us.

Confirmation: see Acts 8:15-17 after Baptism, they had still need of a Sacrament which the deacon Philip was not able to give them, it required an Apostle (the Bishops are successors of the Apostles): not everybody can impose hands to give the Holy Ghost, only a bishop, and that is the Sacrament of confirmation.

Holy Eucharist: we believe absolutely, without any diminution or turning around, the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: "This IS My body, this is My Blood!" (Mk. 12:22,24); especially in the light of what Our Lord had said in St. John, chapter 6 verse 52-56; far from telling the Jews that He would give a symbol of His flesh to eat, He insists on the reality of it! Those who do not believe in the real presence now are like the unbelieving Jews of the time.

Confession: see "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." (Jn. 20:22-23)

Extreme Unction: see "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders('priests' in the Catholic Bible, as in the original) of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." (James 5:14)

Holy Orders: see "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." (II Tim. 1:6)

Matrimony: see Eph. 5:31-32: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery [in Greek: the word for sacrament]: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Marriage is a sacrament because it signifies the union of Christ and His Church (many times in the Old and New Testament this is manifest), and helps the spouses to be faithful and fruitful as is Christ and His Church. That divorce is absolutely forbidden in the New Testament is manifest from the clear prohibition of Christ to remarry (Mt. 19:8-9..the clause 'except it be for fornication', shows only a grave reason for separation, but with no sanction for remarriage.)

I hope that these few pages will help you to see that the Catholic Doctrine is solidly based upon the Scriptures; the Catholic Church being the only Church that comes right back to Our Lord, Who has promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail, and they have not prevailed! The Doctrine of Our Lord cannot change: we must have the same Faith as all the Saints before us, it does not belong to us to depart from their interpretation: they live in Christ and Christ lived in them; they had the Holy Ghost. Blessed are we if we follow in their steps as St. Paul teaches us: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." (I Cor. 11:1) and again: "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example." (Phil. 3:17)

I do not write this to condemn, but rather to save: return to the Catholic Faith, not because it is the Faith of your father, but because it is the Faith that Our Lord Jesus Christ has taught, that has been believed by all the Saints who were wonderful followers of Christ and whom we ought to follow.

I would not write without speaking of the Mother of Jesus: the Gospel teaches us that God gave Jesus first to Mary, and then to us through her. Christmas most clearly manifests that we find Jesus not without Mary: "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." (Mt. 2:11). If we want to be, as St. Paul teaches, "members of Christ" (I Cor. 6:15), and Mary is the Mother of Christ, then she is our Mother! We say that she is the Mother of Christ, Who is God from the very first moment of his Conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Ghost. As true Mother of Jesus, she cares for all the members of Jesus, and intercedes between us and Jesus; she certainly does not bypass Jesus, as if we would not need Him if we would have her.

She leads us to Jesus as she did in the Gospel (see Jn. 2:5). She obtains for us the Holy Ghost as she obtained it for the unborn Baptist and his mother, Saint Elizabeth (Lk. 1:41). We need her, because we need to become like little children (Mt. 18:3), and for this what is more necessary than a mother? She teaches us the love of Jesus, which, as shown above, is most necessary for going to Heaven. Who knows the heart of a son more than a mother? She is a model of Faith: "Blessed art thou, that hast believed" (Lk. 1:45); but not an idle faith, she is a model of obedience to God: "Be it done to me according to thy word" (Lk. 1:38); she teaches us obedience to Jesus ("Do whatsoever he shall tell you." (Jn. 2:5); she is a model of fidelity even in difficulties: when all the apostles had run away, she remained "at the foot of the Cross" (Jn. 19:25); St. John, who had run away with the others, would not have come back except that he followed Our Lady.

Every one who knows the Scriptures cannot but acknowledge the parallel between Adam and Eve, and Jesus and Mary: the disobedience of Eve preceded the disobedience of Adam that condemned all mankind; the obedience of Mary (Lk. 1:38) preceded the obedience of Christ ("made obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross" Phil. 2:8) by which we are healed. The Cross is the tree of life, the fruit of that tree is Jesus Christ; Mary gives us Jesus, the fruit of Life, and repairs the damage done by Eve who gave us the fruit of the bad tree. Indeed, from the very beginning of the world, the Saviour was promised as "the seed of the Woman", that is of Mary. Since the beginning, the world is the stage of a great battle between good and evil: there are two camps, the camp of the Devil and the camp of the Woman, the camp of the seed of the devil and the camp of the seed of the Woman. If we want to have part of the victory of Christ over the devil, we must be of the camp of the seed of the Woman, that is, we must be "children of Mary."

The Holy Ghost formed Christ in Mary: Mary is the mould of Christ; if we want to be formed in the image of Christ (see Gal. 4:19), we must be in this mould, in Mary, to be formed there in the image of Christ by the Holy Ghost. I enclose some pages of St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort on the "True Devotion to Mary". Why do we love Mary? Because Jesus loved Mary, and we ought to imitate Jesus! It is as simple as that! Jesus became a little Child, Child of Mary, so that we may become children of God: He gave us His Mother when He died on the Cross, to be our mother. She prays for you too.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary obtain for you the grace to recover the One True Faith! May this be her Christmas gift to you, for the glory of her Son!

Yours sincerely in Jesus and Mary,

Father Francois Laisney "

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The Church and Her Enemies

or "How Protestantism Breaks all Ten Commandments."

By Father Michael Mueller C.SS.R.

The word of God, in the First Commandment, is: "I am the Lord thy God." By this commandment all men are obliged to believe in God as the Infinite Being, Who is essentially good and just, the sovereign Author and Lord of all things, Who has an absolute authority over all,- an authority which He can exercise either directly by Himself, or through an angel, a prophet, or one or more of His reasonable creatures. God, therefore, has a right to command the human understanding to admit certain truths, the human will to perform certain duties, the senses to make certain sacrifices. Nothing can be more reasonable than to submit to such a command of God. This submission is called Faith, which, as St. Paul says, "bringeth into captivity every understanding to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10: 5.) As soon, then, as man hears the voice of his Maker, he is bound to say, "Amen: it is so." I believe it, no matter whether I understand it or not.

But Protestants have no regard for God when He says, "I am the Lord thy God. I have a right to tell you what you must believe and do, in order to be saved, and you are bound to submit to My Will, and practice the religion which I have established." The Protestant answers: "Of course, I believe that thou art the Lord of Heaven and earth, but I believe only what I choose to believe ;" thus defying the Almighty to prescribe a religion for him. Protestants, therefore, live constantly in violation of the First Commandment.

They also transgress the Second Commandment of God, which says: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." By this commandment God forbids all men to blaspheme Him or any of His saints, or to ridicule religion. Yet, what is more common among Protestants than to blaspheme Jesus Christ in His Mother and other saints; what more common than to ridicule the religion of Christ and its holy practices? Are not Protestant books, sermons, tracts, and conversations, filled with abusive language, invectives, mockeries against Christ, His religion and His saints?

Protestants also transgress the Third Commandment of God, which says: "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day." By this commandment God commands all men to worship Him in the manner which He has prescribed. From the beginning of the world, God wished to be worshipped by the offering of sacrifices; but Protestants have done away with the worship of the Sacrifice of the Mass, which Christ commanded to be offered up by His priests and all Christians. They refuse to give God the honour of adoration; that is, to honour Him as the sovereign Lord of all creatures, and to acknowledge their entire dependence on Him, by offering the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of His divine Son, Jesus Christ, in holy Mass. Instead of thus honouring and worshipping Him, they blaspheme Christ by calling this Holy Sacrifice a superstitious ceremony or abominable idolatry, whilst their own worship is a false worship, which is an abomination in the sight of God.

Protestants transgress the Fourth Commandment, by refusing obedience to the lawful ecclesiastical superiors. They transgress the Fifth Commandment, by refusing to make use of the means of grace,-the sacraments,-to obtain God's grace, and preserve themselves in His holy friendship. They transgress the Sixth and the Ninth Commandments, which forbid adultery, (also contraception and sterilisation, ed.) and even the desire to commit it. Jesus Christ says: "I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery." (Matt. 19:9.) "No," says Protestantism to a married man, "you may put away your wife, get a divorce, and marry another."

God says to every man: "Thou shalt not steal." "No," said Luther to secular princes, "I give you the right to appropriate to yourselves the property of the Roman Catholic Church." And the princes, from that day to this, have been only too happy to profit by this pleasing advice. Jesus Christ says: "Hear the Church." "No," says Protestantism, "do not hear the Church; protest against her with all your might." Jesus Christ says: "If any one will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and publican." "No," says Protestantism, "if any one does not hear the Church look upon him as an apostle, as an ambassador of God." Jesus Christ says: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church." "No," says Protestantism, "'tis false; the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church for a thousand years and more." Jesus Christ has declared St. Peter, and every successor to St. Peter, -the pope,-to be His Vicar on earth. "No," says Protestantism, "the pope is Anti-Christ." Jesus Christ says: "My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:30). "No," said Luther and Calvin, "it is impossible to keep the commandments." Jesus Christ says: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matt. 19:17). "No," said Luther and Calvin, "faith alone, without good works, is sufficient to enter into life everlasting." Jesus Christ says: "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish." (Luke 3: 3. ) "No," says Protestantism, "fasting and other works of penance are not necessary, in satisfaction for sin." Jesus Christ says: "This is My body." "No," said Calvin, "This is only the figure of Christ's body; It will become His body as soon as you receive It."

The Holy Ghost says in Holy Scripture: "Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred." (Eccl. 9:1.) "Who can say, My heart is clean, I am pure from sin?" (Prov. 20: 9); and, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." (Phil. 2:12.) "No," said Luther and Calvin, "but whosoever believes in Jesus Christ is in the state of grace."

Saint Paul says: "If I should have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor. 13: 2. ) "No, said Luther and Calvin, "faith alone is sufficient to save us."

Saint Peter says that in the Epistles of Saint Paul there are many things "hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own perdition." (2 Epist. 3:16.) "No," says Protestantism, "the Scriptures are very plain, and easy to be understood." Saint James says: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord." ( Chap. 5: 14. ) "No," says Protestantism, "this is a vain and useless ceremony."

Protestants being thus impious enough to make liars of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and of the Apostles, need we wonder if they continually slander Catholics, telling and believing worse absurdities about them than the heathens did? What is more absurd than to preach that Catholics worship stocks and stones for gods; set up pictures of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints, to pray to them, and put their confidence in them; that they adore a god of bread and wine; that their sins are forgiven by the priest, without repentance and amendment of life; that the pope or any other person can give leave to commit sin, or that for a sum of money the forgiveness of sins can be obtained ? To these and similar absurdities and slanders, we simply answer: "Cursed is he who believes in such absurdities and falsehoods, with which Protestants impiously charge the children of the Catholic Church. All those grievous transgressions are another source of their reprobation."

But there are other reasons still, why Protestants cannot be saved. Jesus Christ says: "Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." (John 6: 54.) Now, Protestants do not receive the Body of Our Lord, because their ministers are not priests, and consequently have no power from Jesus Christ to say Mass, in which, by the words of consecration, bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. It follows, then, clearly that they will not enter into life everlasting, and deservedly so, because they abolished the holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and by abolishing that great Sacrifice they robbed God the Father of the infinite honour which Jesus Christ renders Him therein, and themselves of all the blessings which Jesus Christ bestows upon those who assist at this holy Sacrifice with faith and devotion: "Wherefore the sin of the young men (the sons of Heli) was exceeding great before the Lord, because they withdrew men from the sacrifice of the Lord." (1 Kings 2:17.) Now, God the Father cannot admit into Heaven these robbers of His infinite honour; because if those are damned who steal the temporal goods of their neighbour, how much more will those be damned who deprive God of His infinite honour, and their fellow-men of the infinite spiritual blessings of the Mass !

Again, no man is saved who dies in the state of mortal sin, because God cannot unite Himself to a soul in Heaven who by mortal sin is His enemy. But Protestants are enemies of God, committing, as they do, other mortal sins besides those already mentioned; for, if it is a mortal sin for a Roman Catholic willfully to doubt only one article of his Faith, it is also, most assuredly, a mortal sin for Protestants wilfully to deny not only one truth, but almost all the truths revealed by Jesus Christ. On account of the sins of apostasy, blasphemy, slander, etc., they remain enemies of God, as long as they do not repent, and receive absolution of these sins. Jesus Christ assures us that those sins which are not forgiven by the absolution of His apostles or their successors, will not be forgiven: "Whose sins you retain, they are retained." (John 20:92 23.) But Protestants are unwilling to confess their sins to a Catholic bishop or a priest, who alone has power from Christ to forgive sins: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them." They generally have an utter aversion to confession; they die in their sins, and are lost; for sins, unrepented and unatoned for, stand through all eternity.

Again, no grown person can enter the kingdom of Heaven without good works. On the great day of judgment Jesus Christ will say to the wicked: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink," etc. (Matt. 25:41, 42.) It is true that many regular, naturally good Protestants practice good works, make long prayers, fast, give alms, and perform other works of natural virtue, all of which are, indeed, laudable actions. But all these works are destitute of one essential thing, viz., docility to faith, without which there is neither merit nor recompense. For merely natural virtues there are natural rewards. But works, to be meritorious of Heaven, must be performed in the state of grace; they must proceed from, and be vivified by, divine faith, to deserve an eternal reward; for then it is that they proceed, as it were, from God himself, and from His divine Spirit, Who lives in us, and urges us on to the performance of good works.

Hence, as faith without works is dead, so also works without faith are dead, and cannot save the doer from destruction. Splendid, but barren works ! Apparently delicious fruit, but rotten within! In vain, then, shall they glory in these works. The Gospel will always tell them that he "who does not believe, is already judged." (John 3:18.) The apostle will ever declare to them that "without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11: 6.) Jesus Christ Himself will ever command us to look upon "him as the heathen and the publican, who will not hear the Church" (Matt. 18:17), though otherwise he should be as severe in his life as an anchoret, as enlightened in his understanding as an angel. "In the Catholic Church," says Saint Augustine, "there are both good and bad. But they who are separated from her, as long as they remain in their opinion against her, cannot be good; for, although a kind of laudable conversation seems to show forth some of them as good, the separation itself makes them bad, the Lord saying: 'He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who gathereth not with Me, scattereth ' " What, then, will be the the astonishment, sorrow, and despair of those who, void of faith, and separated from the Church, will one day present themselves before God, and imagining to have heaped up treasures of merits, will appear in His sight with their hands empty ?

In the history of the foundation of the Society of Jesus, in the Kingdom of Naples, is related the following story of a noble youth of Scotland, named William Ephinstone, who was a relative of the Scottish king. Born a heretic, he followed the false sect to which he belonged; but enlightened by divine grace, which showed him his errors, he went to France, where, with the assistance of a good Jesuit father, who was also a Scotchman, he at length saw the truth, abjured heresy, and became a Catholic. He went afterward to Rome, joined the Society of Jesus, in which he died a happy death. When at Rome, a friend of his found him one day very much afflicted, and weeping He asked him the cause, and the young man answered that in the night his mother had appeared to him, and said "My son, it is well for thee that thou hast entered the true Church; I am already lost, because I died in heresy. " (Saint Liguori, "Glories of Mary ")

We read, in the Life of Saint Rose of Viterbo, that she was inflamed with great zeal for the salvation of souls She felt a most tender compassion for those who were living in heresy. In order to convince a certain lady, who was a heretic, that she could not be saved in her sect, and that it was necessary for salvation to die a true member of the Catholic Church, she made a large fire, threw herself into it, and remained in it for three hours, without being hurt. This lady, together with many others, on witnessing the miracle, abjured their heresy, and became Catholics.

When the Emperor Valens ordered that Saint Basil the Great should go into banishment, God, in the high court of heaven, passed, at the same time, sentence against the emperor's only son, named Valentinian Galatus, a child then about six years old. That very night the royal infant was seized with a violent fever, from which the physicians were unable to give him the least relief; and the Empress Dominica told the emperor that this calamity was a just punishment of heaven for his banishing the bishop, on which account she had been disquieted by terrible dreams. Thereupon Valens sent for the saint, who was about to go into exile. No sooner had the holy bishop entered the palace, than the fever of the child began to abate. Saint Basil assured the parents of the absolute recovery of their son, on condition that they would order him to be instructed in the Catholic Faith. The emperor accepted the condition, Saint Basil prayed, and the young prince was cured. But Valens, unfaithful to his promise, afterward allowed an Arian bishop to baptize the child. The young prince immediately relapsed and died. By this miraculous cure of the child, God made manifest the truth of our religion; and by the sudden death of the child, which followed upon the heretical baptism, God showed in what abomination He holds those who profess heresy.

But is it not a very uncharitable doctrine to say that out of the Church there is no salvation ? If we desire that all those who are not members of the Catholic Church should cease to deceive themselves as to the true character of their belief, and propose to them considerations which may contribute to that result, it is certainly not from enmity to their persons, nor indifference to their welfare. As long as they remain victims of a delusion as gross as that which makes the Jew still cling to his abolished synagogue, and which only a miracle of grace can dispel, they will probably resent the counsels of their truest friends but why do they take us for enemies? "The Christian," as Tertullian said, "is the enemy of no one," not even of his persecutors. He hates heresy because God hates it, but he has only compassion for those who are caught in its snare. Whether he exhorts or reproves them, he displays not malice, but charity He knows that they are, of all men, the most helpless; and his voice of warning is most vehement, he is only doing what the Church has done from the beginning. His voice is but the echo of hers. We are told that, before the Council of Nicea, she had already condemned thirty-eight different heresies; and in every case she pronounced anathemas upon those who held them. And she was as truly the mouthpiece of God in her judicial as in her teaching office.

The Church is, indeed, uncompromising in matters of truth. Truth is the honour of the Church. The Church is the most honourable of all societies. She is the highest standard of honour, because she judges all things in the light of God, Who is the Source of all honour. A man who has no love for the truth, a man who tells a wilful lie or takes a false oath, is considered dishonour. No one cares for him; and it would be unreasonable to accuse one of intolerance or bigotry because he refuses to associate with a man who has no love for the truth. It would be just as unreasonable to accuse the Catholic Church of intolerance, or bigotry, or want of charity, because she excludes from her society, and pronounces anathema upon, those who have no regard for the truth, and remain wilfully out of her communion.

If the Church believed that men could be saved in any religion whatever, or without any at all, it would be uncharitable in her to announce to the world that out of her there is no salvation. But, as she knows and maintains that there is but one Faith, as there is but one God and Lord of all, and that she is in possession of that one Faith, and that without that Faith it is impossible to please God and be saved, it would be very uncharitable in her, and in all her children, to hide Christ's doctrine from the world.

We have seen that there is no salvation possible out of the Roman Catholic Church. It is therefore very impious for one to think and to say that "every religion is good." To say every religion is good, is as much as to say: The devil is as good as God. Hell is as good as Heaven. Falsehood is as good as truth. Sin is as good as virtue. It is impious to say, "I respect every religion." This is as much as to say: I respect the devil as much as God, vice as much as virtue, falsehood as much as truth, dishonesty as much as honesty, Hell as much as Heaven. It is impious to say, "It matters very little what a man believes, provided he be an honest man." Let such a one be asked whether or not he believes that his honesty and justice are as great as the honesty and justice of the Scribes and Pharisees. These were constant in prayer, they paid tithes according to the law, gave great alms, fasted twice in every week, and compassed sea and land to make a convert, and bring him to the knowledge of the true God. Now, what did Jesus Christ say of this justice of the Pharisees? "Unless," he says, "your justice shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." ( Matt. 6: 20. )

The righteousness of the Pharisees, then, must have been very defective in the sight of God. It was, indeed, nothing but outward show and ostentation. They did good only to be praised and admired by men; but, within, their souls were full of impurity and malice. They were lewd hypocrites, who concealed great vices under the beautiful appearance of love for God, charity to the poor, and severity to themselves. Their devotion consisted in exterior acts, and they despised all who did not live as they did; they were Strict in the religious observances of human traditions, but scrupled not to violate the commandments of God. No wonder, then, that this Pharisaic honesty and justice were condemned by Our Lord. To those, therefore, who say, "It matters little what a man believes, provided he be honest," we answer: "Your outward honesty, like that of the Pharisees, may be sufficient to keep you out of prison, but not out of Hell. It should be remembered that there is a dishonesty to God, to one's own soul and conscience, as well as to one's neighbour."

You say, it is enough to be an honest man. What do you mean by an honest man ? The term, honest man, is rather a little too general. Go, for instance, to that young man whose shameful secret sins are written on his hollow cheeks, in his dull, lacklustre eye: ask him if one can be an honest man who gratifies all his brutal, shameful passions. What will be his answer ? "Why," he will say, "these natural follies and weaknesses do not hinder a man from being honest. To tell the truth, for instance, I am somewhat inclined that way myself, and yet I would like to see the man that would doubt my honesty. "

Go to that covetous shop-keeper, who sells his goods as if they were of the finest quality; go to that tradesman, that mason, that bricklayer, or carpenter, who does not work even half as diligently when he is paid by the day as when he is paid by the job; go to these men that have grown rich by fraudulent speculation, by cheating the public or government; go to the employers that cheat the servant and the poor labourer; ask them if what they do prevents them from being honest people, and they will answer you coldly that they are merely tricks of trade, shrewdness in business; that they do not by any means hinder one from being an honest man.

Go, ask that habitual drunkard, ask that man who has grown rich by selling liquor to drunkards: ask them whether these sins do not hinder them from being honest, and they will tell you, "By no means. They are honest men, very honest men."

Go, ask that man or that woman who sins against the most sacred laws of nature; go, ask that doctor who murders the poor helpless babe before it can see the blessed light of day: ask them if those who are guilty of such foul deeds are honest gentlemen, and they will tell you, with the utmost assurance, that such trifles do not hinder one from being a gentleman-from being a respectable lady !

True faith requires obedience, humility, and childlike simplicity; it excludes pride, self-will, clinging to our own ideas, and that unwillingness to obey which hurled the angels from heaven, and cast our first parents out of Paradise. Faith is a duty which God requires of us, and unless we fulfil this duty sincerely, we can never enter the kingdom of Heaven. One may say: "To submit to the yoke of faith is to submit to spiritual and moral tyranny; it is to lose one's liberty." There is liberty, and there is license. To be the slave of vile passions, and seek to satisfy them always, and at any cost, is not true liberty. Surely God is free. But God cannot sin. It is, therefore, no mark of liberty to be under the power of sin; on the contrary, it is the very brand of slavery. The power of sin implies the possibility of becoming a slave of sin and the devil. Those, then, who are greatly under the power of sin, and so go to hell, cannot truly be called free men. They are blinded and brutalized by satisfying the promptings of their brute nature, and thus renounce their glorious freedom, to sell it for a bestial gratification.

He only is truly free who wills and does what God wishes him to do for his everlasting happiness Now, as we have seen, God wishes that all should be saved in the Roman Catholic Church. Those, therefore, who believe and do what the Church teaches, do not lose their liberty; on the contrary, they enjoy true liberty, and make the proper use of it. Hence, the greater our power of will is, and the less difficulty we experience in following the teaching of the Church, the greater is our liberty. Accordingly, Catholics, who live up to the teaching of the Church, enjoy greater liberty, and peace, and happiness, than Protestants and unbelievers, because they are the children of the light of truth, that leads them to Heaven; whilst those who live out of the Church are the children of the darkness of error, which leads them, finally, into the abyss of Hell.

