Sunday, July 26, 2009

With So Many Klutzes..., Why Be Catholic?

What follows is a letter a friend of mine wrote to a guy named Bob. I contributed to it, but it is clearly, Michael King's.

Dear Bob,

This is a personal letter to you and to explain how much I really do understand your situation. Roman Catholics are some of the worst Christians imaginable. They do not read their Bibles. They do not evangelize. Some do not care much for their fellow man and so it goes on and on and on. I do not think it is all their fault as they are badly instructed as to what is really important and true. I am somewhat ashamed of them!! Now you may ask and rightly so why on earth be a Catholic amongst such a shameful bunch? Catholics divorce, abort, and use condoms and birth control just like the heathen and their Protestant counterparts. The Mass service, as celebrated by some priests, is desperately boring and misunderstood. The homilies are often irrelevant and the people you meet in Church are mostly uninterested in you and quite unfriendly. I am talking generally. There are exceptions and thank God for them. But they are only exceptions.

I am a devout and died in the wool Catholic for one reason only. Get this! Just One reason only. Why???????? Because it is TRUE!!!!!! That is the only reason. It is still the Church that Jesus is guiding down through the centuries; it must be because in spite of all the personal sins and mistakes of some of it's leaders, it's still here? How could that be except by the miraculous protection of God Himself?! And, amazingly, its official teachings about the faith have NEVER changed, nor have they bowed to secularism, or popularism, or moral relativism, or deconstructionism as has every other Christian Church in those doctrines that are distinct from Catholicism. Even the Greeks and Orthodox are inconsistent and have given in on issues like birth control. Everything the Catholic Church teaches can be traced back to the Apostles without contamination.

Many of my best friends are Protestants and Not Catholics. Yes, I do have a few very very good Catholic ones that can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I do know a handful of priests that I can admire and I am thankful for them. This picture that I have painted reminds me of the well known account in the Old Testament of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal. Do you remember how much water Elijah insisted be poured over the sacrifice to make sure it would not burn? Then Whoooooosh!!!! The fire came down and consumed the water, the sacrifice, and even the altar on which it was put. That is the Catholic Church for you, and all that water on the sacrifice is its shameful side. Jesus knew well the heart of man so He devised a Church which would not rely on man -- any man -- for survival. We are all gone astray, there is none good no not one. Jesus knew that so He devised a fool proof Church that would last whether there were good people, bad people, or a whole bunch of indifferent people.

Please, I am going to send this not only to you but to many as it has to be said. Bob, I love and I would love you even if you were a Muslim or a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon or an Atheist.

Michael Jaffray King

2 comments:

  1. Much of what you are saying is true - most imposrtatntly that what the Catholic Church teaches, not some infividual priest or bishop, but the church, what the the magestarium teaches is TRUE.

    I must take issue with your statement that there are so few good, true Cathloics and so few good priests. You must have belonged to some very sad parishes. I find a strong core in every parish I experience, indeed some parsihes filled with great Catholics - on fire with the love of Christ. You make it sound lijke it is a terrable burdern to endure your parish life - not atractive to outsiders - not evangilistic at all. Keep looking my friend. I find the world is full of great Catholics and great Catholic churches, filled with people who live lives of great joy and love. So many men are laying down their lives in selfless service to God as Priests and Bishops. Your description of the Catholic Church sounds possitively depressing and I find it far short of reality.

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  2. D. Zimmerman? The post you read was from a British Catholic missionary (independent street evangelist) in Germany. But, I have seen similar things in my 12 years as a Catholic here around Detroit. There are pockets of goodness and badness. To many of my readers on Catholic Exchange who would marginalize my observations and claim that THEIR parish is not like THAT, I would rejoice. But, Fr. John Hardon (so he claimed) was sent to Detroit by John Paul II because the pope thought that in America there were two particularly dioceses that needed serious renewal. One was Detroit. I don't know that is true, but there is evidence. Otherwise good observations and comments.

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