Thanks to CA, especially to the SS Forum

[NoelFitz]

Thanks to all of you here who contribute to CA and discuss our faith. It is very difficult to hang on as a Catholic, or any kind of Christian, in Ireland today.

The enemy is the extreme atheistic humanists and secularists. Proestants are very often supportive,as was seen recently when the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin gave a media interview and was emotional as he thanked the Anglican Arhbishop and his wife for their support.

Our problems are partially due to child-abuse scandels, but are of many different types.

It does not matter whether we are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, American or not, all of us, Catholics, should cooperate and support each other - hang together or hang separately.

So thank you very much, CA, for

 

[FightingFat]

Well said Noel! I’m just across the water from you there but come over to Mayo regularly, and the faith is sorely damaged all right, but we need to have a purge in Ireland before the new shoots can come through!

God bless you!

 

[Fidelis]

Hang in there and lean on the Lord, you two. At least you have a place to come to be encouraged and have your faith strengthened. So many Catholics have lost their faith because they were uninformed and challenged, but had no one to turn to for answers. If they had had a resource like this while their faith was still intact, they may not have despaired.

Even if the Lord allows us to be reduced to a faithful and persecuted remnant, God will always preserve and protect his Church. That was his promise. We are all blessed here when we become, not a bitter and faithless part of the problem, but instead God’s instrument as part of the solution.

 

[NoelFitz]

Thanks FF and Fidelis, who wrote:

God will always preserve and protect his Church. That was his promise.

However the Chuch has almost disappeared from large areas of the world where it once flourished, such as Israel, Turkey and North Aftica. The promise was that the whole Church would not disappear, but much of it can.

 

[Fidelis]

Thanks FF and Fidelis, who wrote:

God will always preserve and protect his Church. That was his promise.

That is true, NoelFitz and, heaven forbid, it could happen in our own countries. But, speaking for myself, as long as I have breath in me, I will do my utmost to never have to hear God say, “Why did you just lay down and let my children be scattered and lost, and my Church be attacked?”

Again, it is better to part of the solution :knight2: , and not the problem–which includes doing nothing.

 

[NoelFitz]

Fidelis,

many thanks for your reply.

I am reminded of the priest in our parish who asked if any of us were accused of being a Catholic would we be acquitted for lack of evidence.

 

[promethius]

However the Chuch has almost disappeared from large areas of the world where it once flourished, such as Israel, Turkey and North Aftica. The promise was that the whole Church would not disappear, but much of it can.

God of the old testament allowed the nation of israel to be punished in order to purge it of darkness and evil that was building up there. In the same way, God still allows the church to suffer the impacts of sin because those are the fires that refine the church and keep it pure as the body of Christ. Trust God, He will save His church and His people.

Pax et Amor Christi tecum, Noel.

 

[NoelFitz]

P
I think you miss my popint.

Many of us may be damned and the Church may disappear from huge tracts of the world.

It is not much consolation to know that even though we and all we know are wiped out, a remnant will be saved.

Such thinkling was of litle solace to Holocaust/Shoah victims.

 

[promethius]

P
I think you miss my popint.

Many of us may be damned and the Church may disappear from huge tracts of the world.

It is not much consolation to know that even though we and all we know are wiped out, a remnant will be saved.

Such thinkling was of litle solace to Holocaust/Shoah victims.

So don’t be the chaff and you won’t be damned. And if you’re “wiped out” by some earthly prosecutor, so what? Has the church so lost the sense of martyrdom that we do not long to be united with God?

I understand why a Jew would not feel this way, because their theology is that when you die your soul sleeps… it is not immediately in the presence of God. But to a Christian, I see no reason that we should fear death or persecution.