I think I’m turning dyslexic or autistic, but I just realized the word “this” has the exact same letters as another word 
[Ponders joining a Boggle® traveling team]
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What is lacking in the Church?
A sort of malaise has set in because the world’s culture is so counter to Catholic values and younger people are not being educated in specific Catholic doctrines or history.
Mind you, the latter has been going on for a while. I remember, as a new enthusiastic Catholic in the 1970s, teaching at a Catholic High School and using an extract from James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that featured the word ‘monstrance’. Only one student in the class, the headmaster’s son, knew what it meant.
What’s lacking in the church are priests, nuns and laypersons who dare to stand up for Church doctrines and moral teachings instead of being timid, apologetic types (like me, mea culpa).
I hope our new Pope will stand out as a leader and inspirer of faith.
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Enough name-calling, insults, and speculation about my thoughts, JT. I’m not going to read anything else you write.
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There is a whole world put there of people who “act out” a life that isn’t true, and they all help each other out. These persons go around signalling to the others what they are acting out, which is of course always “being good” and the others respond by affirming the false appearance that is created. This activity has taken hold among many who call themselves Catholic just the way that it took hold of the Jewish authorities in Christ’s day.
Nobody is good because he wishes to be. It doesn’t work that way. There is no reward in Heaven for trying to be good. The devil himself would be “good” (in a worldly sense) if he could be, but only without God. The one who is with God will share in God’s glory. The one who is not cannot make himself good. God makes us good, and only if it pleases Him.
There are numerous instances in the gospels where Jesus tells us that we must be good, or obey the commandments, or love our neighbours, or leave worldly things to help others, if we hope to reach heaven. He tells us to struggle to enter heaven by the narrow gate. i.e. struggle as in ‘try hard’. So Jesus obviously sees ‘trying to be good’ as having some point.
I prefer Jesus’s authority to yours.
But isn’t it by your own “authority” that you tell me what Jesus said and meant? So when you say you “prefer Jesus’ authority” you can only mean that you prefer to dictate how to interpret the Bible.
Wasn’t Saint Paul trying to serve God when he murdered Christians? And yet we know that it was not until Jesus knocked him off his horse that he began on the path to Sainthood. Christ did say “I come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it” yet we also know that the law does not give life but death. Nobody is saved because of his own effort, the very point of Jesus coming to die for our sins is because of this.
No - I can read what Jesus said and I believe that he meant what he said. I could, if I had time, line up textual references from the Gospel showing that Jesus linked entrance to heaven/ heavenly rewards with doing good things. For example, Matthew 7:21 -
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Today is ‘Bible Sunday’ where the Pope is asking us to read the bible and ponder it. I am allowed to use my own mind in this process, even though the church does have the ultimate authority to interpret and explicate scripture.
Saying that God likes those who love their neighbours and help them does not mean that people who try to do good are not sinners or that they don’t need to be saved by Jesus’s sacrifice on Calvary.
It just means that we should still ‘try’ even though our own efforts won’t be enough, and that if we try to do good, God will be pleased with us. The person who doesn’t try - like the servant who buried his talent - will not be rewarded - indeed, will be punished.
The problem with the Pharisees was not their doing good or obeying the law, but that they did it for public acclaim.
I like what Saint Paul said about this “show me your faith without works, I’ll show you my faith through my works.” The works are indeed evidence of something, and those who serve appearances will make sure it looks like they are doing good, and you might recognize them by their concern over how it looks when someone does something. Those who do works that are truly good aren’t doing their own works, nor are they deciding for themselves to do the work of God because only God decides to do His own work and if I am one of the tools He uses then that will be good for me.
I disagree with the way you interpret the writings of Paul, though I acknowledge that it is mainly Pauline texts that have inspired some branches of Christianity to deny Free Will.
In the Lord’s Prayer it says, ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’. This to me suggests that Jesus believed we have Free Will to decide how we should act, and that God will react accordingly. And that is the way most of us live our lives - believing that each individual has choices and responsibilities, and esteeming people who go out of their way to help others.
You are perfectly free to believe otherwise. The only reason I bothered to respond was that I thought it might be discouraging to other people. Hail & Farewell.
Free will is not the freedom to choose between good and evil. The notion that free will consists of choosing between good and evil is not Christian in any way. Let me ask you this, did Adam and Eve choose between good and evil?
What Christ said is that “you did not choose me, I chose you.” This is Christian. A will is only free inasmuch as a will is good, and a will is only completely free when it is in Heaven. No soul chooses to go to hell, no soul would choose that, and no soul in hell is free at all. This is what is Christian.
As I said above, you are free to think what you will, just as I am free to disagree with you.
I have formed my own opinions based on my reading of the gospels & the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Live long & prosper.
‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’’
Edit:
I know now that my time tonight could have been spent better than discussing Christian ethics with someone who condemns people who try to be good as ‘acting out’, but whose own ambition, according to their profile, is to be ‘a pain in the ass’. I wish I’d noticed that earlier.
One certainly learns a lot about human beings by coming on the internet!
Every soul in hell has it’s own opinion.
No, I won’t waste my time any further. You have achieved your ambition (see post above, edit).
Goodnight.
However, I don’t want to end on that negative note.
I came on to this thread because I thought it was discouraging to say that ‘trying to do good’ has no point.
I see the Catholic Faith as a hopeful religion in which one can draw close to God and try to follow his will, and while often we fail, we can seek forgiveness in the confessional and hope to be with God after we die because Jesus, the Son of God, has died for our sins.
My faith often falters, but I keep on the road. At the moment I have a pressing family worry and I am praying hard that God will help us.
I would also like the Church to have a new spiritual awakening & I will keep praying for this.
Good wishes to all on this forum. Goodbye for the present.
Obedience to God’s third commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day. Since most school age children never attend Sunday mass, the future of the Catholic Church will never attain 80% Sunday mass attendance as it did during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Sunday mass attendance today is at its lowest level in the past 60 years with mostly older parishioners. Unfortunately, Bishops today rarely speak about this problem. Yet, they blame parents, for not taking their children to Sunday mass, who were yesterday’s children who were not properly faith formulated the same as today’s children. The Bishops meet every year to discuss many situation needing attention. Rarely is declining Sunday mass attendance discussed. If Bishops were graded on saving souls when related to Sunday Mass attendance, their would be forced to file for bankruptcy. We are losing our children spiritually because the Church allows disobeying God’s third commandment which is critical in developing a relationship with Jesus and the Eucharist. When will the Bishops own up to their responsibility of saving souls by hiding behind the false assumption of blaming parents?
Knowledge of the faith isn’t handed down by scholars. It comes by way of prayerful discernment. A layperson can be a theologian if they wish. The percentage of educational books I have read for courses in theology are half-filled with nonsense, written by rationalistic theologians and modernists who have their own ideas as to God’s plan for humanity. As one priest said, recently, in a sermon, “God won’t be pigeon-holed”. God reveals, not professors. They might sync at times with God, accordingly; the Church doesn’t rely on them, though. They are not God, though some might wish they were.
Honestly, I didn’t even answer the actual question (my apologies). I think this issue is a touchy one for bishops and archbishops all over the world. I agree with you, some dioceses were poorly catechized without any damage control and that is 100% on the leaders. But, how does one say, in a professional manner, its all my fault and I suck at my job, which is leading you all the Heaven. It’s kind of hard to have a balance on admitting you were wrong, still having the hope and faith of those who look to your leadership and see you as an authority figure, and do damage control. If the bishop loses the repect and dignity from the churches within his diocese, then what is the point of trying at all?
I still agree though. Many young adults leave the church and it cannot all be the parents to blame. You cannot expect a student to master a subject when the teacher, themself, hasnt mastered it. At some point, though, bishops can only do so much.
Boy oh boy do I have good news for you. I agree with you, we have lost major attendance in our churches and it needs to raise tremendously. Thankfully, it has. In 2021, Catholic Mass attendance and conversions were at an all-time low due to the pandemic. But, since then, numbers have increased significantly, even surpassing the number of particpants pre-COVID. It is absolutely amazing, and frankly beautiful to see. Also, a good thing to note, based on statistics from 2024-2026 (that I admit, I got from the AI overview), young men are leading the conversions. This makes it even better, considering that the man’s role in terms of being a father of children or a father of the Church (or other) is to lead spiritually.
I did not include specific numbers, because there were a lot for specific dioceses (in the USA); but I got my information from an article from the National Catholic Registry. I’ve linked it below.
In my opinion, its tradition. Hear me out. I’ve noticed, as I have traveled to more modern churches, that we are slowly turning into Protestants (that sounds really bad, I know). Our churches are looking more like KC Halls, and our services are starting to feel more like a music service (though not nearly as bad as mega churches, and the like). I’ve heard of dioceses banning the Latin mass, it’s, at this point, rare to see a veiling woman, etc. It feels like we are trying to conform to society’s standards to bring in more people. I like the idea of making the Church attractive, but we’re going too far.
In terms of holding our ground on customs and beliefs, we’re pretty good about it. You won’t see anyone getting a dip in an aluminum bin for a Baptism in a Catholic Church. You’re not going to see a pastor stating that God is a woman. We’re just not like that and we never will be. It just feels like we are losing touch with some of the practices and traditions that make us unique and, even, noticable (rip altar rails, I never see you anymore).
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God is always one being He never separates into three beings. His essential nature never changes. He is one being with three persons. It’s a concept that is hard for the human mind to comprehend.