padraig:
You’re lucky in many ways in the States. I feel there has been agreat spirtual fight back there in recent years. Here in Europe we enter into a deeper and deeper paganism. I never, ever thought I should see the Church under such terrible attack in Catholic Ireland.
Yes I believe that the decks are being cleared for outright persecution…Though not so much in the States.
“Persecution comes to those who wait”, IMHO
One of the advantages of living in bad times is that they can’t last for ever.
I’m really gratful for not living in 1960 or so - things looked prosperous then, but they were about to become very difficult. That’s the trouble with living in prosperous times - good times can only go bad.
As to Ireland - it was the fault of the clergy for not keepng their private parts where they belonged. If they sodomise those who can’t defend themselves, they deserve all the criticism they get: and if the Church authorities have been at fault - so do they. Catholics ought to be able to be safe in Church from such horrors - if those in the Church are negligent, then Catholics are right to judge them for it.
That’s another thing I’m thankful for - once people see how ghastly the Church can be, once they’ve got through all the self-serving delusions and lies amd distortions and corruption, especially the deep-sighted corruptions, there were be no more evil and filth to discover in the Church: they, and we, will see the Church as it is. A Church whose corruption has been wholly uncovered has no more corruption to uncover. It can’t deceive anyone, even itself, if its corruption has been fully uncovered - and this is very good news. By seeing the great sinfulness of the Church, we will see the greater Righteousness of God by which the Church, and the Christian, is purified, far more clearly.
Which will help to defend those who govern in the Church from using God’s authority to allow her priests to commit rape and assault. The authority of the Church is most holy, for it is God’s Authority, and it is devilish to use that authority in order to destroy the flock of God. It must be used only to do holy things: not to hide evil-doing. The Bible is full of terrible denunciations of the wickedness of those who abuse the Divine authority they exercise; what IMO we need is an Inquisition, to deal with them & to protect the Church. Those who use this authority for evil, who destroy the flock of Christ by doing so, are the real persecutors of the Church.
This is a good time to be alive - just like all times. Why would God have set in us these times, if they were not the best ones for us, & the ones in which we could bring glory to God ?