Just signed up and I'm looking forward to getting to know this place. I'm a old CF member and I assume some of you guys do recognise me from over there. Well I've come a place where I cannot give any sort of respect nor recognition of our current antipope. Recognition of said heretic is being enforced at CF which have been pushing me away from said forum for quite some time culminating these days in Bergoglios official claim to be allowing communion for adulterers under a supposed guidance of the Holy Ghost. Well as I said its become unbearable for me to stay over there. So... Here I am I hope and pray that my time here at this forum will be fruitful and beneficial to both myself and my brethren still faithful to the apostolic faith. May God be with us all. Glory to Christ, glory to him forever and ever!
Welcome, Stabat Mater! Sorry for my pleading ignorance, but what does CF stand for? Some of the threads that might immediately interest you are, The Vatican Has Fallen and Breaking! Pope Just Declares... There are also threads on spirituality, such as, The Healing Power of the Eucharist and The Era of Peace and the Divine Will. Feel free to join in! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
CF is Christian Forums. There's a vibrant Catholic sub-forum there, but posting anything (like, literally, anything) that raises specific concerns about Pope Francis, AL, the Dubia, etc is becoming difficult. At least at Mother of God, people can ask and raise questions, and dialogue.
Welcome Stabat You have found a home of faithful Catholics who recognize the problem for what it is. Just don't be too hasty in jumping the gun! We must wait for the hierarchy before proclaiming our own judgements. I hope you have a long and fruitful stay here. It is more a family than a forum.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/all-god-asks All God Asks Robert B. Greving Ronald Knox once said, “He who travels in the barque of St. Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.” In case you’ve been living under a rock the last five, ten, fifty years, the barque has been going through some heavy seas. Some would say we’re with Columbus sailing to a new world; others would say the name written on the side reads Titanic. In any event, it is worth pointing out that, no matter how one reads the signs of the times, in one sense, one very real sense, it doesn’t matter. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray for the Church or the pope or the bishops; that we shouldn’t be concerned when priests and prelates and even those higher up say things that, at the very least, make one scratch one’s head. I’m not saying we shouldn’t confront error, call a spade a spade, or turn a blind eye to scandal. I’m only saying that in one sense, one very real sense, we needn’t worry about all that. We needn’t worry about all that because the one thing we do need to worry about isn’t, in a way, affected by all that. That one thing is our own soul. This past November, the Church had us reflect on the Last Things, the one last thing we should be concerned about is our own individual holiness. It is easy, and perhaps excusable, to be distraught at what some priest or bishop or “Catholic” politician or “Catholic” school has said or done. I’ll be the first to admit I can get all twisted around with these things. And, as I said, there is some justice in this. We love the Church and to see it in a state of, shall we say, “flux” is worrisome. For many of us, the Church is supposed to be our “rock,” and to many of us it currently feels more like quicksand. But here’s the thing—what of it? When we die, and that is the one thing we are to be concerned about, do we really think our Lord will judge us on what a priest or bishop or pope or anyone else said or did? No. He will judge us by the simple criteria: Did you do what I asked you to do? And there’s the end of it. In Jane Austen’s novel Emma, the title character and her friend, Mr. Knightley argue about another character, Frank Churchill, who has seemingly failed in his filial duties. While Emma thinks of every reason to excuse the young man, Mr. Knightley will have none of it. He finally says, “There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chuses [sic], and that is his duty, not by maneuvering and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.” That should be our attitude. Let’s look at it another way: Has there ever been a time when the Church, from pope to parish priest to parishioner in the pew, was perfect? No. St. Paul seemed to spend most of his time straightening out squabbles and heresies. The first five hundred years (at least) of the Church’s history were spent ironing out a creed, and even then, at one time the majority (Arians) didn’t get it right. The Middle Ages saw the pope browbeaten to Avignon for nearly 70 years, and for 25 years after that we had three men claiming to be pope. The Renaissance? Let’s not go there. The 1600s had the Jansenists; the 1700s, the “Enlightenment” and the French Revolution. In the 1800s, the First Vatican Council had to be suspended because Italian troops were knocking at the door. Many point to the “golden age” of the Church before Vatican II. While there may be some truth to that, the question needs to be asked, where and when were the seeds of the flood of the “Spirit of Vatican II” sown if not in that “golden age”? The church—in her members—has never been perfect. But there have always been saints. There have always been saints because there have always been those few individuals who didn’t, in this sense, fret about what anyone else was doing or not doing, and instead did what they were supposed to do, however humbly or publicly that might have been. They sought their own sanctity. They did so with the same means that you and I have at our disposal—prayer, the sacraments, God’s grace, and their own will. None of those depend upon the personal holiness of others in the Church. In all those troubled times, there were great saints. I said above we shouldn’t look to the Renaissance, but let’s do that now. The papacy was pumping water from personal scandal and the heresy of Martin Luther. In England, all the bishops but one caved into Henry VIII. Yet Thomas More became a saint and went to the chopping block calm and cracking a joke, not because his parish priest gave great sermons, not because there was a great RCIA program in his diocese, not because of the purity of the clergy or their sound doctrine, but because he led a life of holiness. (And did so while raising a family, being a lawyer, and being involved in politics of all things.) He didn’t whine, he didn’t complain, he didn’t offer excuses. He looked to his own soul. “These world crises are crises of saints,” said St. Josemaria Escriva, who wept tears as the Church seemed to be going belly up in the 1960s and ’70s. That is to say, these crises are not primarily crises of popes or bishops or priests, or of universities and theologians and politicians, but rather of you and me being a saint where and how God has called us to be. And today we have an even greater burden in this regard because with the amount of sound doctrine and spiritual advice available in books and other media, we really have no excuse for not knowing our duty and how to do it. How much of our efforts are we outing there? No one can stop us from being saints except ourselves. So, by all means correct and admonish, by all means give financial support to those worthy and withhold it from those who are not, but first and foremost, first and last, pray, frequent the sacraments, beg for God’s grace, and do the one thing you can do—be a saint. That’s all God asks. Editor’s note: Pictured above is “The Eve of First Communion” painted by Henri Alphonse Laurent-Desrousseaux.
Thanks for the warm welcome everybody, it's highly appreciated for sure Padraig - you're absolutely correct. When we're individually placed before the Lord we'll be judged on our love and faithfulness not ecclesiastical adherence nor our timely opinions. It's a heart to heart relationship Christ's after. We need to know him and that can only be done through love. I'm talking about real love of course not in the kind of corrupted and false sense that liberals refer to the concept.
Yes, our one duty in life is to get to heaven. To become saints in fact as only saints get to heaven. Either we become saints in this life or in purgatory or the life to come. This is the ball on which our eyes must be set. I heard a story one time about two merchants in Italy during the middle ages, one a Catholic and the others a Jew both of whom were best friends. The Jewish person was attracted by the goodness of his Catholic friend and began to ask questions about his Faith and eventually decided to become a Catholic himself. Before being baptised he had an urgent buisness matter to take care of in Rome. His friends heart dropped at this decision that when the Jewish Merchant/ friend saw the corruption in Rome , especially at the Vatican he would be scandalised and never ever embrace the True Faith. However when his friend returned to town from Rome he was more determined to become a Catholic than ever. The amazed Catholic merchant asked him why? 'Because I saw the corruption and evil in Rome. A Church that can survive these things for 1500 years can only be the One True Church!'.
Reminds me of the great Chesterton quote. “The Catholic Church has gone to the dogs at least four times in history. And each time it is the dog who died!”
Welcome from me too. We Catholics must respect Pope Francis as we must respect every human being. We owe him extra respect because he has been ordained to act in persona Christi and because he has been elevated to the seat of St. Peter. That we don't owe respect to heresy doesn't negate our obligation to respect the heretic. We must always, also, be careful about labelling people as heretics - a danger I often struggle with and sometimes succumb to. As to Pope Francis being an anti-Pope, he very well may be but that will be determined by people other than us if not while he's alive then sometime in the future. All we can do is argue for and in defence of the perennial teaching of the Church and pray that our prelates will do the same. Satan is far smarter than any of us. He has been working within the Church since its beginning to divide and conquer. In my lifetime that goal has taken the form of working towards a democratic Church where the popular vote (often hidden beneath a misrepresentation of the Sensus Fidei) decides what is worthy of belief and how the Faith should be presented and practised. We must be very careful not to further that goal of Satan despite our best intentions. For the future of the Church, the Petrine ministry matters more than the current incumbent no matter how bad he may be. We need to be careful for the sake of our own souls as well as for the sake of the Church.
Very well thank you and like you still learning lots. As time passes i am begining to believe that the learning will be a life long endevour until we finally know the fullness of all truth in the next life and that the desire for knowledge of the faith in this life is a reflection of our desire to be with God in the next. I have heard it said life is a journey not a destination and i think i am only begining to understand what that means. My time away from C.F was sorely needed it gave me time to put things into perspective i was engrossed in the crisis that has striken our church i was in serious danger of it becoming an obsession and my family life was suffering because of it. In the end the ban inflicted upon me ended as a favour to me and i suspect it was by the grace of God.
A real CF reunion in here how nice. Yes mea its all to easy to let oneself be carried away when witnessing the demolition of Rome, but we must remember what Christ told us time and time again, FEAR NOT! I got banned too more or less on my own request. I need to reconsider my CF involvement anyway, it got to a point where neither I nor the forum benefited from my current participation. Good to be reunited in here though
You were in my thoughts and prayers often. I was banned and given no reason what so ever, i went to the site and i was locked out without the privelage of being able to say goodbye or leave contact information to friends i had made there. Yes it is easy to get carried away and you are right we must not fear but have faith and i have passed the point of fretting over the crisis that is unfolding but i am stumped as to what i can do to play my part opposing it and its that which annoys me.
