Yesterday, 05:04 PM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
TWENTIETH OBJECTION. IT IS BETTER TO BE A PROTESTANT THAN A CATHOLIC; ONE IS JUST AS MUCH A CHRISTIAN, AND IT IS NEARLY THE SAME THING.
Answer. Yes, nearly; just as it is nearly the same thing for one person to say that two and two make four, and for another to say two and two make five; but it is not quite the same thing, as you will see in the result of long banking accounts. As mathematical truths must be exact in principle, and cannot contradict each other, so religious truths, the teachings of divine faith, the conditions of gaining heaven, must be one in principle, and not contradictory. "One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Ephes. iv. 4.)
It is an easy matter for you to learn that there is and can be only one true religion. We have proved that this one true religion is the Catholic religion established by Jesus Christ.
Now, what the Catholic Church affirms, the Protestant denies.
The Catholic has, for his rule of faith, the infallible teaching of the Church. The Protestant rejects the Church, despises Her authority, and acknowledges only the Bible, which he interprets as he can, and as he likes.
The Catholic derives a Christian life from the seven Sacraments of the Church, and maintains it principally by means of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. The Protestant does not recognize those sacraments; he has preserved only baptism, and even of that he has altered the notion.*
The Catholic adores, in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ, who is really present in it. The Protestant sees in it only an empty symbol, a fragment of bread.
The Catholic venerates, invokes, and loves the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, made man. The Protestant shows an invincible indifference to her, which is often pushed even to hatred and scorn.
The Catholic venerates, in the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the head of the faithful, their supreme pastor, and the infallible Doctor of the law of God. The Protestant sees in him only the Antichrist, the vicar of Satan, and the enemy of truth, etc., etc., etc.
Protestantism is to Catholicism what no is to yes, and that too in the fundamental points of religion. But for this discordance, however, they are precisely the same thing, are they?
"It is better," you said, "to be a Protestant than a Catholic." No. For that only is best, or, rather, that only is good, which is true. The rest is worth nothing.
Start, then, from this evident principle. There is no medium between truth and error. That which is not true is false, and that which is not false is true.
In religion, this principle is still more important than in any other matter. There is only one true religion; we have seen this, and it is the religion of Jesus Christ, which embraces all ages, all nations, all men, and which, for this reason, has always been called Catholic or universal.
The Protestant sects are not this one Catholic religion of Jesus Christ; the name itself shows it: protestant; consequently, theirs is not the true religion; it is an error, a protest, a corruption of Christianity. This of itself would be sufficient to condemn Protestantism. But let us examine still further.
Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, is the only Master of Christianity. No one has ever denied it. "I am the way, the truth and the life."
No man has then the right of teaching or preaching this religion, if he is not charged to do so by Jesus Christ. "How shall they preach unless they be sent?" (Rom. x. 15.)
Suppose I were to say to you: "My friend, you are a Christian. The Christian religion teaches you such and such doctrines, imposes upon you such and such duties! Well! I have come to reform all that. Instead of believing, as you have hitherto done, believe what I teach you; I release you from such and such of your duties which are irksome, I permit you to do what your religion forbids," etc.
You would certainly reply: "But who are you, to do that? My religion has but one master, Jesus Christ. Is it he who has sent you? When, and in what manner? Prove to me your divine mission."
Well, when M. Chatel, Michael Vintras, and Company, in our own times, and Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Henry VIII., three hundred years ago, set themselves up as Reformers of the Christian Religion, this objection, suggested by the most ordinary common sense, might have arrested them at the first step.
Many persons have addressed these questions to them; they have never been able to answer them; and the evil passions of humanity have alone caused their new religion to be received.
"The principles of the Reformation are things to be repented of with tears and ashes." This interesting statement comes not from a Catholic, but from a member of the Anglican Church — Lord Halifax.
It is, then, only those whom Jesus Christ has sent, who are entitled to teach His religion. But these envoys of heaven, these doctors, the only lawful doctors of religion, these lawful pastors of Christian nations, who are they? How can they be recognized? By means of two very simple observations.
The first is a great historical fact, so self-evident, that candid Protestants do not even think of denying it, it is this: that the Pope, the actual Bishop of Rome, is the Head of the Catholic Religion, and that he is descended by an uninterrupted succession of Pontiffs from the Apostle Saint Peter; that from all ages Catholic Bishops have been regarded as the successors of the Apostles.
The second, is the explanation of this fact by the mere reading of those passages in the Gospel where our Lord Jesus Christ gives to His Apostles, and to them alone, the sacred mission to preach His religion to all mankind, and chooses among the apostles themselves, Saint Peter, to be the Head of the whole Church, the bond of unity between the pastors and the faithful, the immutable foundation of the living edifice that He should raise up.
What, I ask, can be more clear, more solemn than this pastoral and doctrinal mission of the apostles? "Receive the Holy Ghost," said the Son of God to them; "as My Father has sent Me, so send I you. Go, teach all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Preach the Gospel to all men." "Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of all ages. He who hears you hears Me, and he who despises you despises Me."*
And do not these words also of the Lord to St. Peter, bear their evidence with them?
"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."† By these words, according to the belief of all Christian ages, was St. Peter established by Jesus Christ as Head, immutable foundation-stone, infallible doctor, and pastor of His whole Church and of all His disciples.
It is hardly necessary to argue on these words, so clear and obvious is their meaning.
1. There is a Christian Church, since Jesus Christ said: My Church.
2. There is but one Church; for He does not say: My Churches, but My Church.
3. And among all those Churches which call themselves the one only Church, which is the true, the only true one? That founded on St. Peter, governed by St. Peter, taught by St. Peter, who still lives in his successor; and therefore, the Roman Catholic Church, of which the Pope, St. Peter's successor, is the Pontiff and the Head, is that Church.
What is simpler than this mode of reasoning? It once proved powerful enough to convince a Protestant, to whom I suggested it (and who became a Catholic that very day), it also effected the conversion of a Russian lady, a schismatic.
On the point of ascending to heaven, the Saviour insisted anew, and confirmed what he had given to St. Peter, saying to him: "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep." (St. John, last chapter.)
It is, then, to the Pope and the Bishops, the actual Pastors of the Catholic Church, who alone trace their origin in unbroken succession from St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and to the Apostles, that these great promises of Jesus Christ are addressed; it is to them alone that the mission of teaching, preaching, and preserving religion was given; it is they, and they alone, who are the legitimate pastors of Christian nations. With them, and with them alone, Jesus Christ will be to the end of all ages, to keep them free from all error in their teaching, and from all defect in the sanctification of souls.*
It is, then, by submitting to their authority, and in attending to their teaching, that I am certain of knowing and practicing the true Christian Religion.
And here take notice of the immense advantages of that clear, infallible, divine path of authority, in which the Catholic Church invites us to walk. How easy it is for a Catholic to know, with absolute certainty, what he ought to believe, what he ought to avoid, so as to be a good Christian! He has but to hearken to the priest, sent by his Bishop, who is in communion with the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, His visible substitute on earth, by whom He teaches, and by whom He decides in a sovereign manner what we must believe, do and avoid.
How beautiful and how simple is this! Remark, too, what perfect unity flows from this authority! Everywhere the same faith, the same doctrine; in Rome, in Paris, in China, in Asia, Africa, America, everywhere the same real religious teaching, that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ Himself! Everywhere the same Priesthood, of which the Pope is the visible, and Jesus Christ the invisible Head! Everywhere the same sacrifice, the same worship, the same sacraments, the same means of sanctification and of salvation.
This unity is so much the more beautiful and superhuman, that the Christian community governed by the Pope (and it alone) extends all over the earth.
