Posted on 04/07/2005 9:08:51 AM PDT by Clemenza
Found this very interesting.
Ping the usual suspects!
The one downfall to the Net is it allows mental patients a reach.
I saw an article yesterday that said the amount of people coming into catholicism increased during the Pope's reign.
That it did, although most of the gains were made in Asia and Africa, with losses (largely through attrition) in the Americas and Europe (although Europe has been secularizing for most of this century and the last).
America lost a lot of religion when communities were broken up.
<<...>> Portland, Oregon, Prophecy April 2nd, 2005 -
In this day, where death took place from an office that was so high, a shaking shall begin through these summer months where great leaders of yesterday will lay down their sword and they shall meet their Maker. For the time of the death has come where I will remove some of the old, and then millions and millions shall come into the Kingdom at one moment.
For, in 21 days from now, a shaking will take place in the Roman Catholic Church. They will say, "No, it cannot be; why would they elect such a person?" And then they will say, "No, we cannot do it at this time." But it shall be done, and I will bring the Spirit into the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican, and there will be an infilling of the spirit of the Cardinals and the priests.
This day I have received a servant. This day you call him the Pope. This day I call him My son. This day you said a pope has died; this day I say a servant has won. I have raised up a new voice and a new Spirit that shall come into Italy, and I shall invade Europe in a way, that I have planned thousands of years ago, where they shall say, "What is happening in these places?"
The Spirit of God shall fall in buildings of rock and stone. It shall fall in places where they least believed it. I will cause chaos, and I will say to them, "Now I will take people by the hundreds of millions and share My Spirit with them."
For I will raise up a man that shall continue, and they will say, in the beginning, that he won't be able to do it. But there shall be an experience after 33 days, and a raising up and a resurrection. And a Spirit-filled pope, that will raise up a voice, he shall speak the truth, and they will say, "We must get him out of the way." But, rejoice this day for there are deaths of many great leaders, because it is necessary so that I can raise up a new generation of men and women that will go into the marketplace and raise up the name of Yahweh.
http://www.kimclement.com/words/2005/Apr22005.htm
Imagine how much greater the decline would have been without JP2!
Thats because the U.S. became more economically dispersed from the industrial NE and Midwest to the South and the West. Kinda difficult to have "community" when you live in the land of Office Parks and Applebees.
On the other hand, the "Megachurches" are doing very well. I think the RCs main problem is that it is run by incompetants (the late PJPII being an exception) and hasn't been "on message" consistently since the Second Vatican Council.
Why would the loss have been greater w/o WW2?
Hence the auditing of Catholic Charities.
The flaw in the author's prediction of a relentlessly progressing posthuman world is that things will inevitably continue on their present course. Many ships have washed ashore on the rocks of such long term "straight line" projections.
Last month I toured Pompei, with its well preserved world of decadent pleasure. Our tour guide, an urbane Italian in his early 30's, looked around the baths and sighed that "life was so much better then, not so . . . restricted by rules."
"Really?" I replied. "Then why was it that the ancient Romans came to abandon their hedonistic lifestyle and embraced Christianity?" He had no real answer to that.
If you look at the European nations that consider themselves "post-Christian," you will notice that the native born populations are not replacing themselves in terms of birth rate and will inexorably decline. Who's replacing them? Generally Muslim immigrants, who have lots of children and take family values and faith quite seriously.
Don't write off the future just yet. It does yet appear what we shall be.
Assuming you mean JP2. He energized catholic youth around the world and made a significant impact upon an already declining western church attendance. Had a less dynamic pope been in place, the church would have appeared as less of an option to many than JP2 had made it.
This prediction assumes that we have reached what Francis Fukayama called "the end of history." But after 9/11, Fukayama changed his mind, and in any case the prediction is unlikely. There are bound to be more wars, earthquakes, comets, famines, plagues, whatever. And if the advanced nations all settle into their Brave New World, there will always be barbarians at the gates waiting to break down their gates and destroy their pleasant places.
History has gone through these cycles many times before, and the least likely outcome is that the entire world will sink into decadent pleasures with nobody left outside the party waiting to spoil it.
To be fair, when they reintroduced music into the Roman Church (under Gregory) a major problem was that many of the congregants would sing their own, rather risque, lyrics to the music. (See Luigi Barzini's "The Italians").
If we think our ancestors were as holy as we like to think they were, we would be wrong.
Bingo! The growth of the Church is in the poverty stricken areas where it offers hope. During JPII's pontificate, the number of Catholics grew from 750 million to 1.1 billion!
The constant and steady stream of pilgrims pouring into Rome from every corner of the globe, is testimony to what this holy man of God has accomplished.
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Ok, I'm not understanding. What is JP2? I thought you meant the Japan War
NO, some of us KNOW that a lot of it has to do with the deliberate infiltration of the church by anti-Catholic organizations and the sworn enemies of Christ.
I don't know how far back you are referencing with ancestors.
My point of reference was when our families all lived in communities. And yes, morals had higher standards, malls were closed.
Family went to church, Sunday meals were an event, and now the mom and pop stores are gone.
My nostalgia though is probably off topic for the intent of your post though.
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