Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1882 — CATHOLIC CREEDS. [ARTICLE]

CATHOLIC CREEDS.

Peculiar Pastoral Letter Issued by the Provincial Council. The Catholic Provincial Council, which met in Cincinnati recently, prepared a lengthy pastoral letter to be read in all the churches. It begins with a review of the progress of religion since the last council, twenty years ago, and congratulates the church on the transition from the mission epoch to a condition of fixity. It then goes on to speak of the necessity of obedience to authority: holds that all men are not equal, and that men ordained to rule as Kings, magistrates, Bishops and priests have rights which subjects do not; laments the disposition to try God before the court of human reason, and says no man has a right to teach falsehood or to change a jot or tittle of the law of God. It is very outspoken on the subject of labor unions. It says a man’s labor is his own, as much as the gold of the rich man, and he has a right to sell as he pleases at a fair price, and, so long as men accede to others the same freedom they claim for themselves, there is no sin in labor banding together for self-protection, but labor unions are liable to fail, and can’t be sustained. When they attempt to force a man to join a union, or to work for a price fixed by a union, Catholics cannot be partners in any attempt to coerce others against their just rights, nor to do injury to the person or property of others. The letter has a long paragraph on the newspapers, in which it specifically denounces what it calls the illegitimate means used by the Irish World in its advocacy of the cause of Ireland, but adds : “ Vie are ready to co-operate with the Bishops of Ireland in any legitimate effort to ameliorate the present unhappy condition of the Irish people.” The letter condemns much of the modern church music, and says the Gregorian Chant is the recognized form. It directs that all music that savors of the sensuous and the profane the theater or the opera, shall be excluded from chcirs, as also all music that attracts the attention of the paople from the altar to the choir. Much is said condemnatory of secret societies, especially such as have’ a religious hierarchy or form of liturgy. Reverting to the subject of authority, the letter says: “It is not Catholic doctrine that all power comes from the people, and that rulers do not exercise authority as their own, but as intrusted to them by the people. The Catholic doctrine is that the grant of power is not given by the people, but they only designate who is to wield it As to the priest the people are commanded to seek the law from his lips, and in all matters of civil life appertaining to faith and morals the priest has the right to speak and the people are required to listen. This doctrine, it is said, may be unpopular with modem liberalism, but that does not prove it untrue.”

"A Pastob’s Resignation” is the heading of a paragraph in an exchange. We thought it might refer to the Christian spirit with which he had received a “surprise party” of parishioners, who came to present him with a gold-headed cane or gilt-edged Bible. We were mistaken—he had merely lost his third wife. —Philadelphia Bulletin. What we charitably forgive will be recompensed as well as what we charitably give.