In innumerable cases they were fissures of organization and prejudice
rather than real differences in belief and mental habit. Sometimes it
was manifestly conflicting material interests that made the split.
People are now divided by forgotten points of difference, by sides taken
by their predecessors in the disputes of the sixteenth century, by mere
sectarian names and the walls of separate meeting places. In the present
time, as a result of the dissenting method, there are multitudes of
believing men scattered quite solitarily through the world.
The Reformation, the Reconstruction of the Catholic Church lies still
before us. It is a necessary work. It is a work strictly parallel to the
reformation and expansion of the organized State. Together, these
processes constitute the general duty before mankind.
3.14. OF SECESSION.
The whole trend of my thought in matters of conduct is against whatever
accentuates one's individual separation from the collective
consciousness. It follows naturally from my fundamental creed that
avoidable silences and secrecy are sins, just as abstinences are in
themselves sins rather than virtues.
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