Man Has Only One Savior
“For there is no other Name [than Jesus] under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), and yet, how many of us feel a pull on our hearts because of it? How about when we hear St. Paul remind us elsewhere: “How then shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14) How often do we think about the vast numbers of souls who die each day? How many go to hell? Recall the vision of countless souls falling into hell which Our Lady showed the children at Fatima. Do we ever think to ourselves, “Is there anything that I can do to stop it?”
Modern Collapse of the Faith
In general, we live in a state of complete moral collapse and deterioration in Catholic belief. Rather than opening the Church to better confront and guide the modern Catholic, Vatican II and its aftermath have led to a continual downward spiral in Catholic belief. Average Catholics should feel grief in their own souls as they see more Catholics fall away from the Faith and reject the one means given to us to be saved – Holy Mother Church.
Since 1970, according to data analyzed from USCCB records, the number of students in religious education has decreased by 60%, adult baptisms have fallen by 68%, and the annual number of infant baptisms has fallen by 18%. Furthermore, according to Sherry Weddell’s research published in Forming Intentional Disciples (Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), only 30% of Americans who were raised Catholic still practice the Faith, and 10% of all adults in the United States are fallen-away Catholics.
Learning Our Religion: A Commandment for the Modern Catholic
In our modern age, it is easy to become distracted with the use of technology, the day-to-day responsibilities of life, and the physical demands placed on us each day. How often do we step back and actually pray? Do we make a sincere effort to attend Mass during the week, recite part of the Divine Office, get in our daily Rosary, or practice fifteen to thirty minutes of mental prayer a day?
Do we at least keep all things in perspective and ensure that we are spending adequate time each day in practicing the Catholic Faith? Our Lord Himself affirmed, “Heaven and earth shall pass, but My words shall not pass” (Matt. 24:35); yet modern man acts as if religion is a fable or at best something that, while true for some, applies to others and not himself. We will all die. We will all be judged on our Faith. And unbeknownst to the modern Catholic is the reality that neglecting the Sacraments and neglecting our faith formation – and that of our children – is a serious sin.
Religious education is not an obligation for children alone. As adults, it is our responsibility to continue learning our Faith in order to live it and spread it. Our Lord Himself observed the Jewish law to the letter and affirmed that He had come to perfect, not abolish, the law (cf. Matt. 5:17). And the law of charity imposes on us who have been given the grace to be Catholic the responsibility to spread the Faith. Confirmed Catholics are called to admonish sinners, to instruct the ignorant, to raise children in the Catholic Faith, and to be a role model to others. As King David exclaimed in the Psalms, “O how have I loved Thy law, O Lord! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 118:97). But do we really love the Lord’s law? Do we love it enough to set down the smart phone, the television remote, the credit card; turn off the football game on TV; and discontinue other comforts in order to pick up a copy of the Roman Catechism or the Lives of the Saints?
The world – and the very Church herself – are in a state of unprecedented crisis, a crisis that is greatly exacerbated by the average lay Catholic failing to understand his religion. It was only a few decades ago that the illustrious Archbishop Fulton Sheen remarked: “Who is going to save the Church? Not our bishops, our priests and religious. It is up to the laity. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.”[1] But if he were on this earth today, I suspect he would weep for how little those in the Church seem to care about true doctrine.
Our Lady Asked Us to Study the Catechism
In fact, the Blessed Mother’s apparition to Adele Brise in Champion, Wisconsin in 1859 further affirmed the need to learn the Catechism.[2] Under the title of Our Lady of Good Help, the Blessed Virgin said to Adele:
“Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross, and how to approach the Sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”
The Church needs us. We are being called to live truly Catholic lives grounded in the eternal truths of the Faith. The idea that Catholic dogma can change and that what was once true is no longer true is entirely and unequivocally false. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (cf. Heb. 13:8). If the Church believed in the unity of the Trinity, the sinlessness of Mary, the necessity of Baptism, the illegitimacy of divorce, that sodomy is depravedly contrary to nature, the evil of religious indifferentism (and more!) in times past, those truths remain valid today. While certain man-made disciplines can change like the exact date of feast days or the color of vestments, dogmas of faith and moral truths cannot change by definition.
Catholic Doctrine Does Not Change
Pope St. Pius X upheld the immutability of the Deposit of Faith by including the following statement in his list of condemned propositions (July 3, 1907): “Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and all men, but rather inaugurated a religious movement adapted or to be adapted to different times and places” (Lamentabili Sane, n. 59). In other words, that statement is false. A faithful Catholic is obligated to reject it as a pernicious error.
Some months later, he promulgated his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis against the heresy of Modernism (Sept. 8, 1907), providing a more thorough exposition and refutation of what he defined as “the synthesis of all heresies” (n. 39). And finally, on Sept. 1, 1910, St. Pius X instituted the Oath Against Modernism, requiring every bishop, priest, religious superior, seminarian, and professor of Theology or Philosophy to publicly and solemnly affirm, among other vital points, “I entirely reject the heretical misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously.”
Start the New Year with Holy Resolutions
In our doctrinal confusion today, clarity is desperately needed. That is why using resources like the Baltimore Catechism or The Catechism of the Council of Trent are necessary. To this end, I’m happy to have just published “The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World,” which explains for today’s Catholics the teachings of The Catechism of the Council of Trent applied against modern errors like liberalism, modernism, materialism, communism, and others.
As we begin this new year, and when so many focus on secular New Year’s goals, let us make it a resolution to persevere this year strong in the Faith. Commit to the daily Rosary. Consecrate yourself (or renew your consecration) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Wear the Brown Scapular at all times. Offer more prayer and penance in reparation for sin. Practice the First Saturday devotion every month. Strive to do one charitable act to spread the Faith each day. And spend time each and every day to learn the Faith and then share what you learn with someone else.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s Address to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, June 1972.
[2] To our knowledge, this is the only Marian apparition in the United States that has been approved by the Church (Episcopal decree from 2010 linked here).