The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, April 01, 1920, Image 8

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8 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-