05-12-2026, 06:46 AM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
TWENTY-FIFTH OBJECTION. I HAVE MY OWN RELIGION. EVERY ONE IS FREE TO PRACTICE HIS RELIGION AS HE UNDERSTANDS IT; IT IS A MATTER THAT CONCERNS ME ONLY, AND I SERVE GOD IN MY OWN WAY.
Answer. And your way, is not to serve God at all, perhaps! That is like persons who mean by "liberty of conscience," "liberty not to have a conscience."
However, every one is not free to serve God after his own fashion, he is obliged to serve God as God wills to be served, and not otherwise.
It "concerns you," undoubtedly, but it concerns some one else besides: and that is the Church, whom God has commanded to teach you how to serve Him. "Go," said He to the first bishops of His Church, "go and teach all nations; teach them to observe all my commandments. He who hears you, hears me, and he that despises you despises me; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
The Christian religion (or the Catholic, it is the same thing) is the only true religion; we have already seen this;* it is, then, the only real and legitimate service of God.
Every man, therefore,
1. Who does not believe all the Christian truths which the Church teaches, which she has summed up in the Apostles' Creed, and explains in the Catholic catechisms;
2. Who does not fulfill to the best of his ability the ten commandments of God, and the precepts which the pastors of the Church inculcate;
3. Who does not practice the Christian virtues (chastity, humility, meekness, obedience, detachment from worldly things), etc., and shun the contrary vices;
4. And who does not employ the means of salvation which the Church holds out to her children, that is to say, prayer and the sacraments;
Every man, I repeat, who does not serve God thus, does not serve Him really. He offers to God a species of worship which God does not desire; he desires to arrive by a different road from the one he was directed to follow; he has the appearance of religion, but not its reality.
Therefore, you are not free to serve God after your own fashion; above all, you are not at liberty to abstain from serving Him at all.
TWENTY-FIFTH OBJECTION. I HAVE MY OWN RELIGION. EVERY ONE IS FREE TO PRACTICE HIS RELIGION AS HE UNDERSTANDS IT; IT IS A MATTER THAT CONCERNS ME ONLY, AND I SERVE GOD IN MY OWN WAY.
Answer. And your way, is not to serve God at all, perhaps! That is like persons who mean by "liberty of conscience," "liberty not to have a conscience."
However, every one is not free to serve God after his own fashion, he is obliged to serve God as God wills to be served, and not otherwise.
It "concerns you," undoubtedly, but it concerns some one else besides: and that is the Church, whom God has commanded to teach you how to serve Him. "Go," said He to the first bishops of His Church, "go and teach all nations; teach them to observe all my commandments. He who hears you, hears me, and he that despises you despises me; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
The Christian religion (or the Catholic, it is the same thing) is the only true religion; we have already seen this;* it is, then, the only real and legitimate service of God.
Every man, therefore,
1. Who does not believe all the Christian truths which the Church teaches, which she has summed up in the Apostles' Creed, and explains in the Catholic catechisms;
2. Who does not fulfill to the best of his ability the ten commandments of God, and the precepts which the pastors of the Church inculcate;
3. Who does not practice the Christian virtues (chastity, humility, meekness, obedience, detachment from worldly things), etc., and shun the contrary vices;
4. And who does not employ the means of salvation which the Church holds out to her children, that is to say, prayer and the sacraments;
Every man, I repeat, who does not serve God thus, does not serve Him really. He offers to God a species of worship which God does not desire; he desires to arrive by a different road from the one he was directed to follow; he has the appearance of religion, but not its reality.
Therefore, you are not free to serve God after your own fashion; above all, you are not at liberty to abstain from serving Him at all.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre