In proclaiming the faith and in administering the sacraments every priest speaks on behalf of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ.
“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.”
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.
To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.
It is sad that there are what you might call professional Catholics who make a living on their Catholicism, but in whom the spring of faith flows only faintly, in a few scattered drops. We must really make an effort to change this.
Lest anyone think that I am alone in bemoaning the attempts of some to create a false dichotomy between evangelisation and proselitysm - and I would in many cases argue, a false distinction altogether -, Steve Skojec makes a similar point:
So DeusExMachina thinks that the firing of some scandalous bloggers has more to do with the realisation by the National Catholic Register that earning a living from a dying gang - what he calls "ZombieChurch" - is a bad business modell.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar