Beyond the US, the Top Five countries for beefs with the Pope

Crux ^ | September 15, 2019 | John L. Allen, Jr.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[dsrtsage]

Who would have a problem with pope Beelzebub SatanLover?

[Da Coyote]

I thank the Pope for removing any regrets I have for leaving the Catholic Church.

And, yes, the Pope is a Dope.

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Red Badger]

Beefs with the Pope

Sounds like a menu item at a trendy Yuppie restaurant................

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I would think the top of any list right now would be China.

[irishjuggler]

Beefs with the Pope. Beers with Liz Warren. Same difference.

[Red Badger]

We used to have a restaurant here called ‘Beef O’Bradys’...................

[Vigilanteman]

. . . some Poles see Francis rolling back aspects of John Paul’s legacy.

Maybe they see it that way because that is exactly what the jag-off is doing. Ya think?

[Mrs. Don-o]

The Devil is, as we know, quite familiar with Scripture and hellaciously canny about using it to his own purposes.

He knows "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter," and knows how to use it with scathing success, as various FReeper Catholic AWOL's illustrate.

It's paradoxical, but true, that as soon as there's an actual painful struggle, soldiers would feel justified in leaving their post.

If the person is a good Catholic, it's hard to see how they are actually improving, defending or purifying the Church by leaving her.

Let's pry for each other. God knows I need it.

[caww]

True believers understand the churches today do not represent nor teach what Jesus intended....the catholic church is certainly no exemption. There's a reason the body of Christ is said to go ‘underground’ as the truth and gospel message is lost among the rubble of false teachings and worldliness.."For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

[bgill]

Same here.

False pope.

[Fedora]

Then there’s countries the Pope sold out to Communism: China, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. . .

[Mrs. Don-o]

The Church today is just as She was

• on a particular Thursday night in 33 AD when Jesus' inner circle --- Peter, James, and John --- couldn't even stay awake and pray with Him for one hour

• that same night when, of His 11 remaining select men, one betrayed Him, one denied Him, and the other nine scattered and headed for the tall grass

• when a few stood by the Cross until He shed the last drop of His blood and He hung there, a battered corpse

• when He rose and appeared to them, and a few believed without seeing, and many doubted even when they saw Him

• when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and Mary

• when they commenced on a mission to preach, teach and baptize "every creature" in the whole world (Mark 16:15)

• when each and every one of Paul's 14 Epistles deals, in part, with errors, dissensions, factions and false teachings entangling some the very people he and the other Apostles had baptized,

• and Paul even had to rebuke Peter to his face for his backsliding and hypocrisy;

• and yet all the Apostles gave their lives in martyrdom, except John who died in exile

• and still the Church surged forward through the centuries and millennia and across the continents and cultures with her confessors and faithful, stumbling, staggering and stalwart people we know as the Communion of Saints.

Tell me how things are different now? Or are you envisioning a Golden Age when the Church on earth perfectly embodied what Christ intended? And how long do you think that lasted? Fifteen minutes?

Did this present lamentable falling-away --- so long and so frequently prophesized --- take you by surprise? Do you think it takes Him by surprise?

And yet:

• "Everything must be done so that the Church may be built up." (1 Corinthians 14:26)

• "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church" (Ephesians 5:32)

• "Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)

• "If he refuses to listen even to the Church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."(Matthew 18:17)

• "The Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)

[caww]

There is a distinction between church buildings/denominations and that of the Body of Christ when you speak of The Church. The church is all Christians who are the Lords in all denominations....they are believers in Christ and his finished work..of which the catholic church is one of.

There is also a distinction between who enters the churches....both believers and not attend.

True believers distinguish these differences and recognize these things. We, as believers, are one with Christ as the head of us all. ....the church. Yet we are told there will be a great falling away, a great deception as no other tine in history within the churches and we are seeing this beginning today.....have watched it develop and grow .... So yes there is a difference between what continues today and what once was.

[Mrs. Don-o]

There have always been overlapping, related and yet not identical definitions of church--- invisible and visible, historical and canonical, sacramental and legal, already and not-yet, sociological and spiritual, etc. --- which are bound to vex and aggravate this sort of discussion.

I think the thing to keep in mind is that it is a *Great Mystery* (in St.Paul's words) and refers to the already-and-not-yet reality that the Church is the Bride of Christ. The union of husband and wife is a sacrament (outward sign) (symbol that effects what it signifies) (magnum mysterium)of Christ and the Church.

So the Church is also the Body of Christ, because Christ and His Bride together make One Flesh. And thus it is also Incarnate, not "just" spiritual, because Christ is not just spiritual: he is embodied. He is incarnate and will always be incarnate, forever.

So it cannot just be an "invisible church." It has to be a "visible church" as well. The incarnate one we can see.

And it has to be a "visible church" the believer can find ("Go to the street called Straight) ("let him take it to the Church") and which speaks in a way he can hear ("...and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.")

And this visible Church Christ has joined to Himself, is joining to Himself, and will join to Himself in fidelity: He cannot be separated from Her. He indeed identifies with Her. What you do to Her, His Church, His Bride, you are doing to Him:

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting."

This becomes all the more important, the more the culminating days of confusion and apostasy approach.

"And let us consider how to spur one another on
to love and good deeds.
Let us not neglect meeting together,
as some have made a habit,
but let us encourage one another,
and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

It is truly craven to leave the endangered Church, the visible Church, the Bridal Church at just the time when we most need each other. We need that "spurring on" to love and good deeds; we need that encouragement to keep on believing Christ's promise that He would not leave us orphans but would always be with us, all the more when danger most prevails, and we see approaching the great and terrible Day of the Lord.

[Mrs. Don-o]

And by he way, we all know it’s nothing to do with buildings per se. The ChiComs will be duking it out with the Muslims for the big buildings in the City Center, while the Church is meeting secretly in a tent next to the winos and psychos. We may live to see it.

[Salvation]

You are still a baptized Catholic. The Pope does not affect my faith. You can come back to the Church any time, just sit down with a priest and get your questions answered.

[Salvation]

We all need prayers.