08-31-2026, 06:48 PM
XVI. Protestantism Is Disheartening.
— God is the Maker of both the heart of man and of the Catholic Church; and God has made the Catholic Church wonderfully adapted to all the needs and requirements of the human heart.*
Her doctrinal authority meets our wants for a belief, for without authority there is no faith. The ceremonies of her ritual satisfy our nature, composed as it is of body and soul, and needing to blend material elements to the purely spiritual acts of her adorations. Confession fills the want of penance and mercy — a want felt at the very bottom of the sinful soul. The invocation of saints, the prayers offered for the departed souls, foster the sentiment of eternal union of souls with God and of solidarity of men among themselves — and so on with all the dogmas, all the precepts, and all the practices of the Church.
Protestantism is cold, formal, naked, just like the walls of its temples, wherein only the absence of God is felt.
Oh, the poor soul, estranged or wilful, who, like the prodigal son in the Gospel, quits the father's home to wander over the distant and dismal lands of error! — once out of the bracing atmosphere wherein God had, in his mercy, placed her birth, she breathes only in a frozen blast, and finds naught but void and desolation.
As for him who becomes a Protestant, no hope of control when passion rages, yet great comfort at the moment he repents — no guide when doubt tosses him about, yet a more bountiful pardon after his fall, a more merciful confessor to console him, and to pardon him in the name and with the authority of God. Poor apostate! for him no more the beautiful ceremonies of the Church. The images of our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the saints, become emblems of idolatry! — no more crucifix, no more the sign of the cross: it is idolatry! — no more prayers; no more respect or love for the Mother of God: idolatry! — no more trusting the intercession of saints, patrons in heaven, advocates, protectors near God: idolatry!
And when the hour of death is drawing near — when the unfortunate man is left to himself, about standing before God covered with the sins of his whole life — no priest to administer the last sacraments of the Church, no priest to tell him with all the power of divine authority, "Poor sinner, take courage; thou canst die in peace, because Jesus has given me the power to forgive thee thy sins, and I pardon thee in his name."
Nor is this all. The apostate's body shall not be carried to the Church; it shall be carried straight on to an unblessed place of burial — unblessed, because such benedictions are only idolatry in the eyes of Protestants. Lastly, if his children have turned Protestants like their father, they are forbidden to pray for their father; for, Protestantism admits neither purgatory nor prayers for departed souls: it is all idolatry. No, that dreary worship will not allow a prayer for the poor dead, nor a compassionate visit to their last dwelling-place. Some impotent and unfelt tears when the last sod of earth falls on the coffin, and it is all over between them and ourselves!
As for myself, I must say, this one thought would be ample proof to convince me of the absolute falseness of Protestantism. The want of praying for those whom we have loved and lost, is so deep-felt, so peremptory, so natural to man's heart, that a religion denying its being met, and forbidding its being filled, is condemned in advance.
She only expressed a universal sentiment, that poor little girl of ten years old, when beside the dead body of her mother, she said to me with a wonderful determination: "When I am grown up, and will have become the mistress of my own actions, I'll be a Catholic: I do not wish to be of a creed which forbids me to love the Holy Virgin and to pray for my mother."
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* See "The Functions of the Subjective in Religion," by Very Rev. W. H. Anderdon, D.D., M.A., Oxon., in "The Catholic World," Nov., 1867, pp. 175, etc.
— God is the Maker of both the heart of man and of the Catholic Church; and God has made the Catholic Church wonderfully adapted to all the needs and requirements of the human heart.*
Her doctrinal authority meets our wants for a belief, for without authority there is no faith. The ceremonies of her ritual satisfy our nature, composed as it is of body and soul, and needing to blend material elements to the purely spiritual acts of her adorations. Confession fills the want of penance and mercy — a want felt at the very bottom of the sinful soul. The invocation of saints, the prayers offered for the departed souls, foster the sentiment of eternal union of souls with God and of solidarity of men among themselves — and so on with all the dogmas, all the precepts, and all the practices of the Church.
Protestantism is cold, formal, naked, just like the walls of its temples, wherein only the absence of God is felt.
Oh, the poor soul, estranged or wilful, who, like the prodigal son in the Gospel, quits the father's home to wander over the distant and dismal lands of error! — once out of the bracing atmosphere wherein God had, in his mercy, placed her birth, she breathes only in a frozen blast, and finds naught but void and desolation.
As for him who becomes a Protestant, no hope of control when passion rages, yet great comfort at the moment he repents — no guide when doubt tosses him about, yet a more bountiful pardon after his fall, a more merciful confessor to console him, and to pardon him in the name and with the authority of God. Poor apostate! for him no more the beautiful ceremonies of the Church. The images of our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the saints, become emblems of idolatry! — no more crucifix, no more the sign of the cross: it is idolatry! — no more prayers; no more respect or love for the Mother of God: idolatry! — no more trusting the intercession of saints, patrons in heaven, advocates, protectors near God: idolatry!
And when the hour of death is drawing near — when the unfortunate man is left to himself, about standing before God covered with the sins of his whole life — no priest to administer the last sacraments of the Church, no priest to tell him with all the power of divine authority, "Poor sinner, take courage; thou canst die in peace, because Jesus has given me the power to forgive thee thy sins, and I pardon thee in his name."
Nor is this all. The apostate's body shall not be carried to the Church; it shall be carried straight on to an unblessed place of burial — unblessed, because such benedictions are only idolatry in the eyes of Protestants. Lastly, if his children have turned Protestants like their father, they are forbidden to pray for their father; for, Protestantism admits neither purgatory nor prayers for departed souls: it is all idolatry. No, that dreary worship will not allow a prayer for the poor dead, nor a compassionate visit to their last dwelling-place. Some impotent and unfelt tears when the last sod of earth falls on the coffin, and it is all over between them and ourselves!
As for myself, I must say, this one thought would be ample proof to convince me of the absolute falseness of Protestantism. The want of praying for those whom we have loved and lost, is so deep-felt, so peremptory, so natural to man's heart, that a religion denying its being met, and forbidding its being filled, is condemned in advance.
She only expressed a universal sentiment, that poor little girl of ten years old, when beside the dead body of her mother, she said to me with a wonderful determination: "When I am grown up, and will have become the mistress of my own actions, I'll be a Catholic: I do not wish to be of a creed which forbids me to love the Holy Virgin and to pray for my mother."
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* See "The Functions of the Subjective in Religion," by Very Rev. W. H. Anderdon, D.D., M.A., Oxon., in "The Catholic World," Nov., 1867, pp. 175, etc.
"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