Evangelization in the days of heresy and abuse

I prayed, "What are we supposed to do now, Jesus?" The pope was preaching against making theology an idol, condemning the faithful and praising the God-haters. The news was filled with how Cardinal McCarrick had raped children and how his successor Cardinal Wuerl had covered up and reassigned pedophiles. It wouldn't have been as bad if those who seek the Church's destruction were merely delighting in the scandal, but the Washington Post was defending Wuerl, pointing out that he had done the right things sometimes.

"How do we bring people into this Church? Who would want to join us?" I asked God, for without evangelization, the Church will merely age, wither and die.

And what a lost opportunity the present seems! America is waking up to the harm of sexual selfishness, as every news and entertainment company was rocked with revelations that its power brokers all habitually sexually harassed those under him. "No," came the public-opinion verdict, "women shouldn't have to be prostitutes to work in the media!" Imagine that, there actually is a reason for sexual morality and ethics! But instead of saying, "see, this is what we were saying all along," the Church was hobbled by homosexual rapists of tweeners and teens.

At the same time, Europe is pining for its soul, its heritage. But wolfish Church leaders attack those who wanted to reestablish Christendom as the anti-Christ (?!!) After all, these conservative leaders reject the hordes of Muslim invaders (and indeed, there are many invaders among the so-called "refugees"). And so, dangerously, the conservative movement in Europe isn't one of returning to her Christian roots, but of ever-increasing alienation from the Church. And the liberal leaders gain no respect for the Church because of those who betray God-given freedom for socialism. Instead, from Mexico to Argentina to Ireland to Spain, they are emboldened to make war against the Church ever more viciously, demanding of her child sacrifice to their demon gods. (Thank God that for now, at least, Argentina's Senate has rejected abortion, but without continuous miracles, this will last only until the next time the political conservatives stumble in an election.)

I had gotten up early, but I didn't feel there was much I could get done at home productively without waking my family. I realized I could go to early daily mass, and get home before my family needed me. I got to church and found daily mass was now at 7:30, not 7:00. I decided I had to go home. My wife would be stressing about getting my son off to day camp. But I couldn't leave, either. And so I was praying in the parking lot about the future of the Church, and what sort of a Church would be left for my son. I realized I really needed to go to church; for one day, my wife could manage things on her own. But this wasn't a decision of my conscious will, but rather of feet which simply wouldn't head home and instead went to mass.

And there was a reading from the Book of Revelations. "Then God's temple in Heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant was seen within His temple." Ah, yes. The Tabernacle. The bearer of the Eucharist, which was what continually brought me back to/kept me in the Catholic Church. But in general, the Protestants believe in the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, even if they believe it's only a re-enactment, even if they believe it's merely mystically present, instead of being physically present.

(Lurkers, I'm not meaning to open a debate on any Protestant beliefs; I'm speaking very generally, and therefore very imprecisely. If anyone feels the need to put a finer point on this, fine, but I'm not opening up the entire thread to controversy; on all matters, please respect that this is a Catholic caucus thread.)

Such a fine theological point seemed a difficult basis for evangelization to Catholicism, when even the Bishops of Germany are concelebrating with consubstantialists. And yet, I fondly remembered discovering the beauty of adoration of the Eucharist, in its monstrance (a typically ornate stand, which presents the communion host). In my mind, I thought of the monstrance where 24-hour adoration is offered locally, how the gold rays make the host look like the shining of the sun. Yes, that's the longed-for country, the land beyond the Shadowlands, that presence with Christ. That's why I'm a Catholic, and yet... But how do you bring people to that? Not by debating theology. Not by pining for Christendom. (And certainly NOT by preaching socialism and its evil ideological materialism, it's divide-and-conquer faulting, it's hatred of the family...)

"A great portent appeared in Heaven," the reading continued, "a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars." From THIS point, I knew the reading practically by heart, how the woman bore Jesus Christ, who would rule the nations. Of course, THAT'S why the church seems so crowded today! It was the Feast of the Assumption! How did I not know that? I think perhaps God was keeping me from realizing that so the first part of the reading would grab my attention.

To Jesus, through Mary! That is what the Saints told us would preserve the Church in the Last Days. When my faith was more jealous than it has been lately, I've felt an intense relationship to Jesus. I knew Mary was interceding in Heaven, like the rest of the Saints, only closer still to Jesus. But I never had a very personal relationship with her. More often, I found those that did simply a focus for those that reject Catholicism to attack. I could very much explain the biblical basis of Catholicism's unique role for Mary, but that was always more mere intellect. I've loved the mysteries of the Rosary, but experienced her merely as the eyes with which to follow Jesus, not as a heart to be compassionate with.

(And this role is fine, for she never stands in opposition to Jesus. She exists to bring us closer to Him, not to substitute for Him. She wills nothing which is apart from His will.)

Now I understand... this is how we rebuild the Church. This is how we call the masses back to the uh, masses: a love for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

There is no caucus when both muslims and Protestantism are mentioned.

Perhaps you should read the article FIRST.

Re your last sentence:

"Now I understand... this is how we rebuild the Church. This is how we call the masses back to the uh, masses: a love for the Blessed Virgin Mary."

I've been noticing more and more lately that Catholicism is replacing Jesus with the Catholic Mary...Who is NOT the Mary of the Holy Scriptures.

How about rebuilding your church (referred to as the Church) by having a love for out beloved Savior, Jesus Christ?

His “determination to devolve authority” seems to merely be a refusal to confront heresy; he has brutally suppressed righteous dissent and abolished the dissenters. At this point, he’s been such a proponent of heretics, I don’t see how it’s possible to draw the narrowest of circles around papal authority. How can he claim his bulls and encyclicals and even catechisms have authority when they contradict other bulls and encyclicals and catachisms?

“Thanks again for whatever it is that you do”

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