“With modesty admonishing them that resist the truth; if peradventure God may give them repentance to know the truth.” — II Tim. ii, 25

We have considered how our Divine Saviour compared His Church to a field in which the enemy sowed cockle among the wheat. This cockle represents, in the kingdom of grace and of truth, not only sin, but especially religious error, unbelief and impiety. Cockle remains cockle, and error or unbelief remains error and unbelief, no matter by what specious names they may be called in order to deceive the unsuspecting. Reformation, enlightenment, and liberalism are splendid names with which to play upon the fancies of the ignorant masses. The father cannot permit his children to be seduced by a fraudulent system of education; the State must not allow its citizens to become infatuated with pernicious principles, and to be instigated and incited to rebellion, any more than it can tolerate the circulation of counterfeit money, because negligence in this matter would be destructive of commerce and industry. The Catholic must not dally with sin and error, lest they seize upon him and imperil the salvation of his soul. In like manner the Church of God must not suffer her faith and the revelation entrusted to her care to be disfigured and distorted by religious error and by impious principles.

She must not and cannot tolerate it on God’s account, for He is eternal Truth and Wisdom, and, therefore, hates and punishes the lies and false doctrines of men. She cannot and must not tolerate it on Jesus Christ’s account, because He came upon earth to teach mankind the eternal truths of God. Her very existence and her most sacred obligations forbid her to tolerate it, for she has been called by God to keep intact in all their purity and truth the teachings of Christ until the end of time. And for this she has been promised the assistance of the Holy Ghost. The best interests and the eternal welfare of her children depend on the purity of their faith, and, therefore, she cannot hold aught of friendly intercourse with error and falsehood, but, like the mother that she is, must ever be ready to protect and to warn her household against the danger of false principles. Peace and unity demand that her loins be ever girt for battle against the hosts of heresy and schism, for they have ever been the cause of disunion, and of untold misery and devastation.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, the Church is bound to be intolerant of error, because she has been divinely commissioned to secure the eternal salvation of her children. And in this she has a higher duty to perform than falls to the father, to the teacher, to the State or even the individual, who are all bound to be intolerant of error and corruption if they would serve the welfare and best interests of those who are subject to them and would insure their own continued existence in peace and prosperity. This intolerance is a most sacred duty, for it is the only safeguard against the greatest evil that the world contains, that is, unbelief. It is the true and adequate expression of love and care for the temporal and spiritual welfare of mankind.

Nevertheless there is a true toleration which does not apply to sin, error and seducers, but is exercised in favor of the sinner, the erring and the seduced. Jesus taught and practised this true toleration, and, in imitation of Him, the Church teaches and practises it also.

But there is likewise a false toleration. Seducers and unbelievers teach it for their own ends and to the detriment of the unsuspecting. It is my purpose, therefore, to give you presently the necessary instruction concerning true and false toleration.

O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

I. What are we to understand by true toleration and what by false toleration? I believe the matter is already fairly clear to you. True toleration detests impiety and error under whatever guise they may appear, because they cause endless trouble and corruption, and are a deflection from eternal truth. True toleration has a horror of false doctrine, but is compassionate with persons, with those who err, and have been seduced. False tolerance, however, demands toleration not only for the erring, the sinner and the unbeliever, but for the false doctrine, the heresy, or schism or vice as well. True tolerance takes its origin from God, and has for its purpose the conversion of the sinner and the unbeliever, whereas false tolerance has Satan for its author, and its aim is to spread the realm of falsehood, unbelief and sin. Its sole object and purpose is the damnation of souls. True tolerance instructs and saves the erring; false tolerance confirms men in their error and makes them more corrupt. True tolerance is compassionate with the erring, loves them and prays for them, whereas false tolerance hates all those who endeavor to bring back the erring to the paths of truth and salvation.

Jesus Christ, indeed, practised the most splendid, the most tender toleration toward sinners, toward the erring and even toward His enemies. It is for the sinner and the unbeliever that He came upon earth, for them He bled upon the cross, and dying, He prayed for His enemies. And yet, who hated sin more, as the greatest offense against God and the surest ruin of souls, than Jesus Christ Himself? Our Divine Saviour pronounced upon sin the punishment of death and eternal perdition, and many a time and oft menaced religious error and unbelief with judgment and damnation. “He who does not believe is already judged.” During the days that the Saviour of souls passed upon earth He practised the most wonderful toleration, and He still exercises it to-day toward the erring and the sinner. But, withal, He is most intolerant of sin and falsehood, and consequently most intolerant of those who knowingly and deliberately live in sin and error, for they knowingly and deliberately worship falsehood, and so are knowingly and deliberately the enemies of God and of the true faith.

