The Purpose of the Papacy | Page 9

deposit of Divine Revelation has been committed by
Jesus Christ to the custody of the Church, and century after century she
has guarded it with the utmost jealousy and fidelity. Like a loyal
watchman, stationed on a lofty tower, the Pope, with anxious eyes,
scans the length and breadth of the world, and, as the occasion demands,
boldly, and fearlessly, and categorically condemns and anathematises
all who, through pride or cunning, or personal interest and ambition, or
love of novelty, attempt to falsify or to minimise or to distort the
teaching of Our Divine Master. Without respect of persons, without
regard to temporal consequences, without either hesitancy or ambiguity,
he speaks "as one having power" (Matt. vii. 29). And while, on the one
hand, every true Catholic throughout the world, who hears his voice, is
intimately conscious that he is hearing the voice of Christ Himself,
"who heareth you, heareth Me" (Luke x. 16); so, on the other hand,
every true Catholic likewise knows that all who refuse to obey his
ruling, and who despise his warnings, are despising and disobeying
Christ Himself. "Who despises you, despises Me" (Luke x. 16). Thus,
the Sovereign Pontiff, as the infallible source of religious truth,
becomes at the same time the strong bond of religious unity: for, just as
error divides men from one another, so truth always and necessarily
draws them together. In this way the Pope becomes the connecting link
which unites over 250,000,000 of men: and the foundation stone (or
petros--Peter) of the mystical building erected by God-incarnate
("Upon this rock will I build My Church," Matt. xvi. 18). He is the
foundation, that is to say, which supports it, and keeps its various parts
together, in one harmonious and symmetrical whole, and against which
the angry surges rise, and the muddy waves of error for ever beat, yet
ever beat in vain: for "the gates of hell [Satan and his hosts] shall not
prevail against it". Who doubts this denies the most formal and
unmistakable promises of the Eternal Son of God, and makes of Him a

liar.
Our non-Catholic friends close their eyes to these patent facts,
and--with great peril to their salvation--refuse to see even the obvious.
As the Jews of old were so blinded by their prejudice, jealousy and
hatred of Him, whom they contemptuously styled "the Son of the
Carpenter," that they steadily refused to consider the justice of His
claims, and could not (or would not?) bring themselves to understand
how clearly the Scriptures bore witness to His divinity, and how
marvellously the prophecies and predictions (the words of which they
accepted), were fulfilled in His Divine Person; so now Protestants
steadily refuse to consider the claims of Her whom they
contemptuously style "the Romish Church," and are so prejudiced and
full of suspicion, if not of hate, that they too cannot bring themselves to
understand how She, like her Divine Founder, bears upon her immortal
brow the distinctive and unmistakable impress of her supernatural
origin and destiny. The Incarnate Son of God, who never asks, nor can
ask in vain, implored His Heavenly Father, that all His followers might
be one, and why? In order that this marvellous unity might ever be
fixed as a seal of authenticity to His Church, and be to all men a
permanent sign and proof of her genuineness.
"Father," He prayed, grant "that they may ALL BE ONE, as Thou art in
Me, and as I am in Thee, that they also may be one in us, THAT THE
WORLD MAY KNOW that Thou hast sent Me" (John xvii. 21). Unity,
then, is undeniably the test and sign-manual attached by Christ to His
Bride, the Church; the presence or absence of which must (if there be
any truth in God) determine the genuineness or the falsity of every
claimant.
Now, this mark is nowhere found outside the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church, whose centre is in Rome.
Other Churches not merely do not possess unity. They do not possess
so much as the requisite machinery to produce it, nor even the means of
preserving it, if produced.
With us, on the contrary, it flows as naturally and as directly from the

recognised Supremacy and Infallibility of the Vicar of Christ as light
flows from the sun. It is so manifest that it would seem only the blind
can fail to see it: so that one is sometimes puzzled to know how to
excuse educated Protestants from the damnable sin of vincible
ignorance. Thus, the faithful throughout the entire world are in constant
communication with their respective pastors; the pastors, in their turn,
are in direct communication with their respective Bishops, and the
Bishops, dispersed throughout the length and breadth of Christendom,
are in close and direct communication with