Conversations of a Catholic missionary with Americans

Preface

Why a new book on religious questions ? Because errors, if not new, assume new forms in different climes and ao;es. The substance of modern heresies is foimd in old times, as also the substance of our best arguments to vindicate truth ; but whilst the devil shapes out old errors, in a thousand forms, to pervert immortal souls, w^e must not be outwitted by the spirit of lie^, but expose and confute its w^'etched sophistry.

Very little experience is required to be convinced that the best books vv^ritten in the old world, are not exactly what is needed in the new. As skilful mechanics select tools and methods which are best adapted to their use on this side of the ocean, so have I selected, from different authors, v/hat I think best calculated to remove American prejudices, and the best ansvv^ers to popular objections. It is not Vvithout fear that I publish this little work, not indeed because I apprehend to have it criticised, but because I am convinced that a religious book, to be useful, must possess a high degree of perfection. "It not unfrequently comes to pass," says the learned Moshler, "that treatises, which v/ould '• even perhaps merit the epithet of ingenious, tend "only to render the nge more superficial, and to cause "'the most important question that can engage the

IV PREFACE.

^'hiinifin mmd and heart, to be fiivoloiisly oveilooked. '- Such sorts of writings are entitled : Considerations^ '•while, in truth nothing objective was, at all, consider- '• ed but mere phantoms of the brain that j)assed before '•the writer." (Symbol, pref p. xii.) With a desire to be useful, particularly to Americans, I have endeavored to be concise, clear and polite. Controversy often leads to verbosity, ambiguity and uncharitableness. Far it be from me to j^alliate truth in order to please either friends or foes, but the purest zeal is always prudent and proceeds from divine love. A hostile opposition between parties is not zeal but fanaticism. '^Let those treat you harshly," says St. Augustin, '*'who '• know not how hard it is to get rid of old prejudices." (c. Ep. Fund. c. i.) If pamphlets, which advocate error, are tmged with bitterness and gall, we are not to wonder at it, for bad trees cannot produce good fruits ; but truth, which comes from God, is always bright vrith the heavenly rays of charity. The best books on religion may be ranked as models of chTistian meekness. This little work will be welcome, I hope, by Catholics, for Catholics, who are well instructed, behold with pleasure the reasons which are the grounds of tliei^* faith, as landlords love to behold the titles uj^on which their rights are founded. " Ordinarily," says Bossuet, '' Catholics neglect too much books of controversy. " Relying on the authority of the church, they are not '' anxious to derive instructions from books where their " fiuth is vindicated, and ^\here they could find means '• to bring back to the fold those who are separated from

PKEFACE.

''us by errors. It was not so daring the Mrst ages of " the church. Polemical treatises, written by the holy " fathers, were eagerly sought for by the faithful. Con- "versation being one of the means which the holy " ghost wishes us to employ to attract unbelievers and " disabuse the erring, every one endeavored, by such '' reading, to render his own useful and edifying. Truth '' instilled itself by means so sweet, and conversation " attracted those who might have been imbittered by a '^ formal debate ; but in order that our polemical works " may be read, as those of the fathers, let us endeavor, ''as the fathers, to fill them not only with a sound " orthodox doctrine, but moreover with piety and " charity, and as much as possible, let us avoid the " dryness, not to say the bitterness, which is too often " found in such books." (Confer, with Claude, Advertisment.)

The title page of this work indicates the plan and means v/hich I have deemed the most natural and the most effectual to lead from rank infidelity to Catholic faith. We call infidels or unbelievers those who deny the revelations of God and the divine mission of Jesus Christ. The worst of all infidels are scoffers who despise every form of religion. Next to them are those v/ho pretend to respect every form of religion, but, in reality, are indifferent to religious truth ; some are not ashamed to deny God, and are called Atheists ; some deny the spirituality and immortality of the soul, and are called Materialists ; some deny the free-will of man, thereby destroying the distinction between good and 1*

VI PliEFACE.

evil, and ure called Fatalists ; the most nuineroiis class of infidels are Deists : tliey admit the existence of Gcd and a natm-al religion, but they reject the necessity and the reality of a divine revelation. Universalists, Unitarians, Socinians, Spritualists, Mormons are disguised unbelivers. There are many other free thinkers who are on the road which lead to infidelity, tliough not formally infidels. It is my task, in tliis vrork, to attack each of those forms of unbelief.

