Don't be cool, be Catholic

"Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil."

The title of this article comes from a line in a previous article that I wrote.

"Don't be cool, be Catholic"

I should have bumper stickers made with this phrase. It's one that keeps echoing inside my mind and it captures an essential teaching of Pope Benedict XVI. It says that we must not follow the "pop culture" but instead follow the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church. As a result we will lose in popularity, but we will become like children of God. We will be His sheep. And who wants to be a sheep? Certainly not the "cool crowd".

Pray for a new Pope that is as un-cool as Benedict. Who sees his mission not in making the Church popular with growing numbers, but in protecting and preserving the souls of the few that truly believe in the teachings of the Church.

The "modern" world with its democratic/pluralistic/humanistic/"new age" views has no room and feels no need for a Catholic Church. The push towards a "free society" which is given the name "democracy" and has been promoted by freemasons and humanists, is at its core a movement to remove the Church from society.

In the past the Church and government were intertwined. This allowed a Catholic culture to permeate the society. The goal of the democratic movement has been to crush the monarchies that supported such a Catholic society. I am convinced that this was the main goal and that "freedom" was simply the bait for the trap in order to entice people to join their anti-Church movement.

Are we more "free" not that we have been sexually "liberated"? Ask the child of a divorced marriage.

Are we more "free" now that pornography is widespread? How many are now addicted to "porn"?

Are we more "free" now that we can openly blaspheme Christ and His Church? And now that God is banned from the schools?

Are we more "free" now that we have separated the Church and the state? Ask the defenseless, like the child in the womb and the aging.

But perhaps we should be thankful to God for a de-institutionalized Church. It is now up to us as individuals to live a Catholic life and to follow the teachings of the Church. And this will need to be done in open defiance of society and the culture, and even the government.

The "pop culture" which came into being with the modern world is not a "popular culture" it is a corporate culture. It is "pop" in the sense that is sudden and shallow and has no history. Catholic culture on the other hand has a rich 2000 year history and even before that it reaches back into the Old Testament times and even back to the moment that God created the universe.

To be Catholic is to reject the "pop culture" and therefore to be un-cool.

Pray for a Pope that is truly Catholic and therefore totally un-cool.

"Don't be cool, be Catholic"