Do we have nihilism in our water supplies, or what? The culture of death is developing energy for going all-out to destroy the culture of life along with precious lives of persons seemingly treasured only by God.

Increasingly, commentators we (or, at least, I) have tended to trust are going from 'worried' to 'warning' about the likelihood of the culture of death finally finding its motive power in President-elect Obama.
+ Father Richard John Neuhaus over at http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/ under today's title The Deadly Convenience of Christianity Without Culture, and last Friday's The Coming Kulturkampf;
+ today's CE Pro-life article by Judie Brown, The Final Confrontation: Who Will See It? Who Will Care, even as she finds joy in some 'rays' of REAL hope;
+ George Weigel, writing for the publication of the Archdiocese of Denver at http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/967 now sees two Americas coming into conflict;
+ political commentators are beginning to wonder alarmingly a sort of "Can anything good come out of Obama's Chicago?"

The One B.O.'s few appointments so far are as disturbing as his own brief but consistent record on (death-over-)life issues. Now, we have another 'pro-death Catholic', Daschle of South Dakota, for secretary of Health & Human Services (for a departmental moniker of highly euphemistic contrivance). "A 'pro-death Catholic' for H&HS" - a diabolism within a contradiction within a catastrophe?

Oh, good Lord, are we in for it; more, the unborn and any expensively health needy; maybe, even more, American Christianity which has nurtured our freedom and virtue.

Please, God, help us to stand as it would please You. And, bring us to our knees (some of us, g-e-n-t-l-y) in prayers and ready sacrifice.

"Many Catholics support contraception, live with partners outside marriage, support gay rights, support OB, do not attend Mass, except at funerals and weddings when they receive communion. Thus it may seem they are damned and will go to hell, with all its fire and torments, for eternity."

This sentence is a paradox. someone who does all these things is someone who rejects the church. They are , by definition, not catholics.

of coarse there are people who have physical membership in the church, baptism cirtificates etc and are not even christians let alone catholics, but that is because we don't often take the trouble to formally expell people now days. That is something we should probably correct.

Now, now, let's not get into a fight over just what Baptism means - and we must assume that once a baptized Catholic Christian we are marked by and to God as always a Catholic Christian.

And, we are all sinners - but, if we persist we will find that our sins are not permitted into heaven, and our lives of our sins will have caused us to find Hell less objectionable to us than having to be 'some bored and boring goody-two-shoes'.

We are all sinners, but we are not meant to stay that way. Each of us must (MUST!) submit to God's will for our good that our sinful persons 'diminish that He may increase' (AND right inside of each of us) and 'deny ourselves, pickup our crosses and follow Him'.

Just WHY do we stay so MISERABLE? It's all so simple compared to human weakness, frailty, sin and failure. For, in giving God glory in submission to Him, He lifts us, His children of His love and delight, to His very bosom - Father. He sacrifices Himself from infinite love for our eternal glory - Son. And, He lovingly dances attendance on our growth in spirit - His and our Holy Spirit.

Truly we can each of us know that we are Thrice loved, and Thrice blessed. Just how would we get such love and blessing from anyone else, from anywhere else?

(So, okay, Baldy - how do we get that across to fellow sinners lost in their sins? And, notice as they will, that they are 'fellow sinners' - you cannot escape 'peccatoribus nostris', eh? Ah, there's the rub, or would that be 'the nub'?)

Warren and Mreiner16,

Thank you so much for your posts.

They sound like my better part speaking.

I have a problem, which I discuss often in this forum using different words. Essentially it is "are most Catholics going to hell, in spite of our salvation by Jesus Christ?".

The question is asked:

"is receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily acceptable today?"

This worriesd me. In Ireland the sacrament of confession/penance/reconciliation has essentially disapppeared, yet at funerals and weddings all the congregation receive the Eucharist.

Are all damned? Will the majority of us Catholics go to hell? I can only answer by saying we must all hope in God's mercy.

What I like here in this forum is that this issue can be discussed in detail, knowing that we are all trying to be good Catholics, yet trying to understand God's plans, which we know is impossible. This in itself is a source of support.

God bless,

NoelFitz.
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In necessariis, unitas; in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas.
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Fishman,

You spell things out clearly.

One can debate the fate of those who are fallen away from the Church. We should pray for them and do our best to encourage them to come back to the Church. Condemnations may not be the best way.

God bless,

NoelFitz.
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In necessariis, unitas; in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas.
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