Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 2:
He did, and apparently sincerely. He was but sixteen years oldat the time.
He did, but I deny that he did so because he really proved theCatholic Church untrue.
Yes. Horrified by his conversion to Catholicism, his fatherpacked him off to Lausanne to board with a Swiss Calvinist pastornamed M. Pavillard. M. Pavillard loyally set to work to bringGibbon back to Protestantism; and his work was made easier by the fact that Gibbon fell in love with SusanneCurchod, daughter of a neighboring Protestant pastor. Had Gibbonfulfilled his duty in the first place he would have refused to goto board with M. Pavillard, and enter into circumstances expresslydesigned to destroy his faith. Nor would he have met Susanne. Evenafter his weak yielding to that, he could have obtained sufficientgrace from God to persevere in his faith in the Catholic Church,and to resist the influences he encountered, had he prayed asfervently as he should to God. There is a sequence of stages in aman's driftage from the Church. But that sequence begins atleast with a deliberate infidelity in his own will. God neverwithdraws from a soul unless that soul first withdraws from Him. Itis worth remarking that Gibbon went back to Protestantism, and thento a loss of faith altogether. He saw, as every reasonable man mustsee who has ever really known both Catholicism and Protestantism,that if there is any true and complete Christianity, it can only beCatholicism. So the choice is Catholicism or nothing.