C ON VER S ATION S

OF A

Chapter I. Ireeligion

There shall come in the last clays, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying : Where is the promise of His coming ? (2 Peter's, iii.)

The scoffer's characteristic is a deep hatred of truth aiid holiness. He is an apostle of impiety, w^hose maxims we must abhor, for wliom we must pray, but with whom it is of no use to reason. To dispute with a scoffer would be a waste of time and a folly, because truth cannot be manifested to men whose mind is not calm, and wliose heart is not j^ure. There are, unfortunately, many scoffers in America. We even read of some downright infidels who built a town in Minnesota. The proprietors stipulated that no church should ever be placed upon the town plot, on pain of the reversion of tlie land to the original owners. The settlers threatened that any preacher who should dare to come there, to disturb them v/ith the Gospel, should be hanged or thrown into the river. They danced and got drunk on Sundays, and revelled in all manner of ungodliness. On one Sabbath, they made an effigy of Jesus Christ, and burnt it on the public street. The sink of iniquity, where infidelity had thus thoroughly gone to seed, was called New Ulm. Before another Sabbath's sun had dawned upon this graceless village, the wild Indians assaulted it. The people fled from their dwellings in the gTeatest consternation, and stout men hid themselves in cellars, wells, stables, and wherever they fancied they could find protection. A fevy^, braver than theii* comrades, attempted some defence, and even women, it is said, tried to shame the majority of cowards into some degree of strength and courage ; but all availed little. The red-skin flood swept over the doomed territory ; from one hundred and fifty to two hundred houses, many of them of some pretensions to elegance, were razed to the ground. New Ulm was made a desolation. The dance hall escaped the general wreck, to be used as^a place of public worship by the volunteers who afterwards were stationed to hold the place, and within its walls, that Christ was preached, Avho, so short a time before, had been scorned and insulted there. — (From the Congregationalist, 1864.)

It is seldom that a native American will degrade himself by sarcasms and blasphemies. Scoffers are generally the outcasts of Europe, who have, unfortunately, crossed the ocean to defile the virgin soil of the

<i new world. During tlie many years which I have spent in the missions, I have not had the sorrow to come in contact Vvdth any American who would advocate impiety. The learned DeTocqueville, who has studied with care the institutions of the United States, says in his great work: (Democracy in America). ^' Public opinion pronounces itself in favor of religion. ^' If the unbliever does not admit religion to be true, he "stiir considers it useful. Regarding religious institutions in a human point of view, he acknowledges " their influence upon manners and institutions. He " admits that they may serve to make men live in " peace with one another and to prepare them gently ■'^ for the hour of death. He reoT'ets the faith which he ^' has lost, and as he is deprived of a treasure which he " has learned to estimate at its full value, he scruples to " take it away from those who still possess it." Here is a fact to illustrate the observation of DeTocqueville. During a long and toilsome ride with an eminent American physician, I introduced the subject of religion. The doctor had no creed. He had been a Presbyterian, but he now believed in no chicrch^ could believe no mysteries. You deceive yourself, did I remark to him. Mysteries you must believe whether you like it or not. Do you not believe in God ? Surely, answered he, I see God everywhere. I see God in a blade of grass ; I see him in the leaf of a tree. But do you believe that men have sprung up like mushrooms ? that the world is eternal ? or do you believe that God has created all things out of nothing ? In both hypothesis you have a mystery. To tell the trutli, answered he, I have no distinct idea on the creation. God and man are mysteries indeed ! We had just arrived at a German tavern. We alighted to warm om'- selves, for it was a cold w^iuter's day. There stood around a blazing fire, half a dozen healthy children, who no sooner perceived that a priest had entered their dyrelling, than they came in turn to shake hands and ask my blessing. How happy are those people ! exclaimed the doctor as we proceeded on our journey ; I Vv'ould give all I possess to have their foitli ! Surely, for doubt is a violent state of the soul which finds no rest, and therefore no happiness, until it is in the possession of truth.

