Some in church give 'helping hand' to secularism in Portugal, pope says

[gakroeger]

catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1002017.htm

Some of us on CAF have been criticized as being uncharitable for speaking out against our culture, politics, and amoral practices. While we do have to constantly be on guard to attack the sin and not the sinner, I believe the Pope is saying here that not enough of us are speaking out.

I read a post by someone on another thread recently that stated they believed because of the lack of teaching by our priests, it is entirely possible that some Catholics in one or two entire generations of Catholics have never been told that artifical contraception is a sin and contrary to Church teaching. Unfortunately, I think this is true. When I was growing up in the 50’s the priests pounded us with this teaching.

 

[doanli]

I think I only recall one homily at any of the Catholic churches I attended that addressed artificial contraception being a sin. I believe it was also the same priest that rightly admonished what you should wear to church especially when receiving the Holy Eucharist. (He specifically recalled a young lady who wore “hot pants” when she came up for Communion.)

Let’s pray and hope our Pope, bishops, cardinals, priests, religious AND laity will straighten this Ship out.

 

[Mark77]

**53% of “catholics” in the US voted for Mr. Obama. We are being destroyed from the inside!
**
A man who is clearly the most pro-death President ever, with a 100% rating from NARAL, & who voted several times to uphold partial birth abortion, is supported by a majority of catholics??? (His Ivy League educated attorney wife wrote in defense of this barbaric practice lifenews.com/nat3935.html)

He receives an honorary degree from Notre Dame & speaks at Georgetown (while demanding the IHS reference to Jesus is removed!). These brilliant, self promoting, secular prophets use Catholic Institutions to gain credibility & to promote their “culture of death” as Pope John Paul II called it, are just the people Jesus warned us about;

**“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” **(Mt 7:15)

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora zPro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[DianeGee]

Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. There’s no excuse for willful ignorance.

 

[UnworthyApostle]

There has been a problem with both the laity and the church leadership for the past 50 years or so. The attempt to modernize the church has really brought a great disaster in the church. Many bishops and priests took the teahings of the venerable Vatican II council out of context and the church began to decay after that. I have a non-catholic friend who had to do a report on the Catholic Mass, and she had 1000 questions and criticisms for me. Some of them were due to her Baptist/non-denominational background, but some were legitimate criticisms. The biggest thing we discussed was how none of the students who went to a mass on a college campus, the students she talked to at least, did not seem to know why they were Catholic and/or went to Mass. One guy had fiven my friend the textbook answers to the Eucharist and such, but it was a robotic response. The people do not seem to know the gift of the Catholic faith, and many just seem to see it as a cultural club. The teaching of the church has been watered down by leadership, and spiritual lives are suffering due to the increased secularization of America. The church needs to return to Her patrimony in order to challenge the world instead of accepting it.

 

[gakroeger]

There has been a problem with both the laity and the church leadership for the past 50 years or so. The attempt to modernize the church has really brought a great disaster in the church. Many bishops and priests took the teahings of the venerable Vatican II council out of context and the church began to decay after that. I have a non-catholic friend who had to do a report on the Catholic Mass, and she had 1000 questions and criticisms for me. Some of them were due to her Baptist/non-denominational background, but some were legitimate criticisms. The biggest thing we discussed was how none of the students who went to a mass on a college campus, the students she talked to at least, did not seem to know why they were Catholic and/or went to Mass. One guy had fiven my friend the textbook answers to the Eucharist and such, but it was a robotic response. The people do not seem to know the gift of the Catholic faith, and many just seem to see it as a cultural club. The teaching of the church has been watered down by leadership, and spiritual lives are suffering due to the increased secularization of America. The church needs to return to Her patrimony in order to challenge the world instead of accepting it.

In the last 50 years (and longer) we have been blessed with extremely wise and holy men as our Popes. Unfortunately, our Bishops have not all been in tune with the Popes in their teachings. And consequently the Priest have not preached on ALL issues of Church teachings. Homilies tend to focus on the Gospels in a very high level and do not adapt it to our current culture; especially on contraception which IMHO has been the downfall of our cultures morality. We are still living with the problems of the Canadian Bishops “Winnipeg Statement” contradicting Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae and the cover up of the sexual abuse by some priests.

Consequently, when the Bishops do come out and speak openly about illegal immigration their credibility suffers. One must wonder if their silence on contraception and abortion is because of financial concerns or concerns of driving people away from the Church. The result is we end up with a bunch of cafeteria Catholics and Catholics of which 53% voted for a pro abortion President.

What we need now is a thousand more Father Corapis

 

[UnworthyApostle]

“In the last 50 years (and longer) we have been blessed with extremely wise and holy men as our Popes”

I ditto your statement about the Papacy which has remianed the Rock on which the church is built. It is the liberal minded bishops and laity who have ignored the teachings of the church and have failed to proclaim them.