HYPHENATED "CATHOLICS."

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1920, Page 13

HYPHENATED "CATHOLICS."

The establishment of an "Anglo-Catholic" Congress in London was such a novelty that the Times took occasion to present its readers with a picture of the procession. It was evidently a decorous procession ; decorum of the strictest kind marked every phase of the congress, for ritualism is a feature on which the Anglo-Catholic is meticulous. But outer appearances, after all, count for little (says the London Catholic Times). What matters is the heart of things, and what the Anglo-Catholics should ask themselves is whether their creed is sound at heart. To take the saying of St. Vincent of Lerins that Catholicity is "that which has been, believed everywhere, always, and by all " what title have the Anglicans to the name? Change has" marked their whole history. Their attitude to-day is distinctly m conflict with that of the earlier authors of the Deformation" movement who gloried in their Protestantism There can be no doubt that the intolerance of Protestantism is responsible for the rejection, of Christianity by many who once professed it, and to us it is a cause of satisfaction that the " AngloOatholics, 'though they do not come all the way towards the Catholic Church, come part of it and are in a far better Position than the more Protestant memSl ChU ° England ' to understand its spiritual wealth and beauty, but they should not Wet a dutv tZ a S ? '' this P f ition im P° se -l-n them predion That duty 1S not to be content with a halting profession of Catholicity but to make their calling and election secure by offering their allegiance to the Catholic Church m spirit and in truth.