Are Catholics and the Church Enduring Times of Great Confusion?

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Hello,

Recently I was wondering if the times we are living in seem to be very confusing for Catholics and the Church. Please note I am not referring any form of sedevacantism or claiming to hint the Second Coming as no one knows at all when our Lord will return. In some places it seems very confusing and hopeless, and in others very devout, traditional, and blossoming. I am highly thankful to our Lady for giving us the Rosary despite how confused it may be at times ( ^ _ ^ ). It seems I concluded these are times of great confusion for the Church and Catholics. Feel free to post your thoughts below regarding this topic.

Thank you ( ^ _ ^ )!
 
I voted not sure, mostly because I really don’t know the answer. For some Catholics, especially the newer ones or the ones who are about to join, of course there is going to be confusion. People who have been Catholic all or most of their lives shouldn’t face too much confusion, but that is just an opinion. Everyone has some confusion at one point or another regarding their faith, and that’s alright. Sometimes when we have that confusion, we seek out answers, and in the end we have a better and more in depth understanding of the topic.
 
Confusion is in the eye of the beholder. Many Catholics are not confused.
 
I voted yes, mainly because I encounter many people who seem to be confused over the Church’s morality views.
 
I put that it has always been since Jesus walked the Earth, I would even dare to say before Jesus came during OT times. Look their has always being conflicts, confusion, turmoil, wars, fights, disagreements, splits but if we truly call ourselves Catholics, we must remember what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18-19, not even death will prevail against the Church. I believe him and I know that he will stick to his word.
 
Beryllos said:
Confusion is in the eye of the beholder. Many Catholics are not confused.
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No, certainly not. A person can be confused and wrong about a doctrine without knowing it.

I voted the third option, because the Church has always had some heresy or troublesome situation. This current time is no different, though I am inclined to say it is worse.

In current times we are suffering the destruction of Christian patriarchy, clericalism among the clergy, the worst of the sexual revolution, and the interior destruction of the greatest superpower that has yet existed in the history of the world.

Yes. Times are very grave indeed.
 
Quick293 said:
Hello,

Recently I was wondering if the times we are living in seem to be very confusing for Catholics and the Church. Please note I am not referring any form of sedevacantism or claiming to hint the Second Coming as no one knows at all when our Lord will return. In some places it seems very confusing and hopeless, and in others very devout, traditional, and blossoming. I am highly thankful to our Lady for giving us the Rosary despite how confused it may be at times ( ^ _ ^ ). It seems I concluded these are times of great confusion for the Church and Catholics. Feel free to post your thoughts below regarding this topic.

Thank you ( ^ _ ^ )!
Click to expand...
Yes, I think so.

I know I am personally.
 
I’m not sure people are any more confused than they’ve always been. 🤷 The devil has always been attacking the church and trying to create confusion since Jesus’ day. There’s nothing new under the sun, it’s just that people may voice their confusion more or in a different way like through media or the internet, but those thoughts and confusions have always been there, there just wasn’t a platform for people to voice their views like there is today. 🤷
 
dshix said:
A person can be confused and wrong about a doctrine without knowing it.
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I do not disagree with the above statement. However, when I wrote “Confusion is in the eye of the beholder,” I was not referring to one’s understanding of doctrine, but to one’s understanding of the church and its mission. A person may be anxious about instability and change, or he may be confident and secure in the knowledge that God is carrying out his plan.
 
Things are actually improving and far better than they were several decades ago. I lived through the 60s, and in the late 1960s a tidal wave of craziness began to engulfed the church in the Western World. But in the last 15 or 20 years many things are being straightened out. Younger priest are more orthodox. Pope John Paul II also helped turn the tide. Perhaps you have heard of the aging dissenter from Catholic beliefs, the “Catholic theologian” who was very prominent in the 1970s for his dissent from basic Catholic beliefs, who now is aged and considering committing suicide because of his disease. Though I am not happy about this, it can be seen to be symbolic of the old ways of dissent passing away. Similarly, 1970s seminaries turned out a number of priests who were later disgraced as sexual abusers of children, these seminaries later manifesting in this way a terrible result of a laxity they had in Catholic standards. And I am sure some people who read this thread realize that though they had a Catholic religious education that they didn’t really learn anything about the faith–a Catholic religious education actually lacking substance is another sort of serious problem that began to enter Catholicism in the late 1960s. You mentioned the rosary–and in this time of confusion traditional devotions, especially devotion to Mary, declined. But the Church is recovering to a serious extent from these problems, though relics of some of them still exist.
Because of what I experienced over this period, I am happy about the state of the Church in general today, which, drawing always on the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, is being renewed now.
I don’t know what you are experiencing, but I would think that if you hang on it is quite likely you will begin seeing something better. I was upset back in the late 1960s and the years following, but I didn’t give up, knowing that the Church is greater than this, is vehicle of God to men.
 
We just have to work on teaching catechesis and stop watering down the faith to some mere good feelings. (Not saying good feelings are bad, I just do not think they relevant when it comes to learning the faith)
 
The Catholic Church lives on the TRUTH. However some people from within may create confusion but cannot destroy that TRUTH. Why? This is because this Truth is the Way and the Source of the life of the Catholic Church.

Whoever creates these confusions, is against the One who built This Church. Therefore He or She cannot prevail against this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church but shall find himself or herself being and already condemned in this life and in the next life.
 
I voted ‘possibly’. There is definitely confusion, but things are getting better. In some parts of the world things are very good. And countries such as the US, that suffered a lot of confusion in the past decades are now full of seminaries and religious orders that are orthodox and traditional. That is great news. The same is for pockets of true faith in a number of European countries. And these pockets are growing and multiplying.

On the whole, things are not great, but it could be worse. I wonder if things were ever great. Probably not, judging by all the heresies that church has had to battle over the centuries, its internal problems and its clashes with the world.

I have found Mdgspencer’s reply very comforting.
 
The basic doctrines of the Church are accepted by the vast majority of Catholics even though many are in favour of divorce and contraception. The confusion that does exist concerns moral rather than theological issues - which is inevitable in a rapidly changing society.
 
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