Saint Augustine to those who accuse the Catholic Church of wild profanity

[Eucharisted]

But if you say that you worship and approve of worshipping the God who made heaven and earth, but not the God supported by the authority of the Old Testament, you act impertinently in trying, though vainly, to attribute to us views and opinions altogether unlike the wholesome and profitable doctrine we really hold. Nor can your silly and profane discourses be at all compared with the expositions in which learned and pious men of the Catholic Church open up those Scriptures to the willing and worthy. Our understanding of the law and the prophets is quite different from what you suppose. Mistake us no longer. We do not worship a God who repents, or is envious, or needy, or cruel, or who takes pleasure in the blood of men or beasts, or is pleased with guilt and crime, or whose possession of the earth is limited to a little corner of it. These and such like are the silly notions you are in the habit of denouncing at great length. Your denunciation does not touch us. The fancies of old women or of children you attack with a vehemence that is only ridiculous. Any one whom you persuade in this way to join you shows no fault in the teaching of the Church, but only proves his own ignorance of it.

• Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, chapter 10 (link)

I couldn’t have put it better myself! This is a great reply to those individuals who dare to accuse us Catholic Christians of beliefs which we do not believe. I, quite frankly, am tired of the accusation, but, by God’s grace, I am not tired of correcting the accusers.

 

[Soutane]

But if you say that you worship and approve of worshipping the God who made heaven and earth, but not the God supported by the authority of the Old Testament, you act impertinently in trying, though vainly, to attribute to us views and opinions altogether unlike the wholesome and profitable doctrine we really hold. Nor can your silly and profane discourses be at all compared with the expositions in which learned and pious men of the Catholic Church open up those Scriptures to the willing and worthy. Our understanding of the law and the prophets is quite different from what you suppose. Mistake us no longer. We do not worship a God who repents, or is envious, or needy, or cruel, or who takes pleasure in the blood of men or beasts, or is pleased with guilt and crime, or whose possession of the earth is limited to a little corner of it. These and such like are the silly notions you are in the habit of denouncing at great length. Your denunciation does not touch us. The fancies of old women or of children you attack with a vehemence that is only ridiculous. Any one whom you persuade in this way to join you shows no fault in the teaching of the Church, but only proves his own ignorance of it.

• Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, chapter 10 (link)

I couldn’t have put it better myself! This is a great reply to those individuals who dare to accuse us Catholic Christians of beliefs which we do not believe. I, quite frankly, am tired of the accusation, but, by God’s grace, I am not tired of correcting the accusers.

Seriously,this is the ultimate apologetics precis that can be applied universally to the myriad heretical objections to the Body of Christ-the Catholic Church.I LOVE St Augustine!!!

Thanks for posting this.

 

[piperspop]

It’s about time the first Archbishop of Canterbury got some respect here!

 

[jen_fla]

But if you say that you worship and approve of worshipping the God who made heaven and earth, but not the God supported by the authority of the Old Testament, you act impertinently in trying, though vainly, to attribute to us views and opinions altogether unlike the wholesome and profitable doctrine we really hold. Nor can your silly and profane discourses be at all compared with the expositions in which learned and pious men of the Catholic Church open up those Scriptures to the willing and worthy. Our understanding of the law and the prophets is quite different from what you suppose. Mistake us no longer. We do not worship a God who repents, or is envious, or needy, or cruel, or who takes pleasure in the blood of men or beasts, or is pleased with guilt and crime, or whose possession of the earth is limited to a little corner of it. These and such like are the silly notions you are in the habit of denouncing at great length. Your denunciation does not touch us. The fancies of old women or of children you attack with a vehemence that is only ridiculous. Any one whom you persuade in this way to join you shows no fault in the teaching of the Church, but only proves his own ignorance of it.

• Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, chapter 10 (link)

I couldn’t have put it better myself! This is a great reply to those individuals who dare to accuse us Catholic Christians of beliefs which we do not believe. I, quite frankly, am tired of the accusation, but, by God’s grace, I am not tired of correcting the accusers.

yup, awesome!

i too thank you for posting this!