“They profess that they know God; but in their works they deny him.” — Tim. i, 16

One of the noblest and most sacred obligations of the Catholic is the duty of openly professing and defending his faith. “Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father that is in Heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in Heaven” (St. Matt, x, 32, 33). Grace and eternal life, therefore, depend upon the open profession of faith. And as great as is the misfortune and misery of unbelief, so great and serious are the consequences when we fail to defend our holy faith openly, or go so far as to deny it by our bearing or by mockery.

Our Divine Saviour, my dearly beloved, Himself confessed God and the truth of His teachings. This He did before the great council of the Jews, before Pilate and Herod, and before all the world on the cross. The Apostles gave fearless testimony to our Divine Saviour before the pagan tribunals, and gladly suffered the torments of a cruel death for their faith. Behold the sublime spectacle of the martyrs. Men and women, some in the flower of life, others in the decrepitude of old age and still others in the innocence of childhood, joyously bore every torture, and accepted death itself when there was question of confessing and defending their faith. The cross was the standard of the Christians. Their blood sanctified the world, the courage of their faith converted the heathen.

All ages afford the opportunity of steadfastly professing the faith. It is always a sublime and a holy duty to defend one’s faith. This is especially the case in our day, when our holy faith is being traduced in books and periodicals, in the open street and in public places. We Catholics are the natural champions of God, bound to take His part against the impious; we are the soldiers of Christ Jesus, obliged to combat for His honor and for His glory. We are the faithful who are obliged to confess emphatically and to preserve intact the truth of the Catholic Church against the assaults of a mocking world, just as our forefathers, the Apostles and the martyrs defended it against the Jews and the pagans. This is our vocation, our duty, our honor, it is even the condition of our salvation. I have not the slightest doubt that all those who are listening to me are imbued and animated with a sense of this duty, and sincerely endeavor to fulfill it in word and in deed as far as lies in their power.

It is my purpose now to speak to you of pseudo- or nominal-Catholics, who do not fulfill their sacred obligations, but shirk them, to the great detriment of their holy faith and of their eternal happiness, placing themselves on the same footing with the unbelievers: “They say they know God, but by their works they deny Him.”

Oh Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

1. Who are the nominal-Catholics, and what is their purpose? Nominal-Catholics are those who have a certificate of baptism at home in some secure place but not in their hearts. They do not seem to be Catholics either in Church or in their homes on Sundays or at Easter, in regard for the commandments of God or those of His Church. But whenever an assault or attack is planned against the Catholic Church, religious institutions, priests, the doctrines of faith, or Church festivals, they suddenly remember their certificate of baptism, not that it influences them to defend the Church or to profess the faith, nor to sanctify Sunday or to receive the sacraments or to observe the commandments — but to join the mob. On such occasions they boast of the fact that they are also Catholics, and even maintain that they are good Catholics, and thus, like the wolf, they hide themselves in sheep’s clothing in order to deceive true, faithful Catholics, and lead them astray.

These so-called-Catholics are the plague of the Catholic Church and her most pernicious enemies, more harmful than infidels and pagans. They are the seducers of the faithful and more dangerous than heretics or infidels. You can find them everywhere and in every walk of life; in the country and in the city, in the army and the navy, among public officials and teachers, in the workshop, in the family, in city councils and legislatures, in books and periodicals, in the saloon and in all public places.

There are two kinds of nominal-Catholics. To the first kind belong those who have laid aside everything that is Catholic in belief and life, in sentiment and mode of thought. Such persons have become completely estranged from the Catholic Church. They no longer recognize the obligation of submitting to the decisions of the Church as the supreme Teacher in all matters of faith. They know no reverence toward the Pope as the Supreme Head of the Church and Vice-gerent of Jesus Christ. They know no obedience to the commandments of the Church, they revile or jeer at the dogmas of faith, at the sacraments, at confession, at the feasts of the Church, the observance of the Lord’s day, at priests and bishops, and even at the Pope. In a word, they sit in judgment on everything that bears the name Catholic and scoff at everything that does not suit their narrow minds or their passions. To them we owe a terrible state of affairs which only they could bring about. This is their diabolical hostility, their hatred and bitterness against the Catholic Church. These pseudo-Catholics easily surpass Jews, Protestants and pagans in hatred, insults and lies, and persecution against the Church. Whenever a storm of bigotry breaks loose against the Church and her institutions, her children, her priests and the Pope, you will find bad Catholics leading the vanguard of the assailants.

The heart of Our Divine Saviour was deeply wounded in His bitter Passion, but it was not the Jews nor the pagans who made Him suffer most — it was Judas the Apostle, Judas, the traitor. If sorrow or trouble break the heart of father or mother, it is not servants or neighbors who have caused it, but their children. When Caesar, the great Roman General, was attacked and wounded by conspirators, he yielded only when he beheld his adopted son, Brutus, among the murderers, and fell with the mournful cry on his lips: “And thou too, Brutus!”

And in like manner the Catholic Church is overwhelmed with pain and sorrow when she is forced to see that her fiercest enemies and greatest maligners are neither Jews nor pagans nor Protestants, but her own undutiful children. It is the bad Catholics, who under the mask of friendship and in sheep’s clothing of their Catholic sentiments, imprint the traitor’s kiss upon the Church and betray her into the hands of her enemies.

Oh, what a sight for the heavens to behold, when the Church, the mother of our souls, who, in pain, regenerates us in the life of grace, instructs us in the faith, nourishes us with the sacraments, assists us in death, and reconciles us with God, is abused most by her misguided children! Oh what a sight it must be for the Divine Redeemer to behold His spotless Bride crowned with thorns and nailed to the cross of sorrow and misery by the nominal-Catholics! Oh, What a sight for the Eternal Father to see in so-called-Catholics the greatest traitors and persecutors of His kingdom of grace on earth!

