What The Youth Wants and How It Can Help Fix The Church.

Whether you like it or not, it has been proven that devout Catholic youth want the ancient, spotless, orthodox, unchanged, and holy Catholic faith. In other words, we desire to have our churches teach what the church has always taught, and to worship the way it has always worshiped as handed down by the fathers of the church. (Regardless of Rite). This means that we do not want churches and liturgies in which reflect what the world has to offer, but instead we want a church and a liturgy that emphasizes the heavenly reality in which we are in; contradicting the ordinary world just like how God instructed His temples to be in scripture. (Exodus 25, Chronicles 28).

It has been commonly misunderstood that the Church should reach out to the youth by “getting with the times” in where the ways of old are thrown out of the picture. Some examples involve the removal of icons and Holy images for felt banners and modernized art, substituting ancient chant for guitar and pop/rock music, celebrating liturgies where balloons are tied to the altar and even tossed throughout the church etc. (Life teen for example).

But when you truly speak with young devout Catholics with humility, especially us converts; such things are a huge turn off since what can be found in a church that behaves in this fashion can also be found in the every day world. (Or even non – Catholic Churches). Being that the younger generation is the future of the Church, this should be taken into serious consideration by the hierarchy.

When we examine the fruits of changing the church to make it more reflective of the modern world, can we honestly conclude that the church has preserved the faith, increased church attendance, and improved its vocations? If we are going to be truly honest with ourselves, we cannot come to this conclusion.

When we look at many from the generations that have gone before us in the last 50 years, it is evident that their approval of innovation has only planted seeds in which gave birth to bad fruits. It has resulted in the approval of heterodoxy; which explains why the faith has been either watered down or thrown away all together in Catholic Churches around the globe in order to please the world and reflect it. But when we examine scripture, who does it say is in charge of this world? It says the devil. (John 12:31, 2 Cor 4:4).

This explains why the church is in the scandal that it is in today. After speaking with him personally, Father. Bill Casey of the Fathers of Divine Mercy stated that: “It should be of no surprise.” This is because instead of many in the post Vatican II generation guarding the truth with prayer, fasting, and keeping what was handed down to us; they have let their guards down to later allow the church to be scourged, punched, and kicked by its enemies – to only allow it to become sick and bruised within and out; letting it suffer as they refuse to treat her wounds.

Many have given the impression that Jesus Christ shall bow to this world instead of suggesting that the world shall bow down to Christ. This can only parallel with the book of Matthew in where Satan has asked Jesus to bow to him while tempting him in the desert (Matt 4:9), offering the pleasures of this world in return. (Matt 4:8). And when we look at many of the clergy within the Church that promote error and heresy, how can we deny that such shepherds have betrayed their flock in order to be given pleasures of this world? I.E. money, fame, approval, acceptance, etc.

Therefore, as stated above, the clergy of the church and the older generation should take into consideration what has happened as a result of innovative practices. They should also consider the requests of the Catholic youth to restore authentic Catholicism since this will be the only way to fix the church. After all, what do we have to loose by restoring Orthodoxy within the Church?

If we are continuously silenced, and labeled as “rigid”, even by the Pope himself, then how is it that we will be able to fix the church? Wouldn’t silencing those that have a true care for the church make you the church’s enemy? Wouldn’t silencing devout Catholics that actually care about the faith only help spread errors throughout the church, as we have seen by clerics such as Father. James Martin in whom promotes homosexuality? (Something that is not only against Catholic teaching, but against the scriptures themselves!)

In the words of Father Bill Casey, if we are going to help fix the church in the midst of the chaos that it is in, we must “start with ourselves.” This means being obedient to what the church has always taught and not allowing our pride to influence what we believe the church should teach. This is something we have recently witnessed at the youth synod where bishops and liberal non Catholic youth have given the suggestion that the church must accept sodomy.

The unfortunate reality is that many laity and even clergy inside the church continue to defend the wickedness that we continuously see, even though they are aware that the Church has dogmatically condemned their errors. In the words of St. Augustine against the Manichees, he stated: In Christ’s Church, those are heretics, who hold mischievous and erroneous opinions, and when rebuked that they may think soundly and rightly, offer a stubborn resistance, and, refusing to mend their pernicious and deadly doctrines, persist in defending them.”

Being that we live in a time in where the church is being plagued and attacked from within by those in whom preach the heresy of homosexual acceptance and other forms of heterodoxy, how much more relevant is this quote today? Again, the voice of the devout Catholic youth shall be listened to with an open mind, and the clergy must restore orthodoxy in which we desire to have if we are going to save the church.

Disclaimer: We are not blaming the older generation as a whole for the modern crises that we are in, nor are we blaming the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Francis vs The Church Fathers – The Battle Over Mary!

Recently, Pope Francis has come out to say some frightening words regarding the Theotokos that would make an Orthodox Catholic cringe. In an interview with the chaplain of the Padua – Father Marco Pozza – he stated: “From the moment she was born until the Annunciation, to the moment she encountered the angel of God, I imagine her as a normal girl, a girl of today, I can’t say she a city-girl, because she is from a small town, but normal, educated normally, open to marrying, to starting a family.” Link.

These are an interesting use of words considering that this statement not only contradicts the ancient dogmatic faith of the Church regarding the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, but it also lowers the Theotokos to the status of an ordinary female when he stated: “I imagine her as a normal girl, a girl of today.”

“I imagine her as a normal girl.”

In the East, we sing unto Mary in the ‘Axion Estin’ that she is “Higher in honor than the cherubim, far more glorious than the seraphim” since she is even superior to the angels for giving birth to God within her womb – which even caused St. Gabriel to have fear of her out of reverence.

“Gabriel is on his way to announce the glad tidings to the Virgin; He is ready to cry out in fear and wonder: Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with You!” – (Feast of the Annunciation, Troparion Tone 4, Byzantine Rite). If she as the Theotokos was a “normal girl”, this would mean that she is equal to all other women and vice versa, also meaning that she isn’t “Blessed Among Women” as St. Gabriel the Archangel solemnly declared.

If Pope Francis truly means that Mary was a ‘normal girl’, it would seem to suggest that he believes that she had sinful inclinations. Not only that, but it would seem that he is also suggesting that she had worldly cares when stating that she was open to “starting a family”.

Such a suggestion would contradict the words of St. Augustine when he taught that Mary willed and chose to be a Virgin all of her life. “In being born of a virgin who chose to remain a virgin even before she knew who was to be born other, Christ wanted to approve virginity rather than to impose it. And he wanted virginity to be of free choice even in that woman in whom he took upon himself the form of a slave (Holy Virginity 4:4 [A.D. 401]).

“A girl of today.”

What’s also dangerous is the fact he stated that he imagines her as a “girl of today”. But when we look around us in this fallen world of today, what exactly do we see when we come across young teenage girls and young women? Do we not see young women dressing impurely and taking half – naked pictures for ‘likes’ on social media? Not that this applies to all young females, but we cannot deny that this is an unfortunately reality in today’s society within the secular west. To suggest that Mary would have been like a girl of today’s age – and a teenager at that – would be a sacrilegious rationalist ideology.

A scary quotation from Gustavo Raffi, the former Grand Master of the Masonic lodge of Rome, stated “With the election of Pope Francis nothing will be the same again.” (Thursday, March 21, 2013). See here.

Continue to pray for the church in these dark times we live in. St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

For more information on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, click here.