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There are many vocations wherever a 'high' view of the Sacred Priesthood is held, and where priests are seen as 'other Christs', with authority to govern, guide, preach, bless and forgive and offer the Holy Sacrifice.
Error is not a laughing matter. Where there is little supervision or guidance in a 'faith sharing' group, dissenters can hold forth with no fear of contradiction, and faith can be damaged rather than deepened.
Some Catholics who currently 'fight' within the Church to spread their mistaken views about sin and sanctity will one day look back, and see how much time they have wasted in having acted, for many years, as if the truth about morality and sanctity were not yet known by the Church, and by those chosen by God to teach us.
Christ told me of the message He offers to all who dissent from the teaching of the Catholic Church: "Imagine, if you can, that the Church's teachings are all true, that her discipline is wise, her customs admirable, her Saints active and the holy Angels powerful. There things are true; and I invite you to believe Me".
It pleases Christ when we show love, honour and respect towards our Bishop. Christ is our great High Priest, and He invites us all to show love and courtesy, at all times, towards those He has chosen to be 'other Christs' for us.
People who want to arrive at the beautiful city beyond the mountains - in Heaven - need to take advice about the route from One who knows about it and speaks with authority. God the Son has shown in the way to Heaven, the Way of faith, hope and love, in charity and truth. People are foolish who say they can go in any direction.
The Lord asked me to look at the time when Rome and Constantinople were united in loving and serving God in Three Persons, under the guidance of the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles - until an exchange of insults damaged this. That earlier happier state can be re-gained. But re-union is not possible with other Christians who do not accept the Pope's prominent role and who imagine that woman can be priests.
Whoever experiences unusual sights or voices in prayer must pray to God for help in discerning the source of her experiences, and ask someone wise and with authority in these matters. Christ does sometimes encourage His friends with special favours; yet Satan too can speak to the faithful, mimicking Christ, trying to mislead them.
A good leader should always ask himself what effect his words are having upon the ordinary man who listens to him. Is the leader holding out hope of peace and justice; does he encourage the man towards co-operation in goodness, and set him a good example, or is he leading him astray?
Christ has given His Church the authority to teach us. Christian principles have underpinned the government of our country for over a thousand years; and she should not be pushed off course by a handful of atheists in power. We please Christ when we speak the truth about making laws based on moral and ethical foundations.
Those people who make a great noise within the Church by their constant refusal to accept the Church's teaching, their attempts to lead others astray, and their disobedience towards those placed by Christ in authority over them, are as if living in a dark cellar of discontent, beneath the 'house of faith'.
It is not the duty of the priest, at a Requiem Mass, to announce that the deceased person is certainly in Heaven. His duty is to lead the Church in prayer, and to offer the Holy Sacrifice for the remission of the sins of the living and the departed. Only God knows who has been saved - though we should live in hope - and who has gone straight to Heaven: God and His Church, who canonises the Saints.
However many 'models' of Church are put forward today, the Church has been founded by Christ as a hierarchy. The Pope has supreme power and authority, after Christ, in the Church, and guides us with the other Catholic Bishops. They are assisted by the men they have ordained as priests, and by the Deacons in Holy Orders. Then we see the laity, living out their union with Christ in the world.
In different parts of the world are Christians claiming to have Heavenly visions. All might seen sincere; some of these people might be trapped by their own lies, or some by the deceptions of Satan, or some be truly in touch with Christ. Obedience is the key in this; obedience to those in authority in the Church is a sign of love for God, and trust in Him and His Will.
Everyone who has visions in prayer should be very cautious, and seek the advice of those in authority in the Church. They can prove their love for God by their obedience. People who insist on what their 'visions' ask of them, even against the request of Church authorities, are in danger of being led astray. Some visions come from Satan, who loves to give pleasure if he can thereby draw people down to Hell.
Wherever Catholics live out their faith with goodness and conviction, they have an effect upon their culture, as Catholics have since the earliest times. The Bishops hand on the truth from Jesus Christ, people are forgiven and transformed, freed from superstition, men and women are equal in marriage, the sick are cherished and not rejected, prisoners receive justice, little girls are educated, children are valued, even the unborn, the arts flourish - art, architecture, music and scholarship - and the Saints set an unparalleled example of goodness, in all sorts of ways.
The Lord asks: "Who are these Catholics who dare to declare to the Father in Heaven: No, I know better than those you have placed in authority over us in the Church. I will not obey Your Laws which, in my view, are foolish!" We offend God if we are careless in our attitude and decisions about sexual morality and other matters.
Some people trust in their own opinions instead of the Church's teachings. In God's eyes, Pope Paul VI is a great hero of the Church who re-stated, in 'Humanae Vitae', long standing truths and principles about married love and sexuality. Catholics who oppose his teaching are opposing the teachings of generations of Popes - and, indeed, the Will of God, Who teaches us through those in authority in the Church.
Christ spoke about 'a city, set on a hill' which cannot be hid. That city is the Papacy. It is the Pope who, in fulfilment of Christ's plan, guides and steers the Church, and with the other Catholic Bishops hands on the faith. If the whole world accepted the teachings offered by the Pope it would be a better place. Catholics who reject the Pope and his authoritive teachings are opposing Christ.
We have the Pope to guide us on modern problems as well as well-known evils. Society is being damaged, as abortion becomes more and more commonplace, just as scientists are confirming what God has told the world through His prophets, His Son, and His Church, for millennia, that each human being, however tiny, is a unique individual. Each deserves to live all the life that has been given, from conception, in the manner decreed by Almighty God.
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