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Modern Morality-Wreckers

(Reprinted from the “Catholic Mind”)

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<J351VL

A Grave Moral Evil
A Pastoral Letter to All Their Flocks from the
Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland, Lent, 1927

Dearly Beloved Brethren and Dear Children in Jesus

Christ:

You are well aware that, as chief Pastors, the Bishops

of the Church are called upon to nourish with sound doc-

trine and to safeguard from error the flocks entrusted to

their charge. It is this duty which St. Paul enjoins upon

St. Timothy when he says: “I charge thee, before God

and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead,

. .
.
preach the word : be instant in season, out of season

:

reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For

there shall be a time when they shall not endure sound

doctrine, but according to their own desires, they will heap

to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will in-

deed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be

turned unto fables” (2 Timothy iv, 1-4). You are also

aware that at certain times, and in circumstances of grave

moment, not only the Bishops in their respective Dioceses,

but the Hierarchy of the country as a whole, in a joint

Pastoral letter, may feel itself called upon to discharge

this duty. These conditions we believe exist at the pres-

ent time.

I. The Evil

For many years the practice of what is known as birth

control has been brought prominently before all classes

of the community, by means of lectures, newspapers,

books, clinics, and all the various channels available for

disseminating information. It is in reality not birth con-

trol at all but birth prevention, or more properly preven-

tion of conception; and in this sense it must be under-

stood throughout. The practice itself has acquired such

publicity, and has become the topic of such general con-

versation as to take away those grounds of hesitation

1



2 A GRAVE MORAL EVIL

which we certainly should have had in addressing you on

a subject of so great delicacy. On the other hand, this
practice has found so many advocates amongst men

—

many of them of great probity and ability—who, with
arguments of a most dangerous and plausible kind, seek

to propagate it, and thereby inflict incalculable moral and

physical evil on the nation, that we deem it our duty, as

guardians of the flock of Christ, to take steps in good time

to protect you against the practice, pointing out to you

clearly and emphatically the teaching of the Church with

regard to it.
;

II. Why Condemned

What then, Beloved Brethren, is that teaching? It is

simply this, that birth control, as expounded and incul-

cated today, no matter what the object which it may have

in view, is intrinsically evil, as being a grave violation of

the law of Nature, and on that account, a grave violation

of the law of God, and of the law of Marriage itself. As

such, therefore, in every individual case and in all con-

ceivable circumstances this practice is inexcusable before

God, and is mortally sinful, and must be numbered

amongst those grave offences of which the Apostle speaks

when he says that, “they who do such things shall not ob-

tain the Kingdom of God” (Gal. v, 21).

III. The Law of Nature

To understand the grounds of this teaching you will

remember that a wise Creator has implanted in man cer-

tain appetites, desires, or tendencies, accompanied by fac-

ulties and powers to satisfy them, with a view to the good

of mankind and of man himself, namely, the preservation,

continuance, and well-being of the human race. This is

their immediate destined end established by the Author of

Nature. Such, for example, are the appetites for food

and drink in order to sustain life; for society, to meet

man’s need for companionship
;
for knowledge, to satisfy

his intellectual needs, and so with the rest. These desires

are natural and necessary and in themselves good. And

for a man to use the faculty for the purpose of attaining

the end intended is good and morally right, for it is to act



A GRAVE MORAL EVIL 3

according to rational human nature and to the very law of

his being; to use it in order to defeat the end is morally

bad, for it is acting contrary to Nature.

And herein precisely consists the evil of perverting a

natural faculty
;

it is the deliberate misuse of a power im-

planted in man by Nature and therefore by the God of

Nature, and employing it in order to frustrate the end for

which it was bestowed. Such perversion is therefore con-

demned according to an elementary standard of morality

known by human reason itself, which has been thus ap-

propriately expressed: “The rule not to use a faculty in

such a way as to oppose the realization of its natural end

is universally and absolutely valid. There is not a single

exception to it. To use a faculty in such a way as to

make its natural end impossible of realization is intrin-

sically unnatural and bad. There could be no more direct

and unequivocal violation of Nature than this. It is the

complete perversion of Nature's purposes and needs."

