Book: "This is Catholicism" by John Walsh S.J.
John Walsh S.J. ©
1959 "This is Catholicism" A Comprehensive and Lucid Explanation of the
Catholic Faith In Question and Answer Form
It is impossible to run the delicate, high-powered mechanism of a human life in
defiance of its Author's directions. Anyone who tries it is due for a smashup.
Many protestants and other Christian sects contend that the Bible comprises but
65 books because when Martin Luther was translating the Bible into German, he
judged that seven complete books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus,
I and II Machabees) which for centuries had been reverenced as integral parts of
the Old Testament did not merit that title. Luther therefore relegated them to
an appendix, describing them as of doubtful authenticity. Protestant editions of
the Scripture are considerably shorter than the Catholic version. This disparity
raises again the basic question: who is competent to decide such issues? Was
Martin Luther infallible when he discarded this seven books? If so, what were
his credentials? How is his inerrancy proved? If on the other hand, he was not
infallible, why did the Protestant churches accept his decision on such an
important point? Why do they continue to accept it now? How can a modern
Protestant assure himself that he does not in fact possess a mutilated Bible.
Luther excised considerably more than these seven books since he excluded from
the New Testament: Hebrews, James, Jude and the Apocalypse (or Revelation). For
a century after his death, Luther's followers continued to omit these books and
even went beyond their master by casting out also II Peter, II and III John. In
the seventeenth century the Lutherans reinstated all these books, including
those which Luther himself had banned, into the New Testament. Lutherans
continued, however, to omit from the Old Testament the seven books which had not
met with Luther's approval
If the normal wage is not sufficient to cover the needs of a workingman who has
an unusually large family to support then this obligation falls on society at
large-that is, on employers, labor unions, and the government. These groups are
all jointly obliged to see to it that a man with an unusually large family
receives an income sufficient to support it. The reason for this is that a man
who fathers a large family makes a greater contribution to the good of human
society, to the defense of a country, to its economic progress, and to the
future growth and strength of labor unions themselves, than a worker who is
childless or who has a normal size family. Hence human society management labor
and the state are jointly obliged in justice to make sure that a man with a
large family is sufficiently compensated for his services to their welfare,
perhaps by a system of family allowance or by some other arrangement. Nor do
sound economics and common sense contradict this view. For if in striving to
support a large family a worker ruins his health, or his wife must neglect her
children to seek outside employment, and if, as a consequence, the children
become wards of the state or grow up to be highly expensive criminals, then
society is ultimately compelled to pay much higher bills than a system of family
allowances would ever have cost.
There are certain signs which will indicate to an employer whether or not he is
paying a living wage. If, in order to obtain the necessities of life, an
employee with a normal family is actually compelled to work nights, for example,
or if his wife also is compelled to work, then the employer can be quite certain
that he is not paying a living wage.
John Walsh S.J. ©
1959 "This is Catholicism" A Comprehensive and Lucid Explanation of the
Catholic Faith In Question and Answer Form
See also:
- Jesus Christ
- Believer
- Satan
- 666
- Theism/Atheism
- Death
- Salvation
- GOOD SAMARITAN
- FALSE TEACHERS
- RICH DECEIVED
- QURAN ERRORs
- Christ Passion
- Scripture
- MARTIN LUTHER INTRODUCTION
- JOSEPH AND JESUS
- DAVINCi CODE
- RFID
- Excluded Verses
- Religion
- St Basil Hymnal
- Christian Wallpaper
- Believes