Decay of Morals and The Church

[BlueinSD]

Hey folks,

Recently, I’ve been thinking how it appears the Christian-Judeo moral fabric of Western Culture seems to be eroding away. From contraception, to abortion, to homosexual marriages, it just seems that everything contrary to Christianity is not only becoming more and more popular, but also more acceptable and “normal.”

It just seems to me that at the moment, especially in the West, all the opponents of the Church’s morals seem to be winning in the sense that their own twisted sense of morals is coming to fruition in modern society. Does this make anyone else afraid? It makes me nervous about the future for the Church and Christianity as a whole. I know Christ said that the Gates of Hell would never overcome His Church and I cling to that, but sometimes I still have a hard time looking at the total moral erosion in our society and not think that those who oppose the Church are winning. Any thoughts or words of encouragement? Thanks!

 

[sw85]

Hey folks,

Recently, I’ve been thinking how it appears the Christian-Judeo moral fabric of Western Culture seems to be eroding away. From contraception, to abortion, to homosexual marriages, it just seems that everything contrary to Christianity is not only becoming more and more popular, but also more acceptable and “normal.”

It just seems to me that at the moment, especially in the West, all the opponents of the Church’s morals seem to be winning in the sense that their own twisted sense of morals is coming to fruition in modern society. Does this make anyone else afraid? It makes me nervous about the future for the Church and Christianity as a whole. I know Christ said that the Gates of Hell would never overcome His Church and I cling to that, but sometimes I still have a hard time looking at the total moral erosion in our society and not think that those who oppose the Church are winning. Any thoughts or words of encouragement? Thanks!

Yes, I have been writing about this topic for some time. Good is getting better and bad getting worse, all the time. Things are becoming clearer; it is getting more and more difficult for Catholics to refuse to take a stand. Increasingly, they must side with the Church and all its tenets or functionally apostasize. (Most have chosen the latter course). There are many saints and theologians throughout history who have written that, in the latter days, the “Church” (not the institutional Church but the mystical Church, the Church of the elect) will become very small indeed, and heavily persecuted. In any event, I find it very hard to believe that the great apostasy is not presently underway.

The words of Juan Donoso Cortes may be useful here:

*To which of these two civilizations is temporal victory promised? I answer this question with no hesitation, with no heaviness of heart, that temporal victory will go inevitably to the philosophic [modernist] civilization. Has man desired to be free? He will be. Does he abhor bonds? They will fall to pieces at his feet. There was a day when, in order to experience liberty, man decided to kill God. Did he not do it? Did he not place Him on a cross between two thieves? Did the angels, perchance, come down from heaven to defend the Just One suffering agony on earth? Well, why would they descend now, when it is not a matter of the crucifixion of God, but of the crucifixion of man by man?…As for myself, I hold it proven and evident that evil will always triumph over good here below, and the triumph over evil is something reserved for God, if it can be said, personally…

It should not be said that if defeat is certain, the struggle is useless. In the first place, the struggle might delay the catastrophe; in the second place, the struggle is a duty, and not simply for those who consider themselves Catholics. We should give thanks to God for having granted us the struggle, and not ask, in addition to the grace of combat, the grace of triumph, for in His infinite goodness He reserves for those who fight well in His cause a reward greater than victory.*

 

[JRKH]

Hey folks,

Recently, I’ve been thinking how it appears the Christian-Judeo moral fabric of Western Culture seems to be eroding away. From contraception, to abortion, to homosexual marriages, it just seems that everything contrary to Christianity is not only becoming more and more popular, but also more acceptable and “normal.”

It just seems to me that at the moment, especially in the West, all the opponents of the Church’s morals seem to be winning in the sense that their own twisted sense of morals is coming to fruition in modern society. Does this make anyone else afraid? It makes me nervous about the future for the Church and Christianity as a whole. I know Christ said that the Gates of Hell would never overcome His Church and I cling to that, but sometimes I still have a hard time looking at the total moral erosion in our society and not think that those who oppose the Church are winning. Any thoughts or words of encouragement? Thanks!

The enemy can win many battles. He can and does claim many souls. He can even drive the Church underground as has happened repeatedly even from the earliest of days. Yet the enemy cannot win the war for hate can never destroy Love. The gates of hell (hate) will not prevail over The Church that is built on Love.

It is indeed a terrible thing to watch the erosion of morals etc in the west. But perhaps it would be useful to look at where the Church is winning…For instance, in Russia there is a great resurgence in the Church. Likewise the Church is growing in Africa.
Strong organizations are also coming into being - organizations that will function as bulwarks and core “nodes” for the rebuilding of Christianity. Organizations like Opus Dei, and the FSSP are strongly and Faithfully Catholic.

Satan may be having his way right now with the larger population, but rest assured that it won’t last. Love will win out.

Peace
James

 

[Leon_Bloy]

I think it’s pretty hard to quantify these things. In the history of Europe, there have been many many moments of religious chaos, immorality, etc. I don’t mean the tiresome cliches about Catholic pre-Reformation “corruption,” which I think is often a distortion of the history, but I just mean ordinary sinning, schisms, disobedience to the pope by monarchs, etc.

However, I think an important distinction is that between a culture that officially accepts the Church’s moral law but does not follow it well, and cultures that deny the authority of the Church and its moral law. The latter, it seems, has been on the rise, and is more threatening than the former.

 

[akela135]

Hey folks,

Recently, I’ve been thinking how it appears the Christian-Judeo moral fabric of Western Culture seems to be eroding away. From contraception, to abortion, to homosexual marriages, it just seems that everything contrary to Christianity is not only becoming more and more popular, but also more acceptable and “normal.”

It just seems to me that at the moment, especially in the West, all the opponents of the Church’s morals seem to be winning in the sense that their own twisted sense of morals is coming to fruition in modern society. Does this make anyone else afraid? It makes me nervous about the future for the Church and Christianity as a whole. I know Christ said that the Gates of Hell would never overcome His Church and I cling to that, but sometimes I still have a hard time looking at the total moral erosion in our society and not think that those who oppose the Church are winning. Any thoughts or words of encouragement? Thanks!

Perhaps I can offer some words of encouragement. When the early Church started out there was much perscution from the Romans. But despite the lack of morality that was rampant in the Roman empire the early Church was not destroyed and it did not fall prey and succumb to the same weakness. The early christians stayed true to their beliefs and faith even to the point of martyrdom.

In a sense we are called to live in a similiar time. Morality is failing in western civilization the same way it collapsed in the Roman Empire. And we can look back to history and see how the Church did not fail, that it withstood these attacks and came out even stronger. Despite that at the time the Church was a fledgling just starting out against the overwhelming power of Rome. We can take in faith and hope in this. While this situation is a hard burden for the faithful to watch, we know the Church has seen attacks like this before and come out victorious. This situation is only temporary and God’s Church is eternal.

 

[JimG]

It’s made me nervous for the last 40 years.

The turning point, I think, was in the widespread rejection of Church teach on contraception which was reaffirmed in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.

The Church’s teaching on the immorality of artificial contraception had been constant since the beginning. The Protestant teaching had been identical to the Catholic teaching, for 400 years–up until 1930. That’s the year that the Anglican Lambeth Conference allowed for artificial birth control for grave reasons.

That opened the floodgates for others to reject the teaching, and when Humanae Vitae was published, many Catholic dissenters also rejected the teaching.

What followed the widespread acceptance and pracice of artificial birth control? Just those things that Paul VI had warned against, and worse. Sexual promiscuity, abortion, devaluation of marriage, devaluation of women, cohabitation, increasing divorce, using people as objects of pleasure. The losers were women, families, children, and society.

 

[prodigalson2011]

Cal Thomas wrote a great editorial on this in this morning’s paper. I was alway planning on making a thread for it, which I will still do, but I’ll post the link here as well. It isn’t exactly flattering to either side of the culture war, but I think it captures a hard truth we all need to face:

calthomas.com/index.php?news=3495