Chesterton on why he is Catholic

Whilst not speaking about women's "ordination" I think this Chesterton quote on the Catholic Church is indeed applicable:

"It is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age"

This should also be a reminder to the "churchmen" coming out in favour of sodomy, assisted suicide, abortion, false equality, inclusiveness of those wishing to "forget doctrine let us simply join together" etc.

None of the above are wonderful new revelations from God that are just being discovered, they are simply the twisted things held as good by our decadent society which has long since turned it's back on Christ.

Female Priests? The CofE's decision to "ordain" women as "bishops"

Well the Church of England has (once again) distanced itself even more from the One True Faith by allowing women "Bishops". The result was greeted by some in a rather undignified manner with cheering, champagne drinking and even dramatic tears by several female members of the church.

I must say that most of the arguments, at least those that I heard, on the radio and TV by those in favour of the idea weren't based on the Bible, tradition or theology. Perhaps that's too much of an orthodox way of decisions being made? Instead appeals were made to vague terms which modern society loves such as "inclusivity", "equality" etc. all of which are also being used many of the same people to justify sodomy with the usual "Jesus was bound by his times, society has moved on" nonsense added on for effect.

All of this really begs the question as to why a church should be so obsessed with such nonsence as "inclusivity" and "being relevant to today's society"? Well the simple answer is that their quest to be inclusive, to fit in with what modern society calls "good", they've forgotten the Jesus of the Gospels and Tradition and prefer their own watered down, soft, inclusive, non-judging Jesus which conforms to the tastes of our neo-pagan society, which in turn doesn't care about Jesus either. To any Orthodox minded Christian it's clear that the CofE as an institution by wishing more and more to "appeal to the modern world" it is in fact making itself an even more irrelevant form of Christianity and rather than seeking to bring modern society to Christ it is instead subjective to it's wims.

So, what does the Catholic Church say about the possibility of female priests? Gladly, the matter has already been decided authoritatively by John Paul II who stated: "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful".

If you'd like to read the full declaration the text can be found here:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis_en.html

So could there be any positives to be taken from this?

Well, of course. The state of the CofE should really be cause for Catholics to thank God for the objective authority that He gave His One True Church to decide such matters and this whole debacle has certainly re-affirmed my faith in the True Church.

It could also be a great opportunity (and we should pray for this) for many people to take advantage of the Ordinariate and come home to the Catholic Church. The following links may be useful for anyone reading reading this who is considering the Catholic Church:

http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/
http://chnetwork.org/media/journeyhome/

On a slightly different note, but still a positive one, this decision has surely hammered another nail the ecumenical movement's coffin and should highlight even more that the only way to true unity comes from conversion to the Catholic Faith; there simply is no other way. There is already unity within the Body of Christ and we need to bring people in to that and not water down the truth until it includes everyone already. As one Bishop said, "it's all fine saying we're all together, that we are one, but you'll only really know it when you start walking" [paraphrased]. For all the friendliness that comes through eccumenical relations it's clear that the CofE and the Catholic Church are not only miles apart but also walking in two different direction. Baring a miracle there is no hope of unity now as the CofE as an organisation chooses modern society over Truth, and in doing so drifts further and further from Christ.

Cardinal Arinze on Visions and Private Revelation

With so many alleged visions and apparitions taking place, often false, the following words of Cardinal Arinze should give us some perspective on how the Church (the rightful authority on such matters) goes about discerning whether an apparition is true or not:

"We should test reported appartions with such questions as the following: does it agree entirely with the revealed Catholic faith? Does it lead us to the centre of our faith where Holy Scripture is, where Tradition is, where the Pope and the Bishops are? Does it lead us to obey the Pope and the Bishops? If you say, "the private revelation told us not to mind the Pope and the Bishops..." that would tell you it is NOT from heaven. Therefore it is a mistake if a Christian makes a reported apparition the centre of their Christian life or a test of whether someone is a true Christian.

It is a negative sign when reported Christians follow alleged visionaries and seers, they feed daily on their writings and utterances but they won't read the Gospel, they won't read the Catechism,, they won't read the documents of the Pope but will read the documents of the visionaries. It is a very negative sign when somone ignores the Pope and the Bishops in union with the Pope all in the name of the vision or apparition. Christ told the Apostles, “anyone who hears you hears me, and anyone who rejects you rejects me and those who reject me reject the One who sent me”.

One person said to me, there is a reported apparition are you going on pilgrimage there? I said, “oh yeah, I go on pilgrimage. But you know where? To the chapel where we have the Blessed Sacrament. Where we are not guessing, where we are sure. That's my pilgrimage! I do not say don't go to Lourdes, Fatima or Jerusalem. But there are some other places where we don't know whether Our Lady was there or not. I do not go to these places."

Wise words.

The Gospel of Elton John - Jesus - Gay Marriage

So Elton John (a man very much in need of our prayers) has once again spoken about Jesus and "gay marriage" and once again shown his total ignorance of Scripture.

Let's analyse his comments:

"The new Pope has excited me so much by his humanity," John said. "He's stripped it down to the bare bones and said it's all basically about love and taking everybody in, inclusiveness."

Well, I won't get in to whether this Pope has preached the true Gospel to it's fullness with regards to sodomy - whilst I don't think he has Elton has clearly twisted the Pope to seem like a modern liberal, something he is certainly not.

Let's look at the second part. Was Jesus about taking everybody in? Well, yes and no. He certainly calls everyone to His Kingdom but the way Elton John speaks is as if he simply accepted all with no conditions and this is false. Remember John chapter 8, the woman who was "caught in the act of adultery?" Yes, he condemned those who wished to condem her but then told her "Go away, and from this moment sin no more". This is not the inclusiveness that Elton believes in where all are simply accepted for who they are and no matter what they do. The love that Christ shows us is not an inclusive love but a call to repentence (Mark 1:15) and to follow God's commandments: with the adulterous woman see the sixth commandment.

"He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together, and that is what the church should be about"

Matthew 10:34 would suggest otherwise: 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword".

Again as stated before. Christ is NOT about simply bringing people together - this is a principle of humanism which is condemned - but about calling people to holiness, calling them to turn from the flesh to a life guided by the Holy Spiriy and to take up their cross and follow Him. Elton John has no concern for any of these but simply wishes to promote his own sodomite agenda by cherry picking phrases he thinks fit his ideas.

Now for the most ridiculous comments:

"We live in a different time. If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen"

"He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together, and that is what the church should be about."

Wow. Now alarm bells should be ringing for any right minded Christian after reading this. He is using a very subtle but dangerous ploy which can be found all over the modern neo-pagan media. He took a true statement "He [Jesus] was all about love and compassion and forgiveness" and then twists it to mean what he wants.

So let's analyse his comments. "We live in a different time". This seems to suggest that Christ's teaching are mutable and changing. Hebrews 13:8 should be enough to refute this: "Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever". It should also be noted that Christ is GOD MADE MAN. He was not bound by the times, and all of his actions were chosen not accidental so to suggest that Christ would conform to our modern society is simply false.

"If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen" [speaking about allowing gay clergy to marry]

Well, luckily for us Christians the faith is not a personal one in the sense of interpretation and whatever Elton thinks is really irrelevant as we have Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium to guide us and not the personal views of this man.

As I've already shown Christ's teaching according to Scripture are not bound by time and circumstances. However, the big problem is that Elton seems to have fallen in to the modern fallacy that Christ never spoke about gay marriage. Well, actually he did and did so very clearly. Christians should memorise this verse to fight the perversion of the "inclusive gay Christ" that we hear of so often. The following verses completely refute the idea that Christ "would have supported gay marriage":

Matthew 19.
3 Some Pharisees approached him, and to put him to the test they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?'
4 He answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female
5 and that he said: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh?
6 They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.'

Mark 10:6 "But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female".

So you see, Christ did speak specifically about marriage (and divorce incidently) and defined it precisely as being between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27) as "from the beginning" they were made "male and female". How much more clear could he possibly be?!

Interestingly, Christ goes back and teaches us to follow how it was from the beginning also showing us that we shouldn't bow to what society believes is right at any given time - especially a godless one such as ours.

For you see, Elton John's kind of "love" is one where everything is tolerated. One where sins of the flesh are fine as long as everyone is "nice" and "tolerating", where sin doesn't really exist and the only sin is "intolerance". You see, Elton does not really care about Christ, he doesn't care about finding the true Gospel, about seeking out the truth but only about his own self interest and looking to justify his own sodomite behaviour - or to put it another way: making god in his own image.

The problem is that Elton's doctrines are all based around the word "love". Love, without a true Catholic definition, is simply a word that can be twisted to justify all kinds of evils; Abortion (the killing of a child) is a "loving" act; Euthanasia is the "loving" thing to do; Divorce and remarriage is the "loving" thing to do. To truly love is to follow God's commandments and we must cling fast to them with a spirit of prayer if we aren't to be corrupted by this evil society where views like Elton's are praised and accepted.

I will leave you with two further quotes, both which I'm sure Elton would rather taken out of the Bible altogether:

1 Corinthians 6
9 Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitute, nor sodomites 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God

Romans 1
26 That is why God abandoned them to degrading passions:
27 why their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices; and the men, in a similar fashion, too, giving up normal relations with women, are consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameful things with men and receiving in themselves due reward for their perversion.