I’ll Take History for 500, Please.

The secular media keeps writing about the Catholic Church being “troubled” or “in crisis.”  At first I thought this was amusing.  But it’s starting to annoy me.  This is what happens when no one read Dante’s Divine Comedy!

I do not in any way mean to downplay the tragedy of the scandals of the last few years and the inexcusable events that precipitated them.

However, currently…

-- The pope is not in jail awaiting execution.  (First 300 years or so.)

-- The pope is not in Avignon

-- Catholicism is legal in England and all of the 50 United States.

-- Only one person is claiming the papacy, unless you count Pope Michael I of Kansas.  

-- The pope doesn’t have a mistress or an army.

-- Half of the Church isn’t following the Arian heresy

-- There isn’t an army advancing on Rome.

-- The pope isn’t fleeing for his life to the fort of Sant Angelo, to cite one of many examples of the pope's person being threatened. 

--the Nazis aren’t encircled around Vatican City.

Looked at from the perspective of history, the Roman Catholic Church has been in far worse straits.  She is still beset by foe without and traitor within, but just because the gates of Hell aren’t going to prevail against her (Matthew 16:18), it doesn’t mean they won’t try…..