---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Scanlan, Lawrence
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 1
number: 1
published: 1897-11
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Lawrence Scanlan, "Religious Faiths—I: The Doctrine and Claims of the Roman Catholic Church," *Improvement Era* 1, no. 1 (November 1897): 11–25.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera11unse
  scan: "Original source link: https://archiveviewer.org/viewer/internet-archive/improvementera11unse"
start_page: 11
end_page: 25
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1897-11)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11unse
  publication_year: 1897
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1897, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Religious Faiths—I: The Doctrine and Claims of the Roman Catholic Church

<!-- page:11 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS,
i.
THE DOCTRINE AND CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
BY RT. REV. LAWRENCE SCANLAN, BISHOP OF SALT LAKE CITY.
[The series of articles under the general title, Religious Faiths,
promised in the Prospectus of the Era, very properly begins with an article
on The Doctrine and Claims of the Roman Catholic Church, by Bishop
Scanlan, of Salt Lake City. As stated in our Prospectus, it is the intention
of the Editors of the Era to make this series of articles "a review of existing religions and religious sects in the world, " giving an .opportunity for
"comparison and contrast of the same," and finally "the trial of all by the
standard of revealed truth." We begin, of course, with the Christian religion, as represented by the leading churches of Christendom. We have
extended an invitation to prominent ministers of the churches represented
in our State to contribute statements of their doctrine and claims to the
Era, in order that each of the prominent churches, at least, might present
its doctrine from its own standpoint, and by its own representatives. To
this invitation there have been already several favorable responses by prominent ministers, and the series, we are of opinion, will be of incalculable
value and intense interest to our readers. The Editor.]
I have been kindly invited by the management of the
Era to lay before its readers a statement of the doctrine and
organization, with the reasons or authority therefor, of the
Catholic Church. As these subjects are of a broad and comprehensive character, only a brief outline of them can be
expected within the space allowed me by this little magazine.
However, I will try to trace, with some degree of fullness, a
few of the principal and most important doctrinal and organic
features of the church and will begin, by way of introduction,
with some necessary observations on religion in general.

<!-- page:12 -->

12 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
RELIGION IN GENERAL.
I will take as granted by the readers of the Era—those
for whom it is intended—certain primary truths or principles
without which religion evidently could have no real basis,
meaning or purpose:
i. That there exists a personal God who is, therefore,
capable of accepting religious homage and of being honored
and pleased by it; that he has freely created all things visible
and invisible outside himself; that, in consequence of the fact
of creation, there must exist between him and us, his rational
creatures, certain necessary relations, such as his complete
independence, his sovereign and absolute dominion over us
and his indisputable right to our submission, honor and love;
in fact, to all that we have and are; that these relations constitute and represent God's rights over man; and that religion, which is only another name for justice, consists in recognizing and maintaining these rights, which man alone can
and should do, because he alone, by reason of his rational
nature, is endowed with the faculties, powers and means of
knowing and upholding them.
2. I trust my readers will also grant that religion,
objectively considered, is simply God's will expressed and
made known to man, and consequently man has religion and
is truly religious only and so far as he thinks, speaks and
acts in conformity with that will; that religion being God's
will it must be truth, for God cannot will or express error,
can have no right to wrong; and being truth itself, can be
honored, worshipped and pleased only by truth; that religion
being truth it must be (a) one, immutable and universal, for
such are the well known and universally recognized attributes
of truth; and (b) an essential condition of true liberty, for
man is bound only to God or his order and is truly free only
and so far as he is subject to him and governed only by him,
that is, by truth, right and justice.
3. I am sure it will be further conceded that God alone,
because Creator and supreme legislator, has the right to
establish a religion or found a church for the purpose of
teaching it, that is, to tell us his will, to make known to us

