- Feb 5, 2002
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The Catholic Church means everything to us. She’s our home, our resting place and our safe harbor in a world where morals and values come and go with the tide. She’s a sure tie that binds us to our parents, grandparents and ancestors who prayed their Rosaries in Old World languages we no longer know, and she’s the best hope we have to keep our children close and on track. She strengthens us, guides us and keeps us rooted in Truth. Most of all, though, she nourishes us with the grace that brings us into friendship and union with God in this life and can yield perfect joy forever in the next. She truly is our Mother on Earth, entrusted with the mission of guiding us all to Heaven.
But the airwaves shriek crisis and scandal, chaos and disunity, even from the Vatican itself, and we, the laity, are largely confused and disoriented by the whole thing. It’s a shock to have this kind of attack hit the Church, which we usually consider a beacon nestled safely on the shore in any storm, not a ship being battered at sea. As mediators between God and man, priests must “stand in the gap” for all of us, but scandals have shadowed some. Virtue itself is being disparaged, as well, often painted as something bad, while railing against the clear boundaries God has set for humanity is spun as something to aspire to. The four marks of the One True Church — One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic — have all become prime targets for a culture that wants to drag our Holy Mother down into the quicksand it’s been hanging out in.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
But the airwaves shriek crisis and scandal, chaos and disunity, even from the Vatican itself, and we, the laity, are largely confused and disoriented by the whole thing. It’s a shock to have this kind of attack hit the Church, which we usually consider a beacon nestled safely on the shore in any storm, not a ship being battered at sea. As mediators between God and man, priests must “stand in the gap” for all of us, but scandals have shadowed some. Virtue itself is being disparaged, as well, often painted as something bad, while railing against the clear boundaries God has set for humanity is spun as something to aspire to. The four marks of the One True Church — One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic — have all become prime targets for a culture that wants to drag our Holy Mother down into the quicksand it’s been hanging out in.
Continued below.
3 Tasks of the Laity: Grow Holy, Build Up the Church, Sanctify the World
‘The Lord wishes to spread His kingdom also by means of the laity, namely, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.’ (Lumen Gentium, 36)
