AN ATHEIST ON THE EVERLASTING CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 38, 19 January 1894, Page 6

AN ATHEIST ON THE EVERLASTING CHURCH.

(From the Aye Maria.")

This French socialist and atheist, Proudhon, whose antagonism to the Catholic Church cannot easily be exaggerated, had nevertheless no hope of ber destruction. Here are some significant passages from a work written in reference to tbe present Italian revolution :—: — " The threats that they will enter into schism, or embrace Pro* testantism, made by certain parties in order to frighten the Papacy, are only extravagant dreams, which indicate nuntal disturbance. As to schism, if it were seriously desired — that is, if its motive were a rtal religious sentiment, the Christian idea— it would simply affect another triumph for the Papacy, by manifesting the solidity of the rock on which it rests. As to Protestantism, that is dead. " What profit tbe attacks of our day against tbe Papacy ? Nothing. Tne adversaries of this institution are forced to confess that Catholicism ever remains the sole refuge of morality, the sole illuminator of consciences. , . . When I assert that whenever Deism and Doctrinaireism strike a blow at tbe Huly See, they simply infuse new strength into the Church, I do not reason like a partisan of the Papacy, but like a freethinker. In this matter we muet consider facts above all else. Now, facts show that religion has struck its roots far down in the minds of men ; and whenever, by soma influence or other, religion loses itß force therein, superstition and mystic sects of every kind take its place. Things being in this condition, every attack on Catholicism bears the character of persecution ; and were we to succeed in dispossessing the Papacy, we should by no means destroy it, but would rather add to its triumphs by each one of our onslaughts. These facts are unpleasant, nay, irritating, to our rationalism; but they are incontestble, and are not to be attenuated. In 1793 we tried to abolish Catholicism with the guillotine ; but never did the Church flourish more than under the Consulate. Thirty years before, Voltaire had sought to render tbe Church ' infamous ' ; but ha and his school were soon designated as libertines, and Catholicism held aloft the standard of morality, thenceforth defiant of all attacks."