IF NOT IDOLATRY, WHAT?
By Editor
If the following from a recent Catholic Mirror does not express idolatry, or saint worship, we do not know what does. We have italicized some of the stronger expressions. Patron of the Universal Church—Prayer of Our Holy Father, Leo. XIII. [Written for the Catholic Mirror]
We come to thee, O Blessed Joseph;
To our sore distress, give heed;
Having sought thy Spouse most holy,
Full of confidence we plead.
We recall thy love for Mary,
God's own Mother, Virgin fair,
All thy tenderness for Jesus,
Father's love, and faithful care;
And, we humbly beg, assist us,
In our urgent needs give aid,
Watch the heritage Christ purchased,
Precious Blood, the price he paid.
Guardian of the Holy Family,
Guard with love, Christ's chosen race,
Let no blighting touch of error,
No corrupting sin have place.
From thy place on High, defend us,
With thy might, our foes engage.
Help us in the bitter conflict,
That the powers of darkness wage.
Once, of old, from death most cruel,
Thou didst save the Child Divine;
Now protect God's Church from trouble,
From the snares her foes combine.
Lead us on by thy example,
Have us always in thy care;
With thy strength, support our weakness,
Patiently all ills to bear.
Living thus, a life all holy,
We may humbly trust and pray;
Through a happy death to enter
Heaven's eternal, blissful day. Notice how such prayers both clothe humanity with the attributes of Deity, putting man in the place of God, and at the same time deceive the poor, deluded souls who believe in the efficacy of such prayers. Here is one poor devotee in San Francisco, Cal., who is offering the prayer; here is another in London, Eng., another in Melbourne, Australia, another in Hongkong, China. Does Joseph hear them all?—then he is omnipresent. Does he hear but one?—then the others are deceived, and pray in vain. Or does he have a clerk who pigeonholes the prayers till some more convenient time? But he hears none. "The dead know not anything." "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." All this false doctrine of saint worship and deification of man comes from that first falsehood of Satan, "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God."