The Church and the Problems of To-day

The author begins: "In the midst of contradictory beliefs of every description, the world is at a loss to know what should be accepted as true. Theories are conceived, as it were, over night; long-established customs are abandoned; doctrines of unquestionable authenticity are ruthlessly overthrown, - in a word, chaos reigns in the world of thought and deed. But one institution retains the stability of centuries; and men and women of judgment hopefully turn their eyes to her, the one whom ages and changes have not altered-the Roman Catholic Church. It is with the hope that this book may aid Catholics to remain faithful to the Church and stand by her in these difficult times, and that it may be the means of attracting the many, who are sincere in their efforts to find a trustworthy guide through the maze of beliefs and unbeliefs, to a more thorough investigation of the 'Catholic Church, that it is given to press." In the chapter on the Church as a Sign of Contradiction, the author writes: "Simeon, the seer, some nineteen hundred years ago took a little infant in his arms and made the remarkable statement, "Behold this child is set for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted," a bystander might have ridiculed the thought that the child of apparently unknown parents could ever rise to such heights as to be the occasion of the success and failure, the rise and fall of individuals as well as of nations. And yet this Child, the Son of God, has been a sign of contradiction, and has exerted a tremendous influence upon the nations of the world and their destinies.