Oh, just God! Now I understand the terrible saying of Holy Writ: “The curse of the mother overturneth the houses of the children.” And though the Church curses not her misguided children, but rather mercifully prays for them, yet does the curse of their unnatural deeds rest upon the children, and an all just God will requite in time and eternity.

Consider the awful end of the traitor Judas! Jews and pagans have turned to God, a Judas went down to perdition. Contemplate the terrible death of all those who have hated and persecuted the Church! The avenging justice of God places as a warning example before our eyes the dreadful end of many bad Catholics. Consider the lives and the morals of those nominal-Catholics, prominent as well as obscure, who have made it their execrable purpose to divide the Catholic faith and to lay hands on the Church in word and in writing, by example and deed. Who can recount the ravages that such God- forsaken exCatholics have caused in families, among the youth of the land, in schools, among domestics and artisans, in fact among all classes of society. Morality and fidelity, honesty and property, religion, obedience and every Christian virtue — they destroy all by word and example. The countless embezzlers and criminals are the offspring of these wolves in sheep’s clothing who, under pretence of enlightening and educating mankind, rob the world of faith in the immortality

of the soul and in the just judgments of God. The ever-increasing number of suicides, in whose livid features can be read the mischief unbelief has wrought, fills the soul with horror at the fruits these nominal-Catholics and their hostility to the Church have produced. Can a man, who has corrupted others by word and example, or who has despoiled them of their faith, still hope to obtain mercy? Hardly! For it is said : “Woe to the man through whom scandal cometh, it were better for him had he never been born.” Soul for soul — such will be the dreadful sentence passed upon the murderer of souls — upon those who seduce others.

2. The second class of nominal-Catholics do not, indeed, appear so wicked outwardly as the former. Nevertheless for them, too, the word of the Divine Saviour was spoken: “He that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father, who is in heaven.” They are those pseudo-Catholics who neither hate the Church, nor deride her dogmas, nor openly contradict her. But, weak-kneed and cowardly, they dare not profess their faith when occasion demands, and thus, by their example exercise a baneful influence upon others and do incalculable harm to Catholic life. They have no sympathy for the sufferings of the Church; they show no interest in the propagation of the Catholic faith; they manifest no concern about the personality of the Holy Father and the conditions that surround him. The injustices and insults heaped upon the Church leave them impassive, the dechristianization of our youth and the desecration of the Lord’s day arouse no righteous indignation in their breasts. With their own money they support a godless press that daily pours out torrents of abuse and calumny against the Church and her institutions, that vilifies what must ever be most sacred to the heart of man. They throw away with disgust every Catholic periodical; in Church they try to impress others with their piety, and in the evening they applaud with gusto the most lascivious and degrading spectacles that the stage can present.

They are eternally tortured with the fear that the world at large will consider them good and loyal Catholics. Hence they will carefully absent themselves from everything that would indicate Catholic activity, and refuse to join acknowledged Catholic societies. At the elections they will give their votes to men who are notorious for their bigotry against the Church, for their dishonesty in public life, for the indecency and immorality of their private lives, and all because, forsooth, they might lose their reputation of being broad-minded, intelligent Catholics. On account of this fear, this vanity, and the influence they enjoy, these so-called-Catholics constitute a more pernicious and insidious danger to the Church in the circles in which they move than even the declared enemies of Catholicity. For by their cowardice they prevent the accomplishment of much good, and by their fears they give evil a new impetus. Their conduct cannot fail to encourage the enemies of the Church and diminish the number of loyal Catholics or at least discourage them. Not only the soldiers who desert to the enemy are traitors, but also those who from craven fear hide themselves, and by their cowardly conduct infect the others with discouragement. Storms are less injurious to the tree than the multitude of insects that devour its leaves, its blossoms and its fruits.

3. The Catholic must belong wholly to his Saviour and to the Church, because Jesus is wholly ours and His Church was and ever will be wholly our own. The sight of almost universal unbelief is discouraging and depressing to be sure, but should we therefore swim with the stream, only to drown in it with the countless multitude? Or should we howl with the wolves in sheep’s clothing because such is the fashion, and go with them to perdition? No, forever, no! Let us remember the glorious destiny to which we have been called. Let us not forget that we are the champions of God, the confessors of Jesus Christ. “You will give testimony of me,” Our Divine Saviour once said, but you will not have to do so without receiving for it a recompense exceeding great. The reward is great, the hardship insignificant. Our forefathers in the faith, the martyrs, were crowned with glory because they fearlessly defended the faith, and so must we defend the interests of the Church and of our holy faith with equal fortitude and courage in word and deed. Let none dare blaspheme or scoff in our presence without receiving a well-merited rebuke. The consciousness of having defended a just cause inspires us with peace and consolation. He who sincerely lives for Jesus, who is thankful to Him for His bitter Passion and Death, who honors the Church and humbly believes her teachings will never find it difficult to profess his faith openly, to silence scoffers, or openly to manifest his disapproval of ribald speech.

Such Christians gladden the heart of the Saviour, and in return He will gladden them in life with His grace and His mercy, with His consolation at the hour of death and with His eternal bliss in heaven. And it is my earnest hope that you will receive this grace in life, these consolations in death, and finally eternal bliss with the martyrs and the confessors of the faith in heaven. Amen.

The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church Vol. 1 (1911)
Rev. Edward Jones