Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

188 Postscript on Catholic Unity.
with the Catholic nations of Europe, would
allow such difficulties to stand in the way of
any practicable scheme of reconciliation.* Thus
again I have thought it important to insist,
after the example of Dr. Newman and others,
that such forms of what may be called for
convenience Marian theology and Marian de
votion as are criticized in the Eirenicon, whether
right or wrong, are at best purely matters of
individual
opinion, and neither form, or ever
can form, any part of the doctrine of the
Church.* There is no danger, therefore, in the
event of a re-union, of their being; O forced on a
people to whom they are obviously unsuitable
and repulsive, and to most of whom they
"
would seem, as to Dr. Newman himself, like
a bad dream." It is a strange confusion of
thought to charge those who so speak with
"
tipathy to the one exclusive Truth (unless the
" an
* Thus e.g. there is a provision in the Concordat with
Bavaria by which appeals to Rome are heard on the
spot by a Bishop who is the ex officio representative of the
Holy See for the purpose. A case occurred two years ago,
when I was at Munich, of a priest appealing against the
judgment of the Archbishop, and the appeal was heard by
his suffragan the Bishop of Augsburg, acting in that
capacity. It is very possible that a similar arrangement
may exist elsewhere, but I am not able to say.
* There are some sensible and temperate remarks on
this subject, following out the line of argument indicated
in Dr. Newman s Letter to Pusey, in the Preface and Ap
pendix to an excellent statement of Catholic Doctrine on
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by a writer of the last century
just republished by a venerable priest, the Eev. J. Sidden,