The example of Our Divine Saviour shows us what true tolerance is. True tolerance is merciful and compassionate toward all those persons for whose conversion there is still hope. False tolerance favors vice and falsehood and religious unbelief. Can the Church, therefore, imitating the example of her Divine Founder, and as the true mother of the souls of men, exercise any other toleration than the one which the Saviour Himself still practises? She abhors and condemns, indeed, every form of vice and error and unbelief, but, like the mother she is, she makes every effort to convert sinners and the erring. You are perfectly aware of the missions which the Church maintains for the salvation of souls. To-day, as in the early days of Christianity, priests go as missionaries into the remotest regions to gain souls to Christ. To-day, as ever, the Church suffers persecution because of her endeavors to convert pagans and heretics, and her priests and countless of her children gladly shed their blood and lay down their lives for the salvation of souls. In Catholic countries Jews and Protestants live in peace and security, in greater peace and security, indeed, than Catholics can enjoy among Jews and Protestants. Who dare accuse the Catholic Church of intolerance? For such a one in truth is a liar and calumniator.

2. And yet all the enemies of the Catholic Church, be they Protestants or infidels, have constantly accused her of intolerance. We might indeed tell a different story if the Church were silent to sin and error and corruption, if she made common cause with the Jew and the sects, if she joined the wild chorus of enlightenment and liberty of conscience, if she closed her eyes to the dechristianization of our youth and our people, if she likewise declared that one religion is as good and as true as another, and that it matters little what you may be, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Turk or pagan. Then indeed a loud paean of joy would resound in praise of the liberality and the toleration of the Catholic Church, like the wild cry of rejoicing that is raised by the enemies of the Catholic Church when a bad priest becomes a renegade to his faith.

The Church cannot practise such toleration. She cannot do it without betraying the sublime trust reposed in her by the Saviour when He established her and gave her the mission of preaching His doctrine pure and undefiled under the guidance of the Holy Ghost until the consummation of the ages. She cannot do it without becoming a traitress to her mission of saving souls, since the grace of God and eternal life depend on the true faith. She cannot do it without committing suicide, because she would, thereby, deny the necessity of her own existence as the only true Church of God, and in an incredibly short space of time she would be split up into a countless number of sects. The Catholic Church, loving and merciful as the Saviour for the erring and the sinner, must be as intolerant as He with sin and error; false tolerance she leaves to her enemies, who in this are like the Pharisees. They loved sin and unbelief, but hated the Saviour.

The Church’s maxim, that “outside of the Church there is no salvation” is brought forward as a proof of her intolerance, for, it is asserted, she thereby excludes from the hope of salvation all those who do not belong to her communion. I must first remind you, my dearly beloved, of what I told you in a former sermon about the only saving Church. I then showed you that whoever is saved, is saved only through Jesus Christ and His Church, whether he belongs to the body of the Church or not; “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”; consequently only one true Church. If anybody, therefore, abides in error, and consequently outside of the Catholic Church, without his fault and knowledge, he will be saved by sacramental baptism or by baptism of desire, provided he has committed no mortal sins, or, being guilty of such, has duly repented of them. For this reason all the enemies of the Church, all heretics, all pagans should thank God upon their knees that there is a chance for them to be saved, and that through the Catholic Church to whom alone baptism belongs. Where, then, is the horrible intolerance in the saying that “outside of the Church there is no salvation?” On the contrary these very words give proof of the greatest toleration.

In fact the Catholic Church, in obedience to the mandates of Jesus Christ, not only loves her enemies and all unbelievers, but she even endures cheerfully the severest persecutions for the welfare of their souls. Because of this maxim that outside of the true Church of God there is no salvation she obliges us Catholics to love all those who do not belong to the Catholic Church, and to pray for their conversion. She forbids us to condemn those who are not of her household and to deny to them the possibility of their souls being saved. She teaches us in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus Christ alone is the Judge of the living and the dead, and that, consequently, the eternal lot of all men is in His hands.

How can the Catholic Church condemn any man, for, like her divine Redeemer, she goes about the world seeking for souls to save and preaching the gospel? The sentence of condemnation she leaves to God, the all-just Judge.

