|
Misc. |
"Disagree when necessary, but be in
agreement about truth." (St. Columban)
"It
is up to you, while you are leading this life, to have God angry and an
enemy or a friend who is pleased with you." (St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church)
"We
grieve and suffer greatly if any are separated from the truth, and We
desire to assist them." (Pope Pius VII, "Diu Satis", 1800
A.D.) "All
things are possible for him who believes, more to him who hopes,
even more to him who loves." (St. Lawrence of Brindisi,
Doctor of the Church)
"Some may try looking in other places for
that Hope than in the Church of Rome, but they will only find that
they have found a shadow and not the reality." (Perricone) "For
in no way are we able to understand how they can be faithful to us, who
have shown themselves unfaithful to God and disobedient to their
priests." (Emperor Charles the Great, as quoted by Pope Leo XII in
"Quo Graviora")
"Can. 10. If anyone does not confess that
Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was crucified in the flesh is true
God, and Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity, let such a
one be anathema." (Council of Constantinople II, 553 A.D.)
"I will go peaceably and firmly to the
Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I
will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who
received it from God Himself." (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
"[A]lthough you have not yet clung to Him, put there your hope. If you waver, get an anchor into the ground. If you cannot yet cling to His actual presence, hold on to Him in hope." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church, c. 5th century A.D.)
"There is no reason why you should be angry
with us for recalling you from wandering and seeking you when you
were lost, for it is better for us to carry out the will of the
Lord, Who gave us the injunction to compel you to return to His
fold, than to acquiesce in the will of the wandering sheep and
allow you to be lost." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 5th century A.D.)
[Reminder: We may not force others to believe.] "Yet,
'did they but know the gift of God,' did they but realize that
the greatest of all misfortunes is to fall away from the World's
Redeemer and to abandon Christian faith and practice, they would be only
too eager to turn back, and so escape certain destruction." (Pope
Leo XIII, "Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus", 1900 A.D.)
"For if wonderful spiritual forces lie
hidden, like sparks beneath ashes, within the secret recesses of
even the most abandoned man - certain proof that his soul is
naturally Christian - how much the more in the hearts of those
many upon many who have been led into error rather through
ignorance or environment." (Pope Pius XI, "
Quadragesimo Anno", 1931 A.D.)
Error CONDEMNED by Pope St. Pius X in "Lamentabili":
"Opposition can
and actually does exist between facts which are narrated in Sacred
Scripture, and the dogmas of the Church based on these, so that a
critic can reject as false, facts which the Church believes to be
most certain." (Pope St. Pius X, This proposition was
condemned in "Lamentabili", 1907 A.D.) "The Holy Spirit works within so that a
medicine externally applied may be of some value. Otherwise, even
if God Himself, using creatures subject to Him, in some human form
exhort the human senses, whether those of the body or those which
we have very like them in sleep, if He does not rule and guide the
mind by His interior grace, no preaching of the truth will profit
a man." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 420 A.D.)
"Consequently,
the situation of those, who by the heavenly gift of faith have embraced
the Catholic truth, is by no means the same as that of those who, led by
human opinions, follow a false religion; for those who have accepted the
faith under the guidance of the Church can never have any just cause for
changing this faith or for calling it into question." (First
Vatican Council)
"If
anyone says that the condition of the faithful and those who have not
yet attained to the only true faith is alike, so that Catholics may have
a just cause for calling in doubt, by suspending their assent, the faith
which they have already received from the teaching of the church, until
they have completed a scientific demonstration of the credibility and
truth of their faith: let him be anathema." (First Vatican Council) "True religion consists in the service of
the one true God. For it is truth itself that there is one God;
and just as, besides the one truth, there is not other truth, so
too, besides the one true God there is no other true God. For the
one truth itself is naturally one true divinity. And thus one
cannot speak truthfully of two true gods, because it is not
possible for the truth itself, naturally one, to be divided."
(St. Fulgence of Ruspe, 6th century A.D.) "May Faith, without which love and
charity cannot exist, be maintained in all its purity; may...heresy be crushed, and its poisoned cup find neither teachers to
offer it nor disciples to drink it. May the attachment to the doctrines
of the Church be firm and courageous; may no human schemes or theories,
or cowardly toleration of error, enervate the principles of truth and
morals; may the children of light boldly disown fellowship with the
children of darkness." (Dom Gueranger)
"If
a man lowers a rope into a well and pulls someone out who could not
escape by himself, wouldn't it be true that the man in the well didn't
climb out by his own power? And yet he still contributed something of
his own to the process by hanging onto the rope and not letting it get
away. The freedom of the will is like that: It can do nothing without
grace. But when the divine goodness grants grace generously, the free
will of a good man holds fast to it and cooperates with it
properly." (St. Thomas More)
"But, just as the way of charity demands,
let us pour forth continual prayers that all nations everywhere
may be converted to Christ; and let us be devoted to the common
salvation of men in proportion to our strength, 'for the hand of
the Lord is not shortened' (Isa. 9:1) and the gifts of heavenly
grace will not be wanting those who sincerely wish and ask to be
refreshed by this light. Truths of this sort should be deeply
fixed in the minds of the faithful, lest they be corrupted by
false doctrines, whose object is to foster an indifference toward
religion, which we see spreading widely and growing strong for the
destruction of souls." (Pope Pius IX, "Singulari quadem,"
Dec. 9, 1854 A.D.)
"You
are certainly aware, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, that every
kind of impious and deceitful writing, lies, calumny, and blasphemy has
been let loose from hell. No pain has been spared to transfer schools to
non-Catholic teachers and [to places of] non-Catholic
worship. With a multiple of other, surely diabolical treacheries, arts,
and undertakings, the enemies of God employ every effort to destroy
completely - if that were possible - the Catholic Church, seduce and
corrupt the people, especially guileless youth, and uproot our holy
faith and religion from the souls of all." (Pope Pius IX, Quanto
Conficiamur Moerore, 1863)
"They
perhaps seem to be worse than they really are. Their associations with
others, prejudice, the counsel, advice and example of others, and
finally an ill-advised shame have dragged them to the side of the
impious; but their wills are not so depraved as they themselves would
seek to make people believe. Who will prevent us from hoping that the
flame of Christian charity may dispel the darkness from their minds and
bring to them light and the peace of God? It may be that the fruit of
our labors may be slow in coming, but charity wearies not with waiting,
knowing that God prepares His rewards not for the results of toil but
for the good will shown in it." (Pope St. Pius X, "E Supremi",
1903 A.D.)
"If
those about to come back to their most loving Mother [the Church] (not
yet fully known, or culpably abandoned) should perceive that their
return involves, not indeed the shedding of their blood (at which price
nevertheless the Church was bought by Jesus Christ), but some lesser
trouble and labor, let them clearly understand that this burden has been
laid on them not by the will of man but by the will and command of God.
They may thus, by the help of heavenly grace, realize and feel the truth
of the divine saying, 'My yoke is sweet and my burden light' (Matt. xi., 30)." (Pope Leo XIII, "Satis
Cognitum", 1896
A.D.)
"Many
of those who, with minds alienated from the faith, hate Catholic
institutions, claim reason as their sole mistress and guide. Now, We
think that, apart from the supernatural help of God, nothing is better
calculated to heal those minds and to bring them into favor with the
Catholic faith than the solid doctrine of the Fathers and the
Scholastics, who so clearly and forcibly demonstrate the firm
foundations of the faith, its divine origin, its certain truth, the
arguments that sustain it, the benefits it has conferred on the human
race, and its perfect accord with reason, in a manner to satisfy
completely minds open to persuasion, however unwilling and
repugnant." (Pope Leo XIII, "Aeterni Patris", 1879 A.D.)
"Some
there are, indeed, who maintain that it is not opportune boldly to
attack evil-doing in its might and when in the ascendant, lest, as they
say, opposition should exasperate minds already hostile. These make it a
matter of guesswork as to whether they are for the Church or against
her, since on the one hand they give themselves out as professing the
Catholic faith, and yet wish that the Church should allow certain
opinions, at variance with her teaching, to be spread abroad with
impunity. They moan over the loss of faith and the perversion of morals,
yet trouble themselves not to bring any remedy; nay, not seldom, even
add to the intensity of the mischief through too much forbearance or
harmful dissembling." (Pope Leo XIII, "Sapientiae Christianae",
1890 A.D.)
"Hence,
Augustine was by degrees estranged from the Manichean heresy and, urged
as it were by a Divine impulse, was led to Milan to meet Ambrose the
Bishop there. The Lord 'little by little with a touch of tender
pity shaping and moulding his heart,' though the wise words of
Ambrose brought him to believe in the Catholic Church and in the truth
of the Bible. Then it was that the son of Monica, though not yet immune
from anxiety and from the allurements of vice, still grasped firmly the
truth that Divine Providence has set the way of salvation only in Christ
Our Lord and in the Sacred Scriptures, which find the sole warrant of
their truth in the authority of the Catholic Church. Yet how hard and
toilsome is the complete conversion of a man, who has long been straying
from the straight path." (Pope Pius XI, "Ad Salutem",
1930 A.D.)
"And
the Lord too, in the Gospel, when the disciples abandoned Him while He
was speaking, turned to the twelve and said, 'And do you too wish to go
away?' Peter answered Him, saying, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have
the word of eternal life: and we believe and know that you are the Son
of the Living God.' There speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would
be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a
stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey,
yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the
priest and the flock cling to their shepherd are the Church. You ought
to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the
bishop; and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church.
They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the
priests of God, believing that they are secretly in communion with
certain individuals. For the Church, which is One and Catholic, is not
split or divided, but is indeed united and joined by the cement of
priests who adhere to one another." (St. Cyprian of Carthage, 254
A.D.)
"Now the Church has received from her
Divine Spouse the treasures of heavenly grace conveyed mainly
through the channel of the Sacraments. Hence, every loyal son of
that Church, like the good Samaritan, pours oil and wine into the
wounds of the sons of Adam, to free the guilty from sin, to
strengthen the weak and feeble, to mould the lives of the virtuous
nearer to the ideal of holiness. Even granting that some minister
of Christ may at times fail in his duty, does it therefore follow
that the power was rendered helpless and void of efficacy? Let us
listen to the words of the Bishop of Hippo: 'I assert [he writes]
and we all assert, that the ministers of so great a Judge should
be just men. Let the ministers be just, if they will. If, however,
they who sit on the chair of Moses refuse to be just I find my
warrant of security in my Master, of whom His Spirit said: 'He it
is who baptizes.' Would that the words of Augustine had been
accepted formerly and were accepted today by all those who, like
the Donatists, allege the fall of a priest as a reason for rending
the seamless garment of Christ and for unhappily abandoning the
way of salvation!" (Pope Pius XI, "Ad Salutem",
1930 A.D.)
"It
is, then, evident that those whose intellect rejects the yoke of Christ
are obstinately striving against God. Having shaken off God's authority,
they are by no means freer, for they will fall beneath some human sway.
They are sure to choose someone whom they will listen to, obey, and
follow as their guide. Moreover, they withdraw their intellect from the
communication of divine truths, and thus limit it within a narrower
circle of knowledge, so that they are less fitted to succeed in the
pursuit even of natural science. For there are in nature very many
things whose apprehension or explanation is greatly aided by the light
of divine truth. Not infrequently, too, God, in order to chastise their
pride, does not permit men to see the truth, and thus they are punished
in the things wherein they sin. This is why we often see men of great
intellectual power and erudition making the grossest blunders even in
natural science." (Pope Leo XIII, "Tametsi Futura
Prospicientibus", 1900 A.D.)
"O Father of Mercy, look into the face of
your anointed one, who pleads for his bride and our mother, the
holy Church, with a loud voice and tears. See, O my Father, the
bloody sweat, the terrible crown of thorns, the hands and feet
that have been pierced by nails, the wounds of our brother Jesus
Christ: hear, O Father, the sobs of your much beloved Son on the
cross. They have moved the heavens, split the rocks. Should your
mercy remain unmoved? Keep everyone who recognizes you with a
sincere heart within the holy faith, protect everyone from false
prophets who go about in sheep's clothing but are ferocious wolves
on the inside; keep their power away so that their attacks may
fail and they be destroyed. Merciful God, grant to those who
believe in you the grace to love you continually in unity and love,
to follow you loyally unto death, and there to praise and honor
you forever." (St. Clement Maria Hofbauer)
"Consequently
whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the
teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested
in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of
faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose
mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not
scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest
that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible
rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the
things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and
rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching
of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is
evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith,
is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but
if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error.
Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has
no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance
with his own will." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and
"greatest theologian in the history of the Church")
"The
greatest of all misfortunes is never to have known Jesus Christ:
yet such a state is free from the sin of obstinacy and
ingratitude. But first to have known Him, and afterwards to deny
or forget Him, is a crime so foul and so insane that it seems
impossible for any man to be guilty of it. For Christ is the
fountain-head of all good. Mankind can no more be saved without
His power, than it could be redeemed without His mercy. 'Neither
is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under
heaven given to men whereby we must be saved' (Acts iv, 12). What
kind of life that is from which Jesus Christ, 'the power of God
and the wisdom of God,' is excluded; what kind of morality and
what manner of death are its consequences, can be clearly learnt
from the example of nations deprived of the light of Christianity.
If we but recall St. Paul's description (Romans i., 24-32) of the
mental blindness, the natural depravity, the monstrous
superstitions and lusts of such peoples, our minds will be filled
with horror and pity. What we here record is well enough known,
but not sufficiently realized or thought about. Pride would not
mislead, nor indifference enervate, so many minds, if the Divine
mercies were more generally called to mind and if it were
remembered from what an abyss Christ delivered mankind and to what
a height He raised it. The human race, exiled and disinherited,
had for ages been daily hurrying into ruin, involved in the
terrible and numberless ills brought about by the sin of our first
parents, nor was there any human hope of salvation, when Christ
Our Lord came down as the Savior from Heaven." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus", 1900 A.D.)
"But
'if any one preach to you any thing beside that which you have
learnt, let him be anathema:' refuse to put wicked fables before
the clearest truth, and what you may happen to read or hear contrary to
the rule of the Catholic and Apostolic creed, judge it altogether deadly
and diabolical. Be not carried away by their deceitful keepings of sham
and pretended fasts which tend not to the cleansing, but to the
destroying of men's souls. They put on indeed a cloak of piety and
chastity, but under this deceit they conceal the filthiness of their
acts, and from the recesses of their ungodly heart hurl shafts to wound
the simple; that, as the prophet says, 'they may shoot in darkness
at the upright in heart.' A mighty bulwark is a sound faith, a
true faith, to which nothing has to be added or taken away: because
unless it is one, it is no faith, as the Apostle says, 'one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in us all.' Cling to this unity, dearly
beloved, with minds unshaken, and in it 'follow after' all 'holiness,' in it carry out the Lord's commands, because
'without faith it is impossible to please God,' and without
it nothing is holy, nothing is pure, nothing alive: 'for the just
lives by faith,' and he who by the devil's deception loses it,
is dead though living, because as righteousness is gained by faith, so
too by a true faith is eternal life gained, as says our Lord and Savior.
And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. May He make you to advance and
persevere to the end, Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen." (Pope St. Leo the Great, Doctor
of the Church)
"In
defining the limits of the obedience owed to the pastors of souls, but
most of all to the authority of the Roman Pontiff, it must not be
supposed that it is only to be yielded in relation to dogmas of which
the obstinate denial cannot be disjoined from the crime of heresy. Nay,
further, it is not enough sincerely and firmly to assent to doctrines
which, though not defined by any solemn pronouncement of the Church, are
by her proposed to belief, as divinely revealed, in her common and
universal teaching, and which the [First] Vatican Council declared are
to be believed 'with Catholic and divine faith.' But this
likewise must be reckoned amongst the duties of Christians, that they
allow themselves to be ruled and directed by the authority and
leadership of bishops, and, above all, of the apostolic see. And how
fitting it is that this should be so any one can easily perceive. For
the things contained in the divine oracles have reference to God in
part, and in part to man, and to whatever is necessary for the
attainment of his eternal salvation. Now, both these, that is to say,
what we are bound to believe and what we are obliged to do, are laid
down, as we have stated, by the Church using her divine right, and in
the Church by the supreme Pontiff. Wherefore it belongs to the Pope to
judge authoritatively what things the sacred oracles contain, as well as
what doctrines are in harmony, and what in disagreement, with them; and
also, for the same reason, to show forth what things are to be accepted
as right, and what to be rejected as worthless; what it is necessary to
do and what to avoid doing, in order to attain eternal salvation. For,
otherwise, there would be no sure interpreter of the commands of God,
nor would there be any safe guide showing man the way he should
live." (Pope Leo XIII, "Sapientiae Christianae", 1890
A.D.)
"There
are men who, like Satan, have done all in their power to throw
themselves out of the orbit of the divine sun. Rather than acknowledge
that they owe all they have to the most high God, they would sink back
again into nothingness, if they could. To the heavenly treasures which
the common Father opens out to all who own themselves to be His
children, they prefer the pleasure of keeping to natural good things;
for them, so they say, they owe what they get to their own cleverness
and exertions. They are foolish men, not to understand that, do what
they please, they owe everything they have to this their forgotten God.
They are weak, sickly minds, mistaking these vapours of conceit in which
their disordered brain finds delight for principles of which they may be
proud. Their high-mindedness is but ignominy; their independence leads
but to slavery; for, though they refuse to have God as their Father,
they must of necessity have Him as their Master; and thus, not being His
children, they must be His slaves. As slaves, they keep to the vile
food, which they themselves preferred to the pure delights wherewith
Wisdom inebriates them that follow her. As slaves, they have acquired
the right to the scourge and the fetter. They chose to be satisfied with
what they had, and would have neither the throne that was prepared for
them, nor the nuptial robe; let them, if they will, prefer their prison,
and there deck themselves in the finery which moths will soon be making
their food! But, during these short years of theirs they are branding
their bodies with a deeper slavery than ever red-hot iron stamped on
vilest bondsman. All this happens because, with all the empty philosophy
which was their boast, they would not listen to the Christian teaching
that real greatness consists in the truth, and that humility alone leads
to it." (Liturgical Year)
"If we do not believe God, whom then should
be believe?" (St. Ambrose of Milan, Doctor of the Church, c. 389 A.D.)
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