Posted on 02/14/2016 3:07:53 PM PST by NYer
Last year, in response to a Pew Research poll showing the American Catholic Church in decline, Elizabeth Scalia (now at the editorial helm of Aleteia) posted this challenge on her Patheos blog The Anchoress:
If you're Catholic and have access to a web-page, a radio program, a Facebook page, whatever, take a few minutes, and tell the world why you are remaining a Catholic in an era where doing so seems not only counter-cultural, but also counter-intuitive and even, perhaps, a bit risky?
Thoughtful and moving responses rolled in from all across the Internet, and continue to to do so today.
For my entry, I'm phrasing the question this way:
Why would I stay Catholic even if the whole world turned against the Church and labeled me a fool for remaining a believer?
The short answer: Because the whole world is wrong.
But it's a question that deserves a long answer, so here goes ....
First, I should define my terms. By "the world" I really mean the much narrower "worldly" subset of modern American and European Western Culture. By "wrong" I mean, well... WRONG. Dangerously wrong. Spinning out of control wrong. In the process of destroying itself wrong.
If the title of this article enticed you to click the link, chances are you already have a strong opinion about the Catholic faith. You either love it or you hate it. Either way, you are likely already aware of the "hot button" social issues on which the world and the Church disagree - abortion, contraception, so-called "gay marriage," euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, the "New Atheism," etc., etc., etc. And on every single one of those fronts, and many more besides (the "hot button" issues barely scratch the surface), wherever the world calls something "good" that the Church defines as "evil," I really do believe that the world is 100% wrong and the Church is 100% right.
I say this with confidence because those obvious "hot button" worldly issues are only visible symptoms of a deeper and more dangerous disease infecting the modern (and "post-modern") western psyche.
Western Culture has lost its mind.
In his book Theology and Sanity, the great Catholic apologist Frank Sheed put it this way:
... if we see things in existence and do not in the same act see that they are held in existence by God, then equally we are living in a fantastic world, not the real world. Seeing God everywhere and all things upheld by him is not a matter of sanctity, but of plain sanity, because God IS everywhere and all things ARE upheld by Him. What we do about it may be sanctity; but merely seeing it is sanity. To overlook God's presence is not simply to be irreligious; it is a kind of insanity, like overlooking anything else that is actually there...
We murder babies in the womb and play Frankenstein with their cells not because we are evil, but because we are mad. We treat sex like a toy and each other's bodies like objects not because we are devils, but because we have lost all self control. Men marry men and women marry women (or have their genders surgically "reassigned") not because we are wicked, but because we have lost all sense of what it means to be either a man or a woman. Blind to the reality of God everywhere and holding up all things, we fall prey to false gods, first and foremost our own vane and bloated egos. We become our own gods and spin ever further from any kind of moral center, any semblance of a solid ground of reality beneath our feet.
This madness afflicting Western Culture is by no means "modern." It entered the world with the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is the madness of original sin.
And for the sake of our cure from this ancient affliction, the very real God atheists tell us does not exist, the one who created man and woman and the sacrament of marriage, who knits every baby in the womb and counts all the hairs on the heads of old men, who is everywhere and upholds all things, became one of us in a real physical body, in the real person of Jesus Christ, at a real, measurable time in recorded history. He really established one Church (the Catholic Church, from which all other Christian denominations schismed over time), was really crucified, really died, and really rose from the dead to make it possible for you and me and everyone everywhere to defeat sin and death and regain our sanity.
That's reality. And only the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of truth regarding it.
Whatever in the world disagrees with that truth or contradicts it is delusion, plain and simple.
So, the real question is not, Will I remain Catholic or embrace worldly values?
The real question is, Will I remain sane or embrace madness?
I choose sanity. I choose the Catholic Church. Forever.
In response to my choice, the world is welcome to call me a fool. I don't mind. I don't expect rational behavior from madmen. Now that really would be foolish!
The guy is wrong right out of the gate. We do all that because we are evil. It's our nature.
We sin because, without Christ, we are sinners.
I would think that if priests hear the confession of those guilty of child sexual abuse they insist that part of the reconciliation process is that the guilty party surrenders to the authorities and faces the legal ramifications of his/her sin - clergy or laity.
Dear RM, why was the Caucus label removed? I was never notified nor was any explanation posted.
Other churches were mentioned in the body of the article, and those who belong to those churches are entitled to respond under FR Religion Forum rules, thus the caucus was broken by the subject of the thread.
It was probably post 23; perhaps it is best to ask to have this thread removed and start afresh with another Caucus thread, reminding everyone not to mention another denomination or religion ?
LOL, you’re late to the party! foggyhill and verga have been trying to get the thread at least locked for a long time. Perhaps you can add you ‘special’ posts, to get the moderator to pull the thread.
about tsomething.
You think so?
Patterns of organizational disfunction indicates otherwise.
In the THOUSANDS of cases of gay priests, like Rev Gerald Fitzpatrick, and Rev Patrick Fitzgerald, clergy, archdiocese authorities, and gilded vatican / pope chose to keep their attrocities secret for DECADES, and move CRIMINAL pedophile priests round n round.
Disgusting that the Vatican still excuses bishops worldwide from reporting priest’s sexual abuse of children within their parish domain of responsibility.
Yet more ongoing outrageous criminal behavior from an “religious” institution that is not tolerated in the miltary, schools, scouts or corporations.
RE: “I would think that if priests hear the confession of those guilty of child sexual abuse they insist that part of the reconciliation process is that the guilty party surrenders to the authorities and faces the legal ramifications of his/her sin - clergy or laity.”
No I sent it to both of you:
To: cloudmountain; metmomPlease pay closer attention so you do not make any more false accusations.I can barely read the quote it's in such small fontIt's a truth that is worthy of larger font
Big deal. Plenty of your previous popes have done so and I don't see anyone retracting that. Not to mention that some RC's on this very thread have called non-Catholic Christians *heretics.*
Metmom, how ironic that anyone a part of Catholicism would call anyone else heretical when they deny that the true body of Christ members are not Christians because only Catholics can be Christians.
God is not pleased.
I forgive you.
How do YOU know that "God is not pleased"?? Did He tell you?
Yes He did. The Bible makes it clear that what I posted is God's Truth.
Or can you read His mind?
How foolish of a question. You should study the Bible.
I don't have to do that. I have the mind of Christ, scriptural proof available upon request.
Did you consult a ouija board?
You need to take your Ouija board and destroy it completely while asking God to remove the demons that it has brought into your surroundings.
Using devices like that can allow demons to infiltrate your area and do great spiritual and physical damage.
You seem to be OUT OF SYNC with this one, Syncro.
Cute play on words but you are wrong.
If you familiarize yourself with Catholicism you will find that what I stated is from the teachings of your belief system.
Your *cough* esteemed leaders have proclaimed that outside of Catholicism there is no salvation
Which is a lie.
I feel sorry for you if you think that Catholics think that only Catholics can be Christians.
I don't think that. Many Catholics don't know that their belief system teaches that.
Following a belief system and not knowing some of the basic tenants can be very dangerous for your spiritual growth.
And cause you to make false accusations to Christians. As was illustrated above.
but perhaps you read a crystal ball or something.
I'll go with "or something" I have a Bible. In fact several.
I pinged both of you again cloudmountain because metmom was mentioned in your post and in this reply.
What nice words do a lot of you Catholics call your present pope?
You might need to get out more.
You might need to get out more.
“It’s the old *Look, over there!* tactic.”
Or the “others do it, too” defense.
And the "Don't let the screen hit you in the ...
Oh I have read that many times.
And it has been refuted many times.
Jesus is the Rock, and His church is built on Him, not a human
The Bible nowhere gives any indication that there were popes or were going to be popes, it’s all made up by Catholicism.
I learned about the Catholic church mainly from their own teachings.
I learned the Truth from the Bible, the Sword of the Sprit, The Word of God which is Jesus.
That’s where the facts are.
Rome's press releases...
"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours." - Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)
Therefore, if anyone says that it is not by the institution of Christ the lord himself (that is to say, by divine law) that blessed Peter should have perpetual successors in the primacy over the whole Church; or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy: let him be anathema. - Vatican 1, Ses. 4, Cp. 1
Haters gonna hate.
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