'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 19 November 1914, Page 11

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A .Weekly Instruction .specially written for the N-.Z* Tablet by 'Ghimel.') -

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS \ < ATTENDANCE AT NON-CATHOLIC WORSHIP. (1) Why is it wrong for Catholics to attend nonCatholic worship, seeing that non-Catholics frequently attend Catholic worship? (2) Is it lawful for a Catholic to attend a non-Catholic marriage at which a nonCatholic religious ceremony is performed ? ■ Answer to (1) It is wrong to attend services in non-Catholic churches for two reasons: first, because it is really a denial of our Lord before men, and, secondly, because it exposes one to. the danger, of losing one’s faith. To explain. (a) It is not easy to make an outsider understand our position in this matter, and yet it is simple. We believe that our Lord has spoken to men, making known certain truths and laying down certain commands. A God of Truth cannot be indifferent as to whether or.not men accept these truths and obey these commands. He cannot have thrown these truths out upon the world, leaving it to men themselves to treat them as they pleased—to believe them'or not to believe them, or to believe their opposites, or to believe anything else in their place. If He thought it well to reveal certain truths, it must have been because He attached great value to them arid meant them to be heard and accepted. He wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone, as if to show that they were to be unchangeable and He must look upon His Revelation in the same light, for the. Commandments are binding only because they are -the expression of His will in regard to us. • Touch the doctrine that there is One God, Creator and Lord' of all—and what becomes of the precept telling us to worship Him A Catholic then by the gift of .faith unhesitatingly accepts God’s revelation in its entirety. He accepts it not as . a matter of opinion, or as something which he might just as easily have rejected; on the contrary, after satisfying himself that God has spoken arid that the Catholic Church is the depository and the guardian of that revelation, he knows he must accept it on God’s word.' Here is the truth, God’s truth, and he has no right at all to an opinion against it. , . Catholic principles then in this matter come to this;—‘That there is a truth then; that there is one truth; that religious error is in itself of an immoral nature ; that its maintainers, unless involuntarily such, are guilty in maintaining it; that it is to be dreaded; that the search for truth is not the gratification of curiosity; that its attainment has nothing, of the excitement of a discovery; that the mind .is below truth, not above it, and is bound, not to descant upon it, but to venerate it; that truth and falsehood are set before us for the trial of our hearts; that our choice is an awful giving forth of lots .on, which salvation or rejection is inscribed; that -■ before all things it is necessary to hold the Catholic faith; that he that would be saved must thus think and not otherwise; that, if-thou criest •after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searches! for her as hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.’ (Card. Newman.) All this is but the development of our Lord’s uncompromising attitude: ‘ Whosoever shall* be baptised and shall believe, shall be saved; whosoever shall not believe, shall be condemned.’ Protestants with their fundamental principle of private judgment are by nature ‘liberals’ in religion, and ‘ liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are > to be tolerated, for all are matters of. opinion.- Revealed religion is not . a truth, but a sentiment and a. . .tV,". ‘ ■ , r- - . '

taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. Devotion is not necessarily founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant churches and to Catholic, may get good.from both and belong to neither. They may fraternise together in spiritual thoughts and feelings, without having any views at all of doctrines in common, .or seeing the need of them.' (Card. Newman;) ■ '■'■ (b) The. gift of Faith is' a very precious gift, ' stuff o' the very stuff, life of life, and self of self/ and must be guarded by ' parapets and balustrades and fences and walls and sign-posts and danger posts.' .Parents rightly go to extreme lengths to keep their children free from the contagion of bad literature; Catholics believe that the soul can be blighted too by th® reading of attacks upon Faith or, say by attending service" in other churches. ' >

Answer to (2).' —Catholics are not forbidden to be present at such a function, provided of course they do not join in the worship. It is generally understood that they are assisting merely as spectators, or out of courtesy to relatives and friends. There may, however, be some danger of scandal, and in this case, as in other unusual circumstances, it would be better to follow the advice of one's confessor.