Letters
Church will endure
Attacks or criticisms of faith-based moral principles and beliefs have come from both outside and within the Catholic Church.
The Sun Journal recently had a prominent article about an atheist who spoke to all of 25 students at Bates College about the value of sacrilegious acts and boasted of his desecration of the consecrated host.
It has been the church's fate to suffer abuse by nonbelievers who consider it valuable to society to mock and discredit religious belief. It's not enough to have their own beliefs; they must also mock and even desecrate the church. This reveals not only disagreement, but also antipathy and insecurity.
Others, who are practicing Catholics, oppose and criticize Bishop Malone's forceful defense of marriage as between one man and one woman. Either not being fully informed about this church teaching or being unable to accept it in faith can be causes of such dissent. Such opposition is dispiriting.
The church has endured and withstood attacks or opposition throughout its history because it has been entrusted with proclaiming the truth. As Pope Benedict XVI recently wrote in his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," there is no real love without the truth. It is in the full understanding and belief of the church's teaching that is found the true compassion of Christ. The church was founded by Christ to speak for him and to lead followers to salvation, but it takes faith to accept that, and determination and grace to follow through in practice.
Maurice Theriault, Lewiston
Advertisement
Displaying comments, from newest to oldest
Good for you Mr. Theriault.
Good for you Mr. Theriault. More Catholics need to stop apologizing for their faith.
The unbelievable amount of lies and distortions about the Catholic Church that have been espressed during this campaign, and can be found all over this site, are the kind of thing we can expect from "tolerant" people like the gay activists.
But who can blame them? They don't have faith, and so they need to find whatever they can to justify their opposition to basic morality - it is always easy to believe evil of the Church because they regard it to be a human institution. That is why they accuse us of hate when we are acting in true Christian Charity. Why they accuse us of bigotry when we are not bigots.
History is full of Church haters, and they will always be around.
The Catholic Church isn't going anywhere, even if they try and feed us to the lions for refusing to pay homage at the altar of sexual perversion.
As true Catholics, we will always pray for those who hate us.
Mrs. McG, As another poster
Mrs. McG,
As another poster here has already stated, the Church murdered Joan of Arc as a heretic in one century then turned around and canonized her in another. You and I happen to live in a time when the Pharisees have taken over the Church, a church with a self-serving, political agenda. A church that views women as second-class citizens, much like the church that murdered Saint Joan.
The difference between you and I isn't one of liberal or conservative politics or even one of morals. Our difference is rooted in the Church's ability to exploit your ignorance to further their Pharisaical agenda, even after the atrocities committed by their priests and covered up by the institution. I am appalled that anyone could defend this soiled institution and then self righteously judge others to be unfit for equal rights.
The Catholic church is the
The Catholic church is the beacon of salvation?
Let's ask the thousands and thousands of children abused by priests and consider the $4.5 billion (and growing) price tag the church has paid for the sexual appetites of its "celibate" priests. Let's consider the official church cover ups of child abuse over the last century. Don't ask, don't tell? That's the philosophy of the Catholic tradition of child abuse.
How anyone can fail to see this church as a shabby facade hiding a core rotting with hypocrisy is beyond me.
verified Yes, the catholic church
Yes, the catholic church will endure because ignorance and superstitution are in charge. Remember these are the folks that burned witches for the better part of 2000 years, opposed the freedom to think, and helped Hilter murder tens of millions of people. If thsat weren't enough they have organized the brutalization of millions of children all over the world. Yep, the church will endure.
Jon Albrecht Dixfield
verified The Church will endure no
The Church will endure no matter what the outcome of the vote is on Tuesday. God is still in control. His plans will not be thwarted by anything society does. His Word will still be true regardless of what people think. And there will come a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
John A. Chick
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)
Excellent letter, Mr.
Excellent letter, Mr. Theriault!
You are so right, Mr.
You are so right, Mr. Theriault. It's a crying shame that others, including a large number of Catholics, can't see the Catholic Church as the true beacon for salvation that it really is.
If any of what you said was
If any of what you said was true, then the Church would not be losing followers in droves and having to close churches as a result. PZ Meyers, the atheist, who spoke at Bates made great arguments as to why the Church is irrelevant, and if you, or any other religious person, felt so strongly you should have shown up to debate him, though it would not have been much of debate.
Religion is a long running joke meant to assuage the fears of the simple minded who cannot explain or understand their reality. As a result they have to make up some fairy tale deity to explain all that they cannot explain. Sad...
Any problem that can't be solved with taxcuts, republicans pretend doesn't exist.
Fact check: As of April 26,
Fact check:
As of April 26, 2007 - Source Catholic Online
"The Catholic Church remained the largest Christian church in the U.S. in 2005 with a reported membership of 69,135,254, or nearly 42 percent of all Christian church membership.
With an increase of 1.94 percent over its previous year's total, the Catholic Church was also among the fastest-growing of the nation's 25 largest churches..."
Not that it matters - since truth isn't determined by popularity - but people keep propagating the error that the Catholic Church is in some sort of demographic decline. That may be true locally - in the state of Maine - but universally, and even nationally, that notion is patently false. And guess what, for years the Diocese of Portland subdued the teachings of the universal Church for a happy-clappy gospel more appealing to liberals and dissenters.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Most Popular Today
verified on "P. Nachman: Confidence probably misplaced"
Ronald, If you have not
Ronald,
If you have not noticed, everything I’ve listed is a growth in the size of government, a growth in government spending or a program in crisis.
A tax cut does not belong in that list. While a tax cut may grow the size of the national debt, a tax cut does not necessarily grow the size of government nor does it increase spending.
Moreover, you selectively forgot to add your favorites, Bill Clinton and Obama, to your list of tax cutting presidents. Any reason why? Maybe your Cuban pharmacist is giving you placeboes!
verified on "G. Decoteau: They deserve each other"
I second
I second the motion!!!!
- Agree Agree (1)
verified on "P. Nachman: Confidence probably misplaced"
Not surprising
It is not surprising that the Czarist and racist factions of the old "Conservatively" Russian front are continually becoming seen all over again. The entire facets of hatred and fear seem to be predated in concepts from Stalin and Hitler himself. Using the vileness of the "outsider" as the most dangerous among us. Mr. Nachman you remind me of a classmate of mine who had felt that as she was of Czech descent that my mothers lineage of Irish-Jewry made it so that I would have to kneel before here.
As a Baptist this is rather disappointing to see that for all of the physics based knowledge one can posses creating an air of fear is the only true self-gratification one can get. In fact this is a bondage between those in the systems of your own family as well. The racism and the scaffolded humanist rejections with an air of continual fear is little more then self-centered egotistical facets. It seems to thrive on fear and donations to establish a "cult" mandated sense of the opine in writing and creates a narrow minded view of those who think differently.
Mr. Nachman while you enjoy the daily purges of illegal "aliens" does any of this truthfully set you so far apart from Stalin or Hitler? The very nature of the article which you write is more of instilling fear toward others; then little more then that? Is this a case where in reverse desperation anyone not deemed American would have to kneel down before you? The questions becomes of the VDare project just how much of a diaspora it would create and exiles as well if they had ever been given enough control to expel other Americans.
In order to make comments, you must verify your account.
In order to comment on SunJournal.com, you must use your real name and include the town in which you live in your profile. A member of our staff will call you to verify this information. To join in, fill out your user profile completely and check the box "please verify my status." We'll get back to you within one business day to verify your account.
Login or create an account here.
Our policy prohibits comments that are:
- Defamatory, abusive, obscene, racist, or otherwise hateful
- Excessively foul and/or vulgar
- Inappropriately sexual
- Baseless personal attacks or otherwise threatening
- Contain illegal material, or material that infringes on the rights of others
- Commercial postings attempting to sell a product/item
If you violate this policy, your comment will be removed and your account may be banned.