Religion In The News
(Quotations will not be given in their fulness due to a lack of space and the fact that many are copyrighted articles and cannot be quoted without permission. — RLC)
Newsweek — "For then are they truly monks when they live by the labor of their hands as did Our Father and the Apostles." — From the Holy Rule of St. Benedict. According to a recent article in Newsweek, the above rule permits members of the contemplative orders of the Roman Catholic Church to practice nearly anything they see fit, that would bring in funds to support them. The Carthusians (one of these orders) perfected Chartreuse, an alcoholic liqueur, in 1735. The production of this liqueur has been carried on by them since that time at the monastery of La Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble, France. A fifth of the product, green, 110 proof, sells for $9, while the yellow product, 86 proof, sells for only $8. Benedictine Champagne was first concocted by a monk of that order in 1510. The Benedictines made it for more than 280 years, but since 1863 it has been produced by a secular manufacturer. The Little Brothers of Italy, another Catholic order, have been making Alpestre (an alcoholic beverage) since 1904. The Brothers of the Christian Schools in California have been making wine for commercial purposes since 1937. They have two wineries and a huge cellar, all manned by these "Christian" brothers, and turn out hundreds of thousands of bottles every year. Here's a quotation from a student of the subject: "The greatest single influence upon wine has been the church. Indeed, the development of the wine has accompanied the spread of Christianity. Wine was needed for sacramental functions and the good father recognized its food value." Sounds like some of my brethren who try to justify drinking and drunkenness by Paul's statement to Timothy: "Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine oft infirmities."
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The Family Digest (a Catholic magazine) — In an article by Joseph A. Breig, evidently an authority, since this magazine is authorized by the Catholic church, which has to do with a Catholic's attitude toward Christmas, we find out a little more about the origin of "Christmas." He says, "The very Christmas is a compression of the word Christ-Mass. The reason for Christmas is the Mass of Christ. Without the Mass, Christmas is woefully incomplete. And without Communion, the Mass is incomplete for us; we are not participating in it as fully as we might." Well, since some of my brethren have now rejected the exclusive example of the Lord's Supper (Acts 20:7) they will have no trouble going along with the Catholics on this. They can have communion any day during the week or every day, for they say that no Bible example is binding insomuch as excluding something else.
R. L. (Bob) Craig, Ranger, Texas They say we MUST take it on the Lord's Day but we are not excluded from taking it on any other lay of the week also, or, every day of the week. Well, so do the Catholics.
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Star-Telegram — "Don Bartolomeo del Gaudio, a Catholic priest, collapsed after drinking from the chalice during mass in a chapel at Castellamare near here. (Naples) A church helper had mistaken a bottle of hydrochloric acid, used for cleaning the marble floor, for wine. The priest was taken to a hospital where after emergency treatment, he was declared out of danger."
The above is very peculiar in view of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. "By the consecration of the bread and of the wine a conversion is made of the wine a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His Blood; — " Truly, truly, it wasn't wine on this occasion but that shouldn't matter, for notice another quotation taken from the same source as the above, The Question Box, a Catholic publication: "If God can create the universe out of nothing, why cannot He change the substance of bread and wine into His Body and Blood?" They believe that God acts through this priest, and in his consecration of the wine it actually and literally becomes the blood of Christ. Now, using their logic (?); If God is actually acting through this priest in his consecration, why can he not turn this hydrochloric acid into the literal blood of Christ? Could it be that God is not acting through their priests at any time; that he knows nothing of the Catholic Mass and the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation; that he intended the Lord's Supper to be just what he said, a memorial: "This do in memory of me.?" Why, it's enough to make a Catholic priest or a thinking Catholic lose his faith in Catholic doctrine, to take a drink from the chalice expecting to taste blood and instead find out that it is exactly the same substance it was before he consecrated it, hydrochloric acid.
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Arkansas Democrat — The thing under consideration from said paper is a picture captioned, "Daughter of Senator Kennedy Baptized." The daughter is a babe in arms, approximately one month old, perhaps less. The baptizer is Archbishop Richard J. Cushing. The place: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. This is just a reminder that Senator John F. Kennedy will probably be the Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1960. We certainly do not intend to enter politics but it would be well for preachers everywhere to begin warning the people about the aspiration of the Catholic church to be head of the state. The election of any Catholic to a public office is a step in that direction. Of course, the Senator has said that should the government and the Catholic church conflict, if he were president, he would stand with the government first. But, in view of the fact that members of the Catholic church, according to some of their priests, under certain circumstances, are permitted to bear false witness, I wonder how we can accept his statement at face value. Notice some things that Kennedy, as a Catholic, has agreed to uphold: 1. The state has not the right to the entire direction of public schools. 2. The state does not have the right to separate itself from the church (Catholic). 3. The church (Catholic) has the right to employ force. 4. The church (Catholic) has the right to claim dominion in temporal things for the clergy and the pope. 5. The church (Catholic) has the right to require that the Catholic religion shall be the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all others. And on and on we could go. Do you want a man who is dedicated to those ideals in the White House? Well, I don't, and I shall do everything in my power to keep him out.