Comments for Does Catholicism “Have Issues”? at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 16 out of 16 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sat, 18 May 2013 10:23:08 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15925 You are right...if the Catholic Church did not matter, we would never hear a thing about it. - Martha Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:26:03 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15921 I write this as we prepare for the 2nd Sunday of Lent and reflection of the transfiguration and the testing of the apostle's faith. "Listen to him" was God's command. No mention of Wills or Dionne or sisters who drive jeeps in the poor countries of the world (God bless the sisters that still see themselves as servants and not lobbyists) The church may be smaller in the future, maybe a lot smaller, but it will be vibrant, holy, Catholic and apostolic. A great place to be if you believe in truth. - JRF Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:53:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15892 Every generation thinks they are the one to uncover some "plot" in the Church; to be the first to point out to the world the error of Her ways; to be the first person, reporter or blogger who is FINALLY going to shake the world up into seeing the Church for what She REALLY is - outdated, outmoded, persecuting and prejudiced. This is nothing new. And in every era, the thought that the end of the world was imminent was prevalent whether from signs and omens, war, sickness or corruption. Regardless, the Church has and will CONTINUE to prevail against the "gates of hell" and all those who persecute Her including those within the Church and those who are not - against those who would liberalize and modernize the Word of God - against those who would worship relativism in place of God. One cannot change the word of God no matter how many people join the band wagon. So proud of our Pope who has stood firm in every firestorm ... and so proud to be Catholic!!!! - Diane Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:08:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15874 Perfectly said, Frank! It's all about fear and envy. As you say, the church will never change! I think deep in the hearts of so many critics of the church, they know that the awful relativist society for which they've fought so long and hard is going down fast and that the Catholic church will still be there when the dust settles. That's tough for them to live with - very tough! - John Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:21:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15871 Bob, thanks for writing this. It deserves wide circulation. Wills and Dionne should have dropped their Catholic identities long ago. But this would require intellectual integrity. Someone should write something about what happened to Garry Wills over the years...Maybe publish it in NYRB. - Michael Ard Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:45:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15870 Dr Royal is one of the few to acknowledge how toxic corporate America has come, i.e. the so-called human resources department. Today it's a matter of getting past THEIR prejudices to actually be hired. It's going on. As for the zeitgeist, I wouldn't say "even Catholics" I would say "most Catholics" at least here in the Archdiocese of Detroit. It's wearying. Everybody wants to be sophisticated. Or as in New York in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic, fear overrules common sense, logic, reason, even science. When the Church reaches out why does it always seem to end with the Church giving up what it was supposed to be offering? A columnist in yesterday's Detroit News (ostensibly "conservative" although it opposed a recent abortion restriction bill in the Michigan legislature) referred to the Holy Father as "Benny." "Benny." When I listen to NPR they refer each time and every time to the Dalai Lama as "his holiness this" and "his holiness that." As for Wills, he sees himself apparently as a doctor of the Future Church. How much wackier are his ideas going to become? But when I made an extensive comment on the Telegraph site on a Damien Thompson blog on the end of Benedict's papacy I found my inbox receiving a steady stream of approvals for my praise of the retiring pontiff. So maybe there's hope --at least in England. - Graham Combs Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:43:11 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15869 @Manfred: Is praying the Rosary daily a sufficient response to these warnings? - John Mercer Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:40:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15865 @John: Thank you for sharing your opinion. I cannot think of anything more "needlessly bleak", from a purely human perspective, than having my grandchildren taught in school that a man "marrying" another man ( I will spare everyone the graphic details) is as normal as a man marrying a woman. The very idea is unthinkable. I don't need Fatima or Akita to warn me-I know we are at the very end of the road. What separates us is how we respond to this. (Let's review the subject in fifty years!) - Manfred Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:20:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15862 Manfred, Matthew, Seems to me you paint a needlessly bleak picture of state of the world and the Church. Yes, we have problems in the Church and the world, some of them quite serious. Yet there's nothing new in this situation. I've heard of the message of Akita before and it's apparent similarity to that of Fatima. So far as I'm aware though, neither revelation has demanded any conduct that hasn't been fulfilled. I know, some will disagree regarding the consecration of Russia. Always there have been--and always there will be--contradictory views. I do not, however, think we're in any greater danger now of hideous consequences from routine, willful human neglect of faith than we ever were before. I've generally understood the Church has suffered many travails through time. We do not know when the Master will come and time itself will end. Thanks be to God! - John Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:31:07 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15860 Well stated Manfred. It seems unimaginable indeed but we have witnessed the