Fr. Perrone on grave implications of defecting from the true Church

Fr. Eduard Perrone, "A Pastor's Descant" [temporary link] (Assumption Grotto News, May 22, 2016):

Another one bites the dust

What triggers the quotation of this well-worn, if abused, cliché indicating defeat? It's the knowledge that one more relative of mine has ceased to practice the Catholic faith and is now attending a non-Catholic "church." I didn't do a calculation to get an exact number of these family defectors, of those who have abandoned the faith, but it's a higher number than I'd like to admit. My reason for telling you this dark family secret is to give you that scant consolation of commiseration. These relatives of mine, only a few years ago, had been Catholics. Technically speaking, they are still Catholics: "once a Catholic, always a Catholic." However, these relatives do not regard themselves as being Catholics any longer, and this is a literal shame for me and a shame on them.

There's no greater misfortune that can befall man in this life than to be out of the true Church. It's a dogma of faith that there is no salvation outside the Church. Since there is only one Church, the one Christ founded, this amounts to saying that there's no salvation outside the Catholic Church. A dogma means a necessary teaching, one that's demanded by the very nature of the Christian faith. While interpretations of this dogma are various (and I do not intend to delve into them there), my purpose in reviewing it is to indicate how grievous a sin it is to abandon the true Church for any other.

I don't know of any family where all the relatives have kept the Catholic faith. The widespread defection is symptomatic of this age of unbelief, but it's also the result of the gross negligence of irresponsible priests, catechists and parents for failing to teach the faith, for misleading and deceiving their charges about the real meaning of the Church's teachings, or else for trivializing the liturgy by their impiety. When people are left ignorant by vacuous religious instruction or scandalized by silly, irreverent liturgies, they may at some point come to a religious consciousness and ask themselves, Can this be the true Christian religion? Upon discovering the bible and sincere Christians of some sect or other, they may easily be swayed to league up with them and depart from the Church. In such cases, culpability for leaving the Catholic Church may be mitigated, or even be entirely non-existent due to the fault of others. God knows. But one should not err on that account in believing that though they have left the true Church, that at least they now love the Lord and are better off than had they remained non-practicing Catholics. Objectively speaking, to leave the true Church is a grave evil. Subjectively one may not be accountable for this, depending on circumstances, depending on circumstances, but this does not refute the substantive evil of defection from the faith. For the faithful, it is truly a suffering to learn that someone has converted to a sect. (I speak nothing here about apostates -- those who have left Christianity for a pagan religion or a cult: this is an even worse evil.)

Today is Trinity Sunday. The dogma of the Blessed Trinity is a truth revealed to us by the Church, not by the bible alone, which does not clearly specify this dogma. And so, the dogma of the Trinity is an example of the necessity of the Catholic Church to explicate and impose its divinely revealed teachings upon, us, without which we would be doctrinally sunk, unsure about anything supernatural were we made to rely solely upon the many and diverse interpretations of the bible.

Let us cherish the true, orthodox, Catholic faith in all its fullness. Let us pray never to be unfaithful to it, trembling upon recollection of our Lord's words, "When the Son of Man comes again, will He find faith left on earth?" We, unhappy witnesses of the disintegration of the Catholic faith and of a massive defection from the Church in our time, need to pray steadily for the return of lapsed Catholics and to show them the good example of our patience and love which may, in the end, prove most convincing of all proofs of the truth of our holy faith.

Next Sunday is Corpus Christi Sunday. After the noon orchestral Mass there will be a procession (outdoors, as possible) with the Holy Sacrament and adoration of the One whom we love and revere as true God and true Man. Following the Procession, food at a nominal cost will be made available by our trusty ushers.

Fr. Perrone

Welcoming converts and reverts to a hijacked church

How is it possible? It's certainly tough. Anne Roth Muggeridge, in Desolate City, even admits to times when she and others felt inclined to discourage inquirers from seeking church membership, simply because of all the confusion. When you're read enough to see that many of the practices and beliefs encountered in typical suburban parishes are simply not Catholic, the task is even more daunting. What to do ...

In this one-and-a-half minute free video clip, Michael Voris brings an uncomfortably clear focus to the issue.

Converts or reverts undergo a life-changing experience and seize upon the nearest suburban 'Church of Nice' parish as a God-sent answer, completely oblivious to the fact that the parish is riddled with abuses. Then someone comes along and points out that this isn't the way things are supposed to be. You're asking people to make, first, a psychological jump from a way of viewing the world that was completely un-Christian to a new Christian worldview; and then you're asking them to make another jump because this new Christian life in the local AmChurch parish is also filled with errors. This is asking a lot of a person psychologically; and as Michael Voris suggests, it is fraught with dangers.

The experience of converts who were Catholic and weren't enjoying it

However uncomfortable this video might make some of us feel, I think those of us who are converts to the Catholic Faith (at least most of us) will have to admit that there is some truth in it. Some have put the problem in terms of "false advertising," others in terms of a discrepancy between "word" and "deed."

