THE REAL "'DANGEROUS ELEMENT."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 31

THE REAL "'DANGEROUS ELEMENT."

(From the New Yods.\Freeman?e Journal.") The Congregationnlists of Massachusetts h<*ve been in council. One of the subjects discussed was " Our Foreign Population." It is creditable to the good sense of these Massachusetts Oongregationalists that they recognised that society is in danger, not from Catholics, but from those who have drifted away from the Church, and who have no religion. The Congregationalists are beginning to see what the other sects are too stupid to see, that their fi<»ht ia not with the Church, but with infidelity. The more conservative among them regard Mr. Beecher with as much horror as tbey regard a Roman Catholic priest. And there seems to be a sign that these are coming to their censes, and recognising that Mr. Beecher's shifting opinions are simply sentimental unbeliefs, while the creed of the Catholic priest is unchanged and unchangeable. Mr, Beecher is to these people a buoy near the shoals to which all the sects are drifting. The more orthodox Congregationalists see in him a warning. It is too late. Protestantism has no force to keep it from disintegrating ; it does not hold the promise to St. Peter. It is pleasant to know that there are some Protestants who see that bad Catholics are to be feared. This is a concession to the truth. The Congregationalists of Massachusetts admit that the Church restrains the passions and eradicates the vices of those who obey her. This is au important admission from the descendants of the Puritans. They ara right to have a horror of bad Catholics. There is no fiend so malicious as au apostate— as a creature who turns his back on the Creator. His soul is a hell on earth. There is no crime that he will not commit. The vilest of the atheistical hordes in France and Italy were baptized Catholics. Let people who respect themselves and virtue beware of the man who sneers at the Faith of bis childhood and youth. The Massachusetts Congregationalists have learned this. Let others who foolishly harbour and encourage 41 escaped nuns " and " disfrocked '• priests learn it, too. There can be no more honest man, no purer woman, than he or she who complies with the rules of the Catholic Church. When a man or a woman says truthfully :— " I am a Catholic, but not a practical Catholic," do not trust that one. If he does not approach the sacraments, it is because he persists in some sin of which he will not repent, or contemplates some crime which he dare not confess and abandon.