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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA 13 WHY CATHOLICS BELIEVE CHRIST FOUNDED BUT ONE CHURCH The Bulletin has been asked to explain why Cath olics believe that Jesus Christ founded only one Church. It is a law of philosophy that things are not to be multiplied without reason. The one Church that Christ founded is perfect; it being perfect, there could be no reason for another For, if another taught the same truths as the first, it would be useless; if it taught differently from the first it would be harmful. By many examples Christ showed that His Church is one. He spoke of it as one. He called it a King dom and said: “Every Kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate.” (St. Matt. XII, 25). He said: “There shall be one fold and one Shepherd.” (St. John X, 16.) St. Paul teaches the same truth of unity: “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.” (Eph. IV 6.) Faith is the act of accepting a truth upon the au thority of God; and God is one, unchangeable. Two different faiths can not flow from one unchangeable source. Truth and authority bear the same relation to faith that a mold bears to its castings. They must be the same. Jesus Christ said that the oneness of His Church should resemble the unity that exists between Him self and His Father (John XVII, 20). He said that from this unity the world “may know” that He is the Author of the Church that is one. By the same token lack of unity is an unmistakable sign that He is not the Author of the Church that is not one. Jesus Christ was free to give us any Church. God as He is, He was not free to give us two churches. He is one God. His Church is Himself in projection. Oneness is indivisible. Nothing is more certain, or more solemn, than the fact, proven from reason and from Scripture, that Jesus Christ gave us not two churches, but one Church. He was terribly in earnest when He did so. He died for His Church and arose from the dead to confirm His Church. And with all the power and authority He possessed as God, He sent His Church to preach His Word, and commanded the world to “hear the Church” or be condemned. (St. Matt. XXVIII, 18.) MICHIGAN DEFEATS AMENDMENT AGAINST PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS (By N. C. W. C. News Service.) With the co-operation of Protestant voters, the Catholic electors of Michigan overwhelmingly de feated the proposed State constitutional amendment which would practically have abolished parochial and private schools of primary grades. The majority against the pernicious measure was nearly two to one. The victory came only after many months of the most heroic exertions on the part of the Catholics, who had to combat all the forces of bigotry in Mich igan and their supporters in other States. The issue absorbed both the thoughts and activities of the entire electorate. Tens of thousands of voters subordinated their concern for the outcome of the presidential election to their interest in the overthrow of the plotters against their civil and religious liber ties. Their only prayer was that the Catholic schools and Catholic religious training should be safeguarded. Overwhelmingly Defeated in Detroit. The amendment met a crushing defeat in metro politan Detroit, the home of its author and chief pro moters. In Marquette and other sections of the Upper Peninsula, it was correspondingly overwhelmed. Members of the Holland Reformed Church, constitut ing 40 per cent of the population of Grand Rapids, rallied with their Catholic fellow citizens to save their own schools from abolition. A favorable vote was obtained in nea»rly every community in which there was a Catholic Churcj? t or school. In a few Orange localities bigotry was the issue. In places where there were no Catholics the amendment was not considered on its merits, but became provocative of religious prejudice. The owners of The Menace—Nations and Parker had spread their slanders in such communities and influenced many. Copies of the spurious “Knights of Columbus Oath” were circulated by thousands, as were also caricatures and similar propaganda. Eleventh Hour Criminal Strategem. The night before the election, under cover of black darkness, the champions of “patriotic education stealthily spread thousands of handbills urging Cath olics to organize against all secret societies—intend ing by this criminal strategem to inflame non-Cath- olics against the Catholics. The intellectual classes and the leaders in every walk of life, including the editors of the newspapers, stood firmly against the un-American amendment. If religious animosities had not been fomented, the right eousness of the Catholic schools on moral and consti tutional grounds would have achieved a greater vic tory. Earnest prayers of the thousands of little chil dren, masses, expositions of the Blessed Sacrament, fervent triduums and extraordinary devotions of the people were exhorted by the Bishops of the several Dioceses to obtain Divine assistance in preserving the