How should Catholics weather presecution?

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Hey everyone. I think its rather obvious to most of us that Catholics are beginning to be persecuted here in the United States with the whole contraceptive mandate and all that. Well, I don’t know if its going to get worse or not but there is always the possibility that it will get worse and that it will be next to impossible to be a practicing Catholic in the United States. So, my question is this: How will we practice our Faith in the midst of a cultural and political climate that practically despises orthodox Catholicism? What will we do if the contraceptive mandate stands up as Constitutional in the eyes of the Supreme Court not only are Catholic hospitals forced to go out of business but Catholic businesses and such are forced to buy health insurance that covers contraception?

This whole thing has been on my mind for a while now and it bothers me. If the persecution does become severe, how will we persevere and remain faithful to the Church? I have never known anything but religious freedom so this question has been looming large in my mind lately considering that we are potentially facing some future persecution.
 
You may see hospitals close, or you may see fines being paid, civil disobedience, and you’ll probably see some Catholics in insurance positions cave in or embrace the mandate. It could be very ugly, there is no doubt about that, and there is plenty of anti-Catholic bigotry out there. Pray for courage, fortitude, and that it never comes to such injustice.
:o
 
MarcoPolo said:
You may see hospitals close, or you may see fines being paid, civil disobedience, and you’ll probably see some Catholics in insurance positions cave in or embrace the mandate. It could be very ugly, there is no doubt about that, and there is plenty of anti-Catholic bigotry out there. Pray for courage, fortitude, and that it never comes to such injustice.
:o
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Yeah, I would say that praying for courage, fortitude, and that it never comes to such injustice would definitely be essential in this matter.

That said, I hope and pray that the HHS mandate gets overturned.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. I think its rather obvious to most of us that Catholics are beginning to be persecuted here in the United States with the whole contraceptive mandate and all that. Well, I don’t know if its going to get worse or not but there is always the possibility that it will get worse and that it will be next to impossible to be a practicing Catholic in the United States. So, my question is this: How will we practice our Faith in the midst of a cultural and political climate that practically despises orthodox Catholicism? What will we do if the contraceptive mandate stands up as Constitutional in the eyes of the Supreme Court not only are Catholic hospitals forced to go out of business but Catholic businesses and such are forced to buy health insurance that covers contraception?

This whole thing has been on my mind for a while now and it bothers me. If the persecution does become severe, how will we persevere and remain faithful to the Church? I have never known anything but religious freedom so this question has been looming large in my mind lately considering that we are potentially facing some future persecution.
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Catholics weather persecution like everybody else: with great suffering and difficulty, sometimes with death. But Catholics have something else for them: prayer, the prayer you state in your signature.
 
Holly3278 said:
. If the persecution does become severe, how will we persevere and remain faithful to the Church?
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Very , very poorly I think .

I recall being on retreat in the early 1960s .

The retreat was led by a Jesuit priest who was a refugee from Lithuania .

Many times he said : " In the East they are harsh and cruel . In the West they are soft and lewd . "

I’m afraid that we have so conformed ourselves to the “soft” culture of Western Society that we will find it hard to persevere under severe persecution .
 
Where are the other religions? Especially Christian denominations? Don’t they realize that once they make a dent in Catholicism all religions will face the same fate?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

"Let me transcribe in terms maybe more plain to the bankers who are the puppeteers of the US government officials.

“Gongress shall not fail to make laws that disrupt any sort of profound freedom people might have because those freedoms are inconvenient to the New World Order at which time all people will be chipped with their RFID and will behave in a way society deems valuable. No baby born shall be outside the knowledge of the government computers.”

Don’t believe me? Republican/democrat and liberal/conservative are just the names of certain groups of puppets. Ask a Rothschild or a Rockefeller (note both names are in the spell checker) if you want to know what’s coming. The elections are just part of the puppet show. We need to address this at the level of the puppeteers or it is possibly to late to reverse this trend – even if we do it still may be too late because of the complacency of the people. Just think since the 60’s how well the government whipped her people into shape to where nobody stands up to civil authority.

Of course the Bible says we should obey our civil authority because they were put there by God. I don’t think God would’ve designed it so that a few very rich families owned the rest of the planet – but that’s what we have.

Alan
 
how? By wearing the armor of God.
…
We’ll definitely see a lot of cultural Catholics shed their faith for comfort or taking the easy route.

Given that most opposition to Catholicism comes from relativistic and atheistic points of view, I’ve found precious little common ground to build arguments up with those that disagree with me.
 
Nobody is forcing us to wear a condom. All we must do is continue preaching the good news, especially to employees who work for Hospitals, and everything will be fine.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. I think its rather obvious to most of us that Catholics are beginning to be persecuted here in the United States with the whole contraceptive mandate and all that. Well, I don’t know if its going to get worse or not but there is always the possibility that it will get worse and that it will be next to impossible to be a practicing Catholic in the United States. So, my question is this: How will we practice our Faith in the midst of a cultural and political climate that practically despises orthodox Catholicism? What will we do if the contraceptive mandate stands up as Constitutional in the eyes of the Supreme Court not only are Catholic hospitals forced to go out of business but Catholic businesses and such are forced to buy health insurance that covers contraception?

This whole thing has been on my mind for a while now and it bothers me. If the persecution does become severe, how will we persevere and remain faithful to the Church? I have never known anything but religious freedom so this question has been looming large in my mind lately considering that we are potentially facing some future persecution.
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The same thoughts have crossed my mind. The Church has always suffered through persecution from the beginning.

I asked the following to my sister the other day. If a person put a gun to your head and asked you to deny your Catholic faith and your faith in Christ would you?? I pray that I am strong enough to stand up for what I believe in and my faith.
 
You are right that Christians are being persecuted, big time. And it will definitely get worse. HHS mandate is not just a Catholic issue, it is a religious freedom issue. We should pray and help people realize the seriousness of this issue.

I see some very liberal “Catholics” on this forum who do everything they can to stand with Obama, and say everything against the Church. We need to pray for those people. Those liberals do everything to support this abortion President and support everything that is against the Catholic teaching. I don’t know how they could support abortion, and receive the Eucharist without guilt. Cardinal Dolan is leading the fight of HHS mandate, all the bishops in the country, 100% of them are against HHS mandate, yet those liberal Catholics on this forum are supporting HHS mandate. What does that tell you?

Since God does not want anyone to be condemned, we need to pray for those liberals who are deceived. Lord have mercy on them.
 
Holly3278 said:
Yeah, I would say that praying for courage, fortitude, and that it never comes to such injustice would definitely be essential in this matter.

That said, I hope and pray that the HHS mandate gets overturned.
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I would say before you worry about the persecution that can come about by the mandate, start praying that God inspires those who will argue against the other aspects of Obamacare today beginning at 1:00 p.m. and continuing for 2 more days, as they argue, and that HIS Will be done. Pray that the Justices follow the law and are inspired by God too. I see a 4-4 vote with Kennedy being the swing vote. Pray for Justice Kennedy – pray for them all.

If the foundation falls, how can the religion mandate survive?

One thing at a time.
 
I think your signature answered the question.👍

There is not one thing that cannot be solved with the power of the Rosary.

However, there will be a time where more and more Catholics are ostracized, put out, and attacked by not only the media, but probably other Catholics. Prayer is the greatest fight we have. Nothing can bring down the Church - and we have to remain true and steadfast to our faith. Just to think that there are over 65 million Catholics in America. If there was a large conversion of heart among them and we all stood up and fought this…what a game changer.

"“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” - Fulton Sheen
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. I think its rather obvious to most of us that Catholics are beginning to be persecuted here in the United States with the whole contraceptive mandate and all that. Well, I don’t know if its going to get worse or not but there is always the possibility that it will get worse and that it will be next to impossible to be a practicing Catholic in the United States. So, my question is this: How will we practice our Faith in the midst of a cultural and political climate that practically despises orthodox Catholicism? What will we do if the contraceptive mandate stands up as Constitutional in the eyes of the Supreme Court not only are Catholic hospitals forced to go out of business but Catholic businesses and such are forced to buy health insurance that covers contraception?

