Catholics Come Home

The Boston Globe had an article on this new archdiocesan initiative, called "Catholics Come Home."  The Church recognizes that in the not so distant past, with the priest sex scandal, the closing of  parishes, and just the general feeling of distrust with any authority, that there are a number of unhappy and unsettled people out there, who have left the Catholic Church.  This program is an outreach to them.  The sheep are lost.


I think the time is right for these lost sheep.  Aquinas tells us that we are born with a desire for God.  Man will always search for God.  Often we think money, power, sex, etc., will fulfill this yearning.  It doesn't.  We remain unsatisfied.  We try more, and more.  We never find satisfaction until we find God.  He's there.


Yes, right here--in the Catholic Church, in the Eucharist.  The sheep are meandering here and there and trying to find satisfaction.  Let us pray, they come home.  


Read Matt. 16: 18.


Jesus left the care of His Church to His apostle, Peter.  From the first century to today, all the popes have inherited the spiritual, ecclesiastical and sacramental authority and responsibility that Jesus first gave to Peter.
That is why we say that Pope Benedict XVI is the Vicar of Christ.


One reason I love being Catholic is this source of the authority exercised by a hierarchical priesthood based in Rome.  It makes sense.  It's historical fact.  It still exists after 2010 years.


My prayer, my promise, my creed:
I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Apostle Peter, and today I fully accept Pope Benedict XVI as the Vicar of Christ.  

B16 is talking about us!!!!!

In Portugal this week, the Holy Father is talking about the work the Laity is doing.

Think "Arise Together with Christ."


...In this regard, I confess to you the pleasant surprise that I had in making contact with the movements and the new ecclesial communities. Watching them, I had the joy and the grace to see how, at a moment of weariness in the Church, at a time when we were hearing about "the winter of the Church", the Holy Spirit was creating a new springtime, awakening in young people and adults alike the joy of being Christian, of living in the Church, which is the living Body of Christ. Thanks to their charisms, the radicality of the Gospel, the objective contents of the faith, the living flow of her tradition, are all being communicated in a persuasive way and welcomed as a personal experience, as adherence in freedom to the present event of Christ.

The necessary condition, naturally, is that these new realities desire to live in the one Church, albeit with spaces in some way set aside for their own life, in such a way that this life becomes fruitful for all the others. The bearers of a particular charism must feel themselves fundamentally responsible for communion, for the common faith of the Church, and submit themselves to the leadership of their Bishops. It is they who must ensure the ecclesial nature of the movements. Bishops are not only those who hold an office, but those who themselves are bearers of charisms, and responsible for the openness of the Church to the working of the Holy Spirit.

All for the glory of God.