Who started your church?

Thanks to:  Catholics Come Home Blog  and St. Charles Borromeo Church

Both fully Divine and fully Man, Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church.  One can trace the Church quite easily back to her origin nearly two thousand years ago.  When people leave the Church founded by Christ because they don't like something a Church representative said, did, a look given, the lack of charity displayed by so-called Catholics or any other host of excuses -- they are not leaving an organization.  They are leaving Christ.  Guided by the Holy Spirit, and with Christ present in the Sacraments, the Church continues on with imperfect human beings left to run the day to day operations.  Most who have gone before us have honored the Church, many have fallen short.  Just as Moses, St. Peter and Noah were imperfect, God chooses human beings to do His work on earth with His guidance. 

Moses was not a good speaker and lacked confidence in his abilities to lead the chosen people.  St. Peter denied Christ just as Christ said he would.  Noah was found drunk and naked by his sons.  Do any of these men fit the human image of perfection?  No, far from it.  Yet, God chose these people for His reasons to do His work.  What do they have that people who leave the Church do not have?  Faith.  Repentance.  Loyalty.  Love.  Clarity.  Our Biblical fathers did not look about to blame humans who messed things up.  They looked heavenward without hesitation.  They longed to do one thing:  God's will. 

So if you, or someone you know has left the Church Christ founded, who started your church?

Anglican 'Priest' is 'Swimming the Tiber' - Deo Gratias!

Please view the entire announcement on Jeffrey Steel's blog HERE.

"In my heart, I knew that I had grown to love and believe the Catholic faith as it was taught in the Catholic Catechism. On my final day in Rome on 17 April 2009 I went to the tomb of S. Peter and knelt and prayed for quite some time. I knew in my heart I was a Catholic and asked what it was that was keeping me from converting. All sorts of fears ran through my head and I felt very restless there and at times just knelt quietly asking S. Peter to pray for me because I didn’t know how or the way to go. At the end of this time I went over and knelt at JPII's tomb and asked him to please pray for me as I was scared to make a journey like this with a wife and six children not knowing how God would provide for us.

After praying with JPII, I got up and went to S. Peter’s tomb again and there with conviction of heart signed the Roman Catholic Catechism stating ‘This is the Faith of the Church and this is my Faith’, and signed my name with the day's date. Before leaving the Basilica I walked over to the statue of S. Peter with the key in his hand, rubbed his foot, and said, ‘I am going out to find the way, open the door and make this happen and pray for me as I make this journey.’"

To Laugh or to Cry - You Decide

What happens when you cross elements of the Diocese of Rochester with what Catholic universities have become? A married man who was ordained a 'priest' by an excommunicated 'bishop' and refers to himself as a married priest, who announces the ordination of 'female bishops', who were graduates of Notre Dame and St. Mary's - both in Indiana. Got that? Let me explain it this way: Phony priest from Rochester, NY who happens to be a 'media liaison' for CORPUS (a group for dissidents who think they are still Catholic but really are not) is proud to announce the ordination of female 'bishops', one a Notre Dame graduate and the other a graduate of St. Mary's. Still messy and full of grammatical errors but not as erroneous as the canon laws which have been trounced. Note that their croziers are as phony as they are in the picture above. Read the news release:

CORPUS Congratulates Four Newly Ordained Women Bishops
By Ray Grosswirth, CORPUS Media Liaison
Dated: Apr 19, 2009

CORPUS, the national association for an inclusive priesthood, wishes to convey its joy over the ordination of four women bishops on April 19, 2009, in Santa Barbara, California.

CORPUS SUPPORTS AND CONGRATULATES FOUR NEWLY-ORDAINED CATHOLIC WOMEN-BISHOPS

CORPUS (www.corpus.org), the national association for an inclusive priesthood, is deeply proud to articulate its support of four ordinations that took place on April 19 in the state of California. It is withgreat joy that we congratulate the following four Catholic bishops: Joan Mary Clark Houk, Andrea MicheleJohnson, Bridget Mary Meehan and Maria Regina Nicolosi.

Bishops Houk, Johnson, Meehan and Nicolosi join their male counterparts in the Roman Catholic Episcopate as servant-leaders of their respective communities.

For over thirty-five years, CORPUS has been actively engaged in the effort to create a church that is all-inclusive. In its effort to expand its outreach efforts, CORPUS has moved beyond its original mission as a vehicle of support for married priests and their families. We now recognize that the Kingdom of God on earth cannot be realized until all of human creation is treated with dignity and respect. We also realize that
a call from God to ordained ministry is not limited to celibate males. We therefore embrace and encourage all who experience the call, minus any discrimination on the basis of gender, marital status or sexual orientation.

Women who prepare for ordination to the diaconate, priesthood and episcopate are highly trained and have the same educational qualifications as males in similar roles. CORPUS hopes and prays that those who are opposed to the ordination of women will search their hearts and come to realize that if the Catholic Church is to remain vital in the years ahead, we must be open to the will of the Holy Spirit.

The fact that many women are coming forward to respond to a call from God is a reason to celebrate, and CORPUS greets these women of faith with open arms and a feeling of joy and gratitude for their spiritual
and ministerial gifts. Bishops Houk, Johnson, Meehan and Nicolosi give hope to a divided church. CORPUS has every confidence that they will be true disciples of Christ, and we therefore rejoice in their ordination to the rank of the episcopate.

CORPUS has been in existence for over 35 years to promote and support inclusivity in the ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood.

If you are game, go to youtube.com and search for: 'Rochester married priest' and feast your eyes on the the media laison from CORPUS. He dances with cleaning implements, has fake conversations with the Pope on the telephone and all sorts of nonsense. Then whether you cry or laugh, end with a prayer. Maranatha.

Thanks to fratres for sharing the story.

The Protestant Meltdown

Read the entire article at National Catholic Register

by David Mills

Many cradle Catholics I know look at the moral conflicts tearing apart the mainline denominations with sadness, but as a convert from one of them (the Episcopal Church, the most notoriously divided one of them all), I think this is not quite the right response.

We will feel sad at the sight of beloved Christian friends suffering as their churches divide, but we might be heartened to see that because these conflicts express flaws in the original design, they will encourage some to greater friendship, if not full reconciliation, with the Catholic Church.

The sadness we feel will be like the sadness you feel on seeing a pretty old house finally falling down because it was badly built in the first place — built on sand, say — and has been coming apart for most of its life. You’re sad, even when you know it will be replaced by a much better house.

You know your neighbors will miss their old home, but you also know they’ll be happier in a house whose basement doesn’t flood, whose roof doesn’t leak, whose windows don’t let out the heat in the winter, whose pipes don’t clog every other day.

You also know they wouldn’t move into the new house until the old one collapsed. The house held too many memories, was too comfortable, even if damp, and leaving it was too hard.

(continued here)

Mainstream Protestantism Implosion