There are Catholics everywhere. Their very name indicates this fact (it was the remark of St. Augustine, fifteen hundred years ago
Catholic means universal. The Catholic Church embraces all ages, all countries, all nations. And the last judgment will be, as our Lord Jesus Christ declared, when the Catholic Church shall have preached the gospel to all the nations of the earth.*
Wherever the Catholic Church prevails, she shows forth Christian sanctity. She produces invariably, and in all places, the most sublime perfection in those who receive her teaching with docility. She is the mother of the saints. She has not ceased to give birth to them during nineteen centuries, nor to behold Jesus Christ, her God and Founder, confirming by miracles the sanctity of His servants.†
Protestantism, on the contrary (as the name alone causes us to anticipate), is a disorganization of all this order and harmony, under the pretext of reform. There is revolt in the very name.
Split into a thousand petty sects, who mutually anathematize each other, and who agree only in their common hatred to the ancient Church: Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, Anabaptists, Pedobaptists, Moravians, Evangelicals, Anglicans, Quakers, Pietists, Methodists, Jumpers, Shakers, etc. (there are more than six hundred of these sects), Protestantism is nothing but religious anarchy.
It has attacked Christianity even in its essence and constitution. It has rejected the fundamental rule of faith, which is the infallible teaching and the divine authority of the Pope and the Bishops, the only lawful pastors and doctors. And thus, while talking loudly of faith, it has destroyed faith, that is to say the submission of the mind and heart to divine teaching. The Protestant, in fact, believes only his own interpretation of the Word of God; he makes himself the judge in controversies, in the stead of those whom Jesus Christ instituted as judges; he believes in his reason, not in the word of God, which he reads in the Bible; he has no real belief, he has only opinions, as liable to change as himself, and he no longer believes anything but his own opinions. Thus are there as many religions as there are heads among Protestants. And even every head may alter its religion every day. I know a very respectable Protestant family, consisting of four persons, where each one is of a different religion!!!
For this reason, Protestantism is tossed about with every wind of doctrine, changes every year, every day, the symbol of its faith. It rejects to-day what it taught yesterday; it has neither unity, antiquity, universality, nor stability.
I defy any Protestant to tell me plainly what is truth, and what the world ought to believe, under pain of being considered out of the road of Christian truth.
"You differ," said Tertullian once to Montan, "therefore you err."
Protestantism produces virtues, because it has preserved some vestiges of truth amidst the destruction it made; but these virtues bear the mark of this mixture of truth and error. They are almost always cold and proud, like those of the Pharisees. They exist, in spite of Protestantism. In reality they are Catholic, they belong to the Church. The more Protestants are Protestants, the less have they of real Christian virtues; the nearer they resemble us, the more real and living are their virtues. It has been said with justice of Protestant England, that of all the sects she was "the least deformed, because she was the least reformed."*
Protestantism rejects all that is consoling, tender, and affectionate in religion; the holy presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of His love for us; the tribunal of mercy and pardon, the love and invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that gentle mother of the Saviour whom He gave us for a Mother at the hour of His death; the invocation of the Saints, our elder brethren, our friends, already entered into that land, whither they call us, and where they await our coming, etc.
It has no religious worship, properly so-called, for one could not give that name to that which passes in the great bare room which they call their Church.
Have you ever been into one of these? One might fancy, at first, that these are assemblies filled with the spirit of religion. But only look closer; there is not the real Presence of God, there; His love, above all, is not felt. . . . One remembers that the Pharisees were more regular than the others in frequenting the synagogues!
The fundamental vice of Protestantism is revolt, pride.
It is, besides, sterile in saints. It has never produced one real sister of charity, that is to say, one humble and loving servant of God and of His poor. Its zeal is fanatical, its fervent adherents are visionaries, vague mystics, who believe themselves filled with the Holy Spirit, and to whom this supposed Spirit often reveals very strange things.
Its missionaries are Bible distributers. . . . Only compare them to the apostles, or to our Catholic missionaries, heirs of the zeal, charity, hardships, and sufferings of the apostles, as they are heirs of their faith! What a difference!
Its ministers preach without having a mission. They are gentlemen, dressed in black, and preaching a moral anodyne which may be thus summed up: "Read the Bible, and do as you think right, always provided you do not become Catholics."