<!-- page:13 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 13
the real and full relationship that exists between him and us
and the duties arising, on our part, out of such relationship;
and consequently that a man-made religion or church, that is,
a religion or church that, without proper divine authorization,
usurps the legislative office of God, and thus substitute or
may substitute the will of man for the will of God, and
imposes it as such on mankind, is worse than worthless.
4. Finally, it will be granted that if man, the rational
creature, can impose any obligation on his Creator, it must
be that, as he binds and must bind man to do his will and
must, in justice, punish him for not doing it
—"if thou wilt
enter into life keep my commandments"—it follows that he
is bound, also in justice, to make known to him his will or
commandments, and in a manner so certain that he can have
no reasonable doubt that what he believes and obeys is infallibly God's will and not man's. Man's insistence on God
discharging this duty is both rational and proper and is his
only escape from the greatest conceivable slavery, that of
obeying man instead of God.
Agreed, as I trust we are, on these primary and essential
principles of religion, whether natural or supernatural, we
will now hasten on to examine the Catholic Church, and, first
of all, its foundation, its chief and most important part, as it
is, indeed, of any structure, material* or spiritual. It is the
foundation that defines, supports and holds in unity an
edifice and imparts to it stability, strength and durability.
If there is anything weak, deficient or rotten in any institution it is generally traceable to, if not actually found in, the
foundation.
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
Now, the whole vast fabric of the Catholic Church rests on
one sole fact or truth —the divinity of Jesus Christ—which,
consequently, is her fundamental doctrine. With this she
must stand or fall. It is not necessary to occupy any of my
brief space by giving any lengthy proofs of this common Christian doctrine to you, my dear readers, who, I am sure, believe
and accept it as firmly and sincerely as do Catholics themselves. However, as I am not so sure you believe it in the
same sense, I deem it necessary to give yo:i the Catholic

<!-- page:14 -->

14 IMPROVEMENT ERA
doctrine with a few proofs, which, because scriptural, I suppose you will accept as such.
The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is not a
mere elect child or special creation of God, or in any sense or
manner a creature, but that he is the eternal and only Son of
God; God of God, Light of Light; the expression of the Eternal
Father, with whom he is one in nature and substance, and
to whom he is equal in all divine attributes, power and glory.
St John, the Evangelist, (Cap. I) calls him "Logos," that is,
the eternal word or expression of God, and expressly states
that this word was in the beginning with God, was God; who
became incarnate, was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.
Christ himself constantly and publicly claimed for himself
real divinity, and his hearers, the Jews, evidently understood
him to make this claim. It was on account of this claim,
which, according to the Jewish law, was blasphemy, and therefore punishable by death, that he was condemned and finally crucified. "Being man," say his accusers, "he makest
himself God" (John 10). He repeatedly made use of words
and expressions which could have no meaning except that
he was really and truly God. "I and the Father are One"
(John 10). "He who seeth me seeth the Father." "I am
in the Father and the Father in me" (John 14). He claimed
all the essential attributes of God, even his omnipotence. "All
power is given me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28).
Of course none nor all of these yet unsupported statements
prove Christ to be God. Even their extraordinary character
only renders them less reliable, less worthy of belief. A person
is not God because he says so. No one understood and realized this better than did Christ himself, who, accordingly,
warned his followers against believing the vain cries and
groundless statements of future false Christs. The whole
tenor of his words and actions clearly shows that he fully
recognized the demands of our rational nature in religious
matters and, consequently, in introducing his religion and
in asking man to accept it, he did not wish man to believe or
act blindly, or, in fact, to sacrifice or ignore a single ray of the
light of reason. He made it evident to all that he came on earth
to treat man as man, to speak to him as man, to teach, con <!-- page:15 -->vince, save, and lead him to the very portals of heaven, as
man, that is, as a rational and reasoning being, for as such
only is he a subject of religion and capable of believing and
practising it, and as such worthy of heaven and God. In
fact, so far from treating man in this unreasonable manner
he, on the contrary, tells him to hold fast to his reason and
not to take the least step towards him except in and by its
light. "I give not testimony of myself, or if I do my testimony is nothing. There is one in heaven who giveth testimony of me. " "If you believe not me, believe my works."
And to the disciples sent by the Baptist to ask him who he
was, he said: "Go back and tell John what you have seen
and heard; that by my power, my word, the blind see, the
deaf hear, the sick are healed, the leapers are cleansed, and
the dead come forth from the graves." These will tell John
the Baptist better than any words of mine who and what I
am, that God is in me, with me, and working through me.
Jesus Christ came on earth with a very extraordinary
claim, indeed, but he took great care to give extraordinary,
adequate proofs. By the wonders and miracles he publicly
wrought he clearly showed that he was master of life and
death and that all the powers and forces of nature, even the
winds and the waves, were subject to his will and word and that
consequently, he made no idle boast when he said: "All power
is given me in heaven and on earth." Nor were these
wonderful and divine works performed in secret, in the dark,
or behind screens and curtains, but they were all wrought
in the midst of the light of day, on the public streets and
highways, on the tops of mountains and in the presence of
hundreds, sometimes of thousands, friends and enemies.
And when he saw that this long array of miracles did not
convince the Jews of the truth of his claim, and that they
still clamored for greater proofs—"Signs from heaven'—although he mildly upbraided them for their incredulity and
unreasonableness, yet, fearing lest the full demands of reason
in this all-important matter may not yet have been satisfied,
he tells them that he will give them one more sign—surely
from heaven—that is, the giving of life to his own dead
body, his own resurrection from the dead—the greatest sign

