A GREAT ADDRESS BY CARDINAL MORAN ON A GREAT SUBJECT.
The Cardinal- Archbishop of Sydney, who was ' the speaker ' at St. John's College annual commemoration, delivered a powerful, instructive, and convincing address. His Eminence (says the Sydney Freeman) selected as his subject, ' The Catholic Church and Modern Scientific Research.'
In the warfare of irreligion against Divine Truth (said his Eminence), it is an accusation as old as the hills that the Catholic Church is the irreconcilable enemy of knowledge and that she pursues scientific progress with an implacable hatred. And yet it is difficult to conceive an accusation more wholly devoid of any pretence to justify it (hear, hear). The discoveries of science bring joy to the Church. Every triumph achieved in the paths of progress and enlightenment adds lustre to her diadem of truth. The Church is the heavenly-appointed custodian of the doctrines of Divine Truth. Heresies never cease to attempt to corrupt her teachings, and vainlydevised theories of pretentious men aim at her overthrow. But what does experience teach us to be the result ? All the assaults against her have only served to bring her invincible armoury into bolder relief, and to array with new aureolas of victory the truths which she defends (applause). Half a century ago Cardinal Newman made this remark in regard to the attacks of heresy. Such attacks, he said, may be prolonged ; there may be effort, hesitation, suspense, swayings to the right and to the left, yet Divine Truth marches onward ' with what certainty of advance, with what precision in its march, with what ultimate completeness, part answering to part, one, absolute, integral, indissoluble, while the whole lasts,' and finally the inner beauty of the truth that was assailed is presented to the world in the adornment of fresh forms ' with an exuberance which exceeded all questionings, and a harmony which baffled all criticism.'
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 25, 27 October 1898, Page 31
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311A GREAT ADDRESS BY CARDINAL MORAN ON A GREAT SUBJECT. New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 25, 27 October 1898, Page 31
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