This whole thing has been on my mind for a while now and it bothers me. If the persecution does become severe, how will we persevere and remain faithful to the Church? I have never known anything but religious freedom so this question has been looming large in my mind lately considering that we are potentially facing some future persecution.
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I once asked my priest this and he responded with “they used to feed us to lions”… and I said, "what if they do that again?’. He said I had a duty to protect my family. Here are some tidbits of advice I have received over the years by some really experienced people. “Don’t get wounded of patrol”, “Stay static”, “put off pains meds for as long as possible”, “don’t tell your wife everything”, and “you have a duty to protect your family”. You can guess what my reaction will be.
 
I’ll be honest, as the persecution increases here in the United States, I am becoming increasingly worried about the future of the Church in the United States. I honestly wouldn’t doubt it if there comes a time when priests are jailed for not marrying two people of the same sex. I mean, they’re obviously trying to force us to act against our conscience already so I think one could expect such things to just continue.

That said, I really think the best thing we can do is to pray about the situation and ask for God’s protection. I think we should also protest the persecution we are facing and do all we can within legal and moral means to try and get the law changed.
 
Holly3278 said:
I’ll be honest, as the persecution increases here in the United States, I am becoming increasingly worried about the future of the Church in the United States. I honestly wouldn’t doubt it if there comes a time when priests are jailed for not marrying two people of the same sex. I mean, they’re obviously trying to force us to act against our conscience already so I think one could expect such things to just continue.

That said, I really think the best thing we can do is to pray about the situation and ask for God’s protection. I think we should also protest the persecution we are facing and do all we can within legal and moral means to try and get the law changed.
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You are right.
 
I have a question for you all. How severe do you expect the persecution to become? Do you think it will get worse if President Obama is reelected?
 
Holly3278 said:
I have a question for you all. How severe do you expect the persecution to become? Do you think it will get worse if President Obama is reelected?
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Holly,
This creep of a president just got caught saying very controversial things to the president of Russia. I doubt he will be elected. Everything depends on God is He allows men of dark hearts to continue. God has a Plan. One element of that Plan is the triumph of the Sons of Light over darkness. And by Light I mean Light from God. We have to trust in God and in the Victiory over death by Jesus Christ. There are some who would make out the Church to be some sort of moral & ethical social club of sorts devoid the influence of the Supernatural, of God. We should place our trust in the Hands of God.

BP
 
Holly3278 said:
I have a question for you all. How severe do you expect the persecution to become? Do you think it will get worse if President Obama is reelected?
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It will get worse no matter who’s the president. Obama and whoever he runs against will be, as always, owned by the bankers, primarily the Fed, will behave as puppets as they are supposed to. The bankers themselves, their biggest goal getting an RFID chip implanted in everyone, are basically causing the civilization to morph into ones where all people are slaves to do their bidding. These are the kinds of forces and mindsets we have to worry about. Let’s look behind the wall and see the puppeteers behind the puppets. But say these things and “normal” people who are controlled by fear and ignorance to repeat only what the media says, will label you a kook.

Want an example? The Rockefellers invested heavily in the early Women Lib movement. They had two goals for Women’s Lib: 1) increase the tax base by putting women to work, and 2) get control of children and their educations (indoctrinations) in government schools at earlier ages. Women’s Lib has succeeded at those, and thus has helped bring the bankers’ dreams that much closer to reality.

Alan
 
AlanFromWichita said:
It will get worse no matter who’s the president.

Alan
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I have to strongly disagree with what you said. While it is true that this society’s moral value is going down slope fast, the president still makes difference. No other president persecutes the Church like Obama. Mandate after mandate to force Catholic Church violate their conscience. Regulation after regulation imposed on people to take away our freedom.

There is a HUGE difference between capitalism and Communism. The president’s ideology makes huge difference.
 
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