This is terrifying - Could this be the end of the Church in America?

[lizaanne]

View the story here

I don’t think taking this lightly is a good idea. What is the Church going to do about this? What are WE going to do about this?

I think this is terrifying - think of the timing of this event. Right before a major election season when every liberal politician in the country is going to be loving this up and jumping on the band wagon. We already know what that sort of response did to the presidential election. Make no mistake, if the liberal media and politicians get behind this event and this organization, they could be unstoppable.

americancatholiccouncil.org/

This looks very much to me like a call for schism in the Church.

~Liza

 

[rstegeman]

What is the Church going to do about this? What are WE going to do about this?

Simple…we stay the course. The Catholic Church is to remain the same…we are a pillar in a sea of change. There have been many calls like this one in the past and there will undoubtedly be many more in the future.

On their home page, there were three key things that stuck out in my mind. The first, “to create a new Church”. Christ started our Church. By saying that they are going to start a new one automatically states that they are not Christ’s church.

The second, “the American context in which we live”. This is an identity created by humans. Our Church supercedes any human culture, race, identity, tradition, etc. A church should not adjust itself according to the times and culture.

Third, “It is not that the Gospel has changed, it is that we have begun to understand it better”. Better?? Than who? The Magesterium? So this group, some two thousand years later, now has the clarity to interpret Scripture better than The Church, who through sacred tradition and the Magesterium, have the understanding that comes straight from the source? Their statement is both preposterous and arrogant.

The only thing we can do is to try to educate them and to clarify their misunderstandings of God’s Church.

 

[4HisChurch]

I guess I wonder how many people will get behind this “movement”? Although, the speaker says that NARAL and gay rights came from just such a meeting. So, we may not see immediate fallout from this.

We need to use these 696 days that are left to pray. :crying:

 

[GodIsGracious]

I’m at work so I can’t see the video, but I read bits and pieces of the website.

The word that stuck out to me was “reform.” Martin Luther, anyone? We do what rstegeman said, stay with Rome. Listen very carefully to what Rome says about this and follow that.

Also, they have a “declaration” page. Too much like some Protestant churches that have their “Declaration of Faith.” Our declaration is simple, the Nicene/Apostle’s Creed. That’s all we need. Any church that has anything else added to it is apart from the Catholic church.

Has anyone heard anything about this from Rome?

 

[JustaServant]

A new church? Great! And when we start, we’ll call ourselves ANGLICANS!!

Maybe these people need to take a trip to England and take a tour of all the empty Anglican churches. Or others now turned into nightclubs.
Sad? Yes. Terrifying or even surprising? Not really.

 

[7_Sorrows]

View the story here

I don’t think taking this lightly is a good idea. What is the Church going to do about this? What are WE going to do about this?

I think this is terrifying - think of the timing of this event. Right before a major election season when every liberal politician in the country is going to be loving this up and jumping on the band wagon. We already know what that sort of response did to the presidential election. Make no mistake, if the liberal media and politicians get behind this event and this organization, they could be unstoppable.

americancatholiccouncil.org/

This looks very much to me like a call for schism in the Church.

there will always be THE roman catholic church in america. i believe there already is a church called the american catholic church which is not a part of The Church.
we might see something like what has happened within the episcopal church, but not as bad. americans always seems to want to do things their way and this group of americans wants to be in control of how they want “their catholic” faith to be. i guess it would be some sort of schism, but i don’t know what to expect.

~Liza

 

[PadraigPearce]

I’ve been quite curious about this group too, but I’m not really that worried. It’s an umbrella group of all the dissenting groups like Call To Action, FutureChurch, Voice of the Faithful etc. Here’s my two cents (an they’re Canadian cents too, so more like 1.27 cents American.) I wouldn’t be totally surprised if they tried to pull something like what they are threatening, separating from Rome, but if they did I can’t see it getting very far off the ground. Firstly, a lot of the people involved in this are dependent on existing Church structures for their living. Priests and Religious, people working in Diocesan offices and others would be much smarter to stay inside the Church where they can continue to have some, albeit marginal, influence and continue to earn a living. Secondly, these groups no longer have the backing of American Bishops. In 1976 the original Call to Action conference was an initiative of the USSCB, if I recall correctly. Today, Call to Action and some of the other groups are even banned from operating in certain diocese. So if a schism did occur, it would be very small and very few Bishops would go along. The American Catholic Council has a forum on their website which has been up for over two months and has 14 posts, mostly by the same couple of people. Their website also hasn’t changed very much since they first put it up.

 

[7_Sorrows]

View the story here

I don’t think taking this lightly is a good idea. What is the Church going to do about this? What are WE going to do about this?

I think this is terrifying - think of the timing of this event. Right before a major election season when every liberal politician in the country is going to be loving this up and jumping on the band wagon. We already know what that sort of response did to the presidential election. Make no mistake, if the liberal media and politicians get behind this event and this organization, they could be unstoppable.

americancatholiccouncil.org/

This looks very much to me like a call for schism in the Church.

~Liza

no, this won’t be the end of The Church in America. there will always be the Roman Catholic church here in America. i believe there is already a church that calls itself the Amercian Catholic Church. Americans always seem to want to do things their way and this group feels that they don’t agree with how the Pope, the Magisterium and the Roman Catholic church are teaching the faith and that they seem to have a “better” understanding.
we have all seen what has happened to the american episcopal church and the development of the different anglican churches that have sprung up. if this group has a large group of followers at Pentecost 2011 and they decide to take action, they will just be a splinter group that forms and eventually that could break off into another splinter group.
but they probably won’t be recognized by the Pope…
there will still be the faithful who will remain true to the faith. just because a group calls itself the American Catholic church does not mean that just because we are americans, we must join that church.

 

[lizaanne]

Simple…we stay the course.

With all due respect, I don’t think this is enough. How does that old saying go - “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got.” And if the history of organizations like NARAL and Call to Action are any examples, just staying the course has not been effective in the least.

Sitting by and letting this happen around us is not how we defend the Faith. My question still stands - what do WE do to make sure this organization doesn’t take root (any more than it has already).

I think it begins in every single parish in this country, with every single priest and his homily and bulletins. If the TRUTH is not being taught, then how is any Joe Catholic in the pew supposed to know about it? And those of us who KNOW this is not happening in our own parishes have a responsibility to make sure it DOES happen. Talking to our priests, notifying our bishops, and taking it higher if needed.

~Liza

 

[bpbasilphx]

Well, we certainly can’t have anything discussed, now can we?

Ever hear the expression “Plenary Council of Baltimore”?

 

[JOL]

This is from their “short facts” page:

An American Catholic Church? Is this different from the universal Catholic Church?
Not in matters of faith, but in matters of discipline, yes. Why not? That’s what the Council Fathers meant when they talked about the need for enculturated Churches around the world, whose communities could each be Catholic in their own way, but always in communion with the pope.

Someone in THE Church needs to speak out against this group. On another note, this may be the Lord’s way of separating the wheat from the chaff, you know, getting rid of the Nancy Pelosi’s and Joe Biden’s that hurt us. The gates of hell shall not prevail over our Church, don’t forget that!

 

[PapaSquash]

It’s not the end of THE Church. It’s potentially the end of some people’s participation in it. They’re just Protestants, we’ve had lots of them around for a long time. I know a lot of them, mostly they are good people. They aren’t in full communion with Jesus’ Church though, and that IS a shame.

What we always got is fine for me. More than I deserve in fact. An unmerited gift.

 

[JOL]

What this makes me think of is those people who call themselves “Catholic” yet only go to celebrate Mass on Christmas Eve, and maybe Easter. Those are the people who are already hurting the Church. They are lukewarm in their faith, if they have faith at all. They are the ones that our Lord is going to say “depart from me, I never knew you.” Wide is the gate that leads to destruction, many will pass through. Narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life, few will find it.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I guess I wonder how many people will get behind this “movement”? Although, the speaker says that NARAL and gay rights came from just such a meeting. So, we may not see immediate fallout from this.

We need to use these 696 days that are left to pray. :crying:

also female priests, same sex marriages, etc.

 

[PadraigPearce]

That video in the original post is pretty scary, with the little hurricane graphic in the background, but I think he might be overestimating the liberal wing of the Church. I may be wrong, but I don’t think liberals and progressives have the backing of young people today that they once had. In Canada, for example, something like 40% of the country is supposed to be Catholic, but very few young people go to Church anymore. I don’t see loads of youth getting active in the Church so they can promote reform. If they disagree they just stop going, and if they’re willing to listen to Church teaching, they stay involved. The liberal media can promote this till the cows come home, but I don’t think it will bring back the majority who are already alienated from the Church.

 

[7_Sorrows]

It’s not the end of THE Church. It’s potentially the end of some people’s participation in it. They’re just Protestants, we’ve had lots of them around for a long time. I know a lot of them, mostly they are good people. They aren’t in full communion with Jesus’ Church though, and that IS a shame.

What we always got is fine for me. More than I deserve in fact. An unmerited gift.

 

[lizaanne]

What we always got is fine for me.

Do you have any idea how many souls have been lead away from the Truth by going with the flow of “what we always got”? I don’t - but going by the recent election, and the polls I’m seeing on what “Catholics” believe about abortion, I’d say the number has to be staggering.

I’m totally floored that no one else seems to be very concerned about this. Sure - the gates of hell will not prevail, and I know this and believe it. But we have a RESPONSIBILITY to fight the good fight, to DEFEND the Faith, and not just sit idly by allowing this sort of snatching of souls to occur.

Isn’t anyone else the least bit concerned about this? Or is it just another news article to say oh well about?

~Liza

 

[maryj]

This is from their “short facts” page:

Someone in THE Church needs to speak out against this group. On another note, this may be the Lord’s way of separating the wheat from the chaff, you know, getting rid of the Nancy Pelosi’s and Joe Biden’s that hurt us. The gates of hell shall not prevail over our Church, don’t forget that!

The first thing that came to mind was…chaff and goats. Let us pray that there is more wheat than chaff more Lambs than goats.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I’m at work so I can’t see the video, but I read bits and pieces of the website.

The word that stuck out to me was “reform.” Martin Luther, anyone? We do what rstegeman said, stay with Rome. Listen very carefully to what Rome says about this and follow that.

Also, they have a “declaration” page. Too much like some Protestant churches that have their “Declaration of Faith.” Our declaration is simple, the Nicene/Apostle’s Creed. That’s all we need. Any church that has anything else added to it is apart from the Catholic church.

Has anyone heard anything about this from Rome?

in the episcopal church, we also said the Nicene/Apostle’s creed, but we were also apart from the Catholic Church. i used to think to myself when we came to the part of the creed about believing in the one holy catholic and apostolic church - then why are we episcopal?
anyhow, i converted to the Catholic church later in my adult life.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Do you have any idea how many souls have been lead away from the Truth by going with the flow of “what we always got”? I don’t - but going by the recent election, and the polls I’m seeing on what “Catholics” believe about abortion, I’d say the number has to be staggering.

I’m totally floored that no one else seems to be very concerned about this. Sure - the gates of hell will not prevail, and I know this and believe it. But we have a RESPONSIBILITY to fight the good fight, to DEFEND the Faith, and not just sit idly by allowing this sort of snatching of souls to occur.

Isn’t anyone else the least bit concerned about this? Or is it just another news article to say oh well about?

~Liza

i didn’t see the entire video i don’t think. when i clicked the link, the commentator had just begun speaking about 696 days left until Pentecost and then it went to another video.
so i wasn’t exactly sure what it was about until i read the page from the american catholic council (?is that their name) and i began to understand.
the movement within the episcopal church began slowly and then really took off. in that case, people were not happy with the liberal ways of the episcopal church and wanted to return more to a traditional anglican faith. so they began their own anglican churches.
this is the reverse scenario. these are liberals who are wanting to depart from tradition to
“their way of interpreting the Catholic faith”. so they do see it as a reform,but if they are not recognized by the Pope, they will be like protestants.