Here is a letter to I sent to my local paper, the Wichita (Ks) Eagle. They didn’t print it, but maybe you all would like to read it.
Peace,
Sam
Dear Editor,
Following the death of John Paul II and during this election process of Pope Benedict XVI, we have heard numerous reports that American and European Catholics want the Catholic Church to take a more liberal route in it’s teachings by allowing women to become priestesses, the endorsement of abortion, and the adoption of homosexual marriages as a norm. Of course, that will not happen during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, or any other Pope, as it is against the Church’s laws. It also goes against two thousand years of Sacred Tradition. If we open up a history book, we will discover that Christianity was born into the Roman Empire, which possessed a culture that actively embraced “religious tolerance” and homosexual activity was considered normal, as was many other sexual activities that the Catholic Church of that era found abhorrent. The Church professed its faith and condemned such things even though it was a death sentence to be a Christian at that time. Indeed, the Church still condemns these activities, even as they rise again in a world jaded and bored with meaningless stimuli that seeks ever-greater perversions to meet its demand for novelty. The proper question to ask is not, “Why doesn’t the Catholic Church change it’s teachings?” But rather “Why should the Catholic Church change it’s teachings?” Christianity was the religion that Romans would not tolerate. Christians were often given a chance to renounce their religion before being sent to their deaths during the persecutions. Some did, but many more did not and Christians went to their deaths in the arena willingly. Ours is the faith of martyrs. Liberals of this current age share a common goal with Christianity’s earliest enemies; they want Christians to compromise their faith. The methods and tactics have changed, but the counter message to Christianity is still the same. For two thousand years we have heard the world chant, “Compromise, compromise, compromise!” It is not hard to see that, like the Romans, liberals, Catholic or otherwise, will tolerate many things, but they will not tolerate a faith that declares one thing to be good and another evil. Relativism and the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church must always be at odds.
Why doesn’t the Catholic Church change its teachings? It’s quite simple really, if the Church changed its beliefs, it would no longer be the Church. Catholicism is a faith and not merely philosophy or ethical system. Certainly, it contains philosophy and has an ethical base, but it is far more than these things. The basis, the bedrock, of the Catholic faith is that the supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent creator of the universe came to this world as a man to found a church, redeem us from sin, and teach us to be holy (Matthew 16:17-19). It is only the great arrogance of some Catholics, who profess to believe in God, which allows them to say that God didn’t get it right when he founded the faith. Some, it appears, have reduced the Church to a mere human institution, removing any divine link from it. If that is what they believe, one has to wonder why they just don’t leave the Catholic Church for say the Episcopal Church, which already embraces a more liberal philosophy. Perhaps it is because the Catholic Church is the most powerful Christian institution and liberals wish to gain such power for themselves so that they can remove an obstacle to their agendas. Whatever the case, they certainly wish to supplant the faith of those martyrs whose blood nourished the early Church with their own ideas. I, for one, am happy to have another Pope loyal to our older brothers and sisters who died for their beliefs so many years ago. I would hope that every Catholic remembers the martyrs who died for Christ, for, as the historian Adam Moehler wrote, “If we can ever be so ungrateful as to forget the Martyrs, we deserve to be forgotten by Christ the Savior.”