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Published Weekly by
THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY
of the Diocese of Little Rock
309 WEST SECOND STREET
Entered M mecond.cla matter March 21, 1911, at the postofllce at
Little Rock, Ark., under the Act of Congress of March 3 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $2.00 THE YEAR
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
When a change of addr is desired the zubscriber should give
both the old and the new addreu• ""
COHRESPONDENCE
Matter intended for publication in The Guardian should reach tm
not later than Wednesday morning. Brief news correspondence is
always welcome. The k|ndnes of the clergl in this matter is cordially
appreciated.
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Very Rev. A. Stockcr, O. S. B•, D. D..: ............... Editor-in-Chief
Roy. {leo. H. Mcdermott ............................. Managing Editor
Atl communicatl'ons about "The Guardian" should be addressed to
the Roy. Gvo. 1L McDermott, 309 West Second Street.
". OFFICIAL APPROVAL
The Gulardian is the official organ of the Diocese of Little Rock. and
I lrsy God that it may be an earnest champion in the cause of right,
tmtloe and truth and an ardent defender of the religion which we all
ve io well.' I extend to it my blessing with the sincere hope that its i
career may be long and prosperous.
OHN B. MORRIS.
Bishop of Little Rock.
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Little Rock, Ark., July 16, 1921.
OFFICIAL.
BISHOP'S HOUSE, LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
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Rev nd and Dear Father: /
On the evening of June 1, 1921 a fire
destroyed the seminary building of the JQsephite
Fathers in BMtimore. The priests of this comnm-
nity have, for,many years past, been looing after
the Coloredwork in this Diocese, in fact they w, ere
the first missionaries to inaugurate this work
amongst us. In view of their misfortune which
is ours also, I request you to.take up a collection
for the benefitof St. Joseph's Colored Seminary,
Baltimore.
Please to announc this collection on the Sun-
day following the receipt of this letter. Stating
in your remarks relative to the disaster which has
befallen the Josephite Fathers, that the collection
will be taken up at all Masses on the Sunday fo!-
lowing youi" announcement.
Yours sincerely in Christ, -
@ JOHN B. MORRIS,
Bishop pf Little Rock.
N.B. Please forward collections to Rev. John
P. Fisher, Secretary, 61 Louisiana St., Little
Rock, Ark.
.0-0 -,
If Sims felt free to cable Lloyd George, the mes-
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sage would read like this: "There is probably
more kick in it over there than there was here.
Watch your step•"
O-O
Bernard Shaw's comment on the big fight was
just like his writings on'Ireland. He knows a lot
and he tells it well, but he's wrpilg on the esseli-
tial fact.
0-0
InThe Josephinum Weekly of July 2 Rev. Ed-
ward Dahmus, who has always something refresh-
ing to say about "Current Events," writes in a hu-
morous vein about disarmajnent. Outward din- I
armament, he thinks, will not serve the purpose
as long as the spirit is not disarmed. And of the I
possibility of disarming the spirit he is altogether
skeptical. "As long as man remains what he is, a
naturally selfish creature, as long as his spirit is
not disarmed and the law of charity becomes his
sole guide; so long, according to his means, he
must prepare for war, and in order to be so pre-
pared he must spend money for armaments., At-
though we all deplore accidents, yet we take out
'- accident insurance. Although we try to avoiff der
struction of our homes by fire, yet we insure them
against it. Although w¢ should rather trust ev-
erybody, yet we bolt our windows and lock our
doors. Although we preach honesty and the,obli-
gation of the seventh commandment, ye£ we have
burglar alarms and burglar-proof safes and
vaults. Worries of this Sort rnankind .has ever had
and always will have. And just as surely will
mankind keep the armies and navies it has al-
ways had.,'
O-O
The fist article in The Ecclesiastical Review
of July about "Parish, Records is particularly
timely and exceedingly important€ More things
than one would believe have changed with the new
Code of Canon Lav. And those things will not so
easily, penetrate into heads' grown gray in "the
sacred ministry. Such articles as the one men-
tioned are necessary and useful reminders. Of
course every parish priest is, or ought to be, a
subscriber to The Ecclesiastical Review. So he
will have n opportunity to refresh his memory
and to take in the new regulations about the five
essential books: Registry'bf Baptisms, Confirma-
tions, Marriages, Deaths, and Census Rec6"rd.
"The Baptismal, makriage, and confirmation en-
tries must ,be made by the pastor himself (the
article mentions the exceptions), while he must
• attend to it that the other records are made either
by himself personally.or by some priest raeting
under his'supervision, never by women or lay-,
THE GUARDIAN, SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1921.
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I men. Moreover, the facts of a marriage, con-
firmation, solemn religious profession, or recep-
tion of subdiac0nate must also be entered in the
baptismal records."
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ARE PROTESTANff'S CHRISTIANS ?
An answer to the above question in the Ques-
tion Box of The Guardian, some time ago, created
a stir among some of our Pxotestant friends. We
did not notice the question at the time, and if it
had been our business to answer it, we should
have sought to eschew the unpleasant ask. Ev-
erybody knows that Catholics and Protestants
have quite different views about Christianity. At
the same.time we are anxious to live peacefully
together and to avoid unnecessary frictions.
Therefore, if for no other reason we shoulc[ be
willing for the sake of courtesy to call Protestants
our fellow Christians of the Protestant faith, as
we often speak of a divided Christendom. A di-
vided Christendom supposes two or more factions
all of which come under the name of Christians.
But when the question is approached from a
strict dogmtic point, we must introduce some
distinctions. First of all we learn from the Acts
of the Apostles that baptism is the ceremony of
initiation into Christ's religion. Accordingly we
could not truthfully accord the name of Chris-
tians to those Protestants who are not baptized.
As one is not an American citizen wlm has neither
been born in America nor been naturalized, so
no one is a Christian who has not gone through
the naturalization process of baptism..For no
one is born a Christian.
Next, those that are baptized are Christians in
the proper sense of the word as long as they do
not apostatize" from the Christian faith. For
there is only one baptism, the baptism of Christ.
By it every baptized person is introduced into the
Church of Christ. According-to our belief the
Church of Christ is identical with the Catholic
Church,.and. as a consequence we hold that every
one ;lo is baptized becomes thereby a member
of the Catholic Church.) He may belong to a Prot-
estant body, but we count him as a member of the
CatholicChurch, as belonging to the soul of the
Church. He may protest all he wants, we per-
sist in counting the falsity of his position and
sist in counting him as our brother, as long as he
is bona fide.. Were he to recognize the falsity of
his position and still persist in it against
t.he recognized claims of the Catholic Church, he
would thereby apostatize from the Christian faith
and cease to be a Christian'.
We would, then, conclude hat Protestantism,
according to the Catholic belief, is npt tho genuine
Christianity Of history established by Jesus Christ
but rather a protest against the same. Did we
believe that Protestantism represented genuine
Christianity we should, of course, want to be
Protestants. Our Protestant friends cannot take
this view of ours amiss, because, on their part
'they do not allow Catholicism to be the genuine
Christianity established by Christ. Otherwise,
we should think, they would want to be Catholics.
But we are .broad enough to allow Protestants to
be real Chris'tians, as long as they, individually,
believe their respective denominations to repre-
sent the genuine Christianity established by
Christ. With God, we hold,• the acceptance of a
person depends on. a sincere conscience, even
though that conscience may be erroneous.
From this incident we learn how sensitive our
Protestant friends are when something is said in
disparagement of their religion. They do not
seem to realize that we Catholics have feelings,
too, and are pained when, by a reckless interpre-
tation of Revelations, the scarlet wbman of that
inspired book is pplied to the Catholic Churc
I'f these gentlemen are not simply selfish bpt out
for righteousness, they will be just as quick to
resent an unjust attack on their neighbor as on
themselves. We know, indeed, that decent Prot-
estants have no sympathy with the lying propa-
ganda that is cariried on ' against the Catholic
Church. But wharf - we have against them is the
fact, that they tolerate it without a_ protest.
S.
O-O
THE LAY COUtC'IL AND THE LAW OF
RELATIVITY.
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It were one of the blackest slanders to say that
Catfiolics are not generous of not disposed to
make sacrifces for their religion. When we see
a number of fine Protestant churches rise in vari-
ous sections of the State, a superficial observer
"might be tempted to ask, What are Catholics do-
mg m proportmn? Has our superfic|al observer
forgotten that where there is a Catholic church,
there are generall four or-five buildings belong-
ingflo the religious outfit of the parish; a church,
a parsonage, a school, a teacher's home, a hall.
