Is Catholism "Manly"

[LOCO]

I have noticed several comments lately in the media and on some obviously non-Catholic websites that seem to imply that Catholism is a religion of the weak and is not “Manly”. I am required to believe that the people who make these comments feel that personal strength or more likely physical strenght is a key aspect of how they judge themselves and others. I guess my question is: Is Catholism “Manly”? Any thoughts on this topic are welcome as I am currently debating this with a non-Catholic friend of mine who has this belief.

Let me see.

Countless Saints and Martyrs were tortured and killed over the faith and all bore it with humility. Here are just 3:

**ST LAURENCE **who refused to worship idols and give up his faith was stretched on the rack and roasted over the fire: Not once did he complain.

“Weep not for me, but rather rejoice, for I go to receive a glorious crown of martyrdom.” They placed him in an iron cage, under which they set an intense fire, and the flames of the fire flicked towards the body of the martyr.** St Laurence, glancing at the governor, said: “Here now, you burn only but one side of my body, turn over the other and do my whole body”. **Dying, he uttered: “I thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast accounted me worthy to enter into Thy gates” – and with these words he gave up the spirit

**ST MAXIMILLAN KOLBE ** a priest who offered his life in place of a Jewish father who had been chosen by the guards for extermination in the concentration camps during WWII.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks in the concentration camp vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his wife and children, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid.

BLESSED PETER TOROT martyred by the Japanese during WWII for refusing to give up his faith which they had banned. Also injected with poison.