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Show 99: Our Lord has promised eternal life to him who fearlessly makes profession of his faith · The Uncensored Catholic

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A Hey, y'all, welcome today's show. We'll jump right in and try
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to finish up where we were yesterday. We were discussing Father Sparago's writings on
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the duty to confess one's faith. But as usual, first we'll start with
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a couple of questions and answers from radio replies, and the person asks the
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priest. In Matthew two fourteen, it says that the Holy Family went to
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Egypt until the death of Herod. Luke two thirty nine says they waited forty
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days for the purification, then went to Nasaurus, which is correct. As
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I said, some people like to split hairs when it comes to the Bible,
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as if the Bible was a what a history book, a daily newspaper.
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You know, it's the message of what it means, not the details
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that matter. Boy, you can really get into that with some Protestants over
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certain little, tiny nippicking things, and they think they found some secret to
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the universe, and it's really just a matter of the way a word was
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translated. I mean, really, it's kind of pathetic. Actually, they
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say both are equally correct. After the child was born, Joseph and Mary
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waited forty days for the purification then came the flight to Egypt, followed by
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the return to Nazareth, as mentioned by Saint Mark. Saint Luke emits the
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mention of the flight to Egypt and mentions only the purification of the return to
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Nazareth's In Let's see two thirty nine, Saint Luke says, after they had
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performed all things according to the law, they returned to Nazareth. He does
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not say immediately after that, and it is evident that he intends to stress
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the faithful observance to the law, not to fix the time for their return.
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Some people are only too ready to take an inconsistency for granted, and
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then to use their assumption as sufficient grounds for denial of inspiration. This very
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attitude is most unscientific. Also be noted that the argument from silence is very
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much abused. Remember that it has no value unless the author, according to
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his scope, be strictly bound to state what we find omitted. None of
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the evangelists set out to give every detail of our Lord's life, and it
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is absurd to say this writer should have given what we desire if it be
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true. But he does not give it. Therefore he knew nothing of it,
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and he must be false. On such principle, any historian who gives
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what another historian shows us to omit could be accused of falsehood. The person
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says, can we believe the devil would promise things to God in order to
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secure his worship? And they answered no, But he could quite well tempt
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an apparently human being whom his finite intelligence did not know for certain to be
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God, in order to test his conjecture that he might be, because that
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was very much written of by the early church fellows, especially of Saint Irenaeus.
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The devil did not know for sure that Jesus was God, is God,
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the Messiah, the Son of God, a person of the Trinity.
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He thought he might be, and he was testing to see if he was.
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The person. Says, how could the devil carry off God and set
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him on a heel in Galilee, from which he could see all kingdoms of
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the earth. They replied, God cannot be carried anywhere. He is a
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spirit and not subject to local transportation. Nor is it an honest attribute to
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God, making no mention of his incarnate human nature that which happened to that
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human nature. The Son of God in his assumed human nature was subject to
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this temptation. There is nothing repugnant in the devil being allowed to carry a
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material object to a height. The devil is a spiritual being, and if
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God, a spiritual being, can create a material universe, a spiritual being
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can certainly receive the power displacements in the universe. As for seeing all the
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kingdoms of the earth, we can see in two ways, by eyesight or
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by intellectual vision. In this case, mental vision was sufficient. And finally,
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this person says, have not critics proposed hundreds of difficulties such as the
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foregoing? And they answer yes, But the mere fact of their having proposed
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them is not very disturbing. Catholic scholars have in every case provided possible and
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probable explanations according to which apparent divergencies are reconciled. Nor can any number of
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difficulties, difficulties and interpretation destroy the value of the positive proofs of the authentic
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and inspired character of the sacred Scripture as briefly outlined. As we discussed before,
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further difficulties will be encountered when we come to deal with particular phases of
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the Christian religion. But in the meantime, the facts stand that as human
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beings, we owe certain duties to God which involve the practice of religion,
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and that we are obligated to accept, from among all the religions in the
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history of mankind, the religion of the Bible, and that leads Usphary conveniently
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right into Sparragos second point, second sub chapter. I guess you would say
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in our dewy to confess our faith? He says. Our Lord has promised
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eternal life to him who fearlessly makes profession of faith. For he said,
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everyone that confesseth me before men him, I will also confess before my father,
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who is in heaven. Saint Peter made a bold profession of faith of
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his faith before his fellow apostles, and our Lord made him at once the
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head of the apostles, or the foundation of his church. He cites Matthew
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sixteen eighteen. The three young men in Babylon confess their faith, and the
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True God, and God delivered them from the fiery furnace and caused them to
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be raised to high honor. Daniel confessed his faith by disobeying the king's edict
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and continuing his prayers in the sight of all men and God saved him from
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the lions. A great reward in heaven would be given to those who suffer
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persecution or death for the sake of their religion. Blessed, says our Lord,
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and suffer persecution for Justice's sake, For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
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Blessed her. Ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you,
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and shall say all men are of evil against you, untruly for my sake,
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be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.
