BISHOP LISTON DEFENDS HIS FAITH

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6541, 24 February 1928, Page 8

BISHOP LISTON DEFENDS HIS FAITH

Replies to Attack in Straightforward Words CATHOLICS AND PRAYER BOOK (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Feb. 21. "The controversy over the Deposited Pravcr Book, though a domestic affair for Anglicans, has a special interest for Catholics for two reasons. It reveals the religious position of many milliops of Godfearing Christians and it brings into prominence some distinctively Catnolie doctrines and practices. Wo are therefore watching with keen concern and prayerful sympathy tho spiritual struggles of our fellow Christians, said the Eight Eev. Dr. Liston, Eoman Catholic Coadjutor Bishop of Auckland, in an address delivered at St. Benedict’s Church last Sunday morning. . , , "I am not here,” the Bishop declared, "to argue with bigotry or igignorance of any kind or to provoke controversy, but I must challenge grave reflections on my faith and defend beliefs that are as dear as life itsolf to every earnest Catholic. "Our best defence is a simple, straightforward explanation of what wo believo and 1 tako leave to offer this to all fair-minded men in our community —the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

"Such Ncnsense.”

“To-day, I wish to meet the charge, made recently in Auckland from a Christian pulpit, that the Catholic Church is not pledged to the cause of Christ and that Romanism spells superstition and idolatrism. I confess,” the Bishop said, “I foci it difficult to deal with such nonsenee uttered about 300,000,000 Catholics in the year 1928. • 1 At the present moment Auckland city is honoured by tin? presence of two Sisters from tho Leper Station at Makogai, the lachet of whose shoos I, for one, feel unworthy to loose. Theirs is a life service given to some 500 sufferers, tho majority of whom arc not Catholics. “What is the secret inspiration of •these heroines of Charity? They would humbly answer: Tho Love of Christ as wo know Him from our Catholic faith. Our critic—if I must judge him by his words —would have tho public of Auckland believe that the religion of these sisters is superstition and idolatry and that the Church which inspires and blesses and- directs their lifo and work and that of many thousands like them, is not pledged to the cause of Christ.” “I suppose our critic looks upon our belief in Transubstantiation as the quintessence of Eomanism; that is, of superstition and idolatrism, and the use of the Eosary beads as the veriest trifling with the serious things of God. * 1 Great -men like Sir Thomas More, Pasteur and Marshal Eoch have not thought so. I read as follows in Macaulay’s Essays cn Ranke’s History of tho Popes; ‘When wo reflect that Sir Thomas More was ready to die fot the doctrine of Transubstantiation, wo cannot fool some doubt whether the doctrine of Transubstantiation may not triumph over gll opposition. More was a man of eminent talents. He had all the information, on the subject tnat wc have, or that, wbilo the world lasts, any human being will havo. ‘ “Pasteur- —tho founder of physiochemistry, the father of bacteriology, and the inventor of bio-therapeutics—-has a secure place among tho immortal men of sieencc. His Catholic piety and belief was at genuine. He daily used the Eosary and died with it in his hands. Ho wrote to a friend: ‘The more I know, tho more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all, 1 would have tho faith of a Breton poasaut woman.’ “My appeal,” tho Bishop concluded “is to earnest-minded men. In is easy to learn the truth about us; it is fair to give us a hearing. Our faith is the • religion of 300,000,000 Christians. The Catholic Church is tho mother of Christendom. Her teaching brought about tho abolition of slavery.

“ Alone, she enlisted for Christ the barbarians who swept away the Eoman Empire. She taught Europe to read and write and built nearly all the great Universities of the Continent 'and of England. “To her docs Christianity owe the beauty of its art and architecture,, the strength of its laws, the saving of the masterpieces of the world’s literature and, best of all, the pro- ’ serration of the inspired Scriptures of God. “She is, indeed, well worthy of study and her teaching deserves respect. ’’