“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance-it is not.”
February 10, 2012
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? (Romans 10:14)
Below are a few prophetic words of wisdom from the great preacher, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, passed along to me from a young man discerning his vocation. They seem especially apropos for problems we are facing in our country right now (though they were written in 1931!). May the Lord raise up many friar preachers of Truth (Veritas) through the intercession of our Holy Father, St. Dominic to lead all to the splendor of Truth who is Jesus Christ and Him crucified!
“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance-it is not. It is suffering from tolerance.
Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.
Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to Truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error. (…)
Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory. Tolerance does not apply to Truth or principles.
About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.”
-Archbishop Fulton Sheen, “A Plea for Truth”