<!-- page:16 -->

16 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
that even God can give to man. "Destroy this body of
mine and in three days I will build it up again." And that
he did. build it up to the satisfaction of his friends and the
civilized world and in sight of all the powers of hell, is a
fact as firmly fixed in the firmament of history as are the
pyramids on the sands of the desert. St. Paul challenged
the philosophers of Greece and Rome to disprove this fact
of the resurrection, on which, as a foundation, he rested the
whole Christian cause. "If Christ is not risen vain is our
preaching, vain also our faith." But the philosophers and
the world, instead of overthrowing it, built upon it their
faith and hope for time and eternity.
Now reason is caught here between the two horns of a
dilemma. Jesus Christ was God, as he claimed, or he was not.
If he was not, that is, if he were man or a creature, however
special, then (pardon the expression) he was a liar and an
im poster who deliberately and purposely deceived the noblest
and best of our race since his time and will continue to deceive them to the end, by passing himself for God, and who
consequently bound mankind in the fetters of a code of a
false morality and has caused, and daily causes the destruction of thousands of martyrs in the lying cause of his assumed and pretended divinity. If he was not God, then
human reason has good cause for asserting that there is and
can be no God, or, at least, no God that cares anything about
man. For how could God, in such a case, have suffered
the worship, the honor, the love due to him alone to have
been usurped by so sacrilegious and, at the same time, so
tpecious an idolatry. "No," cries out the great Napoleon
when dying on the barren rocks of St. Helena, "there would
exist no God in heaven if it had been possible for a creature
to conceive and execute with similar success the gigantic
scheme of usurping the supreme worship by usurping the
name of God."
On the other hand, if he is God then his word is truth,
his precepts the obligatory rule of life; his commandments
the world's law; his judgments infallible and inevitable; his
promises unfailing, and the Church that he established must
be heard and obeyed.

<!-- page:17 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 17
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
Christ, after having thus firmly established his divinity,
was fully qualified and authorized, not only to teach, but to
command man, who, if consistent with his rational nature,
should hear and obey him. His own testimony was no longer
valueless but infallible and his voice the voice of God.
Accordingly he taught a system of doctrine and morals, the
practical acceptance of which he declared to be essential to
the peace and happiness of man here and hereafter. But as
he intended to remain on earth only a short time it was
necessary that he should appoint and leave after him some
institution; some adequate means to teach mankind his system, so costly to himself and so necessary to all men, and to
perpetuate it in all its integrity and purity until the end of
time; and thus, to fulfill his promise—"to enlighten every
man that cometh into this world." For this end and purpose
he established a church: that is, called together and formed
into a society a body of men known as his Apostles. These
he commissioned and duly authorized to go forth and preach
his gospel, his doctrines, to all mankind. To this organized
body of teachers he transferred his own mission, the selfsame mission that he received from his Eternal Father,
together with all the power and authority necessary for its
proper execution. This body of teachers were to take his
place and to be his agents in all that appertains to the work
of teaching, regenerating and saving humanity. "As the
Father hath sent me I also send you; and then breathing on
them, he said, receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20).
"Going therefore teach all nations whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28).
Now, a brief examination of this church founded by
Christ and commissioned by him in the most express and
formal manner, will clearly show us that he endowed it with
certain properties and marks by which it could be easily
known and distinguished from all the false Christian churches
which he foresaw and predicted would spring up in all future ages.
1. The Church of Christ was visible. The Apostles
2

<!-- page:18 -->

18 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
were certainly such. Their office was to teach, to reprove,
to baptize and to perform other similar public functions—all
which necessarily implied theft visibility. He said his
church was "the light of the world," but by what figure of
speech can light be said to be invisible?
2. It was to be indefectible. It was the work of God,
and his work cannot fail nor "his word pass away." He
himself declared that he would "build his church upon a
rock and that the gates of hell could not prevail against it"
(Matt. 1 6). The gates of hell would have prevailed against
the church the moment it failed or ceased to be what it was
when founded. St. Paul calls the church the "pillar and
ground of truth." Since, therefore, the Church of Christ is
the foundation, the support of truth, it must be, to say the
least, as indefectible and indestructible as truth.
3. The church founded by Christ was infallible, that is,
it could not err in the discharge of its proper and official
duties, in teaching matters of faith and morals. A teacher
directly appointed by God is necessarily infallible in what he
has to teach. No loving parent would place over his children a fallible teacher when he could appoint an infallible
one. Besides, we should expect a little more of God than of
man, and any common man could establish a fallible church.
But Christ settled this matter very clearly and satisfactorily
by his words and promises—"I will be with you all days, to
the end of the world" (Matt. 28). "I will send you
another Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, to teach you all truth
and to abide with you for ever" (Matt. 20). "He that
heareth you heareth me, and he who despiseth you despiseth
me" (Luke 10). How or why place this strict obligation
on heaven unless the teachers should infallibly teach the
truth? And again: "Go ye into the whole world and preach
my gospel; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
he that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark 16). His
church, therefore, should preach only truth, otherwise why
condemn man for believing error, or what, in case the teachers were fallible, may be such?
4. The Church of Christ, conformably to reason, was
and should be one. Truth was to be the object of its teach <!-- page:19 -->ing, and truth is one and cannot be in contradiction with
itself. "There is but one Lord, one faith and one baptism,"
says St. Paul (Eph. 4). And Christ himself says, "Other
sheep I have which are not of this fold; these also must be
brought in so that there may be one fold and one shepherd"
(John 10). So important did Christ consider this unity or
oneness of his church that he made it the object of a special
prayer to his Eternal Father: "And not for them [his
Apostles] only do I pray, but for those also who through
their word shall believe in me, that they also may be one,
even as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee" (John 18).
The unity or oneness here prayed for is of the highest conceivable type, that metaphysical unity existing between him
and his Father. It was not a mere spiritual or invisible
unity, but one that could be seen and thus serve as a proof to
the world of his divine mission, "that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent me" (John 18).
5. The Church of Christ was holy; holy in its founder,
in its doctrines, sacraments and members. The object of
his church was to bring all men, if possible, to the way of
truth and salvation: "This is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4). But it could not make others holy
unless itself was intrinsically holy. "Christ loved the
church," says St. Paul, "and delivered himself up for her
that he might sanctify her and preserve her from spot or
blemish" (Eph 5).
6. The church founded by Christ was to be catholic or
universal; catholic as to place, time and doctrine, which may
be clearly inferred from the commission of Christ, "Go teach
all nations all things I have commanded you and, behold,
I am with you all days until the consummation of the world."
All nations should be taught all and the same things and
throughout all time.
7. The Church of Christ had a head or supreme ruler
and teacher. This head evidently was St. Peter, whom
Christ made the foundation of his church: "Upon thee
[Peter] I will build my church;" for whom he specially
prayed: "But I have prayed for thee [Peter] that thy faith
fail not;" whom he made the confirmer of his brother Apos <!-- page:20 -->ties: ''that once converted thou mayest confirm thy brethren;" and whom, finally, he appointed chief pastor of his
whole flock: "Peter, feed my lambs and feed my sheep."
We may now see at one glance what the Catholic Church
holds and teaches concerning herself, her origin, her constitution, organization, mission, powers and properties, when I
state that she, from the very beginning, from the ascension of
Christ, up to the present, has always and everywhere asserted,
taught and defended that she is that self-same, identical
church which Christ himself built upon the rock and against
which, as he declared, the gates of hell could not prevail;
and consequently to her, the Catholic Church, rightfully
belong all those marks, powers, properties and prerogatives
which, as we have seen, characterized the Church of Christ.
Of course, the fact that the Catholic Church asserts that she
is the church founded by Christ is no proof that she is such.
Whether she is or is not is a matter of inquiry, of history and
of fact. However, unless Christ has purposely deceived the
world, there must have existed throughout all time since his
departure from this earth, and up to the present, such a
church as he so manifestly and publicly instituted. His
purpose in coming on earth under the form of man, and as
such suffering and dying, was, as he repeatedly stated, "to
enlighten all men," "to bring to the knowledge of the truth
and save all." And the only means he appointed and left
behind him for the accomplishment of this work was his
church or an organized body of teachers holding his mission, leading with all his divine authority and infallibility
and having his express promise that he would be back of
them, assisting and protecting them until the end of time.
It is, therefore, ar least hopeful and encouraging to humanity,
as well as creditable to Christ, that there has ever existed
since his time a church publicly asserting and maintaining,
very often at terrible cost to herself, that she is his church.
If the Catholic Church be not that founded by Christ,
then it will be extremely difficult, nay, impossible, to show
that any other church is his, and, consequently, his church
must have failed and the gates of hell, contrary to his promise, must have prevailed against it.

<!-- page:21 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 21
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.
It cannot be said that the Bible takes the place of the
church, for the New Testament, at least, is simply the creature, the production of the church, which is its sole witness
and the only voucher for its inspiration. A book, no more
than man, is inspired because it says so. The inspiration of
the Bible is evidently an invisible fact and is, therefore, not
a matttr for history or proof by human testimony. Christ
did not write a word of the New Testament nor did he command his Apostles or any one else to write it. He did, however, establish a church, and this church existed in all the
plenitude of its power and authority, taught his doctrines
and, it is to be hoped, saved many souls long before a line of
the New Testament was written. Christ had long since
ascended to heaven ere some of the Apostles and their disciples, in order to aid their memory and for their own convenience and that of those people committed to their charge,
commenced to write the sayings and doings of Christ and his
apostles. The church already established and duly authorized
to teach, examined these writings, and finding them in accord
with what she heard from the lips of Christ, received them,
pronounced them inspired, the word of God, taught that henceforth they should be believed and received as such by all
Christians. This teaching of the church '-to hear which, Christ
declared, was to hear himself," raised the New Testament from
the place of common history into that of a supernatural or
inspired record, and as such, it has been ever since held and
believed by all professing Christians. It is only through the
infallible voice of the church or body of teachers appointed
by Christ that we, therefore, can have certainty of the invisible and otherwise unknowable fact of the inspiration of the
sacred scriptures. And not only this, but the infallible teaching of the church is also necessary to interpret the scriptures,
to give us their true meaning—that intended by the Holy
Ghost, the spirit of truth. Human words and language are
susceptible of various and even contradictory meanings.
The Bible is a dead letter and says, simply, what the reader
makes it say, and it is evident, from the many existing dif <!-- page:22 -->ferent and contradictory forms of Christianity, each taking its
doctrines from the Bible, that the reader makes it say many
strange and ungodly things—individual inspiration or illumination to the contrary, notwithstanding. Writings or language
interpreted by fallible authority becomes logically fallible.
Pegora sequitur semper conclusiopartene. Besides, private, unofficial interpretation of the Bible is wrong in principle and
reverses the real order. It places man above God, makes the
Creator subject to the creature, who becomes the real legislator, for the interpreter of a law is practically the law maker.
Christ certainly was not less wise than man, and the man that
would attempt to found a state, organize a government, or
constitute even the smallest and most insignificant society,
without making provision, in the way of a head or supreme
court, for the official interpretation of its constitutions, laws
and regulations; would simply stultify himself before the world.
Without the living voice of the infallible church, therefore, as
a supreme court to interpret the sacred scriptures, to decide
and declare their true meaning, there would be no means of
knowing with certainty what Christianity is in detail, and the
inspired Bible would become, as it actually is, an apple of
discord.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND FAITH.
Neither reason, Christ nor his church demands our acceptance or obedience without certitude. That this is true
of reason and Christ I have already shown in the beginning
of this article; and that the church does not exact it is clear
from her definition of faith. Faith, according to the
Catholic Church, is an assent of the mind to a truth revealed
by God, without any doubt or fear of error. Doubt, therefore, which is incompatible with truth, is also incompatible
with faith. He who believes, in the Catholic sense, does
not doubt; and he who doubts does not believe.
St. Paul calls faith "the evidence of things that appear
not," and states that there "is but one faith, without which
it is impossible to please God." But how is this one, allnecessary faith to be had? The same great Apostle of the
Gentiles answers: "Faith comes through hearing." How
comes hearing? He answers again, "through preaching,"

