Welsh Journals

L. I. C. & M. F. '°* ?&W (Cambro Breton Mission), Llanrwst, North Wales. Vol. I. 28th AUGUST 1910. No. 4. •fa «&» *fa 4* 4* "$* 4* •fr 4* 4* 4* 4? •&* *fa •$* 4* 4* 4? *fa 4? 4* 4* 4* *fa *fa *fa 4* 4* 4* 4? 4* 4* 4* *fa w: PROFESSION OF FAITH. ------------->—•••-^-------— B magnify our Catholicism and are proud of it. We intend no defiance to the vast majority who in this country are contented with a Christianity which in our view is poor, attenuated and erroneous. We offer no menace to the State, in which as citizens we claim an interest, and with which we are content. We ask for nothing from the State beyond what all its subjects look for. We are pleased, for the Church's sake, when the Church meets with public recognitiou and respect, but for ourselves it is sufficient that we are what we are. We hold aloof as a body from party politics ; we promote no noisy organisations ; we put forth no schemes for the world's regeneration in which inadequate Christianity is mixed up with doubtful ethics. We have the light and the traditions of the Catholic Church ; these we are ready and anxious to impart to all men ; but in the meantime we rejoice in possessing them ourselves. We are happy in our citizenship of the Universal Church,—happy, and solicitous to be worthy of it. We are happy iu our profound belief in the Spirit and its visible presence. We profess our fellowship with the Catholic Church of all the nineteen centuries since the day of the Spirit's manifestation—with her Pontiffs, her Councils, her dogmas, her practice and her Saints. We profess and rejoice in our union and society with the Church and the Pontiff of our own day —with her teaching, her policy and her life. To us our membership of the Church is more than our citizenship of our country, more than the loving ties of family ; and, wherever there are Catholics, they are more to us than the brothers of our blood and race. The visible and practical unity of the one Church is higher and dearer than any other earthly unity... In what measure and in what hour the Faith is to come back to this country we do not pretend to guess. But we firmly hold that there is no true prosperity for her until she acknow= ledges the Church once more. We are not deceived by her material greatness, by her armies and her navies, her wealth, her commerce, her far-swaying flag. These things are not Christ¬ ianity, and they carry no pledge of the world to come. It is only the Kingdom of the Sion.-of Christ that can save men in prosperity or save them in adversity. That Kingdom may be obscured sometimes. So is the sun. Like the sun, the Catholic Church may be sometimes hidden from this or that nation, this or that generation, by the clouds of human error or by the revolutions and the vicissitudes of wilful and sinful humanity. But by prayer and by grace her native visibility can always prevail and break through. To us she is plain and sovereign, and we follow her. And, however swollen and strong the river in front of us, the waters will divide when the Ark of the Covenant touches them ; and, however hopeless may appear the conquest of the land, the walled cities will crumble and the enemy disappear when it shall please the Lord of Hosts. Bishop Hedley, O.S.B,