VIEW IMAGE OF THE MOTHER OF ALL NATIONS LETTER 42: THE CONVERSIONS OF NATIONS Mr. Joseph P. Higginbotham Winthrop, Mass. Dear Sir:--- Your letter in the Boston Traveler impressed me so favorably, even though it did not give the whole story of the missionary work for Christ, that I deemed it an obligation to commend you for furthering therein an understanding of the cause and cure of the issues that afflict our age. Truly, as you said, "the Reds have a purpose in life for which they give their all," as do only a small minority of believers in Christ. This demonstrates the fact, as you know, that "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." Surely if lovers of our Lord were unitedly as propagandistically inclined as are the Reds, the Godless Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin-Malenkov misleaders would never have succeeded in threatening the welfare of humankind, as they do. Such giving "of all" in the religious world, for "a purpose in life," seems unfortunately to be manifest more among the advocates of false and freak concepts of Christ, such as the Seventh Day Adventists and assumed-to-be "Jehovah Witnesses," than among "the children of light." The "inalienable rights," the exercise of which the Reds threaten, "are known and protected," as you said, "because centuries ago missionaries courageously penetrated countries and instructed people in the things of God as revealed by Christ and the prophets of old." The glorious success of these missionaries was due, in great part, to their doctrinal and organizational unity broken by Protestantism. Thus Christ was divided into nearly three hundred sects, that insist that they are "The Church," or "branches of The Church" that Christ established. This disunity makes the task of converting the "after Christians" and Jews in the world today to Christ, more difficult than ... the work of the missionaries who converted the "fore Christians" during the pre-Protestant centuries. Unity seems to me to be the main objective to aim for, in order to be successful "in the department in which Christians are weak," the "giving of all for Christ." Such unity calls for one Christ, one Church, one law of belief, one faith, one universal Christ-established teaching and juridical center, such as exists in Vatican City, as Pope Pius XI said in his Encyclical on Religious Unity. Your letter in the Boston Traveler fell short at one point, that is failure to say, assuming that you know, that the "missionaries who courageously penetrated countries centuries ago and instructed (and thus converted) the barbarians in the things of God as revealed by Christ and the prophets of old," were all Catholics, who functioned with the delegated authority of the occupant of the Chair of Peter.   The Catholic Church it was that converted the barbarians who were overrunning Europe; she weaned them away from their disruptive pagan practices; she built the nations; she instilled into the minds of the people belief in the principle of inalienable, God-given rights, which you recognize the Christian missionaries to have "made known and protected." In fact every nation converted to Christianity was converted by the Catholic Church. These missionaries, who planted the faith of Christ into the hearts of humans, often watering it with their blood as did the Apostles, converted the nations, as follows: Nations---------Converted Under Leadership Of Armenia-----------St. Gregory the Illuminator Austria--------------------St. Rupert of Worms Bavaria--------------------------St. Boniface Belgium------St. Armand, St. Eloi, and others Bohemia-------------------------St. Methodius Denmark---------------------------St. Anschar England------------St. Augustine and 39 Monks France---------------------------St. Remigius Germany--------------------------St. Boniface Iceland-------------Priests with Leif Ericson Ireland---------------------------St. Patrick Italy-----St. Peter, St. Paul, and successors Mexico-----------------Catholic Missionaries [and Our Lady of Guadalupe---Web Master] Netherlands-------------------St. Willibrord Norway-----------------------------St. Olaf. Poland-----------------Catholic Missionaries Portugal---------------Catholic Missionaries Russia--------St. Ignatius of Constantinople Scotland-------St. Columba (the Highlanders) Scotland---------St. Minian (the Lowlanders) Slavs-------------St. Cyril and St. Methodius South America-----------Catholic Missionaries Sweden----------------Began with St. Anschar Switzerland----------Began with St. Columban and St. Gall In conclusion, let me say, in the words of Macaulay, the British Historian and Protestant statesman, who said of the Catholic Church, in his Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes, (to quote in small part): " ... No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the time when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when leopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian Amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when compared with the line of Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the 19th century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the 8th; and far beyond the august dynasty extends till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The Republic of Venice came next in antiquity, but the Republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age." The recognition of these indisputable historic facts, would have added much to your letter. Sincerely in the Lord, David Goldstein Contact Us HOME------------TRADITION www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/goldstein42.htm