<!-- page:23 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 23
and adds, "but how can they preach except they be sent?"
That is, how can people believe as true, as God's will, as
true religion—what is preached unless they have some guaranty that those who preach are sent and duly commissioned
by God to preach his law to them; for how, otherwise, could
they have that certainty, that evidence necessary, according
to reason and St. Paul, to elicit an act of faith? Human
reason is outraged when asked to believe and accept as truth
what may be error.
Concrete human nature may not have any more love for
the Catholic Church than it had for its divine founder, as her
mission, like his, is to condemn its inordinate and sinful passions and to keep them within the bounds of right and reason. But pure reason, that is, in the abstract, cannot fail to
see in this old but yet young and vigorous institution certain
features which it must admire and recognize as marks of
divinity. Passing over her marvelous organization—"the
most wonderful piece of human policy," as M. Guizot remarks, "that the world ever saw"—let us take a glance at
some of her principal claims.
The Catholic Church asserts and has always asserted
that she represents God in the religious and moral order.
Now, whom or what does reason say she, or in fact any
crjurch, should represent? Man? That is to represent man
and at the same time to teach and dogmatize as God! To
represent man and yet to exact obedience due only to God!
—the greatest conceivable slavery. Man had been long
enough representing man and history clearly shows that he
can represent only man, that is, ignorance, blindness, doubt
and utter imbecility in the moral order. Should not a church
having the sanction of reason represent right, truth, justice
and all good? And how represent these without representing God, who is all these in an infinite degree?
The Catholic Church has always maintained that she is
infallible in teaching faith and morals, and an unerring guide
to heaven and to God. Surely reason cannot find fault with her
for this. This is precisely the very thing that has been always
and is still needed. This is the very thing that brought the
Son of God from heaven and which he expressly promised to

