The Pope Needs You
Attack the Pope! It seems to be the thing to do these days. The latest round of attacks makes up stories about how Pope Benedict protected sexual predators in the priesthood. Nonsense!
Catholic men at work may hear others talk about this, or hear people agree with the attacks, even openly disparage the Pope. After all, most of us don't work in an explicitly Catholic environment. So we're subjected - at least from time to time - to comments and criticisms about Catholics, Catholicism, even direct attacks on priests and the Pope. (And it's only Catholics who people feel free to attack - never Jews, Muslims or Protestants.)
One thing you can be sure of is that anti-Catholic remarks - whether about the Pope, or more generally about the Church and its teachings - are a direct attack on Jesus Christ Himself. Christ and His Church, as you probably know, are always the object of attack and ridicule.
Just look at what's been written by the New York Times, listen to what people are saying about Pope Benedict in this matter. There's simply no substance to the accusations that he in any way helped defend or protect priests who were sexual predators. No evidence at all. Period.
So why do these remarks gain such an audience? Really, it's because of how the Church just gets on people's nerves. Oh, and let's not forget how much Pope Benedict gets on people's nerves too.
You see, Pope Benedict, in his gentle and gentlemanly way, stands up like a lion for the Truth. He speaks the Truth all the time. And the Truth is just what people don't really want to hear.
In fact, the Catholic Church stands as the one roadblock to the progressive secularization and vulgarization of our culture and society. The Catholic Church, the one, true Church founded by Jesus Christ, will never agree to those "freedoms" that have captured the imaginations and passions of a good portion of the Western world: contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage, homosexuality.
(Imagine a world without these great "freedoms." How horrible a place it would be. After all, without contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage and homosexuality, there would be all sorts of families with a mother and father and - in some cases - lots of children. Ugh!)
So now we face the hypocrisy of those claiming that the Pope permitted sexual predator priests to roam about and take advantage of children. This nonsense - again, pure nonsense - is intended to undermine any moral authority the Pope might claim in standing against contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage and homosexuality. People figure they'll undermine his moral authority and they'll be safe from the terrible Church and it's Pope. They can go on contracepting, aborting, divorcing, fornicating and - well, whatever you call what homosexuals do.
But it won't work. It won't work because it's not true. And the truth of the matter will ultimately win out.
As for us Catholic men at work, we can lend a hand in the defense our Holy Father, the Church, ultimately Jesus Christ Himself. First, we can pray for the Pope and the Church. But we can, when it's appropriate, defend the Pope and the Church and, of course, Jesus Christ. It's not that hard. Just speak the truth.
At a business meeting recently, someone brought up the subject of Pope Pius XII not helping the Jews enough during World War II - another slanderous, false claim by the same sorts now attacking Pope Benedict. I simply and briefly informed this person that this wasn't true, along with some relevant facts to back up my point. The person backed down. I think he even thought about what I said.
This guy really had no idea what he was talking about. He was just parroting things he's heard. I, of course, didn't tell him he was clueless. I just said what I knew to be true.
I'm not patting myself on the back or anything. Believe me what I tell you that if I could defend the Pope in this way, so can you. I'm the last person looking to pick a fight. It's just that the person said things I knew to be false and I had taken some time to learn the truth about Pope Pius, just as I've taken some time to learn the truth about Pope Benedict.
You can do the same. It doesn't take that much time or effort. In fact, you should do the same. The Pope needs you.
Catholic men at work may hear others talk about this, or hear people agree with the attacks, even openly disparage the Pope. After all, most of us don't work in an explicitly Catholic environment. So we're subjected - at least from time to time - to comments and criticisms about Catholics, Catholicism, even direct attacks on priests and the Pope. (And it's only Catholics who people feel free to attack - never Jews, Muslims or Protestants.)
One thing you can be sure of is that anti-Catholic remarks - whether about the Pope, or more generally about the Church and its teachings - are a direct attack on Jesus Christ Himself. Christ and His Church, as you probably know, are always the object of attack and ridicule.
Just look at what's been written by the New York Times, listen to what people are saying about Pope Benedict in this matter. There's simply no substance to the accusations that he in any way helped defend or protect priests who were sexual predators. No evidence at all. Period.
So why do these remarks gain such an audience? Really, it's because of how the Church just gets on people's nerves. Oh, and let's not forget how much Pope Benedict gets on people's nerves too.
You see, Pope Benedict, in his gentle and gentlemanly way, stands up like a lion for the Truth. He speaks the Truth all the time. And the Truth is just what people don't really want to hear.
In fact, the Catholic Church stands as the one roadblock to the progressive secularization and vulgarization of our culture and society. The Catholic Church, the one, true Church founded by Jesus Christ, will never agree to those "freedoms" that have captured the imaginations and passions of a good portion of the Western world: contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage, homosexuality.
(Imagine a world without these great "freedoms." How horrible a place it would be. After all, without contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage and homosexuality, there would be all sorts of families with a mother and father and - in some cases - lots of children. Ugh!)
So now we face the hypocrisy of those claiming that the Pope permitted sexual predator priests to roam about and take advantage of children. This nonsense - again, pure nonsense - is intended to undermine any moral authority the Pope might claim in standing against contraception, abortion, divorce, sex outside marriage and homosexuality. People figure they'll undermine his moral authority and they'll be safe from the terrible Church and it's Pope. They can go on contracepting, aborting, divorcing, fornicating and - well, whatever you call what homosexuals do.
But it won't work. It won't work because it's not true. And the truth of the matter will ultimately win out.
As for us Catholic men at work, we can lend a hand in the defense our Holy Father, the Church, ultimately Jesus Christ Himself. First, we can pray for the Pope and the Church. But we can, when it's appropriate, defend the Pope and the Church and, of course, Jesus Christ. It's not that hard. Just speak the truth.
At a business meeting recently, someone brought up the subject of Pope Pius XII not helping the Jews enough during World War II - another slanderous, false claim by the same sorts now attacking Pope Benedict. I simply and briefly informed this person that this wasn't true, along with some relevant facts to back up my point. The person backed down. I think he even thought about what I said.
This guy really had no idea what he was talking about. He was just parroting things he's heard. I, of course, didn't tell him he was clueless. I just said what I knew to be true.
I'm not patting myself on the back or anything. Believe me what I tell you that if I could defend the Pope in this way, so can you. I'm the last person looking to pick a fight. It's just that the person said things I knew to be false and I had taken some time to learn the truth about Pope Pius, just as I've taken some time to learn the truth about Pope Benedict.
You can do the same. It doesn't take that much time or effort. In fact, you should do the same. The Pope needs you.
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