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The Courage to be Catholic
Google Books ^ | 2002 | George Weigel

Posted on 08/26/2018 4:41:22 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

A Church with almost two thousand years of history behind it has inevitably passed through many moments of crisis and many moments of reform. In each instance when crisis-as-cataclysm has been transformed into crisis-as-opportunity, "reform" has meant a return to the Church's roots in order to better engage the spirit and the needs of a given time and place. "Reform," in the history of the Catholic Church, has meant retrieving, and developing often forgotten elements of the Church's tradition. It has not meant rejecting the past, or severing the present and the future from the past. Genuine "reform" has always meant returning to the past--to roots--in such a way as to create the possibility of a genuinely new future.

That is what happened in what we now know as the Dark Ages, when the collapse of the Roman Empire threatened the very survival of the Christian West: The reform led by great monks and nuns such as Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica created new forms of Christian discipleship, and in doing so, saved the Church's memory --and Western civilization. That is what happened in the early Middle Ages, when a decadent clergy threatened the Church's mission: The reforms launched by Pope Gregory VII revived early penitential practices and reached back to such ancient traditions as priestly celibacy in order to prepare the Church for a nobler future. That is what happened in the sixteenth century, when the Protestant Reformation fractured Western Christianity: The Council of Trent (1545-1563) unblushingly examined the Church's corruptions and failures...

Crisis means trauma; crisis also means opportunity.

Every great period of reform in Catholic history has involved a thorough reform of the priesthood and the episcopate...The answer to a crisis of fidelity is fidelity: a deeper conversion to Christ, a more thoroughly Catholic reform of Catholicism.

(Excerpt) Read more at books.google.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; History; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: catholic; courage; crisis; faith; pope; reform; vatican
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1 posted on 08/26/2018 4:41:22 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Bookmark


2 posted on 08/26/2018 4:48:39 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

No kidding but the thousands of child rape reality hurts the entire Christian world because non believers just scoff at us now as criminal hypocrites.


3 posted on 08/26/2018 5:06:59 PM PDT by raiderboy (Trump promised “shut down the government” in September; if no wall!!)
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To: GOP Poet

“Traditions, Traditions”- To Jesus: Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders... Jesus: “Their teachings are but rules taught by men.” Celibacy, Intercession of the saints, Mariolatry, Penance, purgatory, the sacrifice of the mass and worst of all a gospel which is unclear and uncertain. I thank the Lord that in spite of all the falsehood in the Roman church, there reside many simple believers who put their trust in Christ.


4 posted on 08/26/2018 5:08:48 PM PDT by uscga77 (the truth remains)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
In the forward to his book Wiegel seems to be making the claim that if only Vatican II had been interpreted correctly then we wouldn't have had all the troubles with pedophile priests.

Hundreds and thousands of people have commented on and interpreted Vatican II and there is nothing there besides some vague call to holiness that would have countered the infiltration of the Church by the Gay Mafia.

5 posted on 08/26/2018 5:09:34 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.


6 posted on 08/26/2018 5:10:10 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
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To: Just mythoughts

Buy book “Goodbye good men”. History of gay, lesbian, infiltration in seminaries going “way” back. Not a read that makes you comfortable with today’s church. A few good men may have survived and need support.


7 posted on 08/26/2018 5:20:10 PM PDT by codder too
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To: uscga77
Traditions! Oh the horror!

What about Protestant traditions like:
- Infant baptism or adult baptism
- TULIP or Born Again
- Saturday is the Sabbath or Sunday is the Sabbath
- KJV or NIV or ??
- YEC
- Male pastors only or not
- Pastors (if they're to be trusted) really must be married or not

I guess at least with Protestantism you can pick and choose what traditions you want to orient your religious life around.

Interesting that a conservative would lambaste support for tradition. Pulling that line out of the Scriptures is a favorite of leftist Christians who want to flush everything down the memory hole and reinvent Christianity into some form of Marxism.

8 posted on 08/26/2018 5:20:30 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: Just mythoughts

Buy book “Goodbye good men”. History of gay, lesbian, infiltration in seminaries going “way” back. Not a read that makes you comfortable with today’s church. A few good men may have survived and need support.