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Those who suffer great persecution for the sake of their faith are called confessors.
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Those who are put to death for their faith are called martyrs. A martyr
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goes straight to heaven at his death, without passing through purgatory. We should
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be doing injustice to a martyr, says Pope Innocent the Third, if we
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were to pray for him. A martyr possesses the lf love of God and
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the highest degree, since he despises life, the greatest of all earthly goods,
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for God's sake. Every martyr is a conqueror, and therefore depicted with
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the poem with a palm in his hand. Since the poem is the mark
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of victory, yet no one has bound purposefully to seek after persecution or martyr's
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death. That's a very good point that a lot of people forget. We
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have no obligation to put ourselves in harm unless it is for a greater good.
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It's actually reckless. It's actually a sin against God to unnecessarily put your
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your life in harm's way. You know, Priest used to fathers Varagu gets
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into this, I mean, priest used to preach it about this a lot.
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They forbid. They forbade bullfighting and the running with the bulls, skydiving
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when it became popular. Anything we're dueling. Dueling still carries with it the
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penalty of automatic excommunication. If you to take a pistol or a sword,
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and you entered into a duel for your honor, you're excommunicated. You are
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essentially putting your life in such reckless disregard that you offend God. God doesn't
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really care that much about your honor, you know, As I mean,
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that's sort of more of an English thing and a Spanish thing to some point.
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Yeah, he would much rather you make peace with your enemy and even
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sacrifice your honor and dignity for a greater good. But anyway, anyone who
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does so without an expressed inspiration from Almighty God is almost sure to yield to
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the persecutors. Nor is it forbidden to flee from persecution when they shall persecute
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you in one city? Says our Lord in Matthew ten twenty three. I
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think it is flee to another. Our Lord himself led before persecution. That's
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John, what is it eleven fifty three through fifty four? I think so
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did the Apostles, and many saints e g. Saint Cyprian and Saint Athanasius.
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I have trouble pronounce that one Athausius. Yet the pastors of souls must
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not fly when the good of the faithful requires their presence. The hiring fleeth
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because he's a hiring, says our Lord, and careth not for the sheep.
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Yet they may fly if their presence is not required, or if it
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seems likely to give rise to fresh persecutions. The hereticudizer as Heresy is no
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true martyr. For Saint Paul tells us that if we give our body to
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be burned and have not charity it profits, it's nothing. It's from Corinthians
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John huss who was burned at Prague. In fourteen fifteen rather than give up
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his heresy was no martyr. Nor were Kramer, Ridley nor Latimer, who
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were burned at Oxford in the reign of Queen Mary. A man who is
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a true martyr who receives a grievous wound and for the sake of the faith,
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and afterwards dies for the effects of it. So too are those who
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suffer imprisonment for life for their faith, or who die in defense of some
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Christian virtue or some law of the Church. Thus Saint John nepomusine n E
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po m u c n E, who was put to death because he would
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not violate the seal of the Confession, and Saint John the Baptist, who's
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death was the result of his defense of the law of Purity, were true
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martyrs. The whole numbers of martyrs has been estimated at sixteen million WOW.
