Certainly, it is difficult to make the demands of the Gospel understandable to secularized people. But this pastoral difficulty must not lead to compromises with the truth.
One can readily admit that the Magisterium's manner of expression does not seem very easy to understand at times. It needs to be translated by preachers and catechists into a language which relates to people and to their respective cultural environments. The essential content of the Church's teaching, however, must be upheld in this process. It must not be watered down on allegedly pastoral grounds, because it communicates the revealed truth.
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.
Evil too, will always be part of the mystery of the Church. And when we see what men, what the clergy have done in the Church, then that is nothing short of proof that he [Christ] founded and upholds the Church. If she were dependent on men, she would long since have perished.
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.
A good son of the Church, and a champion of tradition, John Vennari, has died.
We should be happy with our lives if we exert even half of the effort he put into defending and promoting Holy Mother Church.
He will be missed, but I cannot help but feel that God is calling him to spare him of the chastisement that is surely coming.
Let us remember that cynicism is a sin. When we see someone who seems virtuous we had better give them the benefit of the doubt until or unless we find out more about them, and we are not obliged to seek dirt on them without good cause.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar