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The Catholic Church is Perfect (believe it or not!)

This is an excellent article by the man who owns Sophia Press:

Not long ago, one of my adult children spent hours pummeling me and the Church. The waves of her anger struck repeatedly, tossing me like a small boat in a storm.

With the bitterness of a woman betrayed, she recited the sins of bad priests we knew, and catalogued the failings of Catholic laymen and bishops we trusted.

"I believed," she cried.

"I believed, while those bastards lied and sneaked about, doing the very things they preached against!"

What could I say?

I won't defend the indefensible.

So, like Peter in that boat tossed by an earlier storm, I kept myself focused on Jesus.

"They betrayed us," I agreed. "But they betrayed Jesus more.

"He condemned these sins centuries ago.

If you thought He was wrong about that, you wouldn't be upset today. Your anger shows that even when priests violate them, you think Christ's teachings --- the Church's teachings --- are right."

That just made her angrier.

You know, when I entered the Church as an adult, I had a profound admiration for priests.

I believed so completely that I founded Sophia Institute Press to bring back into print the fine Catholic books that had won me to the Faith, and that --- I was sure --- would convert others, too.

Now, at last count, five of the priests I've admired for their orthodoxy have been implicated in the sex scandals, and one is deep in jail.

That fact didn't make it easy for me to answer my daughter's charges.

Like Peter, I was left only with Jesus.

Jesus gave sinful Peter the power to walk on water.

Jesus keeps us from drowning when the world attacks us and assails our wounded Church.

And Jesus guarantees that, despite the sins of Her members, the Church Herself is perfect.

Fr. Ronald Knox explains how in a remarkable little book, The Church on Earth, which we published a couple of years ago.

There he notes that, unlike the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church is not a system that men, after earnest prayer and thoughtful deliberation, devised as the best scheme that they could think of for perpetuating the work of their Master, Jesus.

The Catholic Church is directly God's handiwork: in the New Testament Jesus Himself instituted the Sacraments and established the Church, placing Peter at its head

Since God Himself established our Church, we must believe that it is perfectly designed to lead souls to perfection; and that it does so when they abide by Her teachings and partake of the graces She affords them.

Had I remembered just this one point from Msgr. Knox's slim book, the conversation with my daughter -- and with others who assail the Church for the sins of her members -- would have gone much better.

God bless,
Jay