The Church is in Crisis for the last year of 2018, but it has been taking place for the last 5, 10, 30, 70 years, but we are experiencing it in a pronounced way now. Who will still be in our churches in 20 years, not just a priest problem, but a whole problem.
Fr. Fish from Washington DC says, "Said it before, and I’ll say it again: working for the Catholic Church in America in 2019 feels something like working for Blockbuster Movies in 2005. We’re still arguing about how we should display the DVD...
The Church is in Crisis for the last year of 2018, but it has been taking place for the last 5, 10, 30, 70 years, but we are experiencing it in a pronounced way now. Who will still be in our churches in 20 years, not just a priest problem, but a whole problem.
Fr. Fish from Washington DC says, "Said it before, and I’ll say it again: working for the Catholic Church in America in 2019 feels something like working for Blockbuster Movies in 2005. We’re still arguing about how we should display the DVDs, and meanwhile our current model and customer base is about to collapse." Here is a link to more of his comments.
Strangers in a Strange Land by Archbishop Chaput, “The real problem […] much more stubborn. The real problem with the world is us” (17) “The reason the Christian faith doesn’t matter to so many of our young people is that—too often—it didn’t really matter to us. Not enough to shape our lives. Not enough for us to suffer for it.” (7). “the appetite for comfort and security has replaced conviction” (12).
There is not a problem with the teachings of the Church. The Gospel remains the Gospel. What we have went wrong is that we have often not lived out the teachings of the Church. Priestly celibacy is not the problem for the clerical sex abuse scandal it is because priests did not live out their priestly celibacy.
God or Nothing by Cardinal Sarah, “While Christians are dying for their faith and their fidelity to Jesus, in the West, me of the Church are trying to reduce the requirements of the Gospel to a minimum” (280)
Clement Shahbaz Bhatti a Pakistani Catholic politician who was murdered for the faith on March 2, 2011 had written earlier, “High-ranking positions in government have been offered to me, and I have been asked to put an end to my battle, but I have always refused, even at the risk of my own life. My response has always been the same. I do not want popularity, I do not want positions of power. I only want a place at he feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak of me and say that I am following Jesus Christ. This desire is so strong in me that I consider myself privileged whenever—in my combative effort to help the needy, the poor, the persecuted Christians of Pakistan—Jesus should wish to accept the sacrifice of my life. I want to live for Christ, and it is for Him that I want to die” (God or Nothing, 279-280)
Archbishop Chaput talking about the 21 Coptic Christians that were killed on Feb. 15, 2015 “What happened next did not make headlines. On the Christian television, Beshir Kamel, the brother of two of the murdered men, thanked ISIS for not editing out the men’s last declaration of faith in Christ because it had strengthened his own faith. He then added that the families of those who were killed were ‘congratulating one another.’ He said: ‘We are proud to have this number of people from our village who have become martyrs… Since the Roman era, Christians have been martyred and have learned to handle everything that comes our way. This only makes us stronger in our faith because the Bible told us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us.’ When the host asked whether he could forgive ISIS, Kamel relayed what his mother had said she would do if she saw one of the men who killed her son: ‘My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven.’ When the host invited him to pray for his brothers’ killers, Kamel prayed, ‘Dear Dog, please open their eyes to be saved and to quit their ignorance and the wrong teachings they were taught’” (Strangers in a Strange Land, 215)
“The West urgently needs to set its sights on God and. The crucified Lord, to look ‘on Him whom they have pierced’ to rediscover their trust in and fidelity to the Gospel, to overcome its weariness” (God or Nothing 282).
May we not purse the woes of riches and having All speaking well of us, but instead the blessings of God in our poverty, hunger, and persecution so we may leap with Joy with Jesus. “As Christ’s disciples, we are constantly on an exodus. Christians always remain nomads, in search of God, on a difficult but rewarding pilgrimage” (God or Nothing 282). 2/17/19
