Written by BT Walters
The most important institution on earth is the Catholic Church.
Given the current state of the Catholic Church, there would be people who might disagree with that assertion.
Opinions would vary as to what is the most important institution depending on one’s point of view and circumstances. Some would argue for the Financial systems or the Political systems around the world or the world’s Judicial systems or the Military of the various nations. Others might say the most important institution in the world is the Education systems of the multitude of nations or the various Economic systems or the systems of Religious Worship and Culture. The Food distribution systems and even the United Nations would get a look in.
However, the most important institution on earth is the Catholic Church.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth says something about the peace, order and good government… I presume the same idea applies to the states. These days Governments can make laws for the killing of unborn children. They can close down the state, destroying businesses and the jobs of countless numbers of people and justify it by a virus from which virtually no one dies. They can redefine a two-thousand-year-old tradition of marriage. They can criminalize free speech and censure ideologically threatening parts of the bible.
But let us not be too quick to blame the Legislature. They don’t purport to be the custodians of the moral or spiritual order. The buck doesn’t stop with them. It stops with the Catholic Church. Just because the law permits abortion or gay marriage or divorce, or whatever else that may offend God, that doesn’t mean that we have to engage in it. But we know that many Catholics do. We don’t clap and cheer. We don’t give each other presents. We don’t judge. We know that we are all in need of Redemption and we put our faith and our lives firmly into the hands of the only true God – the God Jesus came to tell us about.
The Financial system of Banks and the like are important institutions in the world. But even during the Global Financial Collapse, Catholics were still feeding the hungry in far off dangerous places. Nuns were still being raped and murdered as were countless other faithful followers of Christ. But they continued to hand out food parcels for people who couldn’t feed themselves because their poor country was crippled by debt and by the gross mismanagement of those who think there is a better way.
What did He say? “I am the Way.”
It’s a pity we don’t wake up to that.
Education is another institution that is very important. A good education teaches the ability to think which makes one less vulnerable to the lies of others.
Didn’t the Catholic Church begin higher education with the establishment of Universities in Europe? The initial purpose of Catholic education was the desire to preach the gospel. With the advent of massive Government funding, that ideal has been largely lost and there is sometimes little difference between Catholic education and that provided by the State. How many billions of Catholic dollars have gone into education? He who pays the piper calls the tune.
But all is not lost. Many Catholic parents keep a close eye on the faith and moral formation of their children; the age of blind acceptance of what the teacher says is gone. That’s a good thing and has the blessing of many teachers. So, is the truth of the Catholic faith being taught? In many cases yes, it is, through good Catholic schools, conscientious parents, good preaching, faithful witness, prayer, and true devotion.
It is evident that a significant number of bishops and priests have given up on preaching biblical/church morality for whatever reason. Some would not preach against homosexuality because of the internal conflict it raises. Others fear the discrimination legislation. Whatever the reason, young people of today often have to learn the hard way the dangers of illicit sex and the tragedy of abortion and the forbidden lifestyle. But our God is a God who saves and the prayers of a parent for his/her child never go unanswered – never. No sin is unforgivable.
Why is it that so many bishops and priests no longer preach the gospel? Why do they turn to preaching climate change or global warming or the plight of refugees and continue to chant the Marxist mantra?
They don’t preach the gospel because they can’t preach the gospel.
The Holy Spirit has withdrawn His mandate. Now, they couldn’t preach the gospel, even if they wanted to.
We know from Scripture that God can remove a sinner from his office. Take the example of Shebna, the eighth century BC official of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. In his excessive pride he built himself an ostentatious tomb and the prophet Isaiah denounced him. Those bishops who have built themselves ostentatious lifestyles need to take note. The Prophet Ezekiel has a bit to say about this at Ch 34.
So many of our bishops and priests have been neutered. Our situation is something like the Psalmist described: “Priests and prophets ply their trade throughout the land and have no knowledge.”
Spirits of the Antichrist are amassing their forces against the bible, and the heresy of Modernism is polluting traditional Catholic teaching. But that’s no reason to lose heart. Gideon, a Judge of ancient Israel in the seventh century, started out on his military campaign with 32,000 soldiers. God whittled that down to 300. Our victory is not in numbers, it is in God.
A little over two-thousand years ago God sent His Son into a world that was hell-bent on self-destruction. It was governed by the law of fear and power and hopelessness. Greed and domination ruled supreme. The world was turned in on itself. Does that sound familiar? Into that world came Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who brought a message of love based on truth and gave effect to that message by the Divine Power of the Holy Spirit of God. A fraternity of Nations is impossible, given the fallen nature of man, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, Fratelli Tutti notwithstanding.
The Catholic Church has been plagued by clerical sexual abuse of minors, by the deviant sexual behavior of clergy, by infidelity on a massive scale, by financial scandal, and by various other things. And then there is the alcohol/gambling/sex addicted priest or bishop which reflects the wider community. But all this isn’t turned into law and made mandatory. We None of us traditional Catholics do not deny crimes like this nor give them our blessing.
We need to be very clear on one point: we are a Church of sinners in dire need of salvation through Christ. As St Paul said: thank God for Jesus Christ.
Thus the Catholic Church is the most important institution on earth because it is about God and the things of God – the true God. It is about God sending his Son into the world to save the world from annihilation. What could be more important than that?
Banks are about money, parliaments are about laws, schools are about education, and courts are about judging. But the Catholic Church is about God.
Even though the Catholic Church has lost its credibility in many areas, it is still a sign to the world of God and the things of God.
There is evil in the Church and there is good. But Jesus himself instructed us to let the darnel and the wheat grow together lest, in pulling out the darnel, we damage the wheat.
The world cannot survive without the Redemption which came with Jesus Christ. We traditional Catholics know that the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth. It provides our pathway to Paradise. The Catholic Church is the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the world. When you come to the Catholic Church, you come to the city of the living God.
This being the case, consider the magnitude of a call from God to work in this institution as a priest or bishop or in any other capacity. How important a privilege that is. The importance of this calling justifies the vow of clerical celibacy. Anyone called to this life is called to work at the heart of God’s plan. He/she is called to work at the nerve centre of the living-out of the mystery of God’s Divine love for humanity. Knowing this, what bishop or priest or anyone else would not willingly put his/her life on the line for the Creator God.
To those priests and bishops and others who desert the cause, Jesus would say: ‘Father forgive them, they didn’t know what they were doing.’ Indeed they didn’t. I can vouch for that. The worry is that many of those still inside the cause don’t know what they are doing either.
Let me treat you to some Latin:
Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratiae et veritatis. Deo gratias.
And that, dear friends, is why the Catholic Church is the most important institution on earth.
