By: Hamish MacDonald

Hamish MacDonald — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 10:56:36 +0000

There is precious little Bishops can do with the model of the current church they support and attempt to preserve.
The trend towards this problem grows by day along with porn, drugs, and euthanasia. It has been going on since TV arrived.
The answer lies in improving the contradiction; in this case, it is growth in personal prayer, a deeper prayer,
both accentuated by and born of asceticism.
You can’t have it both ways.
You must have fasting. How many fast during Lent purely because it is Lent?
It used to be fasting EVERY day.
The emerging problem is the birthrate. In a few years, countries once Christian may not be-purely on the number of Catholic births.
ONLY when the church recognises such entities that promote mysticism, promote asceticism will there ever be a chance for Catholicism to solidify into a strong bulwark of defense.
What Bishops CAN do, is encourage lay people to rise up and be Christian leaders, instead of claiming to be custodians of faith who somehow can dictate terms of reference. That means they need to practice what they expect must come from their dioceses. It means they need to look again at the reason behind the request for fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays of every week. They need only to address a group that number among the 40,000,000 plus pilgrims to Medjugorje. They will then get someone to bounce off like Pope Benedict XVI did just before he addressed the US. But if they speak to the average parishioner who expects priesthood to make a move before they do, they will get into a bigger quicksand than ever.
Furthermore, once laws have been passed by the social left (which the current PM of NZ represents), it is very hard to have them repealed.
First things first.
1. cut back on TV.
2. Fast EACH week
3. Pray EVERY day. One rosary the minimum.

Comments on: Bishops deeply disappointed at new law’s disregard for rights of unborn

By: Hamish MacDonald