Religion: We Are Divided

Georges Barrois, born into a Roman Catholic family in Charleville, France, became a Dominican monk and was ordained a priest when he was 25. In 1941, after 18 years as a priest, and some long, painful self-questioning about problems of dogma, he became a Protestant, later married. Now teaching theology and biblical archeology at Princeton Theological Seminary, Presbyterian Barrois has written occasionally about his change of faith, but usually in a key apparently set to avoid controversy with Catholics.

Fortnight ago, ruddy, moon-faced Professor Barrois came out, in the first of two articles for the biweekly Presbyterian Life, with some plainer talk. In the first installment, called "Where We Stand Together," he is as mild and tactful as ever. He concedes that "we Protestants are not at war with Rome. We do not believe, for instance, that Catholics are 'idolaters,' or that the Mass is 'for sale.' And Catholics do not regard us necessarily as religious anarchists who do not bother about the Ten Commandments . . . Catholics and Protestants both believe," he says, "in the religious structure of the Universe. We believe in Providence. [We both] believe that something must really change in man, and that it should become possible to tell Christians from non-Christians even on weekdays."

The Slums. This week, in the second installment, Professor Barrois gets down to specifics on the differences between the churches. "We had better recognize the fact that we are divided on matters of faith and life, which we cannot disregard," he says. In the first place, "the Roman

Church inaccurately calls herself Catholic, that is, universal. The Roman Church claims to be the Church. This means that in her eyes there exist no other churches, but only sects ... If we do not profess allegiance to Rome we are out of the fold, no matter how much genuine religion enters into the texture of our life. We belong in the slums of Christianity . . ."

Barrois maintains that the "monopoly claimed by the Roman Catholic Church . . . stands in contradiction with formal statements of Jesus and the Apostles. Jesus promised to be in the midst of two or three gathered together in His name; are we to declare that the church is not there? . . . We know full well that Scripture needs a qualified interpreter, but we cannot agree with our Catholic neighbors on who this interpreter shall be . . ." The Protestant version: "This infallible interpreter is none else than the Holy Spirit." But Roman Catholics "want human guides and little candles to light the way ahead, as if Christians were not able to listen to God without a translator, or to execute His orders without a foreman to supervise the job."