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The man who denies his religion through fear or shame or apostasizes for the faith
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is under sentence of eternal damnation. For Christ says he that shall deny me
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before me and him, I also will deny before my Father who is in
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Heaven. And again he that shall be ashamed of me and my word of
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him. The son of Man shall be ashamed when he come in his majesty
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and that of his Father and the Holy angels. He who denies the faith
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denies Christ himself. In the times of persecution, there are many who deny
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their faith. Even now, there are some who, through fear of worldly
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loss or being dismissed from their employment, deny their religion. Others from the
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same motives so that they do not explicitly deny that they are Catholics, yet
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do so implicitly by intending and taking part in the services of a false religion,
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or by being married in a Protestant church, or through merely civil marriages,
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or by taking Protestants for godfathers or godmothers of their children, or by
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allowing their children to be brought up in a false religion. This is very
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important. I don't think it is stressed enough that Catholics may only be married
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in a Catholic church. We do not recognize civil marriage. That is an
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Anglican thing, that is the state taking on the role of God to enact
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a sacrament. Catholics are only married in a Catholic church. Catholics may not
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be married in a Protestant church. Catholics should not, except for reasons of
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ecumenism, ecumenism, whatever they say at ten Protestant churches. Recently heard about
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Mike Pince and Sean Hannity who went to some Protestant you know, Sunday church
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services and renounced their Catholic faith and became Protestant. That's apostasy and they're going
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to have to answer for it. Neither one of them are very bright,
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and God will look upon their blithering maronsy. I think that's the word moronic
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nature, and you know, have mercy on them. But Catholics should not
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participate in apostasy heresy. I should say heresy, it's not a posse heresy.
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Well, Sean Hannity and Mike Pince are both apostates, they have left
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the true religion. But Catholics should not dissipate in heresy by attending Protestant churches,
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except as an outspoken Catholic saying I'm here for the good and fellowship of
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all Christians. That's that's ecumenism. Catholics should never take part in, I
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mean, should never be married outside of the church. That is also apostasy.
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That that is that is really a sin against the sacrament that it's not
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it's not okay. And you know, allowing their children to be raised in
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a false religion. Well, for Catholic to marry a Protestant or a person
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of another religion or no religion at all in a Catholic church, which is
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how they are validly married. Because it is a sacrament, both parties have
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to agree that their children would be raised Catholic. It's not okay for Catholics
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to allow their children to be raised Protestant, no matter how well meaning the
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other spouse may be be or how good the minister or anything. The duty
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is to Christ and his church first and foremost. But this is also very
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important his next point, There is no sin in attending a Protestant funeral or
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marriage out of courtesy, so long as no part is taken the service.
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So if you have a friend or relative who is Protestant, you can absolutely
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attend their wedding. You can't take part in it. You can't be a
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best man. I don't even think you can be an usher or a bridesmaid.
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And you have to say no, I'm sorry. In the Catholic religion,
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this is not valid. I can't take part of it in it.
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I mean it's a valid marriage, but the ceremony is invalid. I remember
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marriage predated Christianity. There are people were marriage pre dated Judaism. Marriage,
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people were being married before there was any official revealed religion. So the marriage
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may be valid, but the Catholic can't take part in it because it's taking
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part in a heretical ceremony, a ceremony in either a secular or false religious
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context. And a lot of times this can be very heated and really offensive
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conversations. But you have to say, there's one true church, and that
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is the Catholic Church. And for me, as a Catholic, to participate
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in your Baptist, Presbyterian, or Anglican Church or Lutheran Church is a sin
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against God. But we can certainly attend funerals, and we should. Every
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person made in the dignity it made the image of God. It has a
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unique dignity, and we should, for any kind of funeral, of any
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religion and of no religion at all, pay it absolute respect. Across ourselves,
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bow our heads, say a prayer for all all who die, no
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matter how bad they are. Remember we're supposed to pray for our enemies.
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I mean, if the worst you know, Satan worshiper or something dies,
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we still have a Christian duty to say a prayer for them. Asaom bin
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Laden, I mean yeah, probably you know, the most the worst man
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in my lifetime. Oh and I've heard that he was killed. I said
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a prayer for him. That's my Christian duty. Doesn't mean I'm you know,
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I have any feeling or care or fondness for that horrible monster. But
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as a Christian, as a Catholic, we have a duty to pay due
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homage to God's creation. So we say a prayer for the dead, no
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matter even it's Charles Manson. Even if it's Charles Manson, we say a
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prayer for him. It's just, you know, may not do him any
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good, it does us good because we're following the teachings of Christ. So
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he continues others again that they did not deny their religion or ashamed of it
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because in many countries there is religion of the poor, or because Catholics are
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not allowed to believe what they like. Very true, especially in you know,
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early America, England. You know, there were a law whoa seventeen
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sixty or something, seventeen thirty to restrict the spread of papism or something in
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England. I mean basically, to keep Catholics out of positions of any influence
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or power or wealth. They did everything they could to keep Catholics poor and
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to the fringes and ostracize, and yeah, a lot of people, a
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lot of Catholics have even become members of them sonic order for financial reasons.
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And unfortunately, whether they knew it or not, that bears with it,
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brings with it automatic excommunication. He says, the emperor Constantinus Constantius, I
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guess it is Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, once ordered that all
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his servants, whom he knew were Christians, to sacrifice to false gods.
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Those who obeyed he dismissed from his service. Those who refused he promoted to
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places. Those he refused, he promoted the places he sent away. In
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other words, it was a test. If people would deny their religion and
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sacrifice to false gods, he didn't wan anything to do with them. He
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who apostizes from the faith is even worse than he who denies it from worldly
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motives. Solomon, who God had filled with divine wisdom in his old age
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was persuaded by his heathen wives to apostaize from the true religion and to worship
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false gods. The Emperor Julian the Apostate fell away from the Christian religion and
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became a cruel persecutor. In the present day, it too often happens that
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Catholics give up their faith through motives of worldly interest, or because they want
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to marry a Protestant, or sometimes because they quarrel with a priest. That
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does happen quite often. A vicious and sinful life often prepares the way for
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apostasy. No good man, from the time of our Lord till now has
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ever fallen away from the Catholic faith. The tree must be rotten from within
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before is blown down by the wind. The wind does not scatter the grains
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of corn, but the empty husks. He who apostasizes crucifies the son of
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God afresh. He commits a sin almost in part. He ceases to belong
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to the Church, and can no longer call God his father, as for
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Saint Cyprian, as for as Saint Cyprian says, he cannot have God for
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his father, who has not the Church for his mother. The Catholic must
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therefore keep far away from all occasions which could endanger his faith. For he
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who loses his goods loses much. He who loses his life loses more.
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But he who loses his faith loses all. So let's say a prayer for
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the idiot Mike Pince, and the idiot Sean Hannity and the damaged child Glenn
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Beck. Glenn Beck was raised Catholic in a mixed faith family. His mother
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was Catholic, his father was not. He did not get a firm foundation.
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As mother commits suicide, he blamed the church for it and is now
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a Mormon. He will be judged far less harshly than Sean Hannity and Mike
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Pence, both of whom had good Catholic education from good Catholic families. And
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pray for me, and I'll pray for you, and let's pray for each
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other and ourselves that we may never fall away from the faith of becoming apostate.
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But so far as I'm concerned, you know, I never thought Sean
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Handy was very bright, But the minute he said he had left the Catholic
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Church, I turned his show off. I've caught him maybe a couple of
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times on the radio when I'm driving. There's nothing else on. I've lost
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essentially all respect for the man. And what are you going to do?
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I mean, what matters more? You have fun in church. There's a
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lot of singing and holding hands and jumping up and down, which is what
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happens in an evangelical church. There's a lot of fellowship. Yeah, it's
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fun if you're into that kind of thing. The Catholic Church is the one
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true faith, the one true religion. And I mean, you want to
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see what an apostate it will do that will turn his back on his faith.
