Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
We do; and that state of affairs, I am afraid, will ever be. Religious sects have come and gone in the past; and as present-day sects die out, others will arise. Christ predicted this when He said: "There will rise up false Christs and false prophets . . . to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect." Mk., XIII, 22. This is due to the fact that men have free will. To prevent men from setting up other religions in opposition to the true religion God would have to destroy their free will; and He will not do that. But amidst all claimants, the true religion is sufficiently clear to those who are sincerely seeking it. It must be left to men themselves as to whether they will do so. Certainly by sheer contrast, the unity prevailing amongst the millions of Catholics of all nationalities should be enough, when compared with the division and conflict prevailing elsewhere, to induce thinking men to look into the claims of the Catholic Church.
The cause of present divisions was, of course, present in earlier divisions, the mistaken thinking and the pride and self-sufficiency of men. But whilst the cause has been the same, the excuses alleged by those who p.n different ages have separated themselves from the Catholic Church have tiot been the same; nor have earlier separations from the Catholic Church :eally influenced later ones. For most of the earlier ones had flourished if independent sects for a time, and had then died completely away before :he Protestant reformers abandoned the Catholic Church in the 16th century. There is a continuity of dispositions in men which accounts for different schisms in different ages. But there is no continuity from schism to schism.
When men rebel against legitimate authority in the Church and abandon it, the cause of their going is not to be sought in the exercise of (legitimate authority, but in the wrong dispositions of those unwilling to submit to authority. Otherwise one might just as well say that the division between ordinary citizens and outlaws is caused by the very law which good citizens obey and outlaws refuse to obey. But all reasonable �people attribute the division between these two classes to the rebellious land wrong dispositions of the outlaws themselves. The judaizing sects in the time of St. Paul, were formed by men wedded to their own ideas, ideas alien to the Christian religion, but which they tried to graft upon it St. Paul denounced them, and they found themselves expelled from the Church. Acts, XV. Other men, in later ages, wedded to other alien ideas and unwilling to renounce them, also either departed or were expelled from the Catholic Church. In each case, whatever may have been their excuse the fault ultimately lay with them, not with the Catholic hierarchy, which merely did its duty in condemning error and refusing to permit the corruption of Christian doctrine.
We cannot say, certainly of modern non-Catholic religious guides, that their mistakes are lies. Lacking the guidance of the Catholic Church they are left to their own resources; and it is human to err. They can be quite sincere in their various errors, mistakenly believing that their opinions are sound. And it is not true to say that a contradiction of the truth is a lie. Error is opposed to truth. A lie is opposed to truthfulness. To be a liar a man must be conscious that what he says contradicts the truth. Thus a man is guilty of perjury if he swears to what he knows to be wrong. He is not guilty of perjury if he swears to what is erroneous yet what he firmly believes to be correct.
Such differences are the result of separation from the Catholic Church When the first Protestant reformers left the Catholic Church, they could not agree amongst themselves. So they founded different and conflicting Churches. But just as the first Protestant reformers rejected the authority of the Catholic Church, so their own followers rejected theirs. New divisions amongst Protestants arose, resulting in ever-increasing diversity. But the Catholic religion which they have abandoned is not responsible for that.
That is true, but it is not a reasonable attitude to adopt. If you have six conflicting answers to a sum in arithmetic, you would know that all could not be right. But it would not follow that all would be wrong and that you should refuse to accept any. One of them could be right; and if you found that right one, you would know that all the others were mistaken. What you have to do is to find which of the Christian Churches truly represents Christianity as given to this world by Christ our Lord.
Since Christ has promised that the gates of hell will never prevail against His Church, Christianity will never be destroyed. But the lack of unity resulting from the separation of so many professing Christians from the Catholic Church and from the divisions amongst themselves is undoubtedly a hindrance to the work of Christ, and greatly to be deplored.
That is the ideal at which the Catholic Church aims; and which can be realized only within that Catholic Church. But until non-Catholics see that for themselves, they will remain in a state of separation from the Church; and the immediate demand is for patience and charity in the midst of all differences, together with prayer for their ultimate removal.
I certainly do. And therefore Christ, although He has permitted defections from the Catholic Church through the waywardness of men, could never have intended that. He intended all Christians to remain in One corporate body in this world, holding the same faith, subject to the same religious authority, and working for the same end. He Himself founded one society which He called His "Church," not His "Churches." "I will build my Church," He said. Matt., XVI, 18. The very names used in the New Testament show clearly that it is one society, for it is described as forming one kingdom, one flock or sheepfold, one vine, one tree, one living body. And as one society, it supposes one authority which all accept and to which all submit. So Christ said: "If a man will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen." Matt., XVIII, 17. To fulfill the will of Christ men should not rest until they find the Church Christ Himself established; and they will find it in the Catholic Church.
No one familiar with the facts could be unaware of that, and it should fill us all with the desire to eliminate such divisions. But it will not be easy. It will take a lot of humility, patience, charity and prayer. After the disaster of the Protestant upheaval in the 16th century, the Catholic Church set about reforming her own members, and at the Council of Trent did away with the outstanding abuses at the papal court and amongst both clergy and laity. That was an admission of the responsibility of Catholics themselves for the break-up of Christendom. But it was too late to undo all the harm that had been done. The disaster had happened, and it is proverbially more difficult to cure than to prevent. The various Protestant sects have gone on developing along different lines, and there are great psychological obstacles and deep-seated differences to be overcome. But we should not abandon hope that the scandal of divisions, if it cannot be entirely eliminated, may at least be gradually reduced.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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