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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
canonical had been gathered together, a General
Council was called and the Bishops and Patriarchs of
the whole Christian world assembled to pass on the
canonicity of the Holy Scriptures. As a result of
their deliberations and conclusion, the several books
of the Bible as Catholics have it today were pro
nounced canonical. From that time the Church care
fully preserved the Bible and was its sole custodian
for more than a thousand years. Every copy made,
was made by her priests or monks under her direc
tion, and when printing began every edition printed
was printed with her approbation. Prior to the be
ginning of the sixteenth century there were more
than a hundred dffierent editions of the Bible, they
being printed in every language known in Europe.
The so-called Protestant Bible, or the King James
version, was made in the beginning of the seventeenth
century under the direction of King James I. of Eng
land, by whose royal mandate it became the only
authorized version. This version must, of course,
have as its basis the books that were originally col
lected by the Church, and it seems correct, therefore,
to say that the Protestant Bible was taken from the
Catholic Bible. I should add that every book, every
chapter and every verse of the Protestant Bible is
contained in the Catholic Bible. There are, how
ever, some fourteen books in the Catholic Bible which
the Protestant Bible does not contain. In one of
these, I may say in passing, is the Golden Rule, which
you may be surprised to know, is not in the King
James version* or so-called Protestant Bible.
The Pope’s Tiara.
Q. What inscription was worn on the Pope’s crown,
if any?
A. “Servant of the Servants of God.”
Reading Other Bibles.
Q. If I should become a Catholic, would I be al
lowed to read other Bibles than the Catholic?
A. This may be answered by saying that the writer
of this article has among his books not only the Cath
olic Bible, but the Protestant Bible, the Mormon Bible,
the Mohammedan Bible, the Hindoo Bible, and por
tions of the Talmud. You could not, of course, be
come a Catholic until you believed that the Catholic
Bible contained all of the written gospel of Christ.
Believing this, you would be free, as a matter of his
torical or literary research, and for other similar pur
poses, if your scholarship justified, to read the so-
called Bibles of other religions.
WHY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MAINTAIN
PRIMARY AND GRAMMAR GRADES
(B. E.
The attitude of Catholics towards our public
schools has always been marked with an interrogation
point by our separated brethren. They fail to com
prehend the reason why their Catholic fellow citizens
pay taxes to support state schools from which they de
rive no benefit, and establish parochial schools, in
tended to cover the same ground as that of the public
schools. It were well for those outside the pale of
the Church to realize for good and all that Catholics
are not inimical or antagonistic to our public school
system; and that they do not look upon it as neces
sarily evil. If they did so regard it, they would not
and could not conscientiously contribute to its main
tenance. Catholics consider the public schools as a
precious boon for such as are satisfied with what
they are able to offer. For themselves, they are not
satisfied with these schools because they cannot supply
instruction in the truths and duties of religion, which
the Catholic conscience demands. The Catholic par
ent owes to his offspring the very best he can afford;
and the very best is none too good.
An institution that ignores the Creator and man's
duties in His regard may indeed impart instruction,
but falls far short of educating the whole man with
all his powers and faculties of soul and body.
There is no branch of the school curriculum that
no completely and efficaciously develops the powers
of the soul as religious instruction. By the very na
ture of the truths proposed, the intelligence is ele
vated, and all the secondary faculties connected with
D. A.]
it are most beneficially exercised. The attention is
more concentrated, in so much as the subject matter
of the study is metaphysical; and the pupil, by means
of abstraction and reflection rises above the region
of matter to conceive the spiritual. The imagination,
already deeply impressed, through the senses, with
the beauty of the ceremonies of divine worship, is
transported into the realms of the ideal and contem
plates the splendor of heaven, the horrors of hell,
and, in general, the grandeur of the truths so simply
expressed in the Little Catechism. Reason discovers
the relationship and the admirable economy of her
dogmas, as well as the harmony existing between the
natural and the supernatural world. The moral sense
finds in the study of religion full and entire satisfac
tion which strengthens, ennobles, and purifies all its
human sentiments; love towards our Divine Lord
and His Most Blessed Mother; pity and tender grati
tude for the sufferings they endured for our salva
tion; hatred of sin, fear of eternal punishment, ad
miration of the Divine perfections and an ardent de
sire for heaven. Conscience is enlightened and puri
fied by frequent examinations and the reception of
the Sacraments; thus it acquires an exquisite delicacy.
The will, stimulated by the noblest of motives, be
comes accustomed to control the passions; and,
strengthened by Divine Grace, it attains a power of
action and resistance unknown to purely human wis
dom. The love and habitual practice of good, de
velop a lively sentiment of moral beauty, which in-