The Faith of Our Fathers. Gibbons James
is spoken, there you will find the English-speaking Catholic Missionary planting the cross—the [pg 036] symbol of salvation—side by side with the banner of St. George.
Quite recently a number of European emigrants arrived in Richmond. They were strangers to our country, to our customs and to our language. Every object that met their eye sadly reminded them that they were far from their own sunny Italy. But when they saw the cross surmounting our Cathedral they hastened to it with a joyful step. I saw and heard a group of them giving earnest expression to their deep emotions. Entering this sacred temple, they felt that they had found an oasis in the desert. Once more they were at home. They found one familiar spot in a strange land. They stood in the church of their fathers, in the home of their childhood; and they seemed to say in their hearts, as a tear trickled down their sun-burnt cheeks, “How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.”69 They saw around them the paintings of familiar Saints whom they had been accustomed to reverence from their youth. They saw the baptismal font and the confessionals. They beheld the altar and the altar-rails where they received their Maker. They observed the Priest at the altar in his sacred vestments. They saw a multitude of worshipers kneeling around them, and they felt in their heart of hearts that they were once more among brothers and sisters, with whom they had “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
Everywhere a Catholic is at home. Secret societies, of whatever name, form but a weak and counterfeit bond of union compared with the [pg 037] genuine fellowship created by Catholic faith, hope and charity.
The Roman Catholic Church, then, exclusively merits the title of Catholic, because her children abound in every part of the globe and comprise the vast majority of the Christian family.
God forbid that I should write these lines, or that my Catholic readers should peruse them in a boasting and vaunting spirit. God estimates men not by their numbers, but by their intrinsic worth. It is no credit to us to belong to the body of the Church Catholic if we are not united to the soul of the Church by a life of faith, hope and charity. It will avail us nothing to be citizens of that Kingdom of Christ which encircles the globe, unless the Kingdom of God is within us by the reign of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
One righteous soul that reflects the beauty and perfections of the Lord, is more precious in His sight than the mass of humanity that has no spiritual life, and is dead to the inspirations of grace.
The Patriarch Abraham was dearer to Jehovah than all the inhabitants of the corrupt city of Sodom.
Elias was of greater worth before the Almighty than the four hundred prophets of Baal who ate at the table of Jezabel.
The Apostles with the little band of disciples that were assembled in Jerusalem after our Lord's ascension, were more esteemed by Him than the great Roman Empire, which was seated in darkness and the shadow of death.
While we rejoice, then, in the inestimable blessing of being incorporated in the visible body of the Catholic Church, whose spiritual treasures are inexhaustible, let us rejoice still more that we have not received that blessing in vain.
[pg 038]
Chapter V.
Apostolicity.
The true Church must be Apostolical. Hence in the Creed framed in the first Ecumenical Council of Nicæa, in the year 325, we find these words: “I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
This attribute or note of the Church implies that the true Church must always teach the identical doctrines once delivered by the Apostles, and that her ministers must derive their powers from the Apostles by an uninterrupted succession.
Consequently, no church can claim to be the true one whose doctrines differ from those of the Apostles, or whose ministers are unable to trace, by an unbroken chain, their authority to an Apostolic source; just as our Minister to England can exercise no authority in that country unless he is duly commissioned by our Government and represents its views.
The Church, says St. Paul, is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles,”70 so that the doctrine which it propagates must be based on Apostolic teachings. Hence St. Paul says to the Galatians: “Though an angel from heaven preach a Gospel to you beside that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.”71 The same Apostle gives this admonition to Timothy: “The things [pg 039] which thou hast heard from me before many witnesses the same commend to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also.”72 Timothy must transmit to his disciples only such doctrines as he heard from the lips of his Master.
Not only is it required that ministers of the Gospel should conform their teaching to the doctrine of the Apostles, but also that these ministers should be ordained and commissioned by the Apostles or their legitimate successors. “Neither doth any man,” says the Apostle, “take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.”73 This text evidently condemns all self-constituted preachers and reformers; for, “how shall they preach, unless they be sent?”74 Sent, of course, by legitimate authority, and not directed by their own caprice. Hence, we find that those who succeeded the Apostles were ordained and commissioned by them to preach, and that no others were permitted to exercise this function. Thus we are told that Paul and Barnabas “had ordained for them priests in every church.”75 And the Apostle says to Titus: “For this cause I left thee in Crete, … that thou shouldst ordain Priests in every city, as I also appointed thee.”76 Even St. Paul himself, though miraculously called and instructed by God, had hands imposed on him,77 lest others should be tempted by his example to preach without Apostolic warrant.
To discover, therefore, the Church of Christ among the various conflicting claimants we have to inquire, first, which church teaches whole and entire those doctrines that were taught by the Apostles; second, what ministers can trace back, [pg 040] in an unbroken line, their missionary powers to the Apostles.
The Catholic Church alone teaches doctrines which are in all respects identical with those of the first teachers of the Gospel. The following parallel lines exhibit some examples of the departure of the Protestant bodies from the primitive teachings of Christianity, and the faithful adhesion of the Catholic Church to them.
| Apostolic Church. | Catholic Church. | Protestant Churches. |
| 1. Our Savior gives pre-eminence to Peter over the other Apostles: “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”78 “Confirm thy brethren.”79 “Feed My lambs; feed My sheep.”80 | The Catholic Church gives the primacy of honor and jurisdiction to Peter and to his successors. | All other Christian communions practically deny Peter's supremacy over the other Apostles. |
| 2. The Apostolic Church claimed to be infallible in her teachings. Hence the Apostles spoke with unerring authority, and their words were received not as human opinions, but as Divine truths. “When you have received from us the word of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God.”81 “It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us,” say the assembled Apostles, “to lay no further burden upon you than these necessary things.”82 “Though an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.”83 |
The Catholic Church alone, |