Having always avoided discussions with scoffers I will end this chapter Vvdth a sound rebuke administered by Sam. Houston, of Texas, to a vaunting self-important pettifogger in Xorthern Alabama. After an eloquent (?) tirade against religion and, Christianity in general, the attorney vv ound up with jLhe following : yes, gentlemen, the whole system of religion is one grand humbug, and its votaries are either monomaniacs or poor illiterate deluded beings. It is the poor and unlearned alone who are the most numerous of its disciples. Why is it, I ask, that the poor man is more susceptible than the rich man to religions iniiuences ? One hundred poor men will b?come converts to the theory, to ten wealthy. Would you have proof ? Look around you ; why is it ? I ask. What say you, stranger, to the interrogatory 1 said the attorney turning abrupt-

CATHOLIC I\IISSIONAKY VriTII A:^IFPvICANS. 11

ly to an eldeily, rather clistir.guished-lookiDg man who sat quietly smoking his pipe in a far corner of the room. '' What is the reason ? you ask ; why, it is '^ simply because the wealthy are too much occupied ^' with business, the cares and pleasures of life to give a " thought to religion. They won't take time to give ^'the subject a serious thought. One said he had a ^'yoke of oxen that he vrlshed to prove, and therefore '• he prayed to be excused ; another a piece of land, '^ etc. The minds of the poor are not thus absorbed " with the trash of the earth, to the exclusion of that " v\diich is priceless. True ! God has chosen the weak " and foolish to confound the wise, in many instances ; '^ yet, believe me, not the illiterate alone are so blessed " of God as to be the recipients of His gifts and mercies. '' The vrisest men, the v>'orld has ever seen, have ack- " now^ledged his supremacy, and bowed with a willing '*knee. Beware, young man, how you sneer at that '* which to secure us a Savior, offered up his life as a '• v>^illing sacrifice. Did I not know, young man, that '' it was through ignorance on your part that you thus " revile, I would exclaim to you in the language of *' Paul : O ! full of subtlety and all mischief, thou ene- '' my of all righteousness, vrilt thou not cease to pervert '• the right w^ays of the Lord f

Ha ! ha ! ha ! interrupted the lawyer, Iiad I known that I had waked up an old methodist preacher, I would have taken " time by the forelock," and ''rim in time.'' "1 am not a Methodist preacher, sir, I have " not that honor. They are a pious, useful, a revered

12 COXVEKSATIONS OF A

^' class of people whom I love and respect." Who are you then ? insolently asked the attorney. " Sam. Houston, sh*5 of Texas." Had a thunderbolt fallen in their midst, there could not have been a more electric motion in the crowd.

All do not share the love and respect of Sam Houston for Methodist preachers, but all ought to share his contempt of a scofier, and uphold truths which are the only solid basis of liberty, order and happiness.

CATHOLIC MISSIONARY WITH AMERICANS.

CHAPTER IT.

INFIDELITY IN GENERAL. SKEPTICISM. FREE THINKING. PHIL0S0PHIS3I. INDIFFERENCE IN RELIGIOUS MATTERS.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. (St. Paul. Rom. L, 22,)

