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Dear Father Angelo,

every time you answer me I am overjoyed because not only do I learn so many new things thanks to you but it also leads me to a renewed step in my  conversion .
My name is… and I am 27 years old.
I often find myself talking to others about God, about faith… Sometimes I don’t understand how others engage in such delicate talks with me, since I don’t possess any good power of persuasion. I read a lot of ascetic books by various priests, some saints, I pray the Rosary, and for a long time I have been reading your answers to the various questions asked…
My brother-in-law is 19 years old and no longer goes to Mass because he says the Church is a dirty den of pedophile priests, Freemasons and the like. In short, he says he is a believer but in his own way.

At lunch, I tried instead to tell him that evil is leading him to think about secondary things and distracting him from important things such as having a relationship, a true relationship with God; to deepen his knowledge on what the Church really says without being deceived by the media; to love the Lord by keeping His commandments; to cultivate  faith through prayer and approach the sacraments with confidence… But he persists in condemning the Church, in not wanting to go to confession because there are priests, in not attending Mass because according to him there is no need for the priest…

He thinks the Church stands in the way of important issues like abortion, etc… in short, he doesn’t know what he is saying.

What I see in him is a seeker of the truth since he also asked me other questions that I was able to answer. On those occasions, thank God, he didn’t answer with hostility but listened. Otherwise he is grumpy and has become obsessed about the fact that the Church “is not good,” as we say here in Campania. What can I do for him?

Thank you Father Angelo, may Our Lady bless you.

________________________________________________________________________

The priest´s answer

Dear friend, 

1. your brother-in-law’s talk resembles that of all those who have abandoned Jesus Christ.
If they knew Jesus and what he left us in the Sacraments, above all in the Eucharist, they would not reason in this way..
If you try to ask your brother-in-law what the Mass is, you will see that he will start spinning in vague answers without ever giving you any precise answer.
He will not be able to tell you what the Holy Spirit said through the mouth of Paul: namely, that it is the memorial of the Lord’s death: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26).
In other words, to celebrate the Eucharist is to make present on the altar the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
It is to actualize that sacrifice that merited us all graces, so that it is rightly said that the Mass is the source of all blessings.
The same benefit  is brought to the forefront  in a special way for those who are present there.

2. St. Therese of Lisieux  said, “If people knew the value of the Eucharist, access to churches should be regulated by public force.”

St. Pius of Pietrelcina also said the same thing: “If men understood the value of the Holy Mass, at every Mass it would take the Carabinieri (Italian gendarmes)  to keep the crowds of people in the churches in good order.”
But how can Christ’s sacrifice be made present on the altar for the benefit of those who take part in the rite if there is no priest to consecrate?
The presence of the priest is therefore irreplaceable.

3.  What is saddening is the stubbornness toward the Church and distrust of priests. I wonder if they are just as your brother-in-law paints them as Christ’s priests, starting with those in his parish!
I would be happy if he would take a tour of the seminaries to see if his peers are there and have given it all up for shady reasons.
The fact is that evil, namely sin, has clouded if not even blinded his mind.
Jesus’ words are striking: “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn. 3:18).
Why is he already condemned?
Here is the answer: “And this is the verdict (i.e. the reason), that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (Jn. 3:18-21).
Perhaps your brother-in-law is also loving darkness (sins) more than the light, namely Jesus Christ.
But surrendering oneself to sins, unwilling to redeem oneself and despising the sacrament (confession) that Christ has earned for us at great cost, is the same thing as implicitly surrendering oneself to demons, who do the rest in darkening the mind and hardening hearts.
The Lord’s words would like to fill us with holy apprehension for the fate of sinners.
St. Dominic every night in his personal prayers wept thinking of their end.

4. Your brother-in-law then rails against the Church for obstructing such important laws as abortion.
According to your brother-in-law what should the Church say: “it is permissible to kill babies in their mother’s womb?”
The Church should justify those who give it this tyrannical and diabolical power.
Why kill a child for the sole reason that it is incapable of defending him/her-self?
Because that is what abortion is, beyond the deceptive wording that describes it as voluntary termination of pregnancy.This is not civilization, but cowardice.

5. What can be done for your brother-in-law? Reasoning is not enough. You have touched it with your own hands.
On the other hand, the conversion of men to God is not simply a human action, but is a supernatural event, because it elevates us into a  supernatural communion with God.
Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.” (Jn. 6:44).
What then can be done to further the Father’s action?
When the apostles asked the Lord why they had been unable to cast out a particular demon, they were told that certain demons cannot be cast out except by prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21).

6. Prayer is irreplaceable because it makes the Lord present near the person for whom we pray.
Fasting reinforces this presence.
Now how many fasts can we do, and not so much in foods because they are indispensable to us, but in our words, eyes, hearing and various senses.
St. John Chrysostom said that those who pray with fasting are as if they had two wings, lighter than the winds themselves.

7. In the hardening of your brother-in-law’s heart you must sense a call from the Lord.
You must speak, yes, you must even refute as St. Paul did, but you must be persuaded that just as souls have been gained by the cross of Christ, so too must we walk the same path.
Our prayers and voluntary mortifications enable Christ to powerfully pour out the merits of his redemptive passion and to communicate  the power of his resurrection to the people for whom we pray.
This was the power that St. Monica through prayers and tears was able to convey to her son Augustine and bring him to great conversion.
With the hope that your brother-in-law will not just  be redeemed but will become a new Augustine, leading  many others to Christ as well, I bless you and assure you of my sincere prayers.

Father Angelo