She teaches but one thing, and the world knows and feels that it is true, that deliberate unbelief and heresy, deliberate opposition to the truth, lead as inevitably to eternal damnation as mortal sin for which no penance has been done, or atonement made. It is not she who has pronounced sentence of condemnation on mortal sin, on infidelity and heresy, but God and the Saviour Himself — “He who does not believe is already judged; and if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.” The Catholic Church only proclaims the sentence which the Saviour Himself has passed. Do we call an earthly judge cruel and intolerant because he pronounces sentence in accordance with the law on rioters, thieves and murderers? Is that father cruel and intolerant who warns his children against sin and its consequences, or punishes them for their misconduct? The Church is not intolerant when she points out the consequences of sin and unbelief, for it is no fault of hers that sin and unbelief exist; these evils must be ascribed to conscienceless renegades.

3. This truth will become entirely clear and evident to us and will appear in a still more beautiful light, when we consider that the countless adherents of the Protestant sects and all the Greek and Russian schismatics who without their will and knowledge live separated from the Catholic Church and have been nurtured in error from the days of their youth and, therefore, have never had an opportunity of learning the truth of the Catholic faith, nay, are even blinded by prejudice in consequence of the instructions they have received so that they hate the Catholic Church, belong nevertheless, by the baptism conferred upon them, to the Church and are united with her in spirit. The Catholic Church displays such wonderful zeal and love because these erring children of hers are in imminent danger of losing their immortal souls. They are lacking in all that wealth of means which the Catholic faith provides for the attainment of eternal salvation. The vast majority have no sacrament of penance whereby to obtain absolution for their grievous sins; they lack the nourishment which the Blessed Sacrament gives to souls; they have no Extreme Unction, no Holy Orders; they sadly miss the beauty and devotion of Catholic worship which elevates the faithful and reminds them of God and heaven. Therefore, the Catholic Church with her children prays daily for the conversion of sinners and heretics. This is the true toleration which only the Catholic Church as the kingdom of God, exercises, and which she alone can exercise. It is that sort of toleration which drew the Saviour to earth in order to seek for souls, to suffer for them and to redeem them. It is that sublime toleration which regards sin and unbelief as the origin of all evil with holy anger, but which with holy love and patience bears with the sinner and the erring and receives those who are converted with great rejoicing. This is true toleration which only the Catholic Church practises.

4. But there is also a false tolerance, that modern spirit of liberalism, or rather of indifference, which acknowledges no distinction between faith and unbelief, between truth and error, between what is god-fearing and what is godless; — all these are of equal value and importance to it. It is that spirit of toleration which raises the Jew and the pagan, the discords of the Protestant sects and the abominations of Islam to a level with the Catholic Church. It is this sort of toleration which declares it to be a matter of no consequence whether a man be a pagan, Turk, Jew, sectarian, or Catholic; they are all alike. It is that liberalism which tolerates the ridiculing of man’s most sacred interests, which connives at blasphemy and impiety, aye, and nurtures and encourages them, which makes man treat God and His religion with indifference and contempt, and utterly demoralizes and dechristianizes the human race.

This false liberalism hates only the Catholic Church and consequently furthers the interests of everything that is hostile and unjust to the Church. It is the pernicious seed from which springs so much injury to souls. It destroys loyalty to faith, makes Christian life and piety impossible, encourages vice, infidelity and every dishonest thing. It extends a joyous welcome to the impious and apostate and overwhelms the Catholic with scorn and ridicule; it loves what is evil and hates what is good. And what a deluge of spiritual and temporal misery it has poured out over the nations whom it has seduced and dechristianized! Falsehood and deceit, vice and iniquity, harshness and hatred even to the scourge of murder and suicide have all sprung from this source. False toleration betrays God, the Church and mankind. It denies the eternal truths of God, or places them on an equality with the vagaries of man. It denies the truth and divine institution of the Church and degrades the mother of the souls of men to the lowest level of the countless unchristian sects. With its pernicious principles it seduces untold thousands and causes them to lose, with their faith, their immortal souls.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, beware of this cockle which the enemy has sowed broadcast through the world. Call the cockle by the most beautiful of names; it remains cockle still; it can cause naught but mischief and devastation. But the true Catholic faith is of heaven’s sowing, for it delights heart and mind and bears delicious fruit. The Catholic faith is the heavenly seed that teaches all to have mercy and compassion for the fallen. The Catholic Church announces the only true faith and, therefore, she alone, in imitation of her Saviour’s example, exercises true love and toleration for all without distinction of person. She is patient and kind with the sinner and the erring and prays for all. Her love and patience should likewise animate us with love and patience for the fallen and teach us to pray for their conversion. We can thus perform a work pleasing to God, and can confidently hope that He will also be gracious and merciful to us on the day of judgment, and will take us into His heavenly kingdom, where the true faith will be glorified in the blessed vision of God, and love will unite us with God and Jesus forever. Amen.

The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church Vol. 1 (1916)
Rev. Edward Jones