Now see how this principle applies to the matter with
which we are dealing. In the practice of birth control we

have the perversion of a natural faculty, which was or-

dained by the Creator for one purpose only, the procrea-

tion of children, but is deliberately employed for a con-

trary purpose. The appetite or tendency is indeed grati-

fied, but the end intended by Nature itself is frustrated.

The act is therefore immoral, as being clearly a violation

of the law of Nature and of the law of God, the Author

of Nature. Just as (to use a further illustration) lying

is immoral, because it is the use of the faculty of speech

to defeat the natural purpose of speech, which is the ex-

pression of the thoughts and convictions of the mind
;
and

just as suicide is immoral, because it violates Nature’s law

of self-preservation, which the whole powers and faculties

of man’s being tend to maintain
;
so birth prevention is im-

moral, because it is using a faculty of Nature of set pur-

pose to render impossible the specific end for which it

was given. It is verily and indeed prevention, prevention

of the fulfilment of the designs of God.

IV. The Law of Marriage

But the immorality of this practice may be seen also

from another point of view—namely the law of Mar-



4 A GRAVE MORAL EVIL

riage. The primary end of marriage as instituted by Al-

mighty God is the begetting and rearing of offspring for

the perpetuation of the human species. This He clearly
intimated to the first pair when He gave them His bless-
ing for that purpose and said: “Be fruitful and multiply

and fill the earth.” It is true there are secondary ends in

view in the state of matrimony, such as mutual help and

society, and a means of allaying the concupiscence of the

flesh. But these can never be substituted for the primary

end, and still less be allowed to thwart it, and the primary

end is so essential that it must never be positively ex-

cluded even on one single occasion in the use of marriage.

But those who indulge in the unnatural practice referred

to, do positively intend to exclude it in attempting to pre-

vent offspring being born. They therefore sin, and sin

grievously. The specific means which the Creator de-

signed to prevent the extinction of the human race, this

the ingenuity of our times has set about to thwart and

render futile
;
so that, it may be truly said, if the Creator

did not continue to take the perpetuation of the human

race into His Own Hands and overrule the perverted will
of man, not individually but generally, the disappearance

of the human species would be in sight. Then what has

been truly called race-suicide would be the retribution of

Nature upon man who dared to pervert its instincts from

their destined end. And so convinced of this have the

Governments of certain countries become—America,
France, Canada, New Zealand, and other Dominions, to
mention a few examples—that they have passed laws
making it a penal offence to publish and distribute birth-

control literature. Governments will tolerate many things,

but one thing they cannot afford to tolerate, and that is a

propaganda which endangers the very life of the State;

and it is quite certain that a nation cannot survive if its

cradles are empty, or its families are limited to less than

the number of children that are required for national

preservation.

Surely then, beloved children, it must be clear to all

persons whose minds have not been warped by false teach-

ing, or whose natures have not been corrupted by sinful

indulgence, that even in the dictates of Nature alone they

will find a complete refutation of those who would teach

and enjoin the lawfulness of marital intercourse and the



A GRAVE MORAL EVIL
mi

5

lawfulness of birth prevention at the same time—just as
if the law of Nature could speak with contradictory

voices.

V. Holy Scripture

But as you must know, Almighty God does not leave

us to the guidance of Nature alone when it is a question

of morality. He speaks to us with His own articulate
Voice, and in the matter of which we are treating His

Voice is loud and unequivocal.

The Sacred Scriptures frequently refer to the fruit-

fulness of spouses as a great and unqualified blessing,

whilst barrenness is regarded as a reproach
;
and record

that one of the greatest blessings which the Almighty

could promise to His faithful servant was that He would
multiply his posterity “as the stars of Heaven and as the

sand that is by the seashore.” And domestic experience

and the testimony of all peoples do but bear out the truth

of the Scriptural teaching; for it will be generally found

that the best, the happiest, and the healthiest families are

the large or at least the normal families. They are the

best school for the training and development of children,

and parents in the evening of their days have the joy and

consolation of seeing their children to the third and fourth

generation, and of receiving their love and gratitude, and

if need be also their help. In no class are children a

greater blessing than among the toiling masses of the peo-

ple whose lot is hard enough in this life, and it is these

precisely that the birth-control campaign if successful

would deprive of their last privilege and their highest nat-

ural joy—the delights of family life.
But we refer to the Holy Scripture in particular to see

the way in which the anger of the Almighty was kindled

against one who deliberately destroyed the fruitfulness of

wedlock, and who, being the first recorded offender in this

respect, may well be considered the prototype of such of-

fenders today and during all time. His infamy has been

immortalized in the sin which bears his name. It was

Onan the son of Juda, who is said by the inspired writer

to have been guilty of “a detestable thing,” on account of

which he was slain by God. It would almost seem that,

at the beginning of the human race, God had intended to



6 A GRAVE MORAL EVIL

make an example of Onan as a salutary warning to poster-

ity, so that seeing his prostrate figure lying there, they

might never be tempted to lay waste the fruitfulness of

His vineyard.

VI. The Voice of the Catholic Church

But, Beloved Children in Jesus Christ, it is not on ac-

count of arguments drawn from Ethics and Scripture

alone that we base our condemnation of the practice of

birth control. Either of these sources would, indeed, be

sufficient to convince any right-minded persons of the sin-

fulness of this practice. But we have other grounds on

which we base our condemnation, and that is the living

voice of the Catholic Church with which Our Lord prom-

ised that the Holy Spirit would abide for ever and teach

her all truth. The Catholic Church which, as you know,

is infallible in her teaching on Faith and morals, and

which even now non-Catholics must admit is the greatest

moral force in the world, she, with full knowledge of all

that is implied in the practice of birth control, teaches

now as she has ever taught, that it is a grave sin, separat-

ing us from the friendship of God, and rendering us liable

to eternal punishment. That such teaching, emanating as

it does from her who is “the pillar and ground of the

truth,” should deter her children from ever being led

astray by the apostles of birth control is indeed only to

be expected; but seeing at the same time, that this teach-

ing has been the belief of Christianity from its beginning

on till now, that all its great doctors, who have made moral

questions their special study, and whose intellectual con-

clusions have never been in danger of being biased by any

selfish end, or warped by any moral obliquity, have con-

curred in this teaching, surely this fact must have force

even with those outside the Catholic Church, and make

them feel that such teaching cannot be set aside which is

supported by so great testimony.

VII. A False Principle

We know, Beloved Children, that many specious rea-
sons are assigned by the advocates of birth control for its

moral justification. But there is no practice for which



A GRAVE MORAL EVIL 7

men are not ready to find a reason so long as the prac-

tice in question enlists their passions or their personal in-

terests in its favor. But when all these reasons are exam-

ined, it will be found that they are based on a principle

which is utterly false, namely that the end justifies the

means. We may never do evil that good may come of it.
So immutably true is this principle that we may say with

reverence that Almighty God Himself could not permit

us to infringe it without contradicting His Divine at-

tributes, and that means without ceasing to be God.

Whether, then, it be in the interests of economy, or of

greater personal freedom, or political considerations, or

even the interests of health
;
no matter in what interest we

may act, if the act itself is morally bad, no ulterior con-

sideration in the world can ever justify it.

VIII. Fallacious Promises

And here we would add at the same time that the good

which the advocates of birth control promise, and the evil

which they seek to avoid, even on the showing of scientific

men, are generally fallacious.

1. No real but only fancied benefits can come from
outraging the laws of Nature and the Divine purpose of

Marriage. On the contrary, that real harm will result
from the immoral practice in question, we do not require

the assurance of so many and so distinguished medical

men to convince us
;
we are assured of it from the well-

known principle that the laws of Nature cannot be vio-

lated with impunity. Nature will have its revenge, which

is only another way of saying that God is not mocked,

and those who wilfully frustrate Nature find that out

later, and to their cost.

Moreover, the vice is degrading and dishonoring to

womanhood. Mere brute instinct, unnaturally gratified,

has won the day. Self-indulgence is made an end in it-

self. The spiritual and moral elements that so ennoble

conjugal union are sacrificed, and people who have given

themselves over deliberately to such a moral perversion

will find that it will not stop there but will make itself felt

in other relations of matrimonial life as well.

2. That the world is suffering from many evils, phys-

ical, social, and economic is unfortunately true, but a



8 A GRAVE MORAL EVIL

superabundance of children is not one of them. Advo-

cates of the movement for the betterment of the race paint

lurid pictures of swarms of children in what they call the

slums, undeveloped, undesirable, and “unfit/' and with the

cry of “fewer children, better children," prescribe the

remedy of birth prevention. What their particular stand-

ard of fitness is, or who gave them the right to fix one, we

do not know. But one thing we know, that the trouble is

not with the children or with the parents—in other words
with Nature—but with the inhuman economic and social
conditions in which they are condemned to live. Let these

be remedied both in town and country and leave Nature

alone, and there will be room enough and work enough to

enable all to live a reasonable human life as the good God

intended. Birth control is not a substitute for social re-

form and should not be allowed to distract attention from

the need for it. Such evils as afflict society were never

intended to be redressed by acting against the laws of

Nature. Other means must have been put at man’s dis-

posal for improving the human race than by transgressing

the law of God. And it will be found that when legislators

and men in power have followed the laws of Justice and

used the natural means at their disposal for the welfare

of the people, there will be no need to invoke the immoral

assistance of birth control.

IX. Hardships—and Their Remedy
We are well aware, indeed, that certain hardships are

inevitable in the begetting and rearing of a family. That

is one of the afflictions due to the fall of man, the bearing

with which forms part of his atonement for sin. But the

same law runs through the whole of the Religion of Jesus

Christ, the law of struggle and of sacrifice: married or

single, “through many tribulations we must enter into the

Kingdom of God" (Acts xiv, 21). At the same time, the

difficulties arising in marriage are apt to be exaggerated

and dangers foretold which have little reality. Hence

Catholics are happy in having in addition to their medical

advisers, wise and prudent spiritual advisers, in a matter

so closely affecting their conscience
;
and they should

hearken well to their advice, and rest assured that Divine

Providence will never fail those who fear God and keep

His commandments.



A GRAVE MORAL EVIL 9

But in all these hardships God has not left us without

a natural and legitimate remedy. That remedy is sug-

gested when it is remembered that He does not intend
that marriage should impose a greater burden or a severer

trial on parents than they or either of them can bear. In

certain circumstances, therefore, of grave difficulty or

danger, there is a peremptory demand that men and wom-

en made in the likeness of God should realize their great-

ness, rise to the full stature of their dignity, and by means

of their will, aided by the grace of God through which

they can do all things, sacrifice a lower to a higher good.

The power of so acting the good God puts into the hands

of all as circumstances arise.. It is self-control sanctified

by the grace of God; for in marriage no more than in any

other activity of life are people exempt from the law of

prudence and self-restraint. And the virtue of conjugal

chastity, that beautiful ornament of the state of wedlock,

will never be wanting to those who earnestly seek and

pray for it.

X. The Sacrament of Marriage

And speaking as we are to the children of God and

members of the Body of Christ, we would conclude by

lifting up your minds to view marriage with the eyes of

faith in its supernatural character as a Sacrament of the

Church. You know that our Blessed Lord raised it to

this dignity, and that among the baptized the Sacrament

of Marriage is a sacred symbol of the union between

Christ and His Church; and that on this account the holy

Apostle teaches that husbands should love their wives as

Christ also loved the Church, “that He might present it to
Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or

any such thing, but that it should be holy and without

blemish” ((Ephes. v, 27). You know, too, that a special

grace is bestowed by the Sacrament on those who receive

it worthily, to enable them to fulfil the duties of their holy

state
;
and that accordingly your principal intention when

marrying is not only to have children but to have children

for God, and to bring them up in His holy fear and love

in order to increase the number of His faithful servants

on earth and the glorious company of the Saints in

Heaven. The appreciation of such a high and holy end



10 A GRAVE MORAL EVIL

will itself fill the soul with horror of anything that would

profane the sanctity of marriage. Strengthened rather by

the graces of the Sacrament, faithful spouses will be en-

abled to meet with fortitude and overcome all the trials

and temptations of their state, and will enjoy even here

below the blessings which the Church prays for them,

the reward of their fidelity to the law of Nature and the

law of Christ.

May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost descend upon you and remain

with you for ever.

We remain,

Yours faithfully in Jesus Christ,

* James Augustine,

Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh.

Donald, Archbishop of Glasgow.

+ James, Bishop of Galloway.

+ John, Bishop of Dunkeld.
+ George, Bishop of Aberdeen.

+ Donald, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles.
+ Henry, Bishop of Tipasa.



Who Is To Blame!
Rt. Rev. John L. Belford

Reprinted from the Brooklyn “Tablet”

I

N Liberty

,

July 23, there was an interesting and im-

pressive article by Judge Oberwager, one of the Magis-

trates of New York City. It deals with sexual temptation
and particularly with the way young women act and dress

as an influence for evil thought, desire and act on the part

of men and, especially, young men.

A magistrate meets all kinds of people, but, naturally,
he meets those who are charged with some kind of crime.

In the pleadings and testimony, he hears excuses and ac-

cusations. The accused persons try to extenuate if they

cannot deny their guilt and the injured party tries to prove

guilt and injury. In the flood of testimony the judge can

see revealed the very hearts of men and discern the mo-

tives which led them to perpetrate the crime of which they

are accused. No school of psychology can equal the court
room.

Years of Experience

Years of experience have taught Judge Oberwager

what he tells in this article. In writing it, he has no pur-

pose but good. He is not a pessimist. He is not soured

by disappointment or perfidy. He is one who tries to help

his neighbors by pointing out evils which the best people

are nursing and developing in their own homes and in the

children they love.

Everyone will not agree with the Judge. In fact, sev-

eral College Presidents have recently spoken and written

convictions and declarations which contradict him and his

experience. Many women will condemn him. Mothers

will resent the blame he lays upon them for dressing their

daughters in the prevailing mode and giving them that

larger freedom which prevails in the very best homes.

Girls will resent his declaration that they are largely re-

11



12 WHO IS TO BLAME?

sponsible for the indignities which they accept and for the

vices which they enkindle by exposure, indecent conversa-

tion and immodest behavior.

The Judge is frank. He speaks of the girls he knows.
He does not give heresay. He tells what he has seen. He
gives cases which have been heard in his court. He says
these girls promote vice by their immodesty in dress, con-

versation and conduct. They read bad books. They at-

tend indecent plays and pictures. They drink strong

liquor. They dance immodestly. On the beaches, they ex-
pose themselves as much as the law will permit. They not

only allow men to caress them and handle them improp-

erly
;
they actually invite it and sneer at the man who does

not take these liberties.

Chastity Is a Joke to Many

All this, he says, leads to serious and frequent viola-

tions of chastity. Chastity, in fact, has become a joke to

modern youth. Many are not ashamed to boast that they

despise it and consider it no crime to violate it.

Naturally, the effect of these manners and this conduct

is disastrous. It breaks down the barriers which Provi-

dence has built to protect womanhood and it encourages

men and boys to make advances which are fatal to purity.

Even the women who openly trade in the vice of impurity

are complaining, the Judge says, of the inroads made on

their profession by amateurs—college girls, shop girls and
office clerks.

The Judge speaks plainly. He gives instances and evi-
dence which bear out his arraignment. What he says has

been said and preached and written before. But, as a rule,

the critics were clergymen, and some of them did more

harm than good by their extravagant exaggerations and

their violent denunciations. Besides, the usual retort of

the world to the protests of the Church is : “Oh, that is

the business of the clergy
;
they do not understand

;
they

have to find fault \”

It is good that one who is not a professional moralist

has chosen to cry out in warning and endeavor to convince

women that they are doing harm to themselves and to soci-

ety by lowering the standards which propriety has fixed

for dress, speech and conduct. It should not be necessary



WHO IS TO BLAME? 13

for society to make laws regulating decency. Decency is

one of the attributes of woman and she suffers most when
she permits it to be invaded.

Women who know what the sex appeal is—women who
are mothers—should not need warning that exposure is a
temptation. St. Paul tells us that the senses are the win-

dows of the soul
;
through them, Satan flings his fiery darts.

These are the darts of thought and desire which enkindle

the fires of lust.

Women Who Cheapen Themselves

The women who live by the sale of virtue know the

value of exposure. It is one of the tricks of the trade.

How is it that good, even holy women either cannot or
will not see that they are tempting men when they dress,

talk and act without due reserve?

We all mark our own values. If we make ourselves
cheap, we shall be counted cheap. If we act with dignity

and propriety, we shall receive respect and consideration.

