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5th Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Acqui

proclaimed loudly that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, nor of
the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Christians who serve human
respect turn their back on the Gospel and the Cross rather than
suffer a sad word. What cowardice!
Their fault increases all the more if we consider that they
commit it deliberately. In other cases man may be misled and
fall into evil by an erroneous, though guilty, judgment; without
his misunderstanding he may not have sinned. Yet here, what
excuse can be brought in favor of he who is guilty of human
respect? Here he is fully aware that he is committing evil, and
that in so doing he offends God; and this aggravates the fault.
When, because of example, you eat what is not permitted on
days of abstinence, do you not think of the law that prohibits it?
Of course you do, since you cannot ignore it; and yet, when you
are caught between the law and human respect, how do you
reason? You say: if I observe the law, I remain faithful to God
and thus deserving of his graces and blessings; but what will
those around me think; what will they say about me with their
judgment? That I am still the victim of prejudice, that I have not
yet shed my hesitations and scruples: it is too much, and even if
it offends God, it is better to have him as enemy than to go
against the world. You certainly did not express it in such
horrible language, but that is the fact: it is more eloquent than
the words themselves. Yes, there is no doubt that the slaves of
human respect prefer human considerations to the divine, they
prefer to listen openly to the voice of the world rather than to
that of God. They would not blush at the Gospel, they would
even glory in it, if it were approved by the world, but the world
rises against it, and they tremble before it and do not care for
their duties and rebel against the divine law.
Therefore, the slaves of human respect want to remain
friends with the world, in every case and at all costs. However,
what does the world have to offer them in exchange for blind
obedience to its wicked dictates? Comforts, honors, pleasures?

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