diabolical disorientation. For example, the words of Archbishop Bertone, the current Vatican Secretary of State. "The decision of His Holiness John Paul II to make public the third part of the “secret” of Fatima - brings to an end a period of history marked by tragic human lust for power and evil, - yet pervaded by the merciful love of God and the watchful care of the Mother of Jesus and of the Church." - Matthew Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:01:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15857 @Ernest Miller. The Third Secret(?) was finally issued by Cdl Bertone in the year 2000. He insisted that the "bishop dressed in white" (the Pope) was John Paul II and the vision had only historical significance as the event depicted was the assassination attempt on JP II in 1981. This was challenged by two lay authors: Christopher A. Ferrara, Esq. an American, and Antonio Socci, an Italian journalist, who wrote Il Quartro Segreto di Fatima. Both insist we still have not received the entire secret. On May 11, 2010, Pope Benedict on the plane to Fatima, answered a reporter: "As for the new things which we can find in this (Fatima) message... today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way, that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from the enemies without, but arises from the sin within the Church,..." In 1973, in a convent in Akita,Japan, a Sister Agnes was granted an apparition by the Blessed Mother in which she described fire coming from the sky with such a horrible result that those who survived would wish they had died. It would effect the entire world. Her bishop took this information to Rome and met with Bp(?) Joseph Ratzinger who stated that the message of Akita was identical to the message of Fatima. This part of the message was never released to the laity. Let's be frank. It is unimaginable to me that a sincere Catholic could ever disobey an instruction from an angel, the Blessed Mother or Christ, yet this is done. It appears that this was done in order to push forward the Council which Pope John XXIII had strongly supported. The significance of why the Blessed Mother had asked that the message be released "no later than 1960" has become quite obvious. The First Secret, the vision of Hell which was released, is quite enough for me. My wife and I pray the Rosary daily. - Manfred Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:11:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15856 Dr. Royal states: The other way these “issues” get treated is to classify them as mere “policies” as if the next pope or one down the line can simply change Catholic teaching to suit whatever happens to be the dominant mood. Then everyone can go home happy – and undisturbed. Tell that to St. Athanasius and to any of the saints who fought against the age old enemies of the Church. What makes anyone think the enemies of the Church are different now than hundreds or a thousand years ago?? The leopard hasn't changed it's spots. The concerted and unceasing attacks continue to come from monolithic enemies of Christ. The Catholic Church had been the ONLY institution keeping track of what they did (and continue to do) to destroy the Faith, the Petrine Primacy, and the Church. READ; The Plot Against the Church (Maurice Pinay) written just before the 2nd Vatican Council. DON'T REMAIN ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. - Theo Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:41:38 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15854 Manfred, Could you or any other contributor please expound on Third Secret? Do we know its truthful message? Many Thanks - Ernest Miller Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:34:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15850 I can just hear Wills and Dionne now: "Move it on out, Holy Spirit, I am here to save the day." - Deacon Ed Peitler Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:41:17 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15849 In considering alternative possibilities, is it also possible that fear and envy are also embedded in the criticism and verbal venom proffered by Wills, Dionne and the rest of the multitude of usual suspects? Early in my adulthood and the ascendence of Pope John Paul II, I began to see something that as a Protestant, I could not deny. It is this point in my life that I think began my very long path to becoming a Catholic. When leaders of other churches made public statements, at best, the local news would report it or the story would make it below the fold of a newspaper. But when a Pope talks, the world listens. Such words originate from Rome with a ripple and spread out like a tsunami to all of the world. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Dictators and Monarch listen even if they harbor a hatred of the Holy Father. Christ's Church stands hard and fast which was another point I discovered. "This is who we are and this is what we believe," says the church. "Everyone is welcome here but we hold firm and fast on our beliefs, we will not change." I'd be willing to bet that deep down in their hearts, Wills, Dionne, et al, grudgingly respect the church for its unwavering positions and teaching. These are people in distress and confusion simply because of the faulty filters and clouded lenses they've embraced to see the world through. The church need not and of course cannot change and ultimately in the end, will be the last standing at the end of time. Such "intellectual" minds cannot comprehend, but then they do not want to as God uses what is foolish to them in order to confound them. - Frank Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:02:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/does-catholicism-have-issues.html#comment-15848 Thank you for a fine article, Dr. Royal. I trust you will allow me to attempt to demonstrate how the Church (us!) arrived at this point."The reasons why Pope Roncalli decided to postpone the publication of the Third Secret are obvious: There was a shrill contrast between 'the prophecy of doom' of the message of Fatima and the optimistic outlook on the future of the new pontiff, who inaugurated the Second Vatican Council. The existence of this contrast between two 'prophetic visions' helps us to understand the events of the following years." The Second Vatican Council (an unwritten story) Roberto de Mattei p. 106 - Manfred Mon, 18 Feb 2013 01:42:17 +0100