If no one, then, can be saved except in the Roman Catholic Church, all those who are out of it are bound to become members of the Church. This is what common sense tells every non-Catholic. In worldly affairs, Protestants never presume to act without good advice. They never compromise their pecuniary interests or their lives, by becoming their own private interpreters and practitioners of law or medicine. Both the legal and the medical books are before them, written by modern authors, in clear and explicit language, but they have too much practical common sense to attempt their interpretation. They prefer always to employ expert lawyers and physicians, and accept their interpretations, and act according to their advice. Now, every non-Catholic believes that every practicing member of the Catholic Church will be saved. Hence, when there is question about eternal salvation and eternal damnation, a sensible man will take the surest way to Heaven.

It was this that decided Henry IV of France to abjure his errors. An historian relates that this king, having called before him a conference of the doctors of either Church, and seeing that the Protestant ministers agreed, with one accord, that salvation was attainable in the Catholic religion, immediately addressed a Protestant minister in the following manner: "Now, sir, is it true that people can be saved in the Catholic religion ?" "Most assuredly it is, sire, provided they live up to it." "If that be so," said the monarch, "prudence demands that I should be of the Catholic religion, not of yours, seeing that in the Catholic Church I may be saved, as even you admit; whereas, if I remain in yours, Catholics maintain that I cannot be saved. Both prudence and good sense tell me that I should follow the surest way, and so I propose doing." Some days after, the king made his abjuration at Saint Denis.

Christ assures us that the way to everlasting life is narrow, and trodden by few. The Catholic religion is that narrow road to Heaven. Protestantism, on the contrary, is that broad way to perdition trodden by so many. He who is content to follow the crowd, condemns himself by taking the broad way. A man says: "I would like to believe, but I cannot." You say you "cannot believe." But what have you done, what means have you employed, in order to acquire the gift of faith? Why are heretics lost ? Heretics, that is to say, baptized persons who choose such doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church as please them, and reject the rest, are lost for the reason given by Saint Paul the Apostle, who says: "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid; knowing that he who is such an one is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." (Tit. 3: 10,11.)

Let us consider the two following anecdotes together, if we wish to know a little of the spirit of Saint John. Saint Jerome, in the Lections in the Breviary for Saint John's day, says, "When he was living in extreme old age at Ephesus, and could scarcely be carried into the Church, and was unable to say many words at a time, he used often to say nothing but this, 'My little children, love one another.' But the brethren grew weary of always hearing the same words, and said to him, 'Master, why do you always say this ?' The answer was worthy of John, 'It is the commandment of Our Lord, and, alone, it is enough.' " Saint Irenaeus says that he heard from Saint Polycarp this story: "The Apostle John, going into a bath and finding Cerinthus there, immediately rushed out of the house, because he could not bear to be under the same roof with such a heretic. He exhorted his companions to do the same, saying, 'Let us hasten out, lest the bath fall on us in which is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth.' "

Would to God that we had more of this spirit of Saint John amongst us; more brotherly love, and more hatred of heresy. It is impossible for any one to have too fierce a hatred of every distortion of the Faith. Heresy destroys the souls for which Jesus died. It is in every way a foul and a loathsome thing. Outside the Roman Church there is nothing but heresy, or infidelity, or paganism in some of its countless forms. Every Christian sect is heretical, whether it be in the East or the West, for they all deny the personal infallibility of the Vicar of Christ. And it is of very small consequence whether they deny much or little of Revelation, if they deny the authority of the one Church of God. That Church is Catholic and Roman. "Now whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all." You ought to hate mortal sin with all your souls, whether it be in the intellectual or moral order. I do not say that you have to hate heretics; you ought to love them and pray for them, as you love and pray for those of the Church who are in mortal sin; but I do say that you can not have too strong and fierce a hatred of heresy.