Choose a topic from Vol 2:

God

Proof of God's existence
God's nature
Supreme control over all things and the problem of suffering and evil

Man

Destiny of man
Death
Immortality of man's soul
Pre-existence denied
The human free will
Determinism absurd

Religion

Necessity of religion
Salvation of the soul
Voice of science
Religious racketeers
Divine revelation
Revealed mysteries
Existence of miracles

The Religion of the Bible

Gospels historical
Missing Books of the Bible
The Bible inspired
Biblical account of creation
New Testament problems
Supposed contradictions in Sacred Scripture

The Christian Faith

Source of Christian teaching
Jewish rejection of Christ
Christianity a new religion
Rational foundation for belief
Causes of unbelief

A Definite Christian Faith

Divisions amongst Christians
Schisms unjustified
Facing the problem
The wrong approach
Is one religion as good as another?
Obligation of inquiry
Charity and tolerance

The Protestant Reformation

Meaning of "Protestant"
Causes of the Reformation
Catholic reaction
Reformers mistaken
The idealization of Protestantism
The Catholic estimate

The Truth of Catholicism

Meaning of the word "Church"
Origin of the Church
The Catholic claim
The Roman hierarchy
The Pope
The Petrine text
St. Peter's supremacy
St. Peter in Rome
Temporal power
Infallibility
Unity of the Church
Holiness of the Church
Catholicity of the Church
Apostolicity of the Church
Indefectibility of the Church
Obligation to be a Catholic

The Church and the Bible

Catholic attitude towards the Bible
Is Bible reading forbidden to Catholics?
Protestant Bibles
The Catholic Douay Version
Principle of private interpretation
Need of Tradition
The teaching authority of the Catholic Church

The Dogmas of the Church

Revolt against dogma
Value of a Creed
The divine gift of Faith
Faith and reason
The "Dark Ages"
The claims of science
The Holy Trinity
Creation and evolution
Angels
Devils
Man
Reincarnation
Sin
Christ
Mary
Grace and salvation
The Sacraments
Baptism
Confession
Holy Eucharist
The Sacrifice of the Mass
Holy Communion
The Catholic Priesthood
Marriage and divorce
Extreme Unction
Judgment
Hell
Purgatory
Indulgences
Heaven
The resurrection of the body
The end of the world

The Church and Her Moral Teachings

Conscience
Truth
Charity
Scandal
Tolerance
Censorship
The Inquisition
Astrology
Other superstitions
Attendance at Mass
Sex education
Attitude to "Free Love"
Abortion
Suicide

The Church in Her Worship

Magnificent edifices
Lavish ritual
Women in Church
Catholics and "Mother's Day"
Liturgical Days
Burial rites
Candles and votive lamps
The rosary
Lourdes water
The Scapular

The Church and Social Welfare

Social influence of the Church
The education question
The Church and world distress
Catholic attitude towards Capitalism
The remedy for social ills
Communism condemned
The Fascist State
Morality of war
May individuals become soldiers?
The Church and peace
Capital punishment
Catholic Action

Comparative Study of Non-Catholic Denominations

Defections from the Catholic Church
Gnosticism
Manichaeism
Arianism
Nestorianism
Eutychianism
Coptic Church
Greek Orthodox Church
Anglican Episcopal Church
The "Free" or "Nonconformist" Churches
Presbyterianism
Methodism
Church of Christ
Baptists
Seventh Day Adventists
Plymouth Brethren
Catholic Apostolic Church or Irvingites
Salvation Army
Spiritualism
Christian Science
Christadelphians
British Israelism
Liberal Catholics
Witnesses of Jehovah
Buchmanism or the "Oxford Group Movement"
From Protestantism to Catholicism

To and From Rome

Conversion of Cardinal Newman
Why Gladstone refrained
The peculiar case of Lord Halifax
Gibbon the historian
Secession of Father Chiniquy
Father Tyrrell, the modernist
Bishop Garrett's departure
Judgment on lapsed Catholics
Protestant apathy towards conversion of Catholics
Principles for converts to Catholicism
God's will that all should become Catholics

The peculiar case of Lord Halifax

1393. Why did not the late Lord Halifax, though apparently so near to Rome, become a convert to your faith?

I admit that his case is more difficult than that of Gladstone. Lord Halifax was a convert to Catholic teaching and forms of worship. But Catholic discipline and jurisdiction were beyond him. He was so absorbed by the idea that the Anglicanism he loved was somehow or other part of the Catholic Church that his judgment was clouded on the one point as to whether he should abandon the Church of England and submit to Rome, or not. He was a wonderfully good man; but wonderfully good men can make mistakes. Certainly he never saw clearly the obligation of joining the Roman Church, or he would have done so.

1394. He must have been conversant with all the Catholic arguments, for he was in constant touch with Cardinal Mercier.

I am sure he had considered all the main arguments. And they quite convinced him that the Roman Church was the true Church. Had you asked him, "Is the Roman Catholic Church in error?", he would have declared that she was not! He constantly deplored the fact that the Church of England was not in visible communion with the Holy See. But he would rather see the whole of the Church of England seek unity with Rome than go over alone. He knew that Rome regarded him as an outsider so long as he remained an Anglican, and this hurt him very much. In a letter to the Abbe Portal he wrote, "How can I make it clear in Rome that I believe in one only Church, and that my one aim is to work for the return of the Church of England into the fold of Catholic unity, and to restore the relations which must necessarily exist between the English bishops and the Holy See?" A man who can write like that is certainly convinced that the Roman Church is the true Church. From our point of view, of course, any man who admits that the Church of England should be within the fold of Catholic unity and is not, and that its bishops should be subject to the Pope but are not, surely has the obligation personally to go over to Rome. Yet that is precisely what Lord Halifax did not see. He knew the arguments in favor of this obligation, but apparently they did not impress him. It is a lack of insight for which I am not prepared to blame him. As G. K. Chesterton has said, "When you look at a thing for the hundredth time, you are in great danger of seeing it for the first time." To know, and to realize arevery different things.

1395. If such people as these were not convinced, how can you hope to convince people of ordinary mental caliber? You will never reason them into the Church.

I do not hope to convert people by reason. In itself reason cannot be the road to the faith, or else brainy people would have a better chance of attaining religious security merely because more intelligent. After all, intellectuals have no greater claim upon God than the dull-witted. What I do hope to do by reason is to clear away misapprehensions and prejudice, show the rational foundation for belief, and bring out the impossibility of conflicting statements of doctrine being equally true. Then I can show that the characteristics of the Catholic Church alone fit in with those intended by Christ. After that, I must leave it to each man's good will and the grace of God. I can explain the faith; but I cannot give the gift of faith. The suggestion that because some intelligent men are not convinced it will be impossible to convince less intelligent men is without weight. The intelligent men who are convinced more than offset the ones who are not, whilst your fears concerning people of ordinary mental caliber are excluded by the fact that such people are convinced and converted daily. As a matter of fact, simpler people often see more clearly than the learned whose minds are tangled with hosts of ideas which get in each other's way. Where these men cannot see the wood for the trees, less distraught minds have an intuitive perception of the vital truth. And always, of course, allowance must be made for the grace of God which follows no law of man's own devising.

NEXT TOPIC »

MORE FROM VOLUME 2

Prefer a PRINT version?