The struggle that was once fought out in Heaven has flared up again on earth. Men no longer fight alone and in secret, but openly and with combined forces.

Though the children of this world be wiser than the children of light, their snares and their violence would undoubtedly have less success if a great number of those who call themselves Catholics did not extend a friendly hand to them.

There are those who imagine they are slighting the Son by honoring the Mother. They fear that by exalting Mary they are belittling Jesus. They cannot bear to see people giving to Our Lady the praises due to her and which the Fathers of the Church have lavished upon her.

Just as a perfect condition of the body results from the conjunction and composition of its various members, which, though differing in form and purpose, make, by their union and the distribution of each one to its proper place, a combination beautiful to behold, firm in strength and necessary for use; so, in the commonwealth, there is an almost infinite dissimilarity of men, as parts of a whole.

Indeed, how many and how important are the benefits which flow from the indissolubility of matrimony cannot escape anyone who gives even a brief consideration either to the good of the married parties and the offspring or to the welfare of human society.