9 posted on 08/26/2018 5:21:01 PM PDT by codder too
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To: codder too

Had the Gospel been the focus down through the centuries, this abomination would have never been allowed... but worse, is the money spent to cover up and pretend as if ‘the gates of Hell’ are in their control. My stomach gets queasy to ponder what perverts find pleasurable. Thankfully God keeps the perfect record and there are going to be some very stunned people when Christ returns with that double edged sword for a harvest.

Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife.

33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.


10 posted on 08/26/2018 5:28:58 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Thanks for the link.

JoMa


11 posted on 08/26/2018 6:49:58 PM PDT by joma89
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
US Federal law enforcement needs to turn the American Catholic Church upside-down and shake it until there is nothing left.
12 posted on 08/26/2018 7:21:22 PM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: uscga77

Amen!


13 posted on 08/26/2018 7:32:27 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: Poison Pill
The Catholic Church has been around since before Christopher Columbus, the Catholic, discovered America.

It will endure.


14 posted on 08/27/2018 4:12:05 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Poison Pill
US Federal law enforcement needs to turn the American Catholic Church upside-down and shake it until there is nothing left.

Yeah, because THEY'RE the ones we can trust.

15 posted on 08/27/2018 4:19:35 PM PDT by SE Mom (Screaming Eagle mom)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
It will endure.

In poorer more backward countries it will persist, for a while. Here in the US it is in a much steeper decline than other religions. The attrition rate of white Catholics is staggering. It can't survive if parents fear letting their kids in the same room as priests. Older Catholics will stay, and then die. Younger ones won't take their place. Why would they want to? In 30 years Catholicism will be a tiny fraction of what it is now in North America and most of the practitioners will be Hispanic.

16 posted on 08/27/2018 5:24:42 PM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: All; who_would_fardels_bear
What about Protestant traditions like:

- YEC

And this is precisely why your church is circling the drain and won't recover.

In case some of you don't get it, the poster is claiming that young earth creationism ("YEC") is a "Protestant tradition," unknown until nineteenth century American fundamentalism.

That is a damnable lie.

During the Galileo episode, the Church condemned him precisely because his Copernican view of the cosmos denied Biblical inerrancy--the same Biblical inerrancy that Catholics now claim they have never believed in! Where, O where did all those liberals and homosexuals come from, I wonder? Could it be that discarding Biblical inerrancy started the whole thing?

As for "only Protestants," there are (believe it or not) a few Catholic and Orthodox sites on the Internet that claim and back up that the Bible was considered totally inerrant and mostly interpreted literally throughout history. Meanwhile, Chasidim in NYC are under attack for not wanting to be forced to teach their children evolution (and maybe Copernicanism?) in their private schools. And why don't you ask the Kutim (the "Samaritans") if all the Biblical stories are merely Aesop's fables? Yes, they are heretics, but they certainly give the lie to the idea that no one interpreted the Bible literally until the nineteenth century!

Meanwhile, our hypocritical poster neglects to mention the fact that the historical criticism of the Bible is also very much a "Protestant tradition," which means he should oppose it. But oh, this is a good Protestant tradition, isn't it? It must be, considering that each and every one of the ancient churches has now bought into to and promote it hook, line, and sinker (to prove that they're "not Protestants!"). They also seem to adore liberal Protestants, whom they can't get enough of. All the ancient churches schmooze with liberal Protestants--probably about how "dumb" those rednecks are. Or maybe liberal Protestants are all now honorary Catholics/Orthodox?

Any hypocrite who refuses to listen to a scientist who tells him that there is no such thing as a "virgin birth" had best shut up about other people who critique science more consistently. No Six Days of Creation (or Ark, or Tower of Babel)??? No "virgin birth," no "real presence," and no "resurrection!"

17 posted on 08/27/2018 5:25:59 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator ("Conservatism" without G-d is just another form of Communism.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
The Catholic Church has been around since before Christopher Columbus, the Catholic, discovered America.

Did he believe in evolution too?

18 posted on 08/27/2018 5:30:48 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator ("Conservatism" without G-d is just another form of Communism.)
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To: Poison Pill; Zionist Conspirator
And here is Amerigo Vespucci, for whom America is named.

A Catholic.


19 posted on 08/27/2018 6:00:26 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
here is Amerigo Vespucci...etc

Nostalgia can't save that organization from decades and decades malfeasance.

20 posted on 08/27/2018 6:38:59 PM PDT by Poison Pill
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