THE PAPACY.
The Christian Church is fundamentally divided. Were it desirable to expose the internal feuds which agitate all Christian societies, and the contradictory doctrines of the sects which have revolted against the Mother Church, they would form a sorrowful picture.
Yet conflicts and heresies have their purpose. Indeed, as to doctrines which do not belong to the deposit of revelation, and which have not been defined, controversy is permitted and the liberty of the human mind is to be respected. As for heresy, St. Paul tells us that it is necessary, in order that the faith of believers may be well grounded and enlightened.
But above all divisions, there is one more serious, and which before all must attract attention because of its importance and of the facts which have provoked it; it is that which exists between the Oriental Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
Every Christian heart must be saddened in view of this separation, which has subsisted for so many centuries between churches which have alike an apostolic origin; which have, save one word, the same creed;
