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without financial support, without skill in spreading propaganda, for the most part ill-lettered and preaching mysteries, dogmas beyond human understanding, teaching a most austere morality, expecting a crucified Man to be adored as the only true God, and opposed by Jews and Gentiles, Governors and Emperors, and all the human resources at their command, could have established and maintained a spiritual kingdom which has spread throughout the whole world and which today has nearly three hundred million subjects and which is just as zealous, just as dogmatic, teaches just as stern a moral code as it did in the beginning?

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Chapter VII

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST

Many people are of the opinion that one religion is as good as another; that all religions are equally good and that all find favor in the sight of God. Since this opinion is prevalent today in our daily newspapers and maintained by practically all religious sects outside the Catholic Church, it may so happen that some well-intentioned Catholics unconsciously subscribe to it. They know that there are many good Protestants and good Jews and suspect that there are probably many good Mohammedans and good Buddhists, if they think at all, and that many of them are even better behaved and outwardly, at least, are more sincere than some of their Catholic friends. Thus, this popular doctrine that all religions are equally good appears to make sense to them. But is the theory that one religion or church is as good as another sound? If it is, it should be spread throughout the land and made known to every man, woman and child; if it is not, it should be unmasked and thrown aside.

Reason proves that this theory is logically unsound. Those who claim that one religion is as good as another place Christianity on a par with the pagan religions some of which teach polygamy, some permit and encourage concubinage, some slay children in sacrifice, some worship false gods, etc. Thus, those who hold this theory say vice is as good as virtue, idolatry is as good as the true worship of God. The conclusions to which this popular theory leads us are manifestly contradictory. Hence, it is unsound.

Many people holding this theory mean one Christian religion is as good as another; i.e., the

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Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches are equally good. Is this view of the theory true? shall show that this modification of the theory being examined is also untenable.

All these Churches believe that Jesus Christ is God; otherwise they would not be Christian. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Eucharist contains the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament Catholics bend their knees and bow their heads in adoration. Now, this teaching is either true or false. If it is true, those who treat the sacrament as bread are irreverent, profane and sacrilegious; if it is false, 300,000,000 Catholics are idolaters, as are members of the Russian Orthodox Church, Anglicans and Lutherans. Thus, those Christians who say one church is as good as another, say idolatry and blasphemy are pleasing to God.

Of the 256 leading religious denominations in the United States there are no two that agree exactly in teaching and practice. What one holds true, others reject as false; what one considers holy and sacred, others condemn as unworthy and insulting to God. Logically, therefore, those who hold the above theory say falsehood is as good as truth; truth and error are equally to be venerated; the right answer is as good as the wrong one. Obviously, we must give up the theory, since it is false and conclude that there must be only one Church which alone teaches all the truth concerning God, the things of God and our relations with God. That Church must be God's Church.

But what about those good people who are members of different religions? We can say that, if they are not Catholics, they are good in spite of the Church to which they belong. They are good because they have cooperated with certain graces God has given them and because the church to which they belong still retains some of the dogmas and moral

precepts taught by the Catholic Church. This seem like a hard saying, but it is, nevertheless, true. The Catholic Church, as we shall prove, is the Church of God and possesses all the means necessar to sanctify its members. Protestant Churches, as far as they have kept some of the dogmas and devotions of the Church, are capable of doing a little good but not enough to properly satisfy its member This is the reason why so many good Protestants be come Catholics. The best in the Protestant Church enter the Catholic Church and there they are spiri ually and intellectually happy and contended.

We have shown that Jesus Christ is God. W have also shown that one Church is not as good as another; that there can be only one true Church. Obviously, that Church must be the Church of God; the Church founded by Him, protected by Him and giv en by Him all the means necessary to guarantee to its members eternal salvation. It is equally obvid that the only true Church must be that founded by Jesus Christ since He is God. If there is any fact in history that has never been denied, it is that Christ founded a Church. A universal tradition, co stant and unanimous, since the days of the Apostles to our own times, attests the fact of the foundatio by Jesus Christ of an organized authority governing society of human beings who call themselves Christians--Followers of Christ.

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It is easy to prove that Jesus Christ found only one Church and that He intended to found it. the very outset of His public life He chose His Apostles that they might become "fishers of men. Thus He began to organize men to secure the first element any church or society must possess; viz., members. On Pentecost day, the birthday of the Church of Christ, these same chosen disciples drew their first draught of men: "They therefore that r ceived his words were baptized; and there were adde in that day about three thousand souls. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles,

and in the communication of the breaking of bread and in prayer. (Acts. 11, 41-42).

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These chosen disciples, His Apostles, were to constitute the second element of His Church, an element every organized society of men must possess; viz., authority. Every group of men determined to attain some objective naturally chooses a leader, one whom they promise to obey implicitly and in whom they place their entire confidence. So, too, did Christ. To Peter He said; "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church. It was to Peter He gave the power to lead His Church; he alone possessed supreme power in the newly formed society. "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Under Peter He placed His other Apostles to whom He granted some authority in governing His Church. "All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, then, teach.... All that you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. (Matt. xviii, 18). "He who hears you hears Me, He who despises you, despises Me. "If he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican." (Matt. xviii, 17).

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He founded His Church for only one purpose, with one end in view--(the third element a true society must possess)--the salvation of souls. It was for this reason "It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that penance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke, xxiv, 46-47).

Finally, He gave His Church the fourth element it needed; the means to attain its end, the eternal salvation of its members. These means are; First, Prayer, "Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name,

etc." (Matt. vi, 9-15); Secondly, The Seven Sacraments, (1) Baptism, necessary to salvation, (John iii, 5); and ordained by Christ, (Matt. xxviii,19); (2) Confirmation, (Acts viii, 15-17) (2 Cor. 1, 21-22);

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