Swords, Roses, and Feminism!

The Church’s vitality has often been nourished by persecution. Our era is no exception.

Why hasn’t there been more of an outcry over the violence, the murders, the Christian diaspora from the Holy Land? Nina Shea, of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, notes that international media may report on random acts of Islamic terrorism, but rarely do they examine the global pattern of attacks on Christians. Do the media intentionally ignore these stories? It is hard to say for sure—but it is just as hard to imagine the ongoing and systematic killing and persecution of any other religious group provoking so little outcry. There does seem to be a deliberate double standard at play, and far less sensitivity to anti-Christian activity.

The persecution of science by religion is something of which we hear a good deal, and a good deal more than is historically accurate. But, in any case, it has pretty well come to an end. The persecution of religion by science has relatively, perhaps, only begun; but it is already at work, in we know not how many obscure cases of pedantry and cruelty. The mystics are very likely to be the martyrs when the psychologists become the kings.

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world. Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because he called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is other-worldly, it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself.

Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church’s enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith.