BIBLICAL CRITICISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13959, 19 July 1907, Page 5

BIBLICAL CRITICISM

A PAPAL SYLLABUS,

MODERN "ERRORS" CONDEMNED,

Pres3 Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

ROME, Jnlv 18. (Received July 18, at- 9.46 p.m.) A papal syllabus, embodying 65 articles on Modernism as regards the Faith and the reading of the Scriptures, lias been circulated. It dotisfycly condemns all modem • ideas, which it calls " errors," concerning the interpretation of t.he Gospels, and criticism of the life, works, death, .and ■miracles of Christ, and of the Catholic dogmas, insisting on faith in tho Church.

A syllabus is a summary statemont and enumeration of the points decided by an aofc or decrcc of ecclesiastical authority. An open_ letter to Pius 5 has just been published in Rome by a group of priests (writes tho Tribune correspondent on May 23). It is a daring and remarkable reply to tho censures uttered by the Pope in his allocution on April 17 against the modernist school of_ ecclesiastics. Tho writers repudiate the idea of rebellion, and especially tile accusation that, heedless of the theology of the fathers and of dogmatic definitions, they wish to return to the ''pure Gospel." The importance of tho consists in the fact that in it, for the first time, a programme of reform is clearly, though briefly, sketched, as is tho basis on which it rests—namely, the necessity that Catholicism should abandon its archaic position, . and. by recognising the claims of science and democracy, regain its hold on mankind. Tho letter is. in fact, a moderate statement of the doctrine of those who believe in development, rather than in rigid adherence to obsoleto forms. Particularly strong is its vindication of the right of young men. to a certain amount of liberty in" their work for tho Church, a vindication based on the opinion expressed by Leo XIII that, tho future of tho Church depended upon them, All this is too well and too pithily put to be seriously discounted by a certain asperity in the tone of the counter-accusa-tions brought against the Pope, who isreminded that ho only allows Catholics to* vote when the candidature of some Con«rvativo is in danger.. Certain Pontifical appointments to high dignities are strongly criticised, and tho Popo is charged with paralysing the work and institutions of his predecessor, and, in particular, with having introduced into tho Biblical Commission theologians of reactionary tendencies. 'The Pontiff's ■ frequent, uso of ecclesiastical censures in violation of tho rights of conscicnce, as in the cases of Father Tyrrell and Don Murri, is brought against- him. Tho writers .express their determination to .remain Catholics, in spite of all efforts to make thorn apostasise, and conclude with this appeal to his Holiness: "From you wo imploro wisdom, calm, equity, and clemency."

Cardinal Itamnolla in a latter to the Abbot-Primate of the Benedictine Order on the question of .the revision of tho Vulgate Bible, states that tho Biblical Commission "lias for its scope not only to furnish Catholic teaching with wise and safo directions,,which, while making ample use of the true ponnueste of science, do not swerve from the inexpugnable traditions of tho Church, but. also to Rive a fresh impulse ra biblical more, important, perhaps, than they ever were, in our times so harassed by universal doubt and by rationalist evolutionism."