THE CLAIM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, 10 July 1919, Page 23

THE CLAIM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

On the Feast ,of Pentecost, at the Solemn High Mass at. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, the occasional sermon was preached by the Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. r Mannix, who said that anyone who reads his Bible intelligently, and without suggestion or prejudice, will find it very hard to reconcile the inspired text with the ideas which prevail outside the Catholic fold. To many, perhaps to the majority, Christ is a mere man—a very perfect man no doubt, but still a man like themselves. Like them, He had His limitations, they think His knowledge, remarkable in His own day, needs to be brought up to date; His doctrines require revision in order to find believers in these advanced times ; the human intellect has outgrown the creed of Christ and His Apostles ; the divided sects are none of them right, but in the clash of their shiftingopinions the wise man of the world is getting rid of the worn-out religious dogmas, and is rising to things higher and purer; there is no teaching’authority anywhere to settle anything definitely; it may be unsatisfactory, but there is nothing better to offer those who worry themselves about religion than to grope and stumble amid the ruins of human speculation. Such finality as there is can be found only by an appeal to Parliament, or to the Privy Council, or some such secular tribunal. That is the world’s conception of things. There is nothing of this chaos in the Scripture records. Christ stands out a Divine Person, whose word or power or knowledge is beyond question. He teaches with authority, and His own authority He hands down to His Apostles and their successors in the ministry. They were not to receive their commission from Kings or Emperors, and. they were not to look for guidance to Parliaments or to Ministries. ‘ Christ Himself was their only Master in the things of the soul. They were to speak with His voice, and He promised to be with them, by : His'guidance, all days. When He left them to ascend into Heaven, He sent them the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, “to abide with them for ever,” to teach them “all truth.” The Catholic Church has this distinction among all those that call themselves Christian, that she alone claims to teach with infallible authority; that she' alone claims ■to speak ' under the unerring guidance of the Holy Ghost, and with the Divine authority- of Jesus Christ. That lofty claim is no doubt,- rejected by those outside her fold. But, to anyone who 5 accepts the Bible as the Word of God, the very fact that the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church : alone, ■ makes that claim to be an unerring teacher should be a proof that the Catholic Church, and no other, is the Church which is founded by Christ, and which is the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit.