I wouldn't blame anyone one bit if they have begun to despair after all these years seeing and hearing of all the apostasies, heresies, scandals and the like, emanating from the Catholic Church -- the human element, that is. And that distinction is absolutely necessary if one is to avoid the spiritual trap of thinking that the Church -- founded by Christ Himself, has become corrupt.
This can never happen, as the perfect Head, cannot have a gangrenous, dying, and corrupt Body.
But after years of revelations of sexual abuse, and now with pope Francis holding the reigns of power over the last six or seven years, those scandals have almost become eclipsed by his apostasy and heresies deviating from the Deposit of Faith, causing even more confusion and scandals.
And two of those heresies have been revealed by Francis: that he does not believe that Our Lord was Divine, or that He rose from the dead, and conquered death itself! These statements, if true, places Francis outside the Church and a formal heretic to boot... So far, there has been no denial of these reports.
If that does not cause one to despair, I don't know what would.
In fact, a well-known and very influential "conservative" talk-show host -- Sean Hannity -- has recently announced that he is leaving the Church. I'm really not surprised by his move, as he professed to be a Catholic, but was always in favor of contraception. Of course we know that error is in direct contradiction of Church teaching, and places oneself in a state of mortal sin -- objectively speaking, of course.
(Mortal sin? When was the last time that was preached from the pulpit in any new-order parish?)
But this gent is not alone... Over the past several decades, especially since about 1965 or so, millions -- that's MILLIONS -- of Catholics have left the Church. This has happened for more than just a few reasons, chief among them, is the poor catechesis since the end of Vatican II. The children of Vat. II have now become the parents of another generation very poorly educated in their precious Faith. If you don't know or "use" the faith, it will surely atrophy, weaken, and eventually die...
That "breath of fresh air" has turned into the smoke of Satan (Pope Paul VI)...
In effect, these folks have despaired.
And, as we know, despair is one of the major sins against the virtue of Hope; the other being presumption...
If we go in the opposite direction of despair, one can easily slip into that other sin against hope, presumption. This can absolutely be as deadly as despair, because it presumes on God's mercy, instead of looking at that mercy in light of His justice. The two go hand-in-hand and cannot be separated. Unfortunately, far too many of my Protestant brethren have fallen into the trap of presumption, mainly by claiming that they are "saved" because they have "accepted Christ" as their Savior, or that they have a "personal relationship" with Christ. Pardon me for my ignorance, but I'm not quite sure how that works...
Let's see if I get this right: if I claim that I have accepted Christ, and/or have a personal relationship with Him, then I'm saved? Wow! That was easy! I guess that also means that my faith in Christ saves me too, so I don't have to do anything else. Forget about works! I've got it made!
Without writing a book here, I'll simply show my Protestant friends that it is we Catholics that have the most intimate and personal relationship with Christ, and we do because we have the Holy Eucharist. You don't. And, as St. John reports in Chapter Six, without the Eucharist, you have no life in you.
I don't know about you, but that prospect is pretty scary... Our Lord is telling us that if we don't eat His flesh and drink His blood, we will not have any (eternal) life in us. Crackers and grape juice isn't going to do it...
In conclusion, we must not despair over what is going on in the Church these days, because if we do, and leave Her, Satan wins. We all have to fight within the Church and stand up to the apostates and heretics, and let them know that we will not abandon our Church; we will not abandon Christ.
Pray for our Church and pray for our country...
Viva Cristo Rey! Fr. Miguel Pro, pray for us!
Gene DeLalla
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