And all these edifices must be built, then equipped,
then insured, then kept in repair, then provided
with light and water, then, after Catholics have
paid their taxes for the public schools, they must
pay their own teachei-s. They even help to edu-
cate them; witness the alacrity with which they
subsidized the Diocesan .Normal last' year, and
One might rather be inclined to believe that their
giving capacity has reached its limit. And this is
precisely the point that is made against the prop-
aganda for the Lay Council. Our Catholics are
doing so much that they can do no more. In our
last issue we emphasized the fact that the addi-
tional burden called for by the Lay Council is not
a heavy one, and today let us impress it on our
minds why we cannot afford to dodge it.
When a man's expeTditures are apparently at
the limit of his possibility, he will still find an
arrangement that makes it possible to take care
of a sick member of the family. He would be very
loath to say: let him or her die because I can not
afford to call a doctor or to buy medicine. Before
doing such a thing, he would consider and weigh
the relatiye importance of his expenditures and
see where he could have something to allow a few
dollars for the needed services of a doctor. Now,
we Catholicsl of the Diocese of Little Rock are a
family. Some of the members of that spiritual
family are in very poor health. They need doc-
tors, they need medicine. Shall we let them die
and be lost, or shall we rather bethink ourselves
where we mat cmail our expenses so as to have
a penny left to send them doctors and medicine?
This is what we would call the law of relativity
as applied to the purposes of the Lay Council.
Again, when your expenses are sallowing up
all your income, and it happens that the insurance
on your home expires, will you take the risk of
losing all or will you make an heroic effort to re-
new your insurance? If you are of a careless dis-
position you might argue ,that so far no fire has
destroyed your home, that it is not likely that a
fire will destroy your home, and that, therefore,
under your straitened circumstances, you will let
the insurance go until times are better. You make
up your mind to that effect. A thunderstorm
breaks over your town, lightning strikes your
house, you lose everything. It is too late then
alas! to meditat on your foolishness. Under no
consideration should you have let lapse your in-
surance. You should have remembered the law
of relativity, and should have come to the conclu-
sion that in the schedule of your expenses there
were surely some items of relatively smaller im-
portance than the expense of renewing your in-
surance.
Now, more important than our earthly home is
our heavenly home which is to be eternal. And
the possibility of reaching that eternal home de-
pends for us on placing the blessings of our Catho-
lidre]igion on "a safe basis. It will not do to lull
ourselves into a feeling of security becau'se up to
date no serious affliction has.come upo n the Cath-
dolic Church in this country. The Achbishop of
Milwaukee, in a recent appeal to his clergy in be-
half of the Men's Council, said in lrpart: "The
signr f a coming getmral outbreak of infidel and
sectarian hostility against the Catholic Church in
the United States are ,multiplying rapidi in the
press, on lecture platforms, in sectarian circles,
and even in some legislatures.. We may dream of
a stupendous growth and power of the Church and
the near conversion of the American people, we
may sleep in the sweet security of American Lib-
erty for the Church, and we may glory in the
nunber of American Cardinals. Yet all this will
not lJrevent the persecution from coming at this
time. The first skirmishes against the Church,
directed immediately against our Catholic parish
schools, have already started. Our greatest need
ad only salvation on that day will be a strong
organization of our Catholic men." S.
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I,'RANCE AND THE VATICAN.
Catholics everywhere will reet with satisfac-
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tion the announcement that M. Jonnard has been
appointed ambassador from France to the Vati-
can, and that Archbishop Cerretti is to represent
the H01y See at Pans.
In many respects the life of a nation is very
similar to the life of an individual, and as the
individual frequently is brought into closer com-
munion with religion as the result of stress and
sufferifig, so France, the "eldest daughter of the
Church," has been brought back to her home after
days of tribulation.
France severed formal relations with Rome,
and the foes of religion were jubilant: But they
overlooked one fact, which was that whatever the
daughter might do, the Mother had no intention
of deserting her child.
The war came. Not only did every priest of.
service age in France flock to tire-colors, but from
far-off corners of the world they came to don the
uniform of their country. Their example was in-
spiring, their enthusiasm was contagious.
On the other hand, the Vatican, which humanly
speaking might'have been expected to repay the
slight which France had inflicted, did nothing of
the kind, but preserved the strictest neutrality.
How thoroughly France appreciated these facts
is shown in the action of M. Briand in appointing
M. Jonnard as ambassador-extraordinary. The
present premier was the chairman of the com-
mittee which fifteen years ago reported in favor
of the separation of Church and State. Then he
was almost a Saul of Tarsus,, breathing threat-
they are going to do as well as they can, though enings against the Church. But now he has
seen I
times are changed since theft, this ,ear. a great light, so that When the Senate seeks to I
, No we would hot let anybody questioff with hinder the desire of the nation as expressed by]
im unit the enerosit of r,. a olic eo F-the ove w Imm v
P Y g Y i . P p r he ' g ore in the Chamber of Depu-I
L ties, he cries impatiently:
month more."
This remarkable change of conscience by the
French nation will give many "to thinkfuriously"
as the French themselves would say. Her reli-
gious orders expelled, her property confiscated,
her priests in n]any cases rendered homeless, the
Church seeks no revenge. Denounced as unpa-
triotic, she gives a manifestation of patriotism
among her persecuted servants which thrills a
nation and results in renewed love and respect.
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"We cannot wait a
QUESTION BOX I
Is one guilty of missing Mass if he loses the
blessing and last gospel?
No, but he sins, because he is obliged to hear
a whole Mass.
Would a marriage be valid i/ the man was
drmtk when he signified his consent?
That would depend upon the stage of his drunk-
enness. Since marffage is a contract, whatever
would make a contract null and void would in-
validate the sacrament. You must be in posses-
sion of your senses to enter into a valid contract.
If the drunkennes is such that it deprive a man
of the exercise of his senses so that he does not
realize what he is doing, the marriage would be
invalid. A man may in a sense be under the in-
fluence of liquor and at ¢he same time know what
he is doing. "In such a case the marriage of what
we would call a drunken man would be a valid
marriage.
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Suppose a perso does not wish to tell some sins
to her regular confessor, may she tell a part of her
sis to him and tell the rest of her sins to a
stratge priest ?
Most assuredly she may not. We must con-
fess all our mortal sins to the one priest because
the'confession nust be a moral whole. Common
sense shQuld guide us in our religious life as well
as in affairs of theworld. There is no necessity
for a penitent adopting the plan that you suggest
because one may go to confession to whatever
priest they elect and no confessor would resent
the idea of your occasionally going to another
priest.
Is it true that everysoul has to pass through
Purgatory ?
There are many souls who enter into tIeaven
imn4ediately, while other • unfortmmte souls do not
enter Heavel(at all. Purgatory is for those who
die.in the friendship of God but have not fully
satisfied divine justice. We cannot determine
what is their number, but we do know that God's
graces are abundantly showered on the dying and
that the Church surrounds the ,last momenSs of
her children with prayers, sacraments and indul-
gences. We may beIieve that many Catholic who
receive the last sacraments do not have to delay
one moment in Purgatory.
Is it true that the Pope changed the observance
of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
• Of course th Pope changed the day dedicated
particularly to "the service of God from the Sab-
bath to the Sunday. Only the Pope would have
such authority since he alone can speak in the
name of God. To the first Pope, Saint Peter,
Christ said: "To thee I will give the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven; whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven." The con-
sistent Protestant has no reason whatsoever to
keep holy the first day ,of the week. A person
who holds th£t the Bible is the sole guide of faith
should observe the Third Commandment of God,
which s.ays that he must keep holy the Sabbath
day, which is Saturday. '
Can Catholics commune with the dead and
how ?
The Catholic Churcl teaches that we can com-
mune with the dead': We cab do so by asking
their prayers-for us. It is in an atmosphere of
faith that we are one with them. Need we
them no divine honor? The highest
that we give '
of them, the mother of Jesus, is infinitelh locker
than God. In God we view them, and to plead
with God we ask their prayers. All spiritual
goods are common property. And God's friends
are one family, whether on earth, in purgatory,
or in heaven. This entire family intercommunes
together in the comnmn life of prayer.
All would, at least, wish this doctrin to be
true; for the pictures and mementos Of the be-
loved dead which adorn our homes, plainly though
feebly show our protestagainst absolute separa-
tion by death.
In this life, f t-lends separated by distance are
united in spiri by love and by prayer; why not
after the separation by death? Scripture says:
"Love is strong as death" (Cant. viii, 6). No
lapse of time breaks friendship; why should death
do it ? God's supreme will is brotherly love; why
should tat love be hindered, of fruition by death ?
The sweetest bond of friendship • "as well, S the
most precious fruit of love is found-in mutual
prayer.
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