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“Teach your children that it is not possible to be Christian outside the Church, and it is not possible to follow Christ outside the Church, as the Church is our mother, and lets us grow in the love of Jesus Christ” (Pope Francis, 11 January 2015).
It must then follow that the Catholic Church is the true religion.
All others are false, no matter how sincerely they are held – they are held sincerely but mistakenly.
The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice. (Pope Benedict, 11 May 2010).
We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist.
This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence.
“We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it” (Pope Saint John Paul II).
Bishops refuse to talk about mortal sin.
But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshippers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulphur, which is the second death (Revelation).
“The normal Catholic in the parish might hear a sermon on abortion once a year.
“They’ll never hear a sermon on homosexuality or gay marriage.
“They’ll never hear a sermon about contraception” (Cardinal O’Malley).
Why are we never told about our spiritual responsibility towards our brothers and sisters, but only to be caring about the physical and material well-being of others?
“Admonishing sinners” is one of the spiritual works of mercy.
This is Christian charity; we must not remain silent before evil.
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums (Catholic Catechism 2116).
“We see spread abroad ideas contrary to the truth which God has revealed and which the Church has always taught. Real heresies have appeared in dogma and moral theology, stirring doubt, confusion, and rebellion. Even the liturgy has been harmed. Christians have been plunged into an intellectual and moral illuminism, a sociological Christianity, without clear dogma or objective morality” (Pope Saint John Paul II).
Catholics should preach the faith “by open and constant profession of the obligations it imposes”.
One of their main duties is “professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine”; a second is “propagating it to the utmost of their power”. The only ones who win when Christians stay quiet are the enemies of truth (Pope Leo XIII).
The truth is, God loves us unconditionally, but God does not save us unconditionally.
Love without truth is a fiction.
Joe Hannah
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