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| A New Year’s Day Reflection It is most appropriate that the beginning of the New Year should be the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The first day of a New Year reminds us of the beginning of things, the beginning of the world and of mankind. We commemorate, therefore, the creation of the world, when God brought the universe into existence out of nothing. This has, in fact, been the Church’s mind from the early centuries. We also commemorate the beginning of the human race, when God brought into the world our first parents; we celebrate the origins of mankind. |
| Ethical Culture The term "ethical culture" is commonly applied to a movement started by Felix Adler (1851-1933) in New York City in 1876. It has since come to be applied also to the societies which owe their origin to the principles of ethical culture, even when affiliated with other religious bodies or institutions. |
| What Does It Mean to Believe? Before we begin to answer what it means to believe, it may be useful to explain that faith is not some strange experience professed by some people and denied by others. Faith is a common possession of the human race. |
| Co-operation of Church and State - Part I: In American Legislation Secularist leaders in growing numbers are telling the people that America needs an "entire separation of Church and State." In answering these radicals we can argue from theoretical principles, showing a priori that a complete dichotomy between Church and State would remove the moral basis of human authority and consequently destroy the fabric of civil society. Another approach is the existential method of examining the history of our country to see what evidence there is for harmony between Church and State which has contributed to the peace and prosperity of America in the past and should, therefore, promote the same results in the future. |
| Co-operation of Church and State - Part II: In the Supreme Court With rare exception the Supreme Court has consistently recognized that most Americans are citizens of two societies, Church and State, and that consequently they have rights and privileges which no political power may take from them. The purpose of the present study is to review the classic decisions in which the Supreme Court of the United States has proved its character of guardian of the people’s rights to worship and believe in God according to their conscience. Although Catholics figure in only one of these decisions, they are all very pertinent to the current problem which faces the Church in America of protecting her divinely committed interests for the salvation of souls. |
| Co-operation of Church and State - Part III: In American Education The most important area of Church and State co-operation is that of education. It is also the most delicate because it involves something more than collaboration in external details and presupposes a degree of harmony on the deepest issues that affect a man’s relations with God and his fellowmen. There is room for serious difficulties even in the ideal situation where Church and State leaders share the same ideas about the nature of man and his final destiny, as seen in medieval Europe or in modern Spain. But where, as in America, the people are so widely divided in religious belief, we should expect the problem to be complicated beyond solution. Yet, unexpectedly, the history of the country shows that religion and the government have cooperated in the field of education in many ways, not just incidentally but through concerted effort, and with calculable benefits to both parties. |
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