Posted on 12/28/2015 4:15:39 AM PST by Lazamataz
Ultimately it’s the same problem as with electing lesser evils to political power. It’s us that consent with our vote there and we consent here by remaining loyal to the authority of a man that is at odds with the Bible. Granted as an ex Catholic, his words arent binding on me, but his actions do indeed impact my and all our lives. Or his lack of words, whichever the case may be.
RC misleadership is the reason I’m ex. I still try to keep the teachings but until the leadership makes an attempt to believe and follow it’s own book, there is little point for me to consider rejoining.
Meanwhile you are ignoring that the main actor in this epic is not Man, it is God--- or rather I should say it is the God-Man, Jesus Christ. None of this is a bafflement or an awful shock to Him. None of this is taking Him by surprise. Yes, our sins offend Him, and yes He suffers from all of our shortcomings, but He Himself has the answer to this, the tonic, the medicine, the remedy.
Are we (you and I) free of sins? No. We need to get ourselves to Confession. Are we (you and I) hale and strong to face the challenges, physical, moral, and spiritual, coming at us like a freight train without brakes? For my part, I must fight the deadly sins (mine) like a soldier of Christ. For your part (if I may allude to what you said), you have already abandoned your post.
What good is deserting going to do? Can the deserter lead the fight? Can the sawed-off branch strengthen the Vine? Can the severed hand heal the Body?
We need the Church because Lady Ecclesia, her skirts trailing in the mud, is still the Bride of Christ,and we are still called, not to "success" in the social or political sense, but to faithfulness.
Mother Teresa said that. "I have not been called to be successful. I have been called to be faithful."
You think we (or at least, you) are better than the bishops and the pope. Fine. Have we shown ourselves to be better than the Saints? Did any Saint ever abandon the Bride, cut himself off from the Vine? Times were this bad, many times before. St. Teresa of Avila said, "All times are dangerous times." Things have been as bad as this, or worse --- much worse --- in the 2,000 years since Pentecost.
We need the Sacramental life which Christ has graciously given us for our well-being and redemption--- the goodness of which does not depend on the merits of bishop or priest. We need to see ourselves as penitents with other penitents, not prosecutors cataloguing the sins of all the rest.
We have to stop "praying thus with himself,'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican....'"
Come back to the Church, deserter, put on sackcloth, do penance with the rest of us wretches, and pray for the Pope.
Well, yeah. That always bears saying.
Yet it also needs to be admitted that some of us who want to press no deeper, who may have even bailed on society a proverbial long time since, because of this dead canary may have not noticed all the others before it. Divorce, for example, has compromised many and don’t get me started about the so-called sexual revolution (Lewis was too optimistic of the competence of wicked men, it’s more a Subsidence of Man than an Abolition of Man that we’ve seen).
And things will grow worse and worse.
As near as I can figure the lost world is presently being divided into what seems like two camps so that they may wage war against each other: those who are in false religion, particularly Islam, who are trying to be moral; those who are trying to be kind and tolerant (notably in the West) and yet who ever more resembles Lewis’ “Clevers” from the Pilgrim’s Regress.
Or, if you will, the Dogs of War vs just plain (immoral) Dogs (and their toady allies).
“Here’s where I would disagree with you. There’s no point waiting for the human personnel of the church -— or even its leadership -— to turn sinless or inspiring enough to suit you.”
Which is exactly why there is no point in staying in it or returning. I don’t expect sinless. I expect them to make an attempt to lead by example. God does not need a middle man to pass my thoughts and prayers along to him, nor show me the way. He’s God. He’s pretty capable of doing it on his own. I have a Bible and know how to read so I’m good to go. We aren’t in the middle ages where the church controlled access to the Bible and peasants like myself couldn’t read it anyway.
A Priest, Bishop Pope etc. have no more of a red phone to the Almighty than I have. And considering they obviously don’t care to follow their supposed faith a whole lot (as seen in their actions), I’ll take my chances on following mine.Which is ultimately Roman Catholocism without the ‘Romans’.
Now that said, I don’t think ‘I’ have any special insight or understanding of the divine. But I trust my judgement far more than theirs.
Where was the Church then? The Church was at the foot of the Cross: John His beloved apostle, and Mary His mother
Wanting to take a stance against sinful men, you have brought an indictment against the Church as if it were based on men and not on God. This is a major mistake, Norm, because the Mass, the Sacraments, and even the Bible itself --- God's gracious gifts to His Church --- depend only on Christ for their authenticity. And it is He who founded the Church, His Bride who was born from His bleeding side and who has made her pilgrim way through 20 centuries of history from then until now.
And what about the cowards, the weak? They came and were restored as Peter was after the Resurrection, and they have always had "a few good men" as their successors. Sure, there have been weak ones, bad ones too, but they have never prevailed and never will.
I heard this anecdote just the other day. After spending the better part of 15 years locked in constant conflict with Pope Pius VII (which included putting the pope in prison), Napoleon Bonaparte told Pius’ adept Secretary of State, Cardinal Consalvi, that he would “crush†the Roman Catholic Church.
The cardinal sighed and shook his head over the emperor’s naivete and answered. "If in 1,800 years we clergy have failed to destroy the Church, do you really think that you'll be able to do it?"
I look at the Pope as that days moral leader.
This guy seems a class clown.
And morals have broken the world over,
Great job Pope.
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