Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886

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Various. Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886

Encyclical Letter

OF OUR MOST HOLY LORD LEO XIII., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE,

LEO PP XIII

His Eminence John Cardinal McCloskey

ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK, CARDINAL PRIEST OF THE TITLE OF SANCTA MARIA SUPRA MINERVAM

The Pope and the Mikado

Order of the Buried Alive

Harvard College and the Catholic Theory of Education

An Affecting Incident at Sea

Sing, Sing for Christmas

Dead Man's Island

CHAPTER XVII. THE DOOMED NATION

CHAPTER XVIII. THE STORY OF BETTY CUNNINGHAM

Alone

A Midnight Mass

The Hero of Lepanto

Part II

The Church and Progress

Honor to the Germans

Vindication

From the German of Reinick

Tracadie and the Trappists

Gladstone at Emmet's Grave

HOW THE UNMARKED TOMBSTONE OF THE MARTYR LOOKED

Gerald Griffin

Rev. Father Fulton, S. J.,

Private Judgment a Failure

Priests and People Mourning

SLEEP ON

In Memory of Father John O'Brien, C. SS. R

Crown and Crescent

Four Thousand Years

Abolishing Barmaids

Christianity in China

"Faro's Daughters."

Juvenile Department

A CHILD'S DAY

THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY

THE CHRISTMAS STOCKING

THE CHRISTMAS CRIB

CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR THE BOYS

ROBIN REDBREAST

FOOLISH GIRLS

LITTLE QUEEN PET AND HER KINGDOM

Useful Knowledge

The Humorist

DONAHOE'S MAGAZINE

"IT IS FASHIONABLE TO BE IRISH, NOW."

Hon. Hugh O'Brien's Magnificent Record as Mayor of Boston

Mr. P. J. Maguire for Alderman

Death of the Vice-President

Personal

Notices of Recent Publications

MISCELLANEOUS

MUSIC

Obituary

BISHOP

CLERGYMEN

SISTER

LAY PEOPLE

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To all the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic World, in the Grace and Communion of the Apostolic See,

The work of a merciful God, the Church looks essentially, and from the very nature of her being, to the salvation of souls and the winning for them of happiness in heaven, nevertheless, she also secures even in this world, advantages so many and so great that she could not do more, even if she had been founded primarily and specially to secure prosperity in this life which is worked out upon earth. In truth, wherever the Church has set her foot she has at once changed the aspect of affairs, colored the manners of the people as with new virtues and a refinement unknown before—as many people as have accepted this have been distinguished for their gentleness, their justice, and the glory of their deeds. But the accusation is an old one, and not of recent date, that the Church is incompatible with the welfare of the commonwealth, and incapable of contributing to those things, whether useful or ornamental, which, naturally and of its own will, every rightly-constituted State eagerly strives for. We know that on this ground, in the very beginnings of the Church, the Christians, from the same perversity of view, were persecuted and constantly held up to hatred and contempt, so that they were styled the enemies of the Empire. And at that time it was generally popular to attribute to Christianity the responsibility for the evils beneath which the State was beaten down, when in reality, God, the avenger of crimes, was requiring a just punishment from the guilty. The wickedness of this calumny, not without cause, fired the genius and sharpened the pen of Augustine, who, especially in his Civitate Dei, set forth so clearly the efficacy of Christian wisdom, and the way in which it is bound up with well-being of States, that he seems not only to have pleaded the cause of the Christians of his own time, but to have triumphantly refuted these false charges for all time. But this unhappy inclination to complaints and false accusations was not laid to rest, and many have thought well to seek a system of civil life elsewhere than in the doctrines which the Church approves. And now in these latter times a new law, as they call it, has begun to prevail, which they describe as the outcome of a world now fully developed, and born of a growing liberty. But although many hazardous schemes have been propounded by many, it is clear that never has any better method been found for establishing and ruling the State than that which is the natural result of the teaching of the Gospel. We deem it, therefore, of the greatest moment, and especially suitable to our Apostolic function, to compare with Christian doctrine the new opinions concerning the State, by which method we trust that, truth being thus presented, the causes of error and doubt will be removed, so that each may easily see by those supreme commandments for living, what things he ought to follow, and whom he ought to obey.

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But to think with regard to religion, that there is no difference between unlike and contrary forms, clearly will have this issue—an unwillingness to test any one form in theory and practice. And this, if indeed it differs from atheism in name, is in fact the same thing. Men who really believe in the existence of God, if they are to be consistent and not ridiculous, will, of necessity, understand that the different methods of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict, even on the most important points, cannot be all equally probable, equally good, and equally accepted by God. And thus that faculty of thinking whatever you like and expressing whatever you like to think in writing, without any thought of moderation, is not of its own nature, indeed, a good in which human society may rightly rejoice, but, on the contrary, a fount and origin of many ills.

Liberty, in so far as it is a virtue perfecting man, should be occupied with that which is true and that which is good; but the foundation of that which is true and that which is good cannot be changed at the pleasure of man, but remains ever the same, nor indeed is it less unchangeable than nature herself. If the mind assent to false opinions, if the will choose for itself evil, and apply itself thereto, neither attains its perfection, but both fall from their natural dignity, and both lapse by degrees into corruption. Whatever things, therefore, are contrary to virtue and truth, these things it is not right to place in the light before the eyes of men, far less to defend by the favor and tutelage of the laws. A well-spent life is the only path to that heaven whither we all direct our steps; and on this account the State departs from the law and custom of nature if it allows the license of opinions and of deeds to run riot to such a degree as to lead minds astray with impunity from the truth, and hearts from the practice of virtue.

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