The Catholic Church is here to stay

Vivificat! - A Personal Catholic Blog of News, Commentary, Opinion, and Reflections ^ | 1 September 2006 | Teófilo

[Teófilo]

The Church will withstand every challenge from without and from within; for nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ; because in Christ we have overcome the world, and because the powers of hell and death will not prevail against the Church.

Folks, according to AFP/YahooNews:

Catholic Church will survive all tests: Pope

ROME (AFP) - The Roman Catholic Church will overcome any ordeals encountered, just as it weathered Muslim invasions, Nazism, communism and Enlightenment philosophy,

Pope Benedict XVI has said.

The Church lives and will continue to live, just as it has survived "two thousand years of history ... despite its suffering and its weaknesses," he said at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.

Speaking with priests from the nearby Albano diocese, the pope reached as far back as the first Christian communities in Asia Minor (present-day western Turkey) and North Africa, and talked of "Muslim invasions."

"The Church seemed finished then," the pope said, quoted by the ANSA news agency, adding that numerous saints had revitalised the religion.

The Roman Catholic religion also overcome 18th century philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, such as Rousseau and Voltaire, and also Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler "who wanted to destroy Catholicism ... and had all the means to do so," the German said.

"Faith is stronger than currents that come and go," the pope stressed. "We must therefore be courageous (as the church) represents never ending hope."

Commentary. Allow me to gloat a little: we're not going anywhere, people. We've survived persecutions by every tyrants from every continent and age. We've survive an onslaught of new ideas, some religious, some philosophical, some secular, keen on burying the Church "soon." Instead, we have buried them, as we will bury those we face today and that we'll face tomorrow.

Why is this so?

First, there is a promise:

Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.(St. Matthew 16:15-19, Douay-Rheims)

Then, there is this certainty:

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39, ibid.)

Which is also a certainty shared by St. John the Apostle, as he wrote:

You are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.(1 John 4:4; ibid)

Sure, we will all be wounded in this process; some of these wounds will be self-inflicted. We will fall, but then, we will rise, like Christ on the way to Golgotha

Yet, with all her faults, the Church is the bride of Christ, and she who is "the assembly of those who have been called"--that's what "church" or ekklesia means in Greek, will be restored.

I draw great comfort from these certainties. That's why very few things faze me any more; for I confident in ultimate victory of the Lamb and of his Bride. In fact, we have already overcome the world.

So, let us glory in the Lord for his infinite love and praise and thank Him for having made us participants of His infinite bounty.

[Petronski]

Put another way, if I found a quote (invented or not) in which Hitler claimed to be a pickled herring, that quote alone would not make it so.

[ladyinred]

That isn't where I read it, but it is perhaps quoted from that, in fact, most likely is. As I stated, I don't think Hitler had any kind of faith unless it was in Satan!

[ladyinred]

I went searching for the source of the Hitler quote I had just read. I read so much it is sometimes hard to recall where I read what! The book is Adolf Hitler, John Toland, NY, Doubleday publisher, 1978.

[Campion]

I'm familiar with the book, but don't own a copy. What exactly does it say, and what source does it cite?

[madison10]

HITLER WAS CATHOLIC!

He was an APOSTATE Catholic, or a Satanist.

[siunevada]

HITLER WAS CATHOLIC!

Let's play a guessing game.

Who did this fellow Hitler say was "the only human being who has always contradicted me and never obeyed me"?

The only human being who has always contradicted him?

[Conservative til I die]

1) You're quoting an atheist website with an agenda that is not only anti-Catholic but also anti-Protestant.

2) Most of those pictures show a rather tenuous connection between Hitler and the Church. I mean Hitler in a photo with a Church in the background? Come on.

[Conservative til I die]

I did just read a quote from Hitler as an adult and in charge where he stated he was a Catholic and always would be. I will try to find it and post it. Of course, I don't believe he was a believer in God in the least.

I think we're on the same page, but remember this about Hitler and the Nazis. They were master propagandists.

[ladyinred]

We are on the same page. Absolutely.

[Running On Empty]

Pope Pius the XII

[Straight Vermonter]

Wow, that is a looney site!

[NutCrackerBoy]

That's cool by me.

[Religion Moderator]

You were warned not to overstate your case, make false or hateful claims. You ignored my warning. You are gone.

[Iscool]

You're citing an atheist website against fellow Christians?!?

No...I'm not against anyone on this issue...I didn't check the site over...I just looked at the pictures and read the captions...I don't know if Hitler was a Catholic or not...

I've read pieces where Hitler supposedly stated that he'd be a Catholic til he died...There just seems to be two sides to this issue...I'm curious which one is correct...

[Iscool]

Be careful, sir, that in your very obvious hatred of Catholicism and Catholics

I don't hate any Catholics...I have some very close friends who are Catholic...I do obviously, disagree with the Catholic religion...

[PanzerKardinal]

Calumny

NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. cal·um·nies

1. A false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation.

2. The utterance of maliciously false statements; slander.

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English calumnie, from Old French calomnie, from Latin calumnia, from calv, to deceive.

http://www.bartelby.com/61/40/C0044000.html

[murphE]

I've read pieces where Hitler supposedly stated that he'd be a Catholic til he died...There just seems to be two sides to this issue...I'm curious which one is correct...

You might find this interesting...

Who Voted for the Nazis?

"The Nazis won a higher share of the vote in Protestant, rather than Catholic, areas. In July 1932 the Nazi share of the vote was indeed twice as high in Protestant areas as in Catholic."

[Campion]

I don't hate any Catholics

Color me ... skeptical ...

I have some very close friends who are Catholic

I think we've heard that line before.

[Campion]

No...I'm not against anyone on this issue...I didn't check the site over...I just looked at the pictures and read the captions...I don't know if Hitler was a Catholic or not

Okay. Maybe you ought to exercise some caution about posting inflammatory links? You're familiar with virtues like charity and forbearance, hmm?

I've read pieces where Hitler supposedly stated that he'd be a Catholic til he died

What Hitler said and what he did were two entirely different things. If he was a "Catholic" he was a Catholic who (a) didn't practice his faith at all from age 16 or so on; (b) had a shack-up lover for years; (c) eventually married her in a civil ceremony; (d) promoted a pagan, anti-Christian ideology; (e) plotted, at one point, to arrest and imprison the Pope; (f) was a mass murderer; and (g) was a mass murderer whose murders included the murders of hundreds of Catholic priests and religious, and millions of Catholic laymen and laywomen.

So Hitler said he was a Catholic? If Satan announced that he was a fundamental Baptist, would that make Baptists demonic, or would it simply reflect the fact that Satan is a liar?

[Salvation]

And it is growing faster than any other religion!!