07-24-2026, 06:45 AM
XXII. How Protestant Propagandism is neither Legitimate nor Logical.
When the Catholic Church, through her Bishops and Priests, points Protestant propagandism to Christians as an unjust and hateful aggression, non-Catholic journals, and the organs of revolution and rationalism bristle up and bitterly denounce the Church as having two weights and two measures, by despotically forbidding to others what she has not ceased to practise from her beginning. Such recriminations deserve an answer; and it is very simple.
All Protestant sects acknowledge that salvation can be attained in the Catholic Church. On the other hand, the Catholic Church has unceasingly protested that she is the only true Church, and that it is necessary to belong to her in order to be a child of God.
Protestants, therefore, are in open contradiction with their principles when they endeavor to wrest souls from the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church would act in flagrant opposition to her own principles, were she not to exert her whole power and energy in bringing back to Jesus Christ those who have unfortunately been led out of her fold.
The Catholic Church, in her efforts to enlighten a Protestant and to bring him back to the true faith, preserves to him the possession of all the truth he possesses, and bestows upon him all that in which he is found wanting. It is a poor man, only half dressed, that she is endeavoring to clothe; what she adds to the little he already possesses makes a perfect Christian.
But not so when the Protestant propagandist succeeds in seducing a Catholic. It only ends by taking away from him a part of his belief and giving him nothing at all in return. He leaves him half naked, like the unfortunate traveller whom the highwayman robs of his garments, under the heartless pretence of freeing him of all unnecessary incumbrance, and without bestowing on him so much as one rag for protection against cold.
However, it is acknowledged even by Protestants, that in point of religious truths, they cannot bestow on Catholics aught, that the latter do not already possess; and still farther, they aver that whatever they preserve of Christianity, it is all borrowed of the Catholic Church.
It is worth while to hear Luther, the ardent patriarch of the Reformation, on this subject. At the meeting of Marburg, when the famous dispute between Luther and Zwinglius took place, the former maintaining the dogma of the Holy Eucharist against all adversaries, Zwinglius objected to the dogma of the Real Presence as a remnant of Popery.
"Well, then," quoth Luther, "reject also the holy Bible, because it is from the Pope we have received it. We are forced to acknowledge, Protestants as we are, that in Popery there are truths of salvation, yes, all the truths of salvation, and that we receive them from Popery; for it is in Popery that we find the true Holy Scriptures, true Baptism, the true Sacrament of the altar, the true keys which pardon sin, true preaching, true catechism, the true articles of faith; and, moreover, I say, that in Popery true Christianity is to be found."*
To acknowledge that the Catholic Church is the true Christianity necessarily involves the consequence that the Protestant sects have not the true Christianity, because the Church affirms all that the sects deny. But at the same time we must conclude, as a self-evident truth, that propagandism becomes a duty on the part of the Church, while on the part of Protestants it is merely nonsense, injustice, and an usurpation.
XXIII. A Convenient Religion. — It is more convenient, they say, to be a Protestant, than a Catholic; and true it is, — just as true as it is a great deal easier to yield to one's passions than to restrain them. But the difference is that in point of religion we must not look for that which is the easiest, but for that which is true, and will lead to God.
A certain parson once gained over to his sect a good woman, who had allowed herself to be influenced by his assertions. She was very assiduous at the meeting-house; most regularly did she take her little siesta during the sermon on Sunday, took great care of the ponderous Bible she had received, and never opened it, lest she should spoil it, — in a word, she gave evident proofs that she had become a good Protestant. Her religious fervor urged her also to become a member of the famous Protestant Pence, and of two or three Bible societies.
