Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

TWO. THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA OCTOBER 13, 1956, CORRESPONDENCE- BISHOP’S HOUSE 222 East Harris Street Savannah, Georgia September 26, 1956 Dearly Beloved: I was deeply touched by the many expressions of sympathy which came to me from Georgia on the occasion of the death of my good mother. Indeed there were so many messages of condolence and acts of thoughtful kindness that it would be quite impossible for me to acknowledge them individually. By means of this letter, therefore, I desire to express my profound gratitude to our priests, our Brothers and Sisters, our laity and our school children for their messages of sympa thy, for the many Masses offered for the repose of mother’s soul and for the promises of continued prayers for her and for myself. I am especially grateful to the priests who made the long journey to Philadelphia to attend the funeral. May God bless and reward each and every one of you. Devotedly yours in Christ, FRANCIS E. HYLAND. Bishop-elect of Atlanta. (Continued from Page 1) siime that you will be good enough to answer these questions. I am confident that all of the Bap tist periodicals would be glad to carry your answers to these ques tions. Our purposes must be the same: The honoring , of God’s name and the salvation of the world. We re joice in your call for a “fair- minded study .” We pray that there may come from this study more light, a deeper understand ing of God’s will, and a more harmonious fellowship among all those who believe in Christ. Sincerely yours, (Signed) DICK H. HALL, JR. P.S. This letter was read to the Atlanta Baptist Association representing 133 Baptist Churches with membership of 108,438, at their annual meeting' which closed today. The Association voted to approve this letter as their ex pression and appointed the fol lowing committee which approved the letter: Rev. Ebb G. Kilpatrick, Moderator Atlanta Baptist As sociation, Rev. R. L. O’Brien, Former Moderator Atlanta Baptist .Association, Rev. J. A. Nolan, Pastor, Avondale Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Monroe F, Swillev, Pas tor, Second Ponce de Leon Bap tist Church, Dr. W. A. Duncan, Former President Southern Bap tist Home Mission Board. 11th November 1955 Reverend Dick Houston Hall, Jr., Pastor First Baptist Church. Decatur. Georgia. Reverend and dear Sir, Your letter of October 19th ad dressed to Archbishop O’Hara was forwarded to him here in London. The Archbishop is in the midst of a series of public engagements here and in Scotland that will last un til the end of November; he hopes to send you a reply to your let ter and an answer to your several questions at that time. Yours very sincerely, 28th November 1955 Reverend Dick Houston Hall, Jr. Pastor, First Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia. Reverend and dear Sir. Following up the letter sent you on November 11th, I am. enclosing an answer to the various ques tions that you proposed in your letter to me on October 19th. I am sorry to be late in sending my reply but I have just returned from Scotland after a long series of official visitations in the sev eral dioceses in that part of Great Britain and it is only now that I have a chance to write to you. Of course the answers to all questions regarding the Faith and pi’actice of the Catholic Church find their answer in the reply to the question: .did Christ Our Blessed Lord establish a Church and if He did, is this Church ac tually to be found in the world today. If the Church established by Our Loi’d exists today (and Our Lord gave a divine promise that it would last until the end of time), which of the many diverse religious groups in the world to day claiming to be teachers of Christian truth is to b.e found the G h u rch established by Our Eilessed Lord. Our Lord spoke of “My Church” and never of “My churches.” He gave to His Apostles the com mand and the authority to teach in His name until the end of time. He assured His Apostles that “he that heareth you. heareth Me.” He told Saint Peter “thou ..art Peter (Cephas - the Rock) and upon this rock I will build Mv Church and the gates of Hell shall rot prevail against it.” It is unthinkable that, the Church of God has ceased to ex ist. The Son of God Himself pro mised that His Church would live until the end of time, protected by Him from the teaching of er ror in matters pertaining to Faith and morals. Divine promises can not fail. It behooves all open- minded people therefore to make a serious inquiriy into the, claims advanced by the Catholic Church. A calm and serious study of these claims has convinced countless thousands of converts to the Cath olic Church in every age that the Catholic Church is in fact the Church established by Our Bless ed Lord. There are many books on the Catholic Church available in the United States. These books state the claims of the Catholic Church in clear and simple language. “The Faith Of Our Fathers” by Cardinal Gibbons is one of them. As for answering questions about Catholic belief or practice, there is available Father Conway’s “Question Box.” But I do not wish to prolong this letter in view of the lengthy other document that I am en closing. With