I personally know, and doubtless many of you do as well, converts who made the arduous journey swimming upstream often at great personal cost, only to be disappointed by what they experienced in AmChurch. I personally sponsored some twenty individuals who were received into the Church via RCIA since my own conversion, and of these I know of three who have lapses or reverted to their erstwhile Protestant communions. And I know still others, often individuals of sound mind and theological substance who have also ceased to practice the Faith.

It would be easy to dismiss them by saying that they never really understood or believed the Catholic Faith, but I am acquainted with cases in which this could not possibly have been the case -- instances in which the convert wrestled with the issues, even producing pages and pages of written critical analyses critical of Protestant notions like justification by faith alone and sola fide, and working out their understanding of Catholic doctrines of Church authority, soteriology, Mariology, the intercession of saints, etc. I am still in contact (still "friends" with) several of these individuals, and it breaks my heart to see them where they are, and yet I also have to admit: there is a problem with what they encountered in today's Catholic Church.

Burnout: the casualties of faith as gaming

Some of you may remember "Sex and Catholic religious culture: Is there a problem?" (Musings, May 28, 2009), in which we discussed Greg Krehbiel's ruminations on the subject.

Now, in "The Cheshire Christ, 2nd edition," Greg Krehbiel traces his itinerary from teenage atheist to Evangelical, through the Reformed and Lutheran churches and eventually into the Catholic Church, only now adding the most recent leg of his journey: from a tentative toe-hold in Catholicism to his most recent port of call: agnosticism. He says some interesting things about his sojourn in the Catholic neck of the woods along the way, before coming to this Sextus Empiricus-like conclusion:

So here I am, stuck with a room full of books, a head full of knowledge and arguments, and the only thing I know for certain is that I’ve missed 25 years of good parties. I’ve seriously wondered if the sole purpose of my life is to be a bad example to others.

I don’t believe, but I don’t disbelieve either, because I find the arguments for the faith and the arguments against faith equally unimpressive. Each side wins a round here and there, but it seems the fight ends in a split decision.

I particularly dislike the misanthropic attitude of the “New Atheists.” They seem to be driven by some sort of insane hatred of faith.

I think faith is a good thing. (Christian faith, anyway, and others to varying degrees.) Sincere believers are happy, healthy, productive, good people. The salt of the earth. I have nothing against them and — even if I thought I could — I wouldn’t want to harm their faith.

Of course the fact that religious belief has such clear and obvious benefits is itself an argument for faith, and that hasn’t escaped me. Nor has it convinced me.

I don’t want to promote religion and I don’t want to attack it. I can see the good and the bad in it. I can see the arguments for and the arguments against, and I don’t see any way forward — or back. I’ve heard the arguments a hundred times, and they bore me.

I continue to attend mass with the family, but I don’t believe a thing. Except that where I am is a very lonely place.

Lonely indeed. Others have been there before him, even Augustine during his brief fling with the "Academics" (Skeptics), after his nine years of "true believer" Manicheism, before his final conversion to Christ. What Greg wants (in the classic sense of "needs") is not another argument (he's tired of those and could articulate them more cogently than you probably could), but a Damascus road encounter with the Person of Christ. As Pascal knew so well, however, such encounters are not simply gifted to everyone who wants them. That battle for each of us, ultimately, is not one of propositional arguments, even though these most assuredly have their necessary place. The battle is fought by each of us in the crucible of his own soul in the little turning points and decisions we make about what we desire, love, fear. Whatever went on in that confessional and in his soul (for good or ill) was probably more significant than any of the arguments Mr. Krehbiel has entertained. As that old Christmas hymn puts it: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight."

[Hat tip to J.M.]

A Catholic headed toward Orthodoxy thinks twice

Jay Dyer, "My Retraction of Eastern Orthodoxy" (Nicene Truth, June 25, 2008), is a long discussion by a Catholic who decided not to follow the path of Rod Dreher into Eastern Orthodoxy. Here he tells us why. Substantively.

[Hat tip to Fr. Al Kimel]

Frank Beckwith explains why he returned to the Catholic Church

Frank Beckwith, author of numerous books and articles published by the likes of Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and Notre Dame Journal of Law and International Philosophical Quarterly, was raised Catholic, but found his way into Protestant (specifically Reformed) circles, and served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) until he resigned his position yesterday because of his decision to embrace Catholicism once again. His own story about how he found his way back to the Catholic Church is posted in an article under the title of "My Return to the Catholic Church" (Right Reason: the weblog of conservative philosophers, May 5, 2007). The first paragraph of his inspiring reflection will get you started; but read the whole thing in order to garner the measure of this man's integrity. He made his move at some cost to himself.

During the last week of March 2007, after much prayer, counsel and consideration, my wife and I decided to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. My wife, a baptized Presbyterian, is going through the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). This will culminate with her receiving the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. For me, because I had received the sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation all before the age of 14, I need only go to confession, request forgiveness for my sins, ask to be received back into the Church, and receive absolution.

Soli Deo gloria. Pray for the Dr. Beckwith and his family. Pray that their journey of discovery will continue and their Catholicism will take deep root now that they've truly come home.[Hat tip to E.E.]