What is their right to teach others? Some of them own that they are nothing but ordinary men, as all Christian men are priests, and according to some, all Christian women also. . . . By what authority do they come and interpret the Word of God to their brethren? Are they infallible? Since all Christian religion is comprised in the reading of the Bible, why do they mix up their human language in the matter?
These men with wives are no longer the men of God, the Church's bridegrooms, the men of devotion, sacrifice, charity, chastity, perfection. . . .
Thus — to sum up — opposed to the express words of Jesus Christ; opposed to the historical tradition of all past ages; opposed to the idea of fixity, unity, perfection, inseparable from the work of a God — the Protestant sects, born, even the oldest, about three hundred years back, the newest composed, altered, augmented, and restored under our own eyes, in this age — are not, and cannot be that one, holy, universal, community, or Church, of the disciples of Jesus Christ, established and constituted nineteen hundred years ago, by the apostles of that Divine Master.
I could yet add other proofs; I might show the absolute impossibility of proving the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the Gospels, without the infallible authority of the Church; I might point out the absurdities which Protestants are obliged to accept when they are logical, and desire to remain true to their principles; the hidden, but consequent connection existing between Protestant principles and the anarchical doctrines of revolutionists, etc. What I have said, however, is quite sufficient.*
To be a Christian, then, it is not enough to believe that Jesus Christ is God, but we must also believe all that He has revealed to us.
Therefore, to be a Christian and a Catholic, is to be one and the same thing.
Therefore, out of the Catholic Church, there is no real Christianity, and as St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, proclaimed seventeen hundred years ago: "None can have God for his Father, who will not have the Church for Mother."
Therefore, a Protestant who knows the true Church, the Roman Catholic Church, governed by the Pope, is obliged to return to it under pain of losing his own soul. In religion, more than in any thing else, we are bound to quit error as soon as we recognize it, and adhere to truth.
Therefore, finally, it is no more true to say, "I may be a Catholic, a Protestant, a Schismatic, without ceasing to be a Christian," than to say, "I may be a Turk, heathen, Jew, or Christian, without ceasing to belong to the true religion."*
TWENTIETH OBJECTION. IT IS BETTER TO BE A PROTESTANT THAN A CATHOLIC; ONE IS JUST AS MUCH A CHRISTIAN, AND IT IS NEARLY THE SAME THING.
Answer. Yes, nearly; just as it is nearly the same thing for one person to say that two and two make four, and for another to say two and two make five; but it is not quite the same thing, as you will see in the result of long banking accounts. As mathematical truths must be exact in principle, and cannot contradict each other, so religious truths, the teachings of divine faith, the conditions of gaining heaven, must be one in principle, and not contradictory. "One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Ephes. iv. 4.)
It is an easy matter for you to learn that there is and can be only one true religion. We have proved that this one true religion is the Catholic religion established by Jesus Christ.
Now, what the Catholic Church affirms, the Protestant denies.
The Catholic has, for his rule of faith, the infallible teaching of the Church. The Protestant rejects the Church, despises Her authority, and acknowledges only the Bible, which he interprets as he can, and as he likes.
The Catholic derives a Christian life from the seven Sacraments of the Church, and maintains it principally by means of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. The Protestant does not recognize those sacraments; he has preserved only baptism, and even of that he has altered the notion.*
The Catholic adores, in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ, who is really present in it. The Protestant sees in it only an empty symbol, a fragment of bread.
The Catholic venerates, invokes, and loves the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, made man. The Protestant shows an invincible indifference to her, which is often pushed even to hatred and scorn.
The Catholic venerates, in the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the head of the faithful, their supreme pastor, and the infallible Doctor of the law of God. The Protestant sees in him only the Antichrist, the vicar of Satan, and the enemy of truth, etc., etc., etc.
Protestantism is to Catholicism what no is to yes, and that too in the fundamental points of religion. But for this discordance, however, they are precisely the same thing, are they?
"It is better," you said, "to be a Protestant than a Catholic." No. For that only is best, or, rather, that only is good, which is true. The rest is worth nothing.
Start, then, from this evident principle. There is no medium between truth and error. That which is not true is false, and that which is not false is true.
In religion, this principle is still more important than in any other matter. There is only one true religion; we have seen this, and it is the religion of Jesus Christ, which embraces all ages, all nations, all men, and which, for this reason, has always been called Catholic or universal.
The Protestant sects are not this one Catholic religion of Jesus Christ; the name itself shows it: protestant; consequently, theirs is not the true religion; it is an error, a protest, a corruption of Christianity. This of itself would be sufficient to condemn Protestantism. But let us examine still further.
Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, is the only Master of Christianity. No one has ever denied it. "I am the way, the truth and the life."
No man has then the right of teaching or preaching this religion, if he is not charged to do so by Jesus Christ. "How shall they preach unless they be sent?" (Rom. x. 15.)
Suppose I were to say to you: "My friend, you are a Christian. The Christian religion teaches you such and such doctrines, imposes upon you such and such duties! Well! I have come to reform all that. Instead of believing, as you have hitherto done, believe what I teach you; I release you from such and such of your duties which are irksome, I permit you to do what your religion forbids," etc.
You would certainly reply: "But who are you, to do that? My religion has but one master, Jesus Christ. Is it he who has sent you? When, and in what manner? Prove to me your divine mission."
Well, when M. Chatel, Michael Vintras, and Company, in our own times, and Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Henry VIII., three hundred years ago, set themselves up as Reformers of the Christian Religion, this objection, suggested by the most ordinary common sense, might have arrested them at the first step.
Many persons have addressed these questions to them; they have never been able to answer them; and the evil passions of humanity have alone caused their new religion to be received.
"The principles of the Reformation are things to be repented of with tears and ashes." This interesting statement comes not from a Catholic, but from a member of the Anglican Church — Lord Halifax.
It is, then, only those whom Jesus Christ has sent, who are entitled to teach His religion. But these envoys of heaven, these doctors, the only lawful doctors of religion, these lawful pastors of Christian nations, who are they? How can they be recognized? By means of two very simple observations.
The first is a great historical fact, so self-evident, that candid Protestants do not even think of denying it, it is this: that the Pope, the actual Bishop of Rome, is the Head of the Catholic Religion, and that he is descended by an uninterrupted succession of Pontiffs from the Apostle Saint Peter; that from all ages Catholic Bishops have been regarded as the successors of the Apostles.
The second, is the explanation of this fact by the mere reading of those passages in the Gospel where our Lord Jesus Christ gives to His Apostles, and to them alone, the sacred mission to preach His religion to all mankind, and chooses among the apostles themselves, Saint Peter, to be the Head of the whole Church, the bond of unity between the pastors and the faithful, the immutable foundation of the living edifice that He should raise up.
What, I ask, can be more clear, more solemn than this pastoral and doctrinal mission of the apostles? "Receive the Holy Ghost," said the Son of God to them; "as My Father has sent Me, so send I you. Go, teach all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Preach the Gospel to all men." "Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of all ages. He who hears you hears Me, and he who despises you despises Me."*
And do not these words also of the Lord to St. Peter, bear their evidence with them?
"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."† By these words, according to the belief of all Christian ages, was St. Peter established by Jesus Christ as Head, immutable foundation-stone, infallible doctor, and pastor of His whole Church and of all His disciples.
It is hardly necessary to argue on these words, so clear and obvious is their meaning.
1. There is a Christian Church, since Jesus Christ said: My Church.
2. There is but one Church; for He does not say: My Churches, but My Church.
3. And among all those Churches which call themselves the one only Church, which is the true, the only true one? That founded on St. Peter, governed by St. Peter, taught by St. Peter, who still lives in his successor; and therefore, the Roman Catholic Church, of which the Pope, St. Peter's successor, is the Pontiff and the Head, is that Church.
What is simpler than this mode of reasoning? It once proved powerful enough to convince a Protestant, to whom I suggested it (and who became a Catholic that very day), it also effected the conversion of a Russian lady, a schismatic.