best wishes, I remain, Yours very sincerely, GERALD P. O’HARA Archbishop-Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta Apostolic Delegate in Great Britain ARCHBISHOP'S ANSWERS Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to see vour ready collective response to my appeal for a “fair-minded study” of the Catholic Faith. You will want the answers to come in their true context. I beg your indul gence therefore for the following extended preamble to my re plies. (In deference to you I have quoted the Scriptures throughout in the Authorised Version.) I. The Catholic‘ Church holds that the constituent sources of Divine Revelation are the Sacred Scriptures and Tradition. By Tra dition we mean what has been handed down from the beginning in the practice and teaching of the Church. In fact the two sources are one, for: (1) The Sacred Scrip tures themselves are only known to us as God’s word because they have been received as such since the beginning by the Church. (2) Our Lord commissioned His Apostles to teach “all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew XXVIII, 20). He nowhere specifically told them to make writing the medium of their teaching. (3) The inspired writings of the Apostles nowhere claim to give an exhaustive ac count of Our Lord’s Revelation; in fact they quite clearly deny that this has been done. “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book . . . and there are also many other things which Jesus did which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” John XXI. 30. XXII, 25). (4) Elsewhere, II Peter, III, 16, they state that even the truths they do transmit need explanation. Without the right understanding difficult pass ages prove perilous to man’s sal vation. (5) The determining of the Canon of Sacred Scripture re quired not only time but also au thoritative decisions. They were taken by the men to whom had been passed down the commission of Jesus Christ to teach all na tions. When they were taken the Church of Christ had existed in the full exercise of her powers for several centuries. The guidance of the faithful during those years and the right understanding of Christ’s message was given, as it is today, by the living voice of the Church. This was in accord ance with the directive of St. Paul: “Brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our epistle” (II Thessalonians 15) and to Timothy: “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same com mit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also” (II Timothy, 11, 2). II. The Catholic Church there for holds that the Sacred -Scrip tures “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, have God for their author and as such have been delivered to the Church” (the Vatican Council) but they cannot be rightly under stood apart from the teaching and practice of the Church. The practice and teaching of the Church can never contradict the Scriptures. But they can draw out the full meaning of them and give the right interpretation. It is for this reason, for example, that both you and we keep Sunday holy and not the Sabbath. We rightly accept the word of the Church that this is in accordance with God’s Word. It would help us greatly to understand your position if you in your turn would tell us: 1. How do you decide which wi'itings are part of Sacred Scrip ture and which not? 2. On what grounds do you hold that the Sacred Scriptures are divinely inspired? 3. When conflicting interpreta tions of the Sacred text are possible (e.g. on divorce, on the meaning of the Eucharist etc.,) how does one decide which is the true one? Our guarantee on these matters is the unbi’oken tradition in the Church. What is yours? In the light of these principles I now turn to your questions. 1. Is one “saved by grace through faith . . . and not of works . . .” Grace is a pure gift from God. It is given in Baptism and con tinued throughout life. But we must co-operate with that grace. Therefore God “will x'ender to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 11, 6) and St. James says “Ye see then that by works a man is justified and not by faith only” (James 11, 24). Faith means believing what God has revealed. Part of that reevlation is that there is but one true Church. It was to His Apostles that Christ said “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” (Matthew XXVIII, 19) It was to Simon that He said “Thou art Peter (rock) and upon this rock I will build my Church.” (Mat thew XVI, 18) The commission which He gave to His Apostles “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven” (Matthew XVIII, 18) He gave also personally to Peter. “Whatsoever thou shalt bind . . .” (Matthew XVI, 19). It follows therefore that the true Church is the one to which the commission has been given by those to whom Christ gave it in the first instance. This we hold to be the Catholic Church, wjiich has preserved the unbroken succession of pastors from Peter and the Apostles. Faith therefore must include belief in this Church as having the commission from Christ to teach all. To the second part of your question, then, “Does one’s salvation depend upon a satisfactory and continu ing relationship with the Catholic Church?” The answer is yes, with the following qualifications: (a) it is not enough to be a Catholic; if a Catholic wishes to lie saved he must live up to his faith; (b) non-Catholics also may be saved if through no fault of their own they do not know that the Cath olic Church is the true Church and if they follow the light which God gives them. We believe that Christ died for all men. No one will be excluded from His mercy except through his own fault. Sin cere non-Catholics are in real relationship with the Catholic Church inasmuch as they would be Catholics if they knew it to be God’s will. We may indeed call them Catholics by desire even though that desire be unconsci ous. I have a feeling ithat if we un derstood one another well on this point we might find that we are more in agreement than is ap parent at first sight. It would be helpful to our understanding of your position if you would tell us now: (1) Do you believe good works are necessary for salvation, or is it enough for a man to pro fess ' faith in Christ? (ii) Do you believe that Christ died for all men? If so would you care to ex plain more fully the 21st article of the 1st Baptist Confession of 1646 “Jesus Christ by His death did purchase salvation for the elect that God gave unto Him; these only have interest in Him and fellowship with Him.” Do you believe in fact that a sincere Catholic can be saved? 2. “By what authority did the Catholic Church abandon the practice of immersion as the scrip tural mode of baptism, and why baptize others than those who can receive and believe the gospel for themselves?” “By Baptism we are born again of water and of the Spirit” (John III, 3 and 5) The washing with water is both Sym bolic and effective. Immersion is certainly the more vivid sign and was the general practice for centuries. But it was not the only method. It was always recognized that the methods of pouring or sprinkling’ were equally valid. Moreover since the grace of Baptism is a free gift of God it can be given to a child as well as to an adult. Baptism gives the su pernatural life. It is as free a gift as the natural life which Ged gives to the child without any work on the child’s part. The Didache tells us of baptism with out immersion, and St. Irenaeus of baptising infants, both in the 2nd Century. Our Lord in John III. 5 says ‘Unless one (Greek tis) be born again of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ He does not specify adults. St. Peter’s gaoler was bap tized with his whole household. There is no spicification of adults. (Acts XVI, 33) 3. “Revelation XXII, 19-20 con demns anyone who adds to or takes away from Divine Revela tion.” , The quotation is: ‘If anyone shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,” i.e., the book called the Apocalypse by Catholics, Revelation by Pro testants. The other books of Sacr ed Scripture add considerably to Revelation. We should agree how ever that no one may add to or subtract from Divine Revelation as it is contained in the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church. But I refer you to my preamble above, in which I pointed out that the Church does not contradict Scripture when it draws out the implications and the full meaning of it. Christ promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church (Matthew XVI, 18), thajt the Holy Ghost would teach her all things (John XIV, 16-26) and that He Himself would ,be with her all days even unto the end of the world (Mat thew XXVIII, 20). This divine assistance is a guarantee that the Church will never teach error. To your separate points: (1) and (2): Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead. Since in the words of the Scriptures “w r e are all the body of Christ and members” (I. Cor. XII, 27) we can help one another by our pray ers. In this life you, I am sure, as well as we, pray for our loved ones. We hold that death cannot end this charity. Those who have gone before have our interests at heart and pray for us, and we can pray for them if they have not yet reached their final happiness in Heaven. By -Purgatory we mean a state where souls suffer after death for a time on account of their sins. We know of its exist ence because it has been the con stant practice of the Church to pray for the dead. You may still read prayers for the dead on the Christian tombs in the Cata combs. Those early followers of Christ, knew that prayer for the damned is unavailing, prayer for the blessed unnecessary (both truths are eminently scriptural). The custom shows that from the beginning they knew of a “middle state” where those who had died as friends of Christ and yet with sins/still to be atoned for, would be prepared for Heaven. It is this practice of the Church which helps us to understand such texts as “God will render to every man according to his deeds” and that “there shall nowise en ter into Heaven anything that defileth” (Revelation XXI, 27). We are all sinners but it would be against the justice of God to deny Heaven to those whose sins have not involved a complete rejection of Him. This practice also helps us to understand the phrase in the second book of Macchabees (recognized as canonical by the Catholic Church) “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for (Continued on Page 11) >*