Cabinet of Catholic Information

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

While rummaging around a used-goods store, I came across a large book, the Cabinet of Catholic Information. Its precise dimensions are 11 inches by 9 inches, by 3 inches thick. The copyright was issued on Dec. 22, 1903; The book received its Imprimatur on April 14th, 1904; and this was issued by the Archbishop of New York. (The Imprimatur assures the reader that the book is doctrinally correct from the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church.) The book contains no information on when it was printed* but judging by the typeface and photography, it is similar to other 100 year-old books I have. The book is in perfect condition, with the exception of a tear on the first plate, (a colored drawing) of Mary.

I paid $2.00 for the book.

The book says it is A collection of lectures and writings of eminent Prelates and Priests of the Catholic Church in America and Europe.

I have been reading it since last week and in the days to come will present to you interesting tidbits from this book. Stick around!

FL

*Printed by W.P. O'Halloran & Co., 111 Nassau Street, New York.

[B. W.]

While rummaging around a used-goods store, I came across a large book, the Cabinet of Catholic Information. Its precise dimensions are 11 inches by 9 inches, by 3 inches thick. The copyright was issued on Dec. 22, 1903; The book received its Imprimatur on April 14th, 1904; and this was issued by the Archbishop of New York. (The Imprimatur assures the reader that the book is doctrinally correct from the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church.) The book contains no information on when it was printed* but judging by the typeface and photography, it is similar to other 100 year-old books I have. The book is in perfect condition, with the exception of a tear on the first plate, (a colored drawing) of Mary.

I paid $2.00 for the book.

The book says it is A collection of lectures and writings of eminent Prelates and Priests of the Catholic Church in America and Europe.

I have been reading it since last week and in the days to come will present to you interesting tidbits from this book. Stick around!

FL

*Printed by W.P. O'Halloran & Co., 111 Nassau Street, New York.

Sounds interesting

Keep us posted...
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[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

Here is a snippet from the Cabinet of Catholic Information. I find it especially interesting because the Imprimatur on this book was issued over 100 years ago, yet a lot of smart people who post on this site ignore this about the Roman Catholic Church:

From a lecture given by the Most Reverend P.J. Ryan, D.D., Archbishop of Philadelphia

...Any Catholic can, with one hand on the Bible, and in a solemn oath say ''Amen'' to the following propositions:

Cursed is he who commits idolatry, who prays to images or relics, or worships them for God. Amen.

Cursed is every goddess worshipper, who believes the Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature, who worships her or puts his trust in her more than in God; who believes her above her Son, or that she can in any way command Him. Amen.

Cursed is he who believes the saints in heaven to be his redeemers, who prays to them as such, or who gives God's honour to them or to any creature whatever; and he who believes priests can forgive sin, wether the sinner repent or not, or that there is any power on earth that can forgive sin without a hearty repentance and a serious amendment; and he who believes there is authority in the Pope, or in any person that can give leave to commit sin, or that for a sum of money can forgive sins; and who believes that, independently of the merits and passion of Christ, he can obtain salvation by his own works, or make codign satisfaction for the guilt of his sins or the eternal pains due to them, and he who contems the word of God or who hides it from the people in order to keep them from a knowledge of their duty and to preserve them in ignorance and error; and he who undervalues the word of God, or that, forsaking the Scriptures, chooses rather to follow human traditions than it; and he who believes the Pope can give to any one, upon any occasion whatsoever, dispensations to lie or swear falsely or that it is lawful for any one at the last hour to protest himself innocent in case he is guilty; and he who teaches it to be lawful to do anything wicked, though it be for the interest and good of ''Mother Church,'' or that any evil action may be done that good may come of it. Amen.

...Can the Papists, then, thus seriously, and without check of conscience say ''Amen'' to all these curses? Yes they can and they are ready to do so whensoever and as often as it shall be required of them.

I used to think that all Catholics were idolaters until I met a born-again Catholic back in 2002. I think it was in October of that year. That man helped me remove a large beam from my eye.

FL

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

While reading Silvertusk's thread on evangelist Todd Bentley, I was reminded of something I had read about a year ago written by evangelist Steve Brown in his book, A Scandalous Freedom:

Most bad theology is bad psychology. A neurotic person will probably choose to believe neurotic things about God and religion. A mean person will find a reason to be mean in his or her theological commitments, and a Pollyanna person will probably have a Pollyanna belief system. We see truth through our own emotional glasses, and that makes it very hard to separate the true from the tainted.

Too often, an angry pagan will become an angry Christian, a pagan with a bad self-image will become a Christian with a bad self-image and a defeated pagan will become a defeated Christian...

Evangelist Steve Brown is Presbyterian and his book was copyrighted in 2004, 101 years after the Cabinet of Catholic Information which carries this distant echo:

There is always a difficulty about our treatment of the supernatural. However we may have tried to bring it home to our understandings, and to master it in all its details, there is always a consciousness that we have failed. Even when we call to our assistance the Word of God, and the Fathers of the Church, to enable us by study to comprehend our subject fully, yet there remains an uneasy feeling that we have mastered not our subject, but our idea of it - that our words have merely gone to express our own ideas, but have been utterly inadequate to describe that supernatural truth...*

I cringe whenever I hear of ''healing'' ministries, or ''prosperity'' ministries, or ''happiness'' ministries. While I know that God can make me well, wealthy and Whoopie!...but...mostly, He will choose not to for His power is made perfect in my weakness.**

As evangelist Brown and the Cabinet have pointed out, we tend to read into the Scriptures the meaning we will have for them.

FL

*written by Reverend P.A. Sheehan, D.D.
**2 Cor 12:9

[B. W.]

[quote="Fürstentum Liechtenstein']...As evangelist Brown and the Cabinet have pointed out, we tend to read into the Scriptures the meaning we will have for them.

FL...[/quote]

Excellent post FL - do you know if there is by chance another copy of the Cabinet book around?
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[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

do you know if there is by chance another copy of the Cabinet book around?

If you google ''Cabinet of Catholic Information'' a few sellers will show up:

http://www.promultis.com has one in good condition at $49.95 + shipping,
http://www.biblio.com has one in unknown condition at $40.00 + shipping,
http://www.tomfolio.com has one in poor condition at $22.00 + shipping.

All sellers are in the USA.

(I got a pretty good deal at $2.00 for a book in almost mint condition.)

FL

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

Under a section of Cabinet of Catholic Information entitled ''Questions Asked By Protestants,'' I thought the following may interest you. Answers were by the Rev. M. Philipps, Rector of Saint Joseph's Church, Buffalo, N.Y. The style is conversational and is as follows: a Protestant asks a question in italics and the answer follows:

Why do you baptize children?

Because Christ said: ''Unless a man be born again of the water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven...'' John 3,5
The words ''unless a man'' (nisi quis) allow of no distinction between young and old, they mean children and adults.

What do the words ''to be born again'' mean?

They mean that as we received natural life at our birth, so in baptism we receive a supernatural life by the application of water and the Holy Ghost. This is how Christ explained it to Nicodemus in St. John 3.

But Jesus said: ''Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'' Children cannot be taught, therefore, they need not be baptized?

Jesus spoke here of grown up people, who, if they wish to be baptized have to be taught first; in children, however, this is not necessary, because God can remit the original sin and give them spiritual life simply by being baptized, as He did to the Jewish children who were circumcised on the eigth day, and when faith was presumed in them.

But Jesus said: ''Suffer the little children to come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'' If the kingdom of heaven is theirs, they need not to be baptized?

Yes, the kingdom of heaven is for children as well as for grown-up people, provided they be baptized. Jesus said in a similar manner: ''Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.''

And he certainly wants the poor in spirit to be also baptized, after he said: Unless any one be born again of the water and of the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

FL

[cslewislover]

My experience with Catholics so far has not made me feel like they go by those cursed entries. The one you just posted today, about baptising children, I just can't buy. Their justification and reasoning seems like it's from outside of the bible. We need to have faith in Christ until the end, not depend on a work someone else did for us when we were young. To me, it just doesn't make any sense in relation to the entirety of the NT.

[Byblos]

My experience with Catholics so far has not made me feel like they go by those cursed entries. The one you just posted today, about baptising children, I just can't buy. Their justification and reasoning seems like it's from outside of the bible. We need to have faith in Christ until the end, not depend on a work someone else did for us when we were young. To me, it just doesn't make any sense in relation to the entirety of the NT.

- Baptism is not a work, it's a gift (the means, along with the gift of faith, by which God's free gift of grace is bestowed)
- Infant baptism is not indigenous to catholicism and very much scripturally defensible

[cslewislover]

Thanks for posting that, Byblos, but I still can't see it. Maybe it's OK to do, and maybe it was done in households and such - I dont' know. However, I don't think that it will automatically make a person have faith later on. I do think faith is both a personal decision and a working of God (God gives each a measure of faith). To baptize someone without their full knowledge or consent, seems like it's forcing both them and God into a decision. Being born again is a different issue, in my view, because of personal experience and from what many others have told me of their own experiences. It also seems like it's an issue that divides the body of Christ unnecessarily, since we obvioulsy don't understand it fully. I wouldn't know how to make it better, except to accept one another's view as thoughtful and biblically based.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

My experience with Catholics so far has not made me feel like they go by those cursed entries. The one you just posted today, about baptising children, I just can't buy. Their justification and reasoning seems like it's from outside of the bible. We need to have faith in Christ until the end, not depend on a work someone else did for us when we were young. To me, it just doesn't make any sense in relation to the entirety of the NT.

You may be jumping the gun here. And, you have to understand that I can only present snippets from a book that is 3 inches thick. So, I can't always do a good job presenting the context...especially since I'm a two-finger typist and these entries take up quite a lot of my time.

Also, as an eariler post of mine regarding the Cabinet makes clear, Catholicism does teach the importance of a saving faith:

[Cursed is he] who believes priests can forgive sin, wether the sinner repent or not, or that there is any power on earth that can forgive sin without a hearty repentance and a serious amendment... and who believes that, independently of the merits and passion of Christ, he can obtain salvation by his own works, or make codign satisfaction for the guilt of his sins or the eternal pains due to them...

-from my post of Tuesday, September 9th, above.

FL

[cslewislover]

I know FL. I had a mother-in-law who was Catholic and pretty arrogant about it, and at her wake they just kept praying to Mary. I also have a friend who's mother-in-law told her that she was going to go to hell after taking communion with Catholics at a home fellowship. I have a sister-in-law who is an interesting Catholic, who attends ecumenical things. I have another sister-in-law who is quiet about her Catholicism but makes me feel like my mother-in-law did. So, besides reading things about Catholics, these have been my experiences, which mostly are not positive. I know there are a great many saved and pleasant Catholics out there, and I like reading some of their writings and their biographies. I guess my overall experience has made me feel like they think they are better than us protestants. So, that's where I come from.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

I know FL. I had a mother-in-law who was Catholic and pretty arrogant about it... I have (...) a sister-in-law who is quiet about her Catholicism but makes me feel like my mother-in-law did. So, besides reading things about Catholics, these have been my experiences, which mostly are not positive. I know there are a great many saved and pleasant Catholics out there, and I like reading some of their writings and their biographies. I guess my overall experience has made me feel like they think they are better than us protestants. So, that's where I come from.

Religious people are some of the meanest people you'll ever meet. There is something about religion that - in certain types of people - brings out the worst of the flesh: pride, envy, cruelty. (The 9/11 terrorists were religious...)

Some Catholics have a saving faith, some Protestants have a saving faith. Many just have Religion.

FL

[rodyshusband]

I know FL. I had a mother-in-law who was Catholic and pretty arrogant about it... I have (...) a sister-in-law who is quiet about her Catholicism but makes me feel like my mother-in-law did. So, besides reading things about Catholics, these have been my experiences, which mostly are not positive. I know there are a great many saved and pleasant Catholics out there, and I like reading some of their writings and their biographies. I guess my overall experience has made me feel like they think they are better than us protestants. So, that's where I come from.

Religious people are some of the meanest people you'll ever meet. There is something about religion that - in certain types of people - brings out the worst of the flesh: pride, envy, cruelty. (The 9/11 terrorists were religious...)

Some Catholics have a saving faith, some Protestants have a saving faith. Many just have Religion.

FL

Extremely well stated.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

It is time for another installment from the Cabinet of Catholic Information, a book copyrighted in 1903. Again, these excerpts from the chapter Questions Asked By Protestants, written by Rev. M. Philipps, Rector of St. Joseph's Church, Buffalo, N.Y.

Is not the Bible sufficient to teach us what we have to believe in order to be saved?

No, because in the Bible are many words and sentences of essential truth, which can be explained in different ways, and many things in the Bible are hard to understand, especially for those not versed in history, philology, theology, etc. ...

Can we Protestants be certain that we have the right and complete Bible?

No, you are not certain of the exact canon or set of the 72 books that constitute the Bible. You do not know whether the translation of your Bible is the correct one; and you are not certain of the true interpretation of the Bible.

Why can Protestants not be certain of the true sense of the Bible?

The very fact that Protestants to-day are divided in so many sects, contradicting each other in essential things, and each claiming to draw the true sense out of the Bible, is proof that they have not the true sense of the Bible.

Does not the Holy Ghost inspire every individual to understand the true meaning in reading the Bible?

If the Holy Ghost had inspired the two hundred* leaders of the different protestant denominations of to-day they would all believe alike, and there would be but one Church. The Holy Ghost does not inspire contradictions.

Food for thought!

FL

*200 denominations in 1900. 100 years later, there are close to 30,000 denominations. Ouch!