Suffering the Insufferable Fools

The hardest Lenten penance yet has been having to listen to the pompous fools who dominate the television, radio and internet news media in the weeks since Pope Benedict XVI resigned. They just repeat their nonsense and insulting garbage over and over, believing themselves to be experts unquestioningly correct in their assessments.

On such an historic day in Church history and my own lifetime, with just minutes to go before the new Holy Father would appear on the balcony, I had to leave the house to go to a doctor appointment. Aarghh!! In the car, I was forced to listen to the talking heads on the radio as the world waited to learn the identity of our new Pope. It was almost more than I could bear. They went on ad nauseum about what they hoped the new Pope would do and how the new Pope might think and all the changes they thought he might make to the Church in order to finally get this medieval Church in sync with the times.

Women priests, same-sex \”marriage\”, ditching celibacy, embracing contraception, blah, blah, blah. They went on and on about the hopes of American Catholics who were counting on this new Papacy to bring about all these necessary and overdue changes to Church policy, so that finally, the Catholic Church would climb aboard the modern train of thought and stop impeding social progress and these American Catholics (who don\’t want to be actually Catholic) could feel good about the Church again.

Then at the doctors\’ office I was treated to the television news coverage as Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, stepped out and the ignorant, pompous talking heads started all over. Same old garbage as on the radio, just worse.

It\’s worse still on the internet. They\’ve already labeled Pope Francis as a \”homophobe\” because he has defended true marriage and aptly labeled the same-sex \”marriage\” effort as the \”machination of the Father of Lies.\” (WOW! Love that!) They like that he\’s a Jesuit, just not that he\’s actually an orthodox and faithful Jesuit. They\’re eager to play up his \”social justice\” beliefs and mold them to their own definitions, but they hate that he hates abortion and contraception and won\’t begin ordaining women next month. Whatever they think he might do, it\’s the wrong thing, and ultimately, it will be the Church\’s doom.

All in all, they\’re quite annoyed that the Catholic Church is still Catholic and just elected another Catholic Pope.

Tough noogies, you insufferable, arrogant fools! You have no idea about what or whom you\’re talking.

You worship modernity and what you consider enlightenment. You should be worshipping God. The One, True God Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You want a pleasure ship that will cater to your every whim and satisfy your every longing. I want an Anchor that will not be moved no matter how wild the tempest sea.

You want a \”church\” that will obey you and do your bidding. You want a \”church\” that will conform itself to the ideas of the age. You want a \”church\” that is all about you, what you want, and what you have decided is right.

You want the Catholic Church to unseat the Almighty from His Throne so you can sit there yourself, since you\’ll do a much better job. You arrogantly assume the authority of Ultimate Judge of right and wrong, and your knickers are all in a twist because the Church has not agreed with you.

You want a modular power structure that will change shape with your fluctuating ideas of good, bad, right, and wrong. You want a Play-doh house that you can mold and build, squish down and rebuild as desired in order to accommodate all your requirements of equality, tolerance, and individual rights.

I want a Strong Tower that will not be shaken, will not crumble, will not be moved, but will shelter the ones who run to its protection. You want a religion that evolves to align itself with the modern world. I want the Truth that does not change or compromise for the sake of pleasing others. I want the Church that compels me to conform myself to Christ, not the other way around.

You want soft doctrine that serves you and indulges your sin. You want teachings that elevate pleasure and the self above all else. You want liberation from the very idea of sin at all. You want \”freedom\” that means you can live any way, and do anything, and have anything at all if you want it, because it\’s your \”right.\” The only right that doesn\’t exist for you is the right of God and His Church to tell you no.

It\’s sad that you\’re disappointed with our new Pope already, but not surprising. It\’s hard for you to grasp this, I know, but the Church belongs to Christ, not you. Christ is not impressed by your ideas. Christ is not intimidated by your pompous arguments. Christ is not persuaded to change the Truth to suit you or anyone else. If the gates of Hell itself will never prevail against His Church, what makes you think you will?

The truth is that abortion is no one\’s \”right\” or \”choice\” and it never will be. It always has been and always will be the murder of the child in the womb. The truth is that marriage exists only between a man and a woman and that can never change. The truth is that the family is the foundation of society, and children need and deserve a father and a mother who are married to each other. The truth is that we are created male and female, in God\’s image and likeness, and gender is not irrelevant or malleable.

The truth is that sexual intercourse is a sacred gift intended for marriage only, for the purpose of bringing new life into the world and the mutual joy of the spouses. The truth is that contraception violates and degrades the sacred purpose of the marital act and leads to a society where people — especially women — are used for pleasure and convenience, children are destroyed at will, and marriage is cast aside and trivialized (in other words, our present society).

Your disdain for the Catholic Church will get you nowhere. Your temper tantrums about Church teachings you can\’t stand will not cause the Church to abandon those teachings. You can wail and flail and kick all you want, but you will not succeed in changing the Church to your liking.

You are hardly the first to think yourself smarter and more enlightened than the Church. You\’re not the first to demand the Church get with the times, as it were.

You can insult the Church, condemn the Church, and persecute the Church, as I\’m sure you will continue to do, but you will not win. The Church will continue to defend the Truth against the heresies and evils of our age and every age. She will continue to preach the Gospel until Jesus returns.

Meanwhile, those who love the Church love Pope Francis already. This new humble Pope bowed before the crowd in St. Peter\’s Square and asked for their prayers and blessing. And that massive crowd of hundreds of thousands of people stopped their exuberant cheering, bowed their heads, became silent and prayed for their new Papa. But you probably missed all that.

If you are mature enough to realize it, your failure to change the Church could be your salvation. Enough already with your foolish, pompous, self-serving sneers and speeches. There are plenty of churches out there who will gladly cater to your list of demands, but the Catholic Church will not. Thanks be to God!!

© 2013. Jennifer Hartline. All Rights Reserved.