this conflict and desolate the country. Some say it is ignorance, and advocate compulsory education; others say it is pauperism, and advocate restricted immigration; and others, still, say it is Romanism, and clamor for the expulsion of the Jesuits. But no! the abomination of desolation is the same to-day as ever — the spirit of irreligion itself.
Brethren, we have considered elsewhere a few of the many evil consequences that ensue from a lack of faith in the truths of our holy religion — that ensue from the spirit of infidelity. There are three kinds of infidels; those who deny all truth and all reality in things, those who admit only natural truths to the utter exclusion of the supernatural, and those who, while professing to believe, live as though they did not believe. All these systems of irreligion are equally repugnant to right reason and equally odious in the sight of God. Again, on the other hand, are to be considered the evils that may, and undoubtedly do, spring from a spirit of too much faith — a spirit of excessive credulity — which in the name of religion is ever ready to grasp every and all ridiculous beliefs and superstitious practices. Men thus lay themselves and their religion open to the ridicule of the unbelieving world. The infidel sins by turning religion away from his door; and the too fervent Catholic often sins by taking religion in and arraying her fair form in the habiliments of a clown. Hence, our Catholicity must be a reasonable Catholicity — not unbelieving, but ever ready to receive with childlike faith the truths that God and God's Church propose;
