The Catholic Church has grown weak and impotent:

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Isidore_AK

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What happened to the Catholic Church? Why has it grown so weak? :mad:

I look around and all I see makes me shudder. Gay clergy, a magesterium that can’t seem to find its own authority. Even the Pope seems like he can’t or won’t take action. All the strength has drained from the Church. We have heterodox priests openly giving heretical homilies (if its not a ‘Sister’ doing the homily in the first place!), bishops who thumb their noses at Rome, and it seems like most of the laity are on the path to socialism.

Bring back the Inquisition, bring back the militant orders. Bring the Church back to a state of glory. Bring back the Crusades. I read our histories, and wonder if the Church I see in the books even exists now in any form. Why was JPII so weak? Why did he let things go so far during his reign?

I feel like there is no place in the Church for me any longer. Just last week my parish priest said that we shouldn’t be surprised to see the 911 terrorists in heaven…what the heck is wrong with him??? Why do our Bishops support this (insert favorite expletive here)!!!

I just want the Church to label her enemies as such and then point a crusade their direction. Don’t give me the line about praying, or spiritual warfare. I am severely disgruntled with the state of the Church. I want change.
 
Amen Bother/Sister! I too think the Church has gotten soft and needs to toughen up before its enemies tear into her even further than they already have!
 
Here’s a prayer that might be helpful…

Abandonment to God’s Providence:

My Lord and God: into your hands I abandon the past and the present and the future, what is small and what is great, what amount to a little and what amounts to a lot, things temporal and things eternal.

I think perhaps you need to remember that everything has happened and will happen in accord with God’s Providence. Trust in Him. Offer your sufferings to the Lord and thank Him for the opportunity to suffer on account of Him. Don’t despair because of your suffering. Instead, understand that this too is God’s will.
 
*Why was JPII so weak? Why did he let things go so far during his reign?
Was he not typical of all these bishops who want to be loved by everyone? So he made no outright enemies by refusing to court as little controversy as possible.

He’s a shoe-in for sainthood. Meanwhile, he did little to clean up the mess left by Paul VI.
 
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itsjustdave1988:
Here’s a prayer that might be helpful…

Abandonment to God’s Providence:

My Lord and God: into your hands I abandon the past and the present and the future, what is small and what is great, what amount to a little and what amounts to a lot, thing temporal and things eternal.

I think perhaps you need to remember that everything has happened and will happen in accord with God’s Providence. Trust in Him. Offer your sufferings to the Lord and thank Him for the opportunity to suffer on account of Him. Don’t despair because of your suffering. Understand that this too is God’s will.
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I’d rather get pointed in the direction of something I can wage war against. Much more proactive that way…

I’m tired of being told to wait for things to get better. When did that ever accomplish anything? We need a revolution. There were times when the people took things into their own hands. They deposed bishops, appointed popes, etc. I think what we need now is an armed mob more than anything…pitchforks and torches.
 
I would also recommend this article by Dave Armstrong…

“Why Doesn’t Pope John Paul II DO Something About the Modernist Dissenters in the Catholic Church?”
ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ375.HTM

I think it is still applicable under Pope Benedict XVI.
 
Gilbert Keith said:
*Why was JPII so weak? Why did he let things go so far during his reign?
Was he not typical of all these bishops who want to be loved by everyone? So he made no outright enemies by refusing to court as little controversy as possible.

He’s a shoe-in for sainthood. Meanwhile, he did little to clean up the mess left by Paul VI.
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Exactly the problem. I want a warrior Pope. I keep hoping that Benedict will turn out OK…but my hope is fading…
 
Perhaps what you want for Pope Benedict is not what the Lord wants for Pope Benedict.
 
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itsjustdave1988:
Perhaps what you want for Pope Benedict is not what the Lord wants for Pope Benedict.
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I guess I’m one of those with the ‘Slash & Burn’ mentality that was mentioned in your article…oh well…I’m a Fighter not a Lover. Kick the heterodox bishops out of the Church. Let them take their heterodox laity with 'em. They’ll die off soon enough…
 
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Isidore_AK:
I guess I’m one of those with the ‘Slash & Burn’ mentality that was mentioned in your article…oh well…I’m a Fighter not a Lover. Kick the heterodox bishops out of the Church. Let them take their heterodox laity with 'em. They’ll die off soon enough…
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I understand. And it can be very frustrating. However, you are aware, no doubt, that it is the will of God that his creation have free will, thereby tolerating at least for a time, those that would choose to reject Him and His Will. Thus, God has chosen to be quite patient with his children who choose evil. Shouldn’t we respond similarly? Should we be grateful for such mercy? We certainly are called to “evangelize always, when necessary use words.” (St. Francis of Assisi), However, we should always pray that in our “***zeal for the love of truth” ***that we "not forget the truth about love." (St. Thomas Aquinas)

“Kill them all, let God sort them out” is a paraphrase from a Catholic Cardinal that should tragically remind us of a less-than-holy misunderstanding of a very Holy Religion.
 
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itsjustdave1988:
I understand. And it can be very frustrating. However, you are aware, no doubt, that it is the will of God that his creation have free will, thereby tolerating at least for a time, those that would choose to reject Him and His Will. Thus, God has chosen to be quite patient with his children who choose evil. Shouldn’t we respond similarly? We certainly are called to “evangelize always, when necessary use words.” (St. Francis of Assisi), However, we should always pray that in our “zeal for the love of truth, let me not forget the truth about love.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

“Kill them all, let God sort them out” is a paraphrase from a Catholic Cardinal that should tragically remind us of a less-than-holy practice of a very Holy Religion.
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I’m just so tired of waiting, while everything just gets worse by the day. I’m to the point where I don’t think I can take Communion (mostly because I’d deck our Bishop if I got the chance…not to mention my priest). I’m so sick of everything that I’m about ready to run screaming from the Church…

Sadly…the quote you mentioned is starting to sound pretty good to me…along with ‘Fight the good fight and die with the enemies heart in your hand’…
 
This is STILL CHRIST"S CHURCH. Let Him do with it as He wishes. I assure you, He has a much better plan than any of us.
 
This is a call for prayer. If people prayed as much as they complain, who can imagine what great things would happen?!
 
“The gates of Hell shall not prevail” … keep the faith and PRAY!
Blessings,
Joanie
 
Maybe you should read some real history. The present Church (aside from maybe the time of VI and Pius X) is more centralized than at any previous period of history. The Glorius Middle Ages you speak of were actually quit different. The Middle Ages say very little central authority centered in the Papacy.

Adam
 
I can’t believe some of the posts I have read here!!! Last Sundays readings were about how we need to be forgiving. The point one poster missed is that, we don’t know what is in anyones hearts and GOD DOES!!! Jesus was asked how many times we should forgive our enemies and he said not 2 or 3 but 77 times. What was the signifigance of that? Since the beginning of Judiaism, the rabbi’s struggled with the same question…How many times do we forgive? They played around with numbers and some said 3 times some said 5. This number represented how many times in THEIR lifetime that they should show forgiveness. Imagine that…I would forgive you but I have used up all my forgiveness… What could Jesus have been thinking telling them 77 times? 77 was not a literal number to them. The number for man is 3 and the number for God was 7. So by saying 77 times Jesus was saying that our forgiveness needs to be never ending. Does this mean we lay down and let people trample us…NO, it means we pick our battles based on the just war theory. We are not laying down and taking it as a nation, but if our enemies seek our forgiveness we should forgive them. We are not here to judge our fellow man, that is Gods job, what we are here for is to serve God, and if it serves him to fight back to protect innocent people from terrorists…then that is what we do. The church by her very nature has to be forgiving and meciful. What is it that God wants? He wants all of us and I do mean all of us to live by the example he has given us in Jesus the Christ. The Church is not here to condemn us but to guide us to eternal salvation. As you complain that God has not done your will, I submit to you…we have all failed to do God’s will in our lives and we were forgiven. How can we not show forgiveness to others as we were shown by our Lord? That is exactly what the readings were about last week…
 
There needs to be a distinction made between “forgiveness” and “rolling over and letting Satan have his way”.

There is real evil out there, and we need to both resist and evangelize.

If someone or some ideology is unrepently hostile, we do not roll over. Nor do we surrender to the evil.

I have yet to see any of the enemies of the Church seek forgiveness.
 
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Isidore_AK:
I feel like there is no place in the Church for me any longer. Just last week my parish priest said that we shouldn’t be surprised to see the 911 terrorists in heaven…what the heck is wrong with him??? Why do our Bishops support this (insert favorite expletive here)!!!
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Dear Isidore AK,

Why wait for the Bishops?

On more than one occasion, I have felt the need to take the priest aside after Mass and charitably inform him of how his sermon was not in accordance with Church teaching. Most recently, on the issue of Terri Schiavo.

This particular priest started out by commenting on how bad it makes us feel if we run over a squirrel by accident. From there, he made an astonishing leap to the statement that “Terri Schiavo’s situation leaves us in a quandary about what to do in such cases.”

On hearing this, I felt that in good conscience I could not leave the church premises without stating, calmly and quietly but very much in public, what the Catholic Church’s stand actually is.

So as the priest stood shaking hands just outside the church door after Mass, I uttered three simple sentences to him: “The Vatican being pro-life has taken the position of defending Terri Schiavo’s right to life. Pope John Paul II clearly stated that Terri should continue to be provided with nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube. There is no quandary.”

Like you, I want change. Like you, I believe that there are times when prayer must be bolstered by action. For me, this means taking a stand and publicly stating my position in such a way that a dissenting priest can actually see with his own eyes that there is at least one lay person in the parish who is loyal to the Pope.

That said, I am not a one-note whistle-blower. When a priest gives a good sermon, I am just as quick to publicly praise and thank the priest. The good ones need encouragement, even as those needing improvement deserve to hear the truth spoken with charity.

I encourage you to think about how you can personally contribute to the worthy change you seek.

Calling on St. Michael to help us,

~~ the phoenix
 
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Isidore_AK:
I’m just so tired of waiting, while everything just gets worse by the day. I’m to the point where I don’t think I can take Communion (mostly because I’d deck our Bishop if I got the chance…not to mention my priest). I’m so sick of everything that I’m about ready to run screaming from the Church…
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The frustration you express is a familiar concern for me. I have 3 family members who now only attend SS Pius X Masses because of the holiness of that Mass. These family members believe the NO Mass is heretical, and started out expressing similar frustrations and concerns. Then they just got fed up waiting for change that didn’t happen.
 
The frustration you express is a familiar concern for me. I have 3 family members who now only attend SS Pius X Masses because of the holiness of that Mass. These family members believe the NO Mass is heretical, and started out expressing similar frustrations and concerns. Then they just got fed up waiting for change that didn’t happen.
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Considering the standard Roman Mass to be heretical does not make for a holy movement, I’m afraid. More traditional, maybe, but certainly not more holy. Disliking abuses of the Mass is not the same as claiming the Mass itself is heretical. In fact, that would be schismatic and heretical itself.

Pray for your family members, and also that abuses of the Mass will stop.

:blessyou:
 
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