Men do not love women who are loose. They may play
with them, but they do not love them. Strange as it seems,

many women do not see this. They are such fools ! They

think that attention is devotion. They do not see that the

admiration of some men is only the evidence of wrong de-

sire; that some caresses are worse than wounds; that some

provide entertainment which is nothing more than devil’s

bait. “Beware of enemies when they come in the guise of

friends.” Especially, beware
,
of those who come with

gifts. The shores of time are strewn with moral wrecks.

Many, if not most, of those wrecks are women. They owe

their fate to their inordinate desire for notice or for pleas-

ure. Blinded by vanity or deceived by appearances, they

ran on the rocks of shame.

Foolish Parents

Judge Oberwager speaks particularly of girls. Their

trouble begins at home. Indulgent parents not only per-

mit them, but encourage them to develop a craze for

pleasure. To have a good time, they must become pop-

ular. That means they must be in the swim. They must

dress, talk and act in the prevailing mode. They must be-

come “attractive.”



14 WHO IS TO BLAME?

Parents are foolish enough to take pride in what they

call the admiration their daughter receives. To help her

to attract attention and win this admiration they permit

her to run wild. The popular girl has to compromise

principle and permit liberties which degrade womanhood.

The girl who will not drink and pet and dance like a wan-

ton will be a wall-flower. The pity of it is that so many

high-minded, pure-hearted girls accept what they call the

inevitable. Saying, “they all do it,” they adopt the man-

ners and the morals of their set. What they do at first

with reluctance and shame, they soon do freely and shame-

lessly and virtue pays the price of admiration and popu-

larity.

Foolish Catholic Parents

This applies to Catholics as well as non-Catholics.

Many of our Catholic High Schools and Colleges have

yielded to what they call the spirit of the time. They

permit the students to have dances which, in some cases,

have become orgies and they wink at many violations of

decency and propriety. Of course, these schools are con-

fronted with a dread alternative. Parents will not send

their daughters to a school which is not popular. But

are we going to sell ourselves? It is not without reason

that the Holy Father has implored Catholic women to re-

sist the appeal of paganism and, remembering the sacred-

ness of their sex, set their faces against indecent dress

and shameful conduct.

Women Hold Keys of Morality

What our women are that will the world be. They

have it in their power to keep men in their place. If they

are going to cater to the desires of men, they will be de-

stroyed and, in turn, they will destroy the destroyers.

The weak point in Judge Oberwager’s article is the

danger that men will use it to excuse themselves for their

own wicked conduct. In fact, the Judge courts condem-

nation when he quotes the famous and infamous excuse of

Adam : “The woman tempted me
!”

Of all the weak excuses,, of all the contemptible pleas

which have ever fallen from human lips there is nothing

more despicable than those four words. They have been



WHO IS TO BLAME? 15

used millions of times. They were used in a recent mur-

der trial in our own city by a contemptible cur who was

whining for mercy which he did not deserve and which,

thank God, he did not receive from the jury.

Perhaps God despised Adam more for his excuse than
he did for his crime. He fell because he chose to fall. So
do we all fall. Sin is a voluntary act. There are not two

standards. Sin in man is as bad as sin in woman. There

are many circumstances in which it is worse. But it is ab-

surd and utterly wrong to excuse it. A decent man re-
spects a woman. He sees in her one of God's children.
A Christian sees in her one who has been ransomed and
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ

;
who is a living

temple of the Holy Ghost. He will no more insult or
abuse her than he will violate a church or desecrate a

tabernacle. He will treat her with the consideration and
reverence he demands for his own mother, sister or

daughter and despises the woman who encourages ad-

vances. He may tempt her, but he will respect her if she
repels him, just as he will loathe her if she accepts him.

Evil-Minded Men

Let us be honest. We know there is no excuse for the
evil-minded, foul-minded, libidinous generation of men,

Catholic and non-Catholic, young and old, whose one aim

in life is sexual gratifications.
.
They have no respect for

God. How can they respect God's children ? They work
merely that they may earn the price they must pay for the

pleasures they crave. They build up their health and their

strength merely for the purpose of being able to eat more

and more enjoy the forbidden fruit. At least seventy-five

per cent of the work of our physicians and surgeons is an

endeavor to repair the ravages done by these unclean sat-

yrs. They fill the hospitals, the madhouses, the cemeteries

—yes, they fill Hell itself with their victims.
People talk and preachers describe the mercy of God.

But there is such a thing as misrepresenting even the Di-

vine mercy. We know that the mercy of God is above all
His works

;
that there is no sin which God is not willing

and anxious to forgive; that His forgiveness is complete

and without reserve. But the sinner must repent. That

repentance must be real and sincere. It must be the work



16 WHO IS TO BLAME?

of Divine grace. No one can repent unless God grants
him the grace of repentance. He grants that grace to
those who humbly and perseveringly seek it—to those who
do what they can to deserve it. Here is where many sin-

ners fail. They get frightened at the approach of death.

They know their guilt and the fear of Hell makes them

lament and weep, but that is not repentance. Repentance

comes from the heart. It comes from the consciousness

that sin displeases the all-good God and deserves His

wrath and punishment. Then, repentance implies not only

regret, but reparation. How are these men who have sent
to Hell one or more victims, going to repent? How can
they hope for Heaven? Is the just God going to welcome

them and forever exclude their victims? Can they be

happy, conscious that these victims are forever miserable?

No doubt, the victims are lost because they have not
repented. But who made them victims? Who impor-
tuned them ? Who wove about them the net which finally
won their consent or assent?

This thought ought to make many men serious and it

ought to give some of our Catholic men good reason to

ask themselves if they have not closed the doors of Heaven

for themselves as well as for others.



The Marriage Bond

John F. Duston, S.J.

Reprinted from the “Baltimore Catholic Review

”

WE are hearing constant expressions of agreeable sur-prise at a new and widespread interest in religion,
even in quarters where anything but religious interest

might be hoped for.

World Sees Need of Religion

The fact is indeed undeniable; a rudderless, drifting,

bored world, tired of getting nowhere and dully aching

from the bitter experience of freedom from religious re-

straint, is actually realizing the quick and imperative need

of religion to save it from the complete shipwreck which

paganism always did and always must produce. But it is

equally apparent that this renewed interest in religion is,

for the most part, speculative and not practical.

While the need of religion in our civic life becomes

more insistently recognized every day, not only is little or

no attempt made to make it of vital, practical value, but, on

the contrary, the most outstanding activities, movements

and propaganda in our midst today seem vigorously bent

on destroying what shreds of practical religion are left to

the world at large.

Materialism Is Spreading

Now, this lack of practical interest in religion is due,

on the one hand, to the absolutely free propagation of

materialism, teaching its destructive doctrines when, where

and how it wishes and beating back by ridicule or intoler-

able persecution anyone who dares raise a feeble whisper

of remonstrance. On the other hand, it is due to the fact
that, generally speaking, the voice of religious authority

has been decidedly weakened.

17



18 THE MARRIAGE BOND

Even a little thought will reveal the fact that this un-

restrained spread of materialism is responsible for many

of the evils which exist among us and create the present-

day problems. To it are directly traceable the increase in

crime and suicide among the young
;
the decadence of mo-

rality and the casting aside of moral standards
;
unscrupu-

lousness in business
;
race suicide and an alarmingly deadly

increase in the divorce rate. But most of all, and what is

the dread source of all the others, materialism is responsi-

ble for the evils which have invaded the American home.

State Depends on Home

Now, the state depends absolutely on the home. Legis-

lation making for peace and prosperity can be piled to the

sky, but it is hopelessly futile with a people whom mate-
rialism and the disintegrated home have left without

standards, without self-discipline and respect for author-

ity, without reverence for law and the commands of God.

That is why the supreme and most fundamental problem

in our national life today is the problem of the home.

There is only one influence in the world which can do any-

thing to solve it—and that is the influence of religion.
Nothing but the voice of Almighty God, speaking

through religious conviction, can command and guide the

men and women who found our homes. It is real, prac-

tical religion which alone can inspire obedience to man by

first inspiring complete obedience to God.

Religion Foe of Materialism

Religion and religion alone can effectively resist and

cast out the materialism which is endeavoring to make a

mockery of the home. And it alone can sufficiently and

securely inspire the sacred trust committed to the parents

of training their little ones for citizenship in the kingdom

of God and consequently in good citizenship here on earth.

Any religious authority which is powerful enough to ef-

fect this is, therefore, in reality, the supreme safeguard

and bulwark of the state.

The plain fact is that the Catholic Church is and indi-

rectly at least, is admitted to be, the only religious author-

ity who is fearless enough and powerful enough to raise



THE MARRIAGE BOND 19

such a voice. She is fully equipped and quite eager, not

only to resist and expose materialism and its teachers,

whether in the schools, in the press, on the street corners

or in the citadels of wealth and power, but to vigorously

condemn it for the vile thing that it is and insist that it be

driven out of human lives.

Safeguard of the State

This she unquestionably does in that spot which is su-

premely precious to God and to her—the home. It, there-
fore, follows that the Catholic Church, despite all accusa-

tions which the ignorant and bigoted may make against

her, is, in reality, one of the mightiest safeguards of the

state and should be cherished as such.

It would be well, then, not only for her own children,

but for all the people to hearken to her principles and

teachings and earnestly and devoutly put them in practice

in their homes. From Jesus Christ, her Divine Master,

she has learned her ideals and fearlessly tells the world

that marriage is not a man-made or a state-made civil con-

tract with all the impermanence and unreliability attached

to such, but a sacred contract, entered into by three per-

sons, a man and a woman and God
;
and its purpose is the

peopling of the world with the children of God, who are

one day to gaze upon Him forever.

Married Unto Death

She maintains, in consequence, that marriage and the

home are permanent institutions, resting on no such vola-

tile things .as sentiment, physical attraction and compati-

bility, but on the eternal, unchangeable rock of duty and

justice, dissoluble only by God through death.

In the face of materialistic interests, she proclaims that

the supreme concern of the home is the child, for whom it
was made and whom God has placed in the parents’ hands
as His most precious possession to be guarded and sancti-

fied and to whose well-being and upbringing every other

interest must, in duty and justice, be sternly subjected.

It is the Catholic ideal, therefore, that the home re-

volves about the child
;
that the child’s welfare, temporal

and, especially, spiritual, must dictate its activities and re-



20 THE MARRIAGE BOND

lationships. In consequence since the child’s interests

need love, understanding, self-sacrifice, harmony and holi-
ness, the prime duty of husband and wife, as sworn at the
altar, is to cherish each other in mutual love and encour-

agement.

To Live Together Lovingly

They are not, as in the selfish travesty on marriage, un-

fortunately so prevalent today, to tolerate each other so

long as material advantage persists but, with the realiza-

tion that their duty to each other excels their duty to any-

one else in the world, they are to forget self and patiently

and lovingly meet life together, encouraging each other,

advancing in goodness and holiness and the love of God.

St. Paul has declared that according to God’s ideal,

held up to human nature, the wife is to be obedient to the

husband, not servilely, but lovingly. She must teach her

children obedience and reverence to him, as the agent ap-

pointed by Almighty God to head their little household.

She must inspire him to nobler, more unselfish manhood

and with love and understanding patiently assist him. It

is the husband’s duty to cherish his wife as his very soul,

to reverence her, to provide with all his power for her

well-being, to be patient with her defects and to be always

one with her in heart and mind in the rearing of their

children.

True Ideals of Home

Thus and thus only can the real and true ideals of home

be realized. Against the teachings of present-day mate-

rialism which has produced our moral laxity, our birth-

control, our lessening of respect for women; against our

bickering, childless marriages and our consequently ad-

vancing divorce rate and our weakened homes, the Cath-

olic Church raises a mighty voice in the name of Jesus

Christ and bids her children to fashion their homes on the

plan of Nazareth.

The Divine Architect who planned that home and all

other Christian homes with it, laid the foundation for a

structure which, be it palace or hovel, is in very truth, the

citadel of love, a real tabernacle of happiness, a little

earthly reflection of heaven, a little heaven on earth.



A Masterly Work!

The distinguished scholar of the Catholic University

has written a book which literally demands a place in

every library, large or small, that makes any pretence to

adequacy in American History.

The Life and Times
of

John England
1786-1842

By Rev. PETER GUILDAY

Professor of Church History, Catholic University of America

Bishop England was and is one of the outstanding

figures of the American hierarchy, and the story of his

episcopacy in the diocese of Charleston is big with the

moulding facts of early Catholicism in the United States.

The America Press, through the Thought Foundation,

is happy to present this scholarly work to the Catholics

and non-Catholics of this Country.

Price $10.00

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