J
jfprussing
Guest
As of lately, it seems the Catholic Church has become the world’s largest piñata, particularly among a bias and blood-thirsty press, and especially in regards to the recent sex-scandals involving the Clergy; not to mention the latest abdication of Pope Benedict XVI.
It was all cynically (and erroneously, I might add) displayed in a cartoon recently published in our own local newspaper, The Port St. Lucie News, depicting an exasperated pontiff carelessly tossing the staff of Saint Peter into a trash bin as he exits the Vatican for the last time.
I wonder, however, if that same newspaper (or any other for that matter) would have the Chutzpah to print a cartoon of a Muslim cleric, or Mullah for that matter, flushing a copy of the Koran down the toilet, a Hindu priest depicting Vishnu with a mustache and no arms, the Dali Lama using a statue of Gautama Buddha as a paper weight, or, for that matter, the president of the local Atheists Society actually standing up for… well, anything!
George Orwell once observed: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. Elephants are no exception, I suppose; and neither are old dinosaurs like the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, the biggest targets are often the easiest to hit, and the hardest to bring down. Thank God they have thick skins. They have to! Otherwise, how else would they’ve survived for as long as they have? There’s a reason. Maybe, as Darwin suggests, it has something to do with evolution and survival of the fittest. Or perhaps Providence has a role to play in perpetuating and preserving the species, after all, despite Nietzsche and his nihilistic views on such sacred and subjective cows.
Catholics have been around forever, it seems; just like politicians and prostitutes, some will argue. But so have all the other great religions of the world they will correctly state, pointing to Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, et al… failing to realize, of course, that all these belief systems established in time are, like so many needles on a compass, magnetically drawn to the One true North to which they perpetually point in all their pagan propaganda. It’s something Catholics have known all along, that: All roads lead not to Rome, but to Calvary. We call it the Mass; and Christ is at the center.
There’s a time and place for everything, I suppose, including hunting the great Leviathan. Perhaps the slings and arrows are necessary from time to time, as they are for all institutions, great and small, along with the crucifixes they aspire to. Of course, we are not alone in our persecutions; evil being no respecter of men, or religion. But when it comes to the Catholic Church, it’s always been… well, let’s just say: Open season!
But with all the vicious and vitriolic attacks, from both within and without, the Catholic Church survives. She stands the test of time, while holding fast to her apostolic faith. She is Universal, and Holy. She frees slaves and conquers kings. The Catholic Church does not discriminate; nor does she take sides. Empires fall in her ecclesiastical wake, as civilizations turn to dust. She has dogmatically survived heresy and reformation, as well as wicked priests and popes. The Catholic Church is orthodox; and she is one.
The Catholic Church will surely be around when the Great Republic itself fails, and dies in its own sacred soil, as all democracies do, eventually. It could happen, you know. Even in America. Hey! Who knows? She might outlast the Port St. Lucie News.
It was all cynically (and erroneously, I might add) displayed in a cartoon recently published in our own local newspaper, The Port St. Lucie News, depicting an exasperated pontiff carelessly tossing the staff of Saint Peter into a trash bin as he exits the Vatican for the last time.
I wonder, however, if that same newspaper (or any other for that matter) would have the Chutzpah to print a cartoon of a Muslim cleric, or Mullah for that matter, flushing a copy of the Koran down the toilet, a Hindu priest depicting Vishnu with a mustache and no arms, the Dali Lama using a statue of Gautama Buddha as a paper weight, or, for that matter, the president of the local Atheists Society actually standing up for… well, anything!
George Orwell once observed: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. Elephants are no exception, I suppose; and neither are old dinosaurs like the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, the biggest targets are often the easiest to hit, and the hardest to bring down. Thank God they have thick skins. They have to! Otherwise, how else would they’ve survived for as long as they have? There’s a reason. Maybe, as Darwin suggests, it has something to do with evolution and survival of the fittest. Or perhaps Providence has a role to play in perpetuating and preserving the species, after all, despite Nietzsche and his nihilistic views on such sacred and subjective cows.
Catholics have been around forever, it seems; just like politicians and prostitutes, some will argue. But so have all the other great religions of the world they will correctly state, pointing to Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, et al… failing to realize, of course, that all these belief systems established in time are, like so many needles on a compass, magnetically drawn to the One true North to which they perpetually point in all their pagan propaganda. It’s something Catholics have known all along, that: All roads lead not to Rome, but to Calvary. We call it the Mass; and Christ is at the center.
There’s a time and place for everything, I suppose, including hunting the great Leviathan. Perhaps the slings and arrows are necessary from time to time, as they are for all institutions, great and small, along with the crucifixes they aspire to. Of course, we are not alone in our persecutions; evil being no respecter of men, or religion. But when it comes to the Catholic Church, it’s always been… well, let’s just say: Open season!
But with all the vicious and vitriolic attacks, from both within and without, the Catholic Church survives. She stands the test of time, while holding fast to her apostolic faith. She is Universal, and Holy. She frees slaves and conquers kings. The Catholic Church does not discriminate; nor does she take sides. Empires fall in her ecclesiastical wake, as civilizations turn to dust. She has dogmatically survived heresy and reformation, as well as wicked priests and popes. The Catholic Church is orthodox; and she is one.
The Catholic Church will surely be around when the Great Republic itself fails, and dies in its own sacred soil, as all democracies do, eventually. It could happen, you know. Even in America. Hey! Who knows? She might outlast the Port St. Lucie News.