On the point of ascending to heaven, the Saviour insisted anew, and confirmed what he had given to St. Peter, saying to him: "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep." (St. John, last chapter.)
It is, then, to the Pope and the Bishops, the actual Pastors of the Catholic Church, who alone trace their origin in unbroken succession from St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and to the Apostles, that these great promises of Jesus Christ are addressed; it is to them alone that the mission of teaching, preaching, and preserving religion was given; it is they, and they alone, who are the legitimate pastors of Christian nations. With them, and with them alone, Jesus Christ will be to the end of all ages, to keep them free from all error in their teaching, and from all defect in the sanctification of souls.*
It is, then, by submitting to their authority, and in attending to their teaching, that I am certain of knowing and practicing the true Christian Religion.
And here take notice of the immense advantages of that clear, infallible, divine path of authority, in which the Catholic Church invites us to walk. How easy it is for a Catholic to know, with absolute certainty, what he ought to believe, what he ought to avoid, so as to be a good Christian! He has but to hearken to the priest, sent by his Bishop, who is in communion with the Pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, His visible substitute on earth, by whom He teaches, and by whom He decides in a sovereign manner what we must believe, do and avoid.
How beautiful and how simple is this! Remark, too, what perfect unity flows from this authority! Everywhere the same faith, the same doctrine; in Rome, in Paris, in China, in Asia, Africa, America, everywhere the same real religious teaching, that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ Himself! Everywhere the same Priesthood, of which the Pope is the visible, and Jesus Christ the invisible Head! Everywhere the same sacrifice, the same worship, the same sacraments, the same means of sanctification and of salvation.
This unity is so much the more beautiful and superhuman, that the Christian community governed by the Pope (and it alone) extends all over the earth.
There are Catholics everywhere. Their very name indicates this fact (it was the remark of St. Augustine, fifteen hundred years ago
Catholic means universal. The Catholic Church embraces all ages, all countries, all nations. And the last judgment will be, as our Lord Jesus Christ declared, when the Catholic Church shall have preached the gospel to all the nations of the earth.*Wherever the Catholic Church prevails, she shows forth Christian sanctity. She produces invariably, and in all places, the most sublime perfection in those who receive her teaching with docility. She is the mother of the saints. She has not ceased to give birth to them during nineteen centuries, nor to behold Jesus Christ, her God and Founder, confirming by miracles the sanctity of His servants.†
Protestantism, on the contrary (as the name alone causes us to anticipate), is a disorganization of all this order and harmony, under the pretext of reform. There is revolt in the very name.
Split into a thousand petty sects, who mutually anathematize each other, and who agree only in their common hatred to the ancient Church: Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, Anabaptists, Pedobaptists, Moravians, Evangelicals, Anglicans, Quakers, Pietists, Methodists, Jumpers, Shakers, etc. (there are more than six hundred of these sects), Protestantism is nothing but religious anarchy.
It has attacked Christianity even in its essence and constitution. It has rejected the fundamental rule of faith, which is the infallible teaching and the divine authority of the Pope and the Bishops, the only lawful pastors and doctors. And thus, while talking loudly of faith, it has destroyed faith, that is to say the submission of the mind and heart to divine teaching. The Protestant, in fact, believes only his own interpretation of the Word of God; he makes himself the judge in controversies, in the stead of those whom Jesus Christ instituted as judges; he believes in his reason, not in the word of God, which he reads in the Bible; he has no real belief, he has only opinions, as liable to change as himself, and he no longer believes anything but his own opinions. Thus are there as many religions as there are heads among Protestants. And even every head may alter its religion every day. I know a very respectable Protestant family, consisting of four persons, where each one is of a different religion!!!
For this reason, Protestantism is tossed about with every wind of doctrine, changes every year, every day, the symbol of its faith. It rejects to-day what it taught yesterday; it has neither unity, antiquity, universality, nor stability.
I defy any Protestant to tell me plainly what is truth, and what the world ought to believe, under pain of being considered out of the road of Christian truth.
"You differ," said Tertullian once to Montan, "therefore you err."
Protestantism produces virtues, because it has preserved some vestiges of truth amidst the destruction it made; but these virtues bear the mark of this mixture of truth and error. They are almost always cold and proud, like those of the Pharisees. They exist, in spite of Protestantism. In reality they are Catholic, they belong to the Church. The more Protestants are Protestants, the less have they of real Christian virtues; the nearer they resemble us, the more real and living are their virtues. It has been said with justice of Protestant England, that of all the sects she was "the least deformed, because she was the least reformed."*
Protestantism rejects all that is consoling, tender, and affectionate in religion; the holy presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of His love for us; the tribunal of mercy and pardon, the love and invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that gentle mother of the Saviour whom He gave us for a Mother at the hour of His death; the invocation of the Saints, our elder brethren, our friends, already entered into that land, whither they call us, and where they await our coming, etc.
It has no religious worship, properly so-called, for one could not give that name to that which passes in the great bare room which they call their Church.
Have you ever been into one of these? One might fancy, at first, that these are assemblies filled with the spirit of religion. But only look closer; there is not the real Presence of God, there; His love, above all, is not felt. . . . One remembers that the Pharisees were more regular than the others in frequenting the synagogues!
The fundamental vice of Protestantism is revolt, pride.
It is, besides, sterile in saints. It has never produced one real sister of charity, that is to say, one humble and loving servant of God and of His poor. Its zeal is fanatical, its fervent adherents are visionaries, vague mystics, who believe themselves filled with the Holy Spirit, and to whom this supposed Spirit often reveals very strange things.
Its missionaries are Bible distributers. . . . Only compare them to the apostles, or to our Catholic missionaries, heirs of the zeal, charity, hardships, and sufferings of the apostles, as they are heirs of their faith! What a difference!
Its ministers preach without having a mission. They are gentlemen, dressed in black, and preaching a moral anodyne which may be thus summed up: "Read the Bible, and do as you think right, always provided you do not become Catholics."
What is their right to teach others? Some of them own that they are nothing but ordinary men, as all Christian men are priests, and according to some, all Christian women also. . . . By what authority do they come and interpret the Word of God to their brethren? Are they infallible? Since all Christian religion is comprised in the reading of the Bible, why do they mix up their human language in the matter?
These men with wives are no longer the men of God, the Church's bridegrooms, the men of devotion, sacrifice, charity, chastity, perfection. . . .
Thus — to sum up — opposed to the express words of Jesus Christ; opposed to the historical tradition of all past ages; opposed to the idea of fixity, unity, perfection, inseparable from the work of a God — the Protestant sects, born, even the oldest, about three hundred years back, the newest composed, altered, augmented, and restored under our own eyes, in this age — are not, and cannot be that one, holy, universal, community, or Church, of the disciples of Jesus Christ, established and constituted nineteen hundred years ago, by the apostles of that Divine Master.
I could yet add other proofs; I might show the absolute impossibility of proving the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and especially of the Gospels, without the infallible authority of the Church; I might point out the absurdities which Protestants are obliged to accept when they are logical, and desire to remain true to their principles; the hidden, but consequent connection existing between Protestant principles and the anarchical doctrines of revolutionists, etc. What I have said, however, is quite sufficient.*
To be a Christian, then, it is not enough to believe that Jesus Christ is God, but we must also believe all that He has revealed to us.
Therefore, to be a Christian and a Catholic, is to be one and the same thing.
Therefore, out of the Catholic Church, there is no real Christianity, and as St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, proclaimed seventeen hundred years ago: "None can have God for his Father, who will not have the Church for Mother."
Therefore, a Protestant who knows the true Church, the Roman Catholic Church, governed by the Pope, is obliged to return to it under pain of losing his own soul. In religion, more than in any thing else, we are bound to quit error as soon as we recognize it, and adhere to truth.
Therefore, finally, it is no more true to say, "I may be a Catholic, a Protestant, a Schismatic, without ceasing to be a Christian," than to say, "I may be a Turk, heathen, Jew, or Christian, without ceasing to belong to the true religion."*
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre