You and yours are the church.
NOT the vatican. NOT the pope.
i know that the doctrine states that the pope is in charge; he is the chosen guide...
i tell you, if this is true. why is your heart wavering?
the only bridge between you and God is the spirit.
no one else. nothing else.
let this troubling time anneal your resolve and your faith.
My heart is not wavering.
I stand in a long line of Christians, starting from Jesus Christ Himself.
In each of these Generations, the fact of a hierarchical Church is present.
From Paul, who called Timothy an Overseer (episkopos in Greek, Bishop in english) and said this office was propagated by the laying on of hands.
To Ignatius in the 1st century, one step away from John the apostle, who called the Church at Rome "that which presides in Love"
To Augustine, who wrote of the system by which God ordained bishops to watch over the church in every part of the world.
On, through history, a long line of generations, in each of which, Christians understood that the Church is rightly called the people of God, but that people is orderly, and does not argue amongst itself over doctrine, because it has a hierarchy.
So, if forced, as I am, to choose between a rotten hierarchy, which is badly in need of a purge, and anarchy, in which every man devises his religion based on his own creativity, wit, and guilt, I'll take the rotten hierarchy as being closer to the truth.
In this same way, I'll not abandon America. It's seat of power is rotten, a disgustful nest of vipers...but good men once sat there, and devised its purpose. They encoded it so that everyone can measure their successors by it. I will not abandon America because Joe Biden is on the chair. That's asinine. Both good and bad men have sat there.
And, in the same way, I'll not abandon the idea of hierarchy because bad men sit on those seats in the Church. Good men and bad men have sat on them, and God allows that. My job is faithfulness.
power to those that seek and uphold the truth
👍
As a liberal type who recently looked into praying, I always felt that religion is sculpted too much by man, and men of power corrupt the embodiment of their design.
So honestly, I feel that a personal communication with Jesus and God is best, simply due to the world around us.
this
i had some hardcore catholics tell me, they can only receive the eucharist 'in church'
and to them i say, there are parts of the world, where christianity (and others) are banned.
i heard tales of people 'receiving the body' in the basement of a warehouse, in those countries.
freedom of religion, imo, was used by globalists, to enact control.
all humans should be free to pursue all intellectual and spiritual ideologies, without interference from any group.
the 'church' needs you, but you sure af dont need them.
Even before this, I was always of the viewpoint of, "If God is true, and he made the Earth, then every house that prayer is in would be considered a house of prayer." It made sense from an outsider looking in.
And honestly, my prayer attempts have been in places I feel the most comfortable. In the park to an open sky, for me it feels closest. And the Churches, many anyway, I have seen show not much promise of resolve, just dependency of others confirming their practice.
that has been their mantra for decades now
I have never heard that, but honestly it makes sense.
there was a time, when the rise of porn and the internet, made so much information
available for everyone to consume.
that the 'hardline' churches started to bend their 'will' to enlist this new generation.
they knew they were losing 'members' year-over year to the tune of millions.
any statistician could predict an end of mass religion in western countries within a few decades
this scared them so much, they started to get more clever about garnering members
so then you saw them start to carry narratives about global warming et al
folks were getting their social support and mental acuity from digital and social platforms.
no need to go to 'church' to be told 'everything is going to be ok'. you got that in your own home.
they need YOU, to come into their world. start a family and have lots of kids. put new butts in their pews.
rinse and repeat.
Post this on a Catholic site. Then again, you think they don't already know this? You don't know much about Catholics.
ive been to the vatican and 'worshipped' with those that think the vatican is the 'seat'
ive been with catholics in brazil that thought the pope could cure people...
that covid was going to be 'eradicated' by the popes will
my voice is trying to reach them. not freedom-loving pedes, per se.
i dont think my voice carries any weight on any catholic site
any more than my voice could carry on say, twitter.
in my hubris, i would like to think i could reach some people here...
hence why i post here and not catholic.org