Father Gavazzi's Lectures in New York (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ...You say you believe the Church. Why do you believe the Church? Because the Church believes. But what does the Church believe? What I believe. Why does the Church believe? Because I believe Well--in a word, answer me: What do you and the Popish Church together believe f Why, --we believe together This is the answer, my dear brethren Because, among the Roman Catholics, blindness is a duty and an obligation. Without this blindness nobody can be a good, reliable Roman Catholic. Therefore, it is necessary to renounce reason to be a good Roman Catholic. Become a tree--become a stone--become an unreasoning beast--and yon are a good Roman Catholic. But this is not the doctrine of St. Paul. He said, give a reason for the faith that is within you. Therefore, there is no faith, no religion, where there is no discussion. In order to have a faith based on reason, --in order to embrace freely and willingly, aa a human being, a religion--it is necessary, beforehand, to be persuaded of the truth of this religion. It is necessary to discuss and examine a faith, a religion; so that, after embracing it, yon can give a satisfactory reason for your faith. If you embrace the Roman Catholic religion, because your father and mother were Roman Catholics, you are no rational believer--you are an unreasoning Catholic; an unreasoning animal. Therefore, I maintain that, without free examination, without free discussion upon the Bible, nobody can be enlightened in this spiritual work. This, also, is the declaration of the Word of God itself. Many among the Roman Catholics meet one on this point with the text quoted from the Gospel, to the effect that, " Whosoever does not obey you, does not obey me; and whosoever obeys yon, obeys me." Before these words, Christ said, " As my...