The good woman spent several years in this easy piety, and she congratulated herself every day on her good luck of enjoying such sweet life, which her pastor assured her was the pure Gospel, free from the unpleasant duty of going to confession on the recurrence of great festivals, receiving communion with certain very particular preparations, abstaining on Fridays, and of being obedient to her parish priest. In the midst of all this evangelical happiness, which was enhanced by the little presents and various tracts she received from the minister and some deaconess, the poor creature was all at once taken down by sickness. A reader was appointed to visit her, and read psalms and other passages, of which she understood very little; in fact, no more than the zealous reader himself. She grew worse, and her physician let out expressions which were very far from warranting her recovery. In the presence of death, and at the approach of the judgment of God, the poor woman shuddered, and seriously thought of her chances. In that light which does not deceive, she began to feel that she had gone astray from the Faith. She begged of a neighbor to bring to her, without delay, the priest of the parish, a good and worthy clergyman whom she had known long ago, and whom her apostasy had grieved to the heart. He found her in tears, consoled her as well as he could, and made her both aware of the enormity of her sin, and confident in the infinite mercy of God. She made her confession, and was reconciled with our Saviour. Then he administered to her Extreme Unction, the Sacrament that brings so much comfort to the dying, which she had lately been taught to laugh at, but the importance and efficacy whereof she at this moment understood well. Lastly, he carried to her the holy Viaticum, that most holy and most adorable mystery, within which Jesus Christ veils himself, in order that we may approach, and he may fortify us at the end of our journey. Having made her peace with God and with her soul, the poor woman felt happy, and already looked without fear to the moment of her entering into eternity.
On the evening of the same day, the Protestant minister calls on the sick woman. He had just heard of the priest's visit, and he could not believe what he called "a scandalous defection, a shame to the pure Gospel, a falling back upon the superstitions of Babylon." In fact, what vexed him most was the talk of the neighborhood, as inferences would be made in disparagement of the pure Gospel, and hurtful to the susceptibilities of the reverend pastor. Accordingly he expostulated in strong terms with the sick woman, reminding her of the courage with which she had before rejected "all such mummeries," and those errors which she ought to have never again adopted. "Ah! sir," replied the good woman, "all this was very good when I was well; your religion is a very easy one to live in, but very hard to die in!" (C'est bien commode pour vivre, mais c'est le diable pour mourir!)
She felt, the brave woman, that with that simple expression she had placed her finger on the sore spot of Protestantism.
Now, a system of religion, which only aims at being easy in practice, and discards whatever may prove irksome in the service of God, cannot be the true religion, — the religion that leads to heaven. Protestantism is very convenient to live in; hence it is so horrible to die in it. Protestantism is easy, and hence it is false, — it is not the religion of him who said: "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life!" from which words we have to conclude that we must then struggle to enter that gate and to strike upon that way.
Protestantism, a pretended Christianity, without obedience to faith, without obedience to the authority of the Church, without confession, without eucharist, without sacrifice, without works of penance, without practices of obligation, is condemned by that Gospel whose name it so often usurps; and is it not condemned by Jesus Christ, when the divine Master adds those terrible words: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction"?
XXIV. A Touchstone. — It is easy to distinguish the true religion from those which are pretentious of being called true.
Our Lord has solemnly declared that his disciples shall be hated by the wicked as he had been hated himself: "The disciple is not above his Master; if the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you." (John xv. 18.)
Now, history teaches us that from the days of the apostles, the hatred and the efforts of the impious have always been combined against the Catholic Church. Jews, and Pagans, and Turks, and the wicked of all ages, and of our own times, have always taken for the butt, and the only butt of their attacks, the Catholic Church, — the Catholic Church alone. During the French Revolution brigands have always aimed their first blows at her: they imprisoned and butchered her bishops and priests, and at the same time they left Jewish rabbis and Protestant ministers alone. Read the bloody proclamations of our modern revolutionists. Only the Catholic Church awakens all their fury. Nor do they only abstain from annoying Protestantism, but they moreover exalt it as highly favorable to their anti-Christian views.
This coalition of the wicked against the Catholic Church is already an evident realization of the prophecy of our Lord. An additional proof has been afforded by the heretical sects, and above all, the Protestant ones. Separated from one another, opposed to each other in views and interests, condemning one another, they will uniformly act in a most harmonious alliance when there is question of injuring or attacking St. Peter's old Church. In the face of this common enemy, they become one, and they blaspheme in unison.
Herod and Pilate, whilom enemies, became united to crucify Jesus. Heresy and impiety, separated as they may be, become united for the purpose of outraging, scourging, and annoying the holy Church of Christ.
However, if the Church, catholic, apostolic, and Roman, must needs, in imitation of her founder, endure her own passion, and thus complete that of her Chief, she possesses equally with him the promises of life eternal. Ever hated, ever blasphemed, she lives, and will live forever. Jesus is with her, unto the end of the world, and to her alone he has said: "The powers of hell shall not prevail against thee."
When the Catholic Church, through her Bishops and Priests, points Protestant propagandism to Christians as an unjust and hateful aggression, non-Catholic journals, and the organs of revolution and rationalism bristle up and bitterly denounce the Church as having two weights and two measures, by despotically forbidding to others what she has not ceased to practise from her beginning. Such recriminations deserve an answer; and it is very simple.
All Protestant sects acknowledge that salvation can be attained in the Catholic Church. On the other hand, the Catholic Church has unceasingly protested that she is the only true Church, and that it is necessary to belong to her in order to be a child of God.
Protestants, therefore, are in open contradiction with their principles when they endeavor to wrest souls from the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church would act in flagrant opposition to her own principles, were she not to exert her whole power and energy in bringing back to Jesus Christ those who have unfortunately been led out of her fold.
The Catholic Church, in her efforts to enlighten a Protestant and to bring him back to the true faith, preserves to him the possession of all the truth he possesses, and bestows upon him all that in which he is found wanting. It is a poor man, only half dressed, that she is endeavoring to clothe; what she adds to the little he already possesses makes a perfect Christian.
But not so when the Protestant propagandist succeeds in seducing a Catholic. It only ends by taking away from him a part of his belief and giving him nothing at all in return. He leaves him half naked, like the unfortunate traveller whom the highwayman robs of his garments, under the heartless pretence of freeing him of all unnecessary incumbrance, and without bestowing on him so much as one rag for protection against cold.
However, it is acknowledged even by Protestants, that in point of religious truths, they cannot bestow on Catholics aught, that the latter do not already possess; and still farther, they aver that whatever they preserve of Christianity, it is all borrowed of the Catholic Church.
It is worth while to hear Luther, the ardent patriarch of the Reformation, on this subject. At the meeting of Marburg, when the famous dispute between Luther and Zwinglius took place, the former maintaining the dogma of the Holy Eucharist against all adversaries, Zwinglius objected to the dogma of the Real Presence as a remnant of Popery.
"Well, then," quoth Luther, "reject also the holy Bible, because it is from the Pope we have received it. We are forced to acknowledge, Protestants as we are, that in Popery there are truths of salvation, yes, all the truths of salvation, and that we receive them from Popery; for it is in Popery that we find the true Holy Scriptures, true Baptism, the true Sacrament of the altar, the true keys which pardon sin, true preaching, true catechism, the true articles of faith; and, moreover, I say, that in Popery true Christianity is to be found."*
To acknowledge that the Catholic Church is the true Christianity necessarily involves the consequence that the Protestant sects have not the true Christianity, because the Church affirms all that the sects deny. But at the same time we must conclude, as a self-evident truth, that propagandism becomes a duty on the part of the Church, while on the part of Protestants it is merely nonsense, injustice, and an usurpation.
XXIII. A Convenient Religion. — It is more convenient, they say, to be a Protestant, than a Catholic; and true it is, — just as true as it is a great deal easier to yield to one's passions than to restrain them. But the difference is that in point of religion we must not look for that which is the easiest, but for that which is true, and will lead to God.
A certain parson once gained over to his sect a good woman, who had allowed herself to be influenced by his assertions. She was very assiduous at the meeting-house; most regularly did she take her little siesta during the sermon on Sunday, took great care of the ponderous Bible she had received, and never opened it, lest she should spoil it, — in a word, she gave evident proofs that she had become a good Protestant. Her religious fervor urged her also to become a member of the famous Protestant Pence, and of two or three Bible societies.
The good woman spent several years in this easy piety, and she congratulated herself every day on her good luck of enjoying such sweet life, which her pastor assured her was the pure Gospel, free from the unpleasant duty of going to confession on the recurrence of great festivals, receiving communion with certain very particular preparations, abstaining on Fridays, and of being obedient to her parish priest. In the midst of all this evangelical happiness, which was enhanced by the little presents and various tracts she received from the minister and some deaconess, the poor creature was all at once taken down by sickness. A reader was appointed to visit her, and read psalms and other passages, of which she understood very little; in fact, no more than the zealous reader himself. She grew worse, and her physician let out expressions which were very far from warranting her recovery. In the presence of death, and at the approach of the judgment of God, the poor woman shuddered, and seriously thought of her chances. In that light which does not deceive, she began to feel that she had gone astray from the Faith. She begged of a neighbor to bring to her, without delay, the priest of the parish, a good and worthy clergyman whom she had known long ago, and whom her apostasy had grieved to the heart. He found her in tears, consoled her as well as he could, and made her both aware of the enormity of her sin, and confident in the infinite mercy of God. She made her confession, and was reconciled with our Saviour. Then he administered to her Extreme Unction, the Sacrament that brings so much comfort to the dying, which she had lately been taught to laugh at, but the importance and efficacy whereof she at this moment understood well. Lastly, he carried to her the holy Viaticum, that most holy and most adorable mystery, within which Jesus Christ veils himself, in order that we may approach, and he may fortify us at the end of our journey. Having made her peace with God and with her soul, the poor woman felt happy, and already looked without fear to the moment of her entering into eternity.
On the evening of the same day, the Protestant minister calls on the sick woman. He had just heard of the priest's visit, and he could not believe what he called "a scandalous defection, a shame to the pure Gospel, a falling back upon the superstitions of Babylon." In fact, what vexed him most was the talk of the neighborhood, as inferences would be made in disparagement of the pure Gospel, and hurtful to the susceptibilities of the reverend pastor. Accordingly he expostulated in strong terms with the sick woman, reminding her of the courage with which she had before rejected "all such mummeries," and those errors which she ought to have never again adopted. "Ah! sir," replied the good woman, "all this was very good when I was well; your religion is a very easy one to live in, but very hard to die in!" (C'est bien commode pour vivre, mais c'est le diable pour mourir!)
She felt, the brave woman, that with that simple expression she had placed her finger on the sore spot of Protestantism.
Now, a system of religion, which only aims at being easy in practice, and discards whatever may prove irksome in the service of God, cannot be the true religion, — the religion that leads to heaven. Protestantism is very convenient to live in; hence it is so horrible to die in it. Protestantism is easy, and hence it is false, — it is not the religion of him who said: "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life!" from which words we have to conclude that we must then struggle to enter that gate and to strike upon that way.
Protestantism, a pretended Christianity, without obedience to faith, without obedience to the authority of the Church, without confession, without eucharist, without sacrifice, without works of penance, without practices of obligation, is condemned by that Gospel whose name it so often usurps; and is it not condemned by Jesus Christ, when the divine Master adds those terrible words: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction"?
XXIV. A Touchstone. — It is easy to distinguish the true religion from those which are pretentious of being called true.
Our Lord has solemnly declared that his disciples shall be hated by the wicked as he had been hated himself: "The disciple is not above his Master; if the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you." (John xv. 18.)
Now, history teaches us that from the days of the apostles, the hatred and the efforts of the impious have always been combined against the Catholic Church. Jews, and Pagans, and Turks, and the wicked of all ages, and of our own times, have always taken for the butt, and the only butt of their attacks, the Catholic Church, — the Catholic Church alone. During the French Revolution brigands have always aimed their first blows at her: they imprisoned and butchered her bishops and priests, and at the same time they left Jewish rabbis and Protestant ministers alone. Read the bloody proclamations of our modern revolutionists. Only the Catholic Church awakens all their fury. Nor do they only abstain from annoying Protestantism, but they moreover exalt it as highly favorable to their anti-Christian views.
This coalition of the wicked against the Catholic Church is already an evident realization of the prophecy of our Lord. An additional proof has been afforded by the heretical sects, and above all, the Protestant ones. Separated from one another, opposed to each other in views and interests, condemning one another, they will uniformly act in a most harmonious alliance when there is question of injuring or attacking St. Peter's old Church. In the face of this common enemy, they become one, and they blaspheme in unison.
Herod and Pilate, whilom enemies, became united to crucify Jesus. Heresy and impiety, separated as they may be, become united for the purpose of outraging, scourging, and annoying the holy Church of Christ.
However, if the Church, catholic, apostolic, and Roman, must needs, in imitation of her founder, endure her own passion, and thus complete that of her Chief, she possesses equally with him the promises of life eternal. Ever hated, ever blasphemed, she lives, and will live forever. Jesus is with her, unto the end of the world, and to her alone he has said: "The powers of hell shall not prevail against thee."
"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