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Look what Mike Pence did to Donald Trump and to all of us when
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he refused to fulfill his constitutional role and challenge and obviously stole an election.
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He who will betray his church and his God will not hesitate to stab you
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in the back a million times over. Mike Pence is essentially dead to me.
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I would not vote for him for dog catcher. I would not inflict
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that punishment upon dogs. He is not a good man. He's a self
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righteous man. So Sean Hannity, boy, both of them think they just
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both they hung the moon. They'll go on praising themselves for hours but they
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laughed God in his church and they knew better for some upbeat, peppy music.
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You know, our Catholic churches are not a friendly place. I wish
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they were more friendly. They should be, honestly, but you know,
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we come in to Mass and we're silent where we honor God in the sacrament.
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We do greet each other with a sign of peace, which is perfunctory
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and you know, really not even efficacious in my opinion. I mean,
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if someone says, turn around, shake the person's hand behind you, I
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don't care if that person's shaking my hand. The person doesn't speak to me
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walking in, they don't speak to me walking out, Why the hell I
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don't want to shake their hand? You know, I'm sorry, but you're
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going to be unfriendly in the parking lot. Why would I want to be
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friendly to you in the church. We should have a lot more time for
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fellowship. We should have picnics togethers and meals togethers, and there should be
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all kinds of opportunities for Catholics to actually get to know each other. You
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know, i' I've been attending the same parish now for ten years, and
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I know the priest, I know a couple of the Church secretary. I
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don't there is no opportunity to get to know any one of the church.
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That is really not good, that is wrong, and our church needs to
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address that. But by no means would I ever leave the Catholic Church.
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No. I mean, I'm a single guy. I'm forty six years old.
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Yeah, I'm lonely. I mean my number one goal in life was
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to marry and have a family and children of my own. And I can't
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meet a single Catholic woman where I live. There is no opportunity. There
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are very few, if any, in the first place, between the age
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of eighteen and eighty. Okay, the Catholic Church should be much more understanding
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of the social needs of its parishioners. But I'll die before I leave the
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Catholic Church. There is no comfort. There is no lure in a Protestant
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church that would force me to leave the Catholic Church, that would entice me
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to leave the Catholic Church. I will literally die before I leave the Catholic
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Church. I mean, if Muslim terrorists come in and say, you know,
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we'll shoot anybody, will cut off the head of anybody who professes Christ,
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let me say, okay, So be it, I'll die a martyr
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and going to heaven. How how seemingly average intelligence men I won't say either
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of them have ever seen that bright like Sean Hannity and Mike Pence could leave
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the Catholic Church married men who don't need a lot of social opportunity, okay,
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just to go have their little parties on. You know, that's what
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a Protestant, you know, evangelical service is. It's just like basically a
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big party. There's a lot of music and jumping up and down, and
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everybody's happy and slapping. You leave the true faith for that. I don't
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get it. I don't get it. I sacrificed a lot to become Catholic.
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I sacrifice friends, I sacrificed. You know what father Sparagua say about
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many Catholics leave the church. Samaria Protestant, Well, I was dating a
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very very beautiful, tall lie six foot tall, I think she was maybe
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six's one. Actually I'm six' four, so I don't often meet
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a girl my height, slender, beautiful model and actress. It was Protestant,
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and she originally said she would consider conversion to Catholicism, but then she
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said no, if I didn't become Presbyterian, she wouldn't marry me, and
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I said goodbye. I mean, yeah, we're going to suffer for being
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Catholics, that's what we're promised. But to leave the Catholic Church for anything
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on this earth is more than I can even fathom. So anyway, I
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guess we need to pray for Sean Handy and Mike Pence and all the other
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heretics. Let's go with heretics. I was going to say something far more
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offensive, and in the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope and
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don't worry, and I'll talk to you all tomorrow and have a good one.