Dear Father Angelo,
some time ago I wrote to you expressing my fear that the Church was losing its faith. My fears have, unfortunately, come true: the recent declaration Fiducia Supplicans has, in effect, legitimised the blessing of same-sex unions and second marriages. At the same time, a few days later, Pope Francis stated during the programme Che Tempo Che Fa that he “hopes that hell is empty”, whilst clarifying that this is his personal opinion and not Church teaching.
Frankly, I must tell you that I’ve had enough and can no longer hide my disgust at what the Church has become over the last eleven years of the pontificate: a post-Christian and irrelevant institution, obsessed with pleasing the world, which has turned mercy into amnesty and is now light years away from the teachings of Christ.
The Church has lost the faith and fallen into apostasy, and, honestly, I’m fed up with trying to keep denying it: frankly, I feel increasingly ashamed to defend Catholicism and these men of the Church who, rather than the Bride of Christ, seem to be serving the prostitute of Babylon.
No amount of ultra-montanism can change this. To be honest, I don’t know what to think: I’m sick and tired of following an institution that seems to have lost all interest in the Christian message.
I think that, apart from Sunday Mass and personal prayer, I’m going to take a long break from the Catholic Church.
I hope you manage to keep the faith, because, to be honest, I don’t know how that’s even possible anymore.
Elia
Priest’s answer
Dear Elia,
1. I have chosen to use your email to reply to the many people who write to our website to express their suffering within the Church.
They feel distressed because of their faith; instead of feeling supported, as is their right, they feel conflicted, denigrated and insulted.
I shall not go into the details of the issues you have mentioned.
Instead, I shall focus on ecclesial suffering because, in any case, it must be lived well. I shall therefore discuss it from the perspective of spiritual theology.
2. The suffering experienced by many Christians is undoubtedly a trial permitted by Christ and brings to mind the words spoken by Our Lord at the Last Supper.
At a certain point, Jesus turned to Peter and said to him: “Simon, Simon, behold: Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22, 31–32).
Jesus could have prevented Satan from tormenting his own. Instead, he allowed it.
3. He allowed it for the same reason he allowed Satan to afflict the righteous Job, whom the devil believed to be faithful to God simply because everything was going well for him. He was certain that if the Lord had granted him the chance to strike Job, Job would have lost his faith.
He therefore asked him to remove the hedge that protected Job from his attacks. The Lord allowed it.
Then Satan afflicted Job in all his possessions, including his dearest loved ones, his children. No sooner had one misfortune been announced to him than another was already being foretold.
Throughout all this, Job remained faithful, always repeating: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1, 22).
For this faithfulness, he was then rewarded with an abundance of possessions far greater than before.
4. You see, at this very moment the Lord is allowing Satan to sift the Church, just as wheat is sifted to be purified.
He allows this out of love, so that our adherence to Christ may be revealed even more clearly, without the comfort—however legitimate—derived from the Church.
It must be emphasised that by the very fact of allowing this, the Lord shows Himself to be more powerful than Satan and to have already triumphed.
He remains the undisputed Lord of all events.
5. Your trial, which at this moment is shared by many others within the Church, has the same purpose.
Your faith, too, is being tested so that your commitment to Christ may shine even more brightly and be purified of all the sources of human comfort that it would be natural to desire and hope for.
You would like to take a long break from the Catholic Church. But that is the wrong path to take.
Of course, we would all like a Church that is holy, immaculate, and radiant with every virtue before everyone’s eyes. That would be our greatest pride, our honour.
Christ, however, asks us to love her as he has loved and continues to love her. He loves her and has loved her despite all her weaknesses, her ingratitude and her infidelities.
St Paul reminds us of this with a beautiful expression that must become the very paradigm of mutual devotion between spouses: “Christ also loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish”. (Eph 5, 25-27).
In practical terms, what are you called to do?
You must cling even more closely to Christ, pray for the Church and, let me tell you this, give your life for the Church.
Going to receive Holy Communion also means this!
6. The Lord is not asking you at this moment to take a long break from the Church.
Rather, he is asking you to follow the example of that silent multitude of the faithful who continue their Christian life in fidelity to Christ, practising all the virtues, particularly those of charity and fortitude.
That silent multitude of the faithful who keep firmly in mind the supreme goal of their existence: their own sanctification and cooperation in that of others, even through the offering of their own suffering and inner martyrdom.
And precisely for this reason, they continue to live the Christian life in fidelity to the perennial and unchanging teaching of the Church.
No saint has ever taken a break from the Church.
Listening to the voice of the Lord, do, you too, what our Holy Father Dominic did and what St Francis did by remaining in medio Ecclesiae, at the heart of the Church.
You will not waste time and you will benefit in all the virtues.
Not to mention the merit you are storing up for eternal life.
7. I like to conclude with the words of Saint Catherine of Siena: “Do not say, as some do: ‘These pastors have so many faults that we receive nothing but harm from them; therefore, they are not worthy of reverence or of being helped. If they were as they ought to be and attended to spiritual matters rather than temporal ones, then we would help them’.”
And so, as ungrateful and ignorant people, blinded by their own self-love, they show them neither the due reverence nor the help they deserve: indeed, they often dissuade those who would help them from doing so.
They do not see that these reasons are false, for, whether they be good or bad, we must never shrink from fulfilling our duty.
Reverence is not shown to their person as such, but to the blood of Christ and to the authority and dignity that God has bestowed upon them.
This authority and dignity are not diminished by any faults they may have.
Their authority, even if tainted by personal faults, does not diminish their power and spiritual virtue: therefore, our reverence and obedience must not diminish; otherwise, we shall find ourselves in a state of damnation.
Under no circumstances must we fail to assist them, for to aid them is to aid ourselves. Indeed, their faults do not remove the need we have for them: therefore we must be grateful and appreciative, doing what we can for the benefit of the Holy Church” (Letter 311, To the Defenders of the People and the Council of Siena).
I assure you of my special prayers that you may live according to the guidance I have given you.
Everyone needs your holiness.
I bless you and wish you every good thing.
Father Angelo
