Establishing A Catholic State

[mortify]

[quote name='ThePenciledOne' timestamp='1309906096' post='2263369']
What did Christ tell us? He told us to Love, truly Love. You hinted at making Love being an emotion, which is partly true since it affects our affectivity.[/quote]

Love is a very misused term. I constantly hear about it in certain parishes by certain priests, yet the "love" they preach is not the love of our Lord. True love is sacrificial, selfless, and zealous for the will of God. It is not this petty, superficial, emotionalism that is often used to tolerate all sorts of evils. And so if we truly loved God, truly loved Christ, and truly believed in His Church, we would do what we can that the rights of God and Church be upheld in society. That the natural reverence due to God be observed in even the public sphere. But as the Holy Father Pope Pius mentioned, we are weak and afraid of confrontation. Let us pray that we develop an Apostolic zeal that is fearless! And I ask this especially for myself, a very weak Catholic!

[quote]But our true enemy isn't of this world, for our battle is not of the flesh but against the dark principalities of the Prince below. That is who we fight.[/quote]

Friend, when our Lord and the Apostles speak against the WORLD, what are they referring to? They are certainly not speaking of nature. What they are referring to, is what we moderns call "the system." That network of moral free agents known as men that is corrupted by sin. This system is very much an enemy, and if you feel it is not worth fighting, then you have already succumb to it. You need to realize that there are very powerful forces in our society that are actively seeking to undermine faith, and in particular, faith in Christ. I don't mean to sound conspiratorial, a lot of that stuff is nonsense, but at the same time, it is no coincidence that media, public education, and popular culture are united in portraying the Church in negative way.

[quote]Our problem is that we keep making our fellow man the enemy instead of the influences/ideas/and demonic activity that are present in the forces arrayed against the Catholic Church.[/quote]

Our problem is we have become worldly. We enjoy the comforts of our society, and it has made us weak and lazy. We think little of death, and even positively speak of the World. How far we have fallen! How in need we are of prayers!

[infinitelord1]

I have to bite my tongue.

Edited July 6, 2011 by infinitelord1

[Chrysophylax]

[quote name='ThePenciledOne' timestamp='1309910848' post='2263400']
Called heaven bro.
[/quote]

yup

[Totus Tuus]

I think aspirations towards utopia have been disappointing in the past, so my goal in life is just to do as much as I can as a Catholic individual to bring the Lord to the world around me. I think fantasizing (maybe not the right word?) about a Catholic society is fine, but practically speaking it's not going to happen, and may be less productive (not to sound utilitarian) than just going out and doing what we can as individual people.

[Totus Tuus]

[quote name='mortify' timestamp='1309912380' post='2263411']

Our problem is we have become worldly. We enjoy the comforts of our society, and it has made us weak and lazy. We think little of death, and even positively speak of the World. How far we have fallen! How in need we are of prayers!
[/quote]

We do need prayers, but careful, 'cause this just might be borderline Jansenist/Puritan talk.

[Era Might]

[quote name='Chrysophylax' timestamp='1309910630' post='2263397']
Have you ever daydreamed about what it would be like to live in a country where everyone was Catholic?
[/quote]
We had that in the middle ages. Surprisingly, despots, prostitutes, warmongers, and oppressors of the poor did not disappear from the face of the earth.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Era Might

[mortify]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' timestamp='1309955674' post='2263571']
I think aspirations towards utopia have been disappointing in the past, so my goal in life is just to do as much as I can as a Catholic individual to bring the Lord to the world around me. I think fantasizing (maybe not the right word?) about a Catholic society is fine, but practically speaking it's not going to happen, and may be less productive (not to sound utilitarian) than just going out and doing what we can as individual people.
[/quote]

I agree that we have to begin with our own personal transformation first, and then convert our family, and then our friends, then our communities, and so on. But I don't think what the Pope was calling us to was anything impractical. The enemies of the Church fought for centuries to have her authority reduced to virtually nothing. Restoring Christ's Church to her rightful place may take centuries, but that doesn't make it impractical. As for utopia, that's not what I, and certainly not what the Pope was calling to. There is no perfect society or government in the sense that nothing goes wrong, and there is no corruption. What we are called to fight for is not a particular government, but for the rights of God and His Church. The Catholic Faith is not a faith that is to be treated like other religions. It is the true religion, the one destined for all men and women, and any State must show deference to it out of justice.

As for how many Catholics actually believe Catholicism is the truth, probably very few. Most likely hold the idea that we're just another denomination that got more things right than others, but those with less truth are just as good. Pheh... maybe we should focus on converting Muslims, bringing them into the Church would add some much needed zeal!

[mortify]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' timestamp='1309955778' post='2263572']
We do need prayers, but careful, 'cause this just might be borderline Jansenist/Puritan talk.
[/quote]

Recognizing that we are worldly and that this is bad, is not jansenist talk. Let us first consider the gravity of worldliness by taking into account what the Bible says about it. If we look into St James' Epistle, he says something starteling: the friendship of the World is the ENMITY of God. He says this twice. When I read that it sent shivers down my spine because I am a wordly person. I like dressing up GQ, buying things I don't need, and flashing bling for others to see. This behavior is the product of a consumer society and a celebrity culture, though fortunately, I'm recognizing it for what it is. The hard part, is going against the mass of societal pressure that makes us conform to this nonsense. So I no way exclude myself from my own statement. What I suggest you do is pick up some Catholic books written before our society was a consumer culture, back when people bought things out of need and not want. Read through the Catechism Explained, get a sense for what the learned Fathers Spirago and Clark recognized as worldiness, and you will be shocked.