To the Editor of the "Norru-Cuma Dany News"
Sm;—"Must We Have War?" has been answered by Bena, "Yes, we must have Bibles." A Bible society man should be expected to know something about the origin and history of the Bible, Buia seems entirely ignorant that the Holy Catholic Apostolic. and Roman Church not only, to-day esteems the Bible more than does any other modern religious organization, but that she was the original Bible Society which assembled the various scriptural writings, had them translated, copied and carefully preserved through the centuries, so that certain modern Bible societies "might have them to mahhahdle at will. Why don't non-Catholics, especially when writing in the papers about what Catholics believe and teach, get their information from Catholic sources? in 1903 Italy was in the grip of anticlericals, and approbations given at the time by government officials were from a Catholic viewpoint useless.
The writing of the early fathers of the Church are so full of scripture that it is plain how the Catholic Church at that time regarded Holy Writ. In the 4th century the Pope of Rome, the head of this Catholic Church—Bmuta may not have heard that there were no Protestants then— called all the bishops of the world together in council, and there it was decided just what books were inspired or should belong to the Bible as we now have it. This Bible, which had been translated into Latin by St. Jerome, was preserved for Christianity during the Dark Ages by the Catholic Church. The 13th century writings of Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas and others are rich in Catholic commentaries on the different books of Scripture. Before Luther's translation into the vernal cular, Catholics between 1466 and 1522 had already published fourteen complete editions in High German and five in Low German, Between 1450 and 1520 Catholics had published 156 Latin and six Hebrew editions of the Bible, besides issuing complete translations in Italian, 11, French 10, Bohemian 2, Flemish 1, and Russian 1. Catholics objected to Luther's translation. because of its inaccuracies:
Emser points out 1,400, and Bunsen a Protestant scholar mentions 3,000. Tyndale's translation was burned in 1580 for its dangerous inaccuracies, It is said to have contained 2,000 mistakes, purposely garbling words and texts to prove the new religious doctrines. The Bishops of those days banned it just as a modern State prohibits the circulation of counter-felt money. They got rid of it, not because.it was the word of God, but because it wasn't.
The excellent book by Pope, "Th Catholic Church and the Bible, which Bretta should buy if he really wants to. know how highly w? Catholics esteem Holy Scripture, tells us on p. 88: "The Protestant Italian version of the New Testament was published by Diodati in 1607. It is in beautiful Italian but full of explanatory notes in italics. Many of these were intended to be subversive of Catholic doctrines and are all the more dangerous in that they are sug-festive rather than positive. Let anyone interested in the matter examine in Diodati such passages as Hob, X, 10, a hit at the Mass, etc. Now the Bible society did all in its power to get this edition in circulation throughout Italy... Is it to be wondered that the Holy See took action?" If Bible societies use unfair, calumnious or positively dishonest means to carry on their work, they need not wonder that they get themselves into trouble. were given to priests to do all in their power to hinder the distribution of the sacred volume, A special blessing is given Catholics by the Pope if they will read an approved Catholic version of the Scriptures for 15 minutes daily. The Catholic Mass is largely taken from the Scriptures. Ir many churches sections of the Bible are read to the people, and sermons and explanations of Scripture are given regularly. There are hundreds of copies of the Bible in Roman Catholic families in Shanghai read by permission of their parish priests, and the priests urge those who haven't a copy to get one. I myself have three, and read Scripture at least an hour daily. Does Brsiia do as much? Many of his quotations from papal letters, all second-hand are either entirely false, garbled, or ate taken entirely out of their context. If he is really sincere, and not merely a "wowser," he will begin to study the history of the Bible from Catholic sources.
J's T Shanghai, Mar, 13.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.