The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"PERPETUITY. 70the earth stood up, and the princes met together,against the Lord, and againsthis Christ. Let usbreak their bonds asunder, and let us cast awaytheir yoke from us.He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at themand the Lord shall deride them." 1II. Can the immense resources and organizedpower of rival religious bodies succeed in absorbing her, and in bringing her to naught ? I am notdisposed to undervalue this power. Against anyhuman force it would be irresistible. But if thecolossal strength and incomparable machinery ofthe Roman Empire could not prevent the establishment of the Church; if Arianism, Nestorianism,Eutychianism could not check her development,how can modern organizations stop her progressnow, when in the fulness of her strength?It is easier to preserve what is created, than tocreate anew.III. But we have been told: "Take from thePope his i>.Temporal power, and the Church doomedto destruction. This is the secret of her strength ;strip her of this, and, like Samson shorn of his hair,she will betray all the weakness of a poor mortal.Then this brilliant luminary will wax pale, and shewill sink below the horizon, never more to riseagain."For more than seven centuries after the establishment of the Church, the Popes had no sovereign terri-1Psalm ii. 1-4.