That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could not endure life at all.
Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world.
“If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.
For many people today, practical atheism is the normal rule of life...If this attitude becomes a general existential position, then freedom no longer has any standards, then everyting is possible and permissible.
Unlike VoxCantoris, I would argue Bergoglio is far from deluded when he says:
The Church is not falling to pieces. It has never been better. This is a wonderful moment for the Church, you just need to look at its history.
For the record, it is not the first time that Bergoglio has said that.
By now no believing Christian can claim that Bergoglio is unwillfully attempting to destroy the Catholic Church.
If we try to follow Christ we had better get used to being thrown under the bus, as this commenter to the piece reporting on Bergoglio's latest scandalous appointments makes clear:
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar