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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. . .
Roman Catholics have always been able to
appeal to the traditions of our Holy Mother the Church. But the
Protestants have nothing to appeal to. How can they pretend to appeal to
Church tradition when they have cut themselves off from the mainstream of
it, and any exposition of it must needs be a raking up of old dead
documents, instead of obedience to a living voice? And how can we
pretend to appeal to the Bible, when the Bible is for every man's private
interpretation, and not expounded by authority?
* * *
LEAVING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
We can only abandon the Catholic Church
for some spiritual home which is more of a home than the Catholic Church. .
. Where are we to find such a revelation, such a spiritual home, such
sources of inspiration? Nowhere; there is no other system in the world
which dares even to claim what the Catholic Church claims. Are we to
abandon the Catholic Faith for something less than the Catholic Faith?
Blessed John Cardinal Newman
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APOSTASY
People do leave the Catholic Church.
With other Christian sects, the line of division is perhaps not so clearly
marked, that is why they may have differences that are not discernible.
But the Catholic Church has sharp edges. Go a little astray and you are out.
The news of such defection, even when
there were circumstances to explain it is, confess it, a tiny blow to our
faith; a gentle tap to test the stability of our own spiritual foundations.
Another's apostasy has cast a chill of loneliness over us.
Blessed John Cardinal Newman
(10-19-10)
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