Unbelievers and infidels reject Christianity. He who is indifierent says : Trice o?' false, Ida not care! whilst the skeptic remains in doubt or pretends to doubt of the existence of God, or of God's rQvelations. Those who earnestly desire to know the truth, and to embrace it, are not skeptics — notwithstanding their doubts ; nor can we apply the odious name of skeptic or infidel to degenerate Christians, whose life is a shameful contradiction to their creed, but who deny not the truth. There have been at all times, and there are everywhere, weak and vv^icked people who, seduced by the vanities of the world, distracted by its follies, or carried av/ay by the bad examples and opinions of their fellow-men, blindly follow the wide road which leads to perdition. They,, like the skeptics and infidels, avoid thinking of God, to enjoy a false peace of mind. They are on the road which leads to infidelity, but, though deprived of a living faith, they want something else than arguments. They need a man of God to frighten them with the torments of hell, to wake them up, from the lethargy of sin and vv^orldliness, to a spiritual life, by the threats of 2 a just God, whose love and mercy they cannot forever abuse ; they need a sj^ecial grace of God to resuscitate their souls by a sincere conversion. As to those who^ having once beheved, become indifferent, or who having never believed, are too indolent, too corrupt or too w^orldly to occupy their mind with the study of religion, they may be ranked with infidels. Infidelity is increasing fearfully in the United States.

The first cause of infidelity, which is common to all countries, is pride and iniquity. ''Men loved dai^Jcjiess rather than light, for their icorlcs icere evil^for every one that doeth evil haieth the light.'" (St. John iii., 19, 20.) There are not a few Avho are guilty of usury, frauds, divorces and unchaste practices ! How many patients are under treatment foi* Avhat newspapers term abuse and indi&cretio'n. When the will is wrong, the intellect cannot remain right a very long time. Guilty people naturally desire to persuade themselves that remorses are only prejudices, and by dint of exertions and perseverance, doubts are created, take root, fortify themselves in the soul, so that death itself cannot eradicate thfim. Many die unable to believe, because faith is a gift of God, which is justly denied to inveterate sinners.

Proud and sensual men, vdio hate truth, who hate in consequence the high dogmas revealed by God, will soon hate and deny the eternal laws of order, called moral laics, for all truths, whether dogmatical or moral, proceed from God, who is truth itself, and are all united in God, as in their source, so that it

CATHOLIC MISSIONARY YvaTil A?,1EPJCANS. 15

is impossible to deny a single truth, hov/ever theoretical or dogmatical, without attacking all truths together, because truths are One, as God is One. I repeat it, when the heart is corrupt, the intellect cannot long remain unbiassed and clear ; and, likewise, when the intellect is in error, the heart cannot long remain pure, so that the corruption of the heart produces the blindness of the intellect, and the blindness of the intellect produces the corruption of the heart Hence it is that it often suffices to amend one's life in order to believe what before appeared doubtful. Hence it is, also, that when the heart hates virtue, the intellect hates truth, however abstract or theoretical. It is a met, beyond cavil, that all far-famed unbelievers have not been patterns of humility and chastity. Study their lives, and you will not fail to discover that every one of them, without exception, has been actuated by pride or sensuality, 01' by both passions. The shocking pride of a Rousseau, the profligacy of a Voltaire, and the dissoluteness of a Paine, are well known, but, instead of giving examples, I appeal to the conscience of unbelievers, and to the experience of the reader.

The second cause of Infidelity is the confusion of ideas, introduced by the variations and divisions of Protestantism. In every town and village there are meeting houses for discordant sects, where black and white is preached from the same Bible. The Bible, amongst Protestants, lias been made a common anchor for religious errors, as well as for religious truth. It is the confusion of Babel. Men are at a loss vvhat to believe, and the end is doubt or unbelief. Some retain the empty name of one sect or another; they do not refuse the customary payment to the preacher ; they even lead their wives to the door of tlie church ; but they think for themselves, according to the Protestant principle. They are Free-Thinkers. Where there are Catholic churches, curiosity may lead some Protestants to go and hear a Catholic priest. What is the result ? Old prejudices may be thrown away, but most Americans would as soon go straight to hell as to join the Catholic church. Hovv^ could they keep the rules of that church !

