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Show 133: FOUNDATION AND SPREAD