ROMAN CATHOLIC CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22358, 23 March 1938, Page 8

ROMAN CATHOLIC CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

VO THB BDITOB OV THB PBBH. Sir,—The Catholic Church was not cut off from the Jewish Church. It was created by Jesus Christ to replace the Jewish Church whose mission was accomplished, with His coming. The numerous sects now collectively called the Eastern Church are the fragments resulting from the Greek Schism, of 1054, . A.D. The schism of 880 A.D. was temporarily healed, but before that there was no separate Eastern Church, only the one Catholic Church, East and West. Even now there are many Eastern Catholics, some who never left the Church and some who have returned from time to time. Mr Lovell-Smith is mistaken m thinking the early Roman Church was “a colony of Greek Christians and Grecised Jews.” St. Peter and St. Paul and their assistants converted Roman citizens, who became the first Catholics of Rome. Neither were the first Popes Greeks. Certainly St. Peter was not. At that time, Greek was the language of the Roman Empire. Hence the Greek name, Papas or Pope, for Ihe Bishop of Rome. The breaking off of members from a living body cannot be a sign of life and cannot form “new branches." The member broken off gradually dies and disintegrates.—Yours, etc., G. F. SEWARD. March 19. 1938.