<!-- page:24 -->

24 IMPROFEMENT ERA
give to the world. "He who follows me walks not in darkness. I am the way, the truth and the life. You shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free." This is the
very thing which poor, blind humanity has been crying out
for from the beginning from the very depths of its misery and
blindness. How could reason, after its long and sad experience with fallible teachers and erring guides, accept any but
an infallible teacher? Besides, of what use would be a
fallible teacher? Who would pay any serious attention to
its teachings, which in reality may be error? What cares
man for any authority that does not speak to and command
him in the name and authority of God? When hard pressed
by his passions, what is more easy and natural to him than to
reason himself out of the teachings of fallibility. Infallibility
is the Achillean heel of the Catholic Church, the only vulnerable spot on her whole body, and the impenetrable panoply
in which, as in a mantle, she wraps herself up and defends
and renders reasonable all her defined teaching in faith and
morals.
Once more, the Catholic Church asserts that she is the
"salt of the earth," that she possesses, through her sacramental system, supernatural power or grace to lift up man,
to regenerate him and heal all his moral maladies. Is not
this the very power that reason and experience tell u%is
needed? Does not man, evidently, need to be healed and
lifted up morally, and is it not a fact that man, by his own
natural strength, can no more raise himself in the moral than he
can in the physical order? What, then, but a supernatural
power can raise him up from the deep abyss into which his
passions have plunged him, when, naturally, he does not
wish, nay even opposes with all his strength and violence of
his inferior nature, any such elevation? Who ever heard of
a spontaneous cry for moral relief coming from the dark
depths of paganism? Had not the church almost to force
Christianity and its virtues on the nations that she converted
and civilized? And even in this our own land, illuminated
and warmed, as it is, by the rays of Christian light and life,
what little desire there is for the knowledge of Christian
doctrines and the practice of Christian virtues! Or rather, I

<!-- page:25 -->

RELIGIOUS FAITHS. 25
should say, what an opposition there is to them, what a closing of eyes, sealing of ears, and locking of hearts! How evident, then, that the power that can open those eyes, unseal
those ears, and unlock those hearts must be superior to
man's and, therefore, supernatural.
In conclusion, reason can find no logical standing ground
between the Catholic Church and infidelity. If the Catholic
Church is not what she asserts and has always asserted herself to be, then she falls, and with her must also fall the
inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Christ and the whole
Christian system, for all these are logically and indissolubly
connected and must stand or fall together, and there remains
for us nothing but our own individual judgment, which naturally tends to and ultimately ends in infidelity. Mr. Ingersoll
commenced with his own private judgment and now judges
that the Bible is only a book of myths and fables. Infidelity
has long since accepted the alternative of reason and has made
its choice accordingly. Here is what Mr. Proudhon says:
"Do you believe in a God? if you do then you are a Christian,
a Catholic; if you do not, dare to avow it: for then it will not
only be to the church that you declare war, but to the faith
of the whole human race. Between these two alternatives
there is room for nothing except ignorance and insincerity.
I should never have disputed the authority of the church did
I admit the supernatural; I should have bowed down before
a creed so antique, the production of the most learned and
prolonged elaboration of which the human mind has given
us an example. Oh! Christianity is sublime—sublime in the
majesty of its dogma and chain of its induction. A more
elevated idea, a vaster system was never conceived or organized amongst men, and I here solemnly avow that if the
Catholic Church succeeds in overthrowing the system of
argument (anti-theistical) which I oppose to her, I will abjure
my philosophy and die in her bosom. If you acknowledge a Supreme Being, then kneel before the Crucified."
{Proudhon de laJustice dans la Revolution et dans VEglise, VI,
pages 36-38.)