A third cause of infidelity in America is the turmoil of affairs. The American is a business man. Talk not of religion to a man whose sole care is to make money. His whole soul is absorbed by a new railroad project ! His fortune is made ! He must hasten to take a patent for a new invention ! Talk not to him of religion ! Land speculations, mining, oil wells, banking, fishing, factories, foundries, trade, commerce, such is the controling spirit of America. The temples are not frequented, and the newspaper too often replaces on Sundays the use of Bibles and prayer books.

The fourth cause of unbelief, particular to this land, is a kind of aversion to things spiritual and supernatural. It is thus explained by the learned De Tocqueville. (Democracy in Amer. t. 11.) "Every one shuts himself '• up within himself, and affects, from that point, to "judge the world. The practice wliich obtains among '' the Americans of fixins: the standard of their iudji^e-

CATHOLIC MISSIONARY AYITH AMERICANS. 17

" ment in themselves alone, leads them to other habits " of mind. As they perceive that they succeed in re- " solving, without assistance, all the little difficulties " which their practical life presents, they readily con- " elude that everything in the world may be explained " and that nothing in it transcends the limits of the " understanding. Thus they fall to denying Avhat they '* cannot comprehend, which leaves them but little ^^ faith for whatever is extraordinary, and an almost 6^ insuperable distaste for whatever is supernatural. As '' it is on their own testimony that they are accustomed '' to rely they like to discern the object, which engages *^ their attention, with extreme clearness." He adds : ''Some despairing of ever resolving by themselves the '^ hardest problems of the destiny of man, ignobly sub- '' mit to think no more about them. Such a condition *' cannot but enervate the soul, relax the springs of "the will and prepare a people for servitude." (Dot. 11. p. 22.) Had the learned De Tocqueville visited America in the days of somnambulists, table-turners, spirit-rappers, mediums and mesmerists, would he not have exclaimed : What a change ! But no. It vv^as a feverish excitement which is nearly over. Americans have already relapsed into the state above described^ and the last state is worse than the first.

A fifth cause of infidelity is the modern system of education. Religious training, at home and abroad, is neglected altogether, or quite insufficient. Yv'e read that Diderot, the Atheist, was teaching the Catholic catechism to his daughter. American in- 2* fidels are more consistent. Besides teaching iniidelity by their examples, some raise their children in irreligion. whilst the majority of them attain indirectly the same, by a complete indifference to religion. There are thousands of people, vvdiose very names indicate that they are descended from Catholic parents either from Germany, Ireland, France or other parts of Europe. What are they at present ? They have fallen into the abyss of indifference or skepticism. What will their children be ? What v>'ill the next generation be with skeptic parents at home and schools a la Girard at their doors? May God, in his mercy, preserve them from total ruin ! The femous Girard College in Philadelphia, may be considered as the model of our present school system in the United States ; but what a model ! The last will of Girard enjoined : " that no ecclesiastic missionary nor minister of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in the said College, nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor within the premises appropriated to the purpose of the said College." In making this restriction, adds he : '^ I do not mean to cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatsoever ; but, as there is such a magnitude of sects, and such a diversity of opinion among them, I desire to keep the tender mind of the orphans, who are to derive advantages from this bequest, free from the excitement which clashing doctrines and sectarian controversy are so apt to produce ; my desire is that all tlie instructors and

CATHOLIC MISSIONARY A\aTH AMIlRICANS. 19

teacliers in the college sliall take pains to instill into the minds of the scholars the purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance into active life, they may from inclination and habit, evince benevolence toward their fellow creatm'es, and a love of truth, sobriety and industry, adopting at the same time such religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to prefer." Sublime theory ! to build without foundation, and base pure morality on naught. It is said that although no clergyman is knowingly admitted within the premises, daily worship and religious instructions on Sundays enter into the course of education. The Bible is read, hymns are sung and appropriate discourses by the President, or some layman selected by him, delivered. This is strange, but literally true. It has been twice argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, that this provision of Girard's will, was at war with the Christian religion, but the Court has established the validity of the bequest. What Judge Story has decided is carried into practice by State Legislators. On account of the magnitude of sects and diversity of opinions, public schools are everywhere established, with a proviso that nothing sectarian shall be taught ; but, as all is sectarian where there is no religion or church by law established, this clause strictly means that everything which relates to religion must be excluded from the school room. I defy legislators to define what is sectarian. As in Girard's College, the reading of some kind of a Bible, (a sectarian Bible,) the singing of hymns, discourses from laymen are not everywhere considered as sectarian practices, but nothing dejSnite is taught, and clergymen who are not skeptics or infidels are out of place in such institutions. All sincere christians are obliged to patronize private schools at theii* own expense, and to forfeit their share of the school funds and of school taxes. Some persons may call that liberty ; but I protest against that measure as an injustice and a violation of the rights of parents and of the true church. Civil society has its rights, but the rights of the true church and of parents are paramount to those of the State. Our Saviour has said : " He who is not for me is against me'' Experience teaches that pure religion will not grov/ spontaneously in tlie mind of a child, any more than wheat in our fields. What grows spontaneously are alas ! ^veeds, thorns and thistles. The church of Christ is not a dead body. It has a right to be represented in the school room. In christian countries, the teacher is an agent of the parents, of the church and of the State — a noble position ! In the United States, his sphere is unhappily confined to profane learning and worldly matters, so that our present system of education practically leads to skepticism and infidelity.

Let not the reader expect to find here a discussion with infidels who are indififerent to religious truths. No ! The indifferent may have read the Avorks of Gibbon and Paine or those of Voltaire and Rousseau, but finding that old sophisms and assertions are threadbare, and that new objections are of no avail, he \A\o began by boasting of bis reason, reasons no longer. He does not say, liear my proofs, but I will not liear yours. If YOU insist on any point, bis answer is a sneer. Christianity is not worth occupying his lofty mind. He is too enlio-htened to think of God and serve him ! V>^iat hope is there of his conversion ? None whatever. Fanatics and bisected heretics have still some strengfth and life ; but the pulse of the indifferent beats no longer. He is dead ! By rejecting all truths, he implicitly admits all errors. He has placed himself on a level with brutes, with that difference, that brutes are not to be blamed, because they are brutes, whilst a reasonable being has to annihilate his reason before he becomes a brute, and deliberately stakes his all before the truth of Christianity. What a long struggle against his conscience, against his reason, against his God has been necessary stupidly to lie in that wretched state of indifference to everything spiritual, to everything eternal, to everything except what relates to this short life ! He has committed that sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall be forgiven neither in this life or in the life to come. If they hear not Moses, or the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead. (Luke xvi.31.) As to infidels, of all grades, who struggle to show cause for doubts or unbelief, the following dialogues will prove how weak, how frivolous, how palpably absurd are their common maxim?} and theories.

A wealthy gentleman once brought me designs for a beautiful Catholic Church. Like Girard, v/ho was, at times, a liberal benefector to churches, because he considered them as a means to increase the welfare and improve the appearance of the land, my kind visitor manifested a deep interest for the erection of a fine church, near his premises. This is a synopsis of our conversation :

Missionarij. — I thank you for your good wull, but I am not abie to erect so large a church with my limited means.

Gentleviictii N, — Oh ! we will help you. I v/ill give my share. The richest men of our city, are well inclined to help churches. You may rely on tliree thousand dollars,

Jlfissionari/. — How could that be ? Are you not aware that fully two-thirds of our business men have no religion 1

Gentleman N. — They do not belong to any particular church, but they all believe, as I do, that religion under one form or another, is useful in society, and particularly to common people. All religions are good, provided people are sincere in their belief. "

Missionanj. — The maxim that all religions are good, has a double sense. If you mean, that any form of religion is better than no religion at all, it is true ; but if you mean that there is no religion in the world perfect and divine, it is false.

Gentleman N, — W(j11 sir, I have read a great deal, and I have come to the conclusion that there is truth and untruth in every form of religion, but I respect all sincere believers. I have Catholic servants, and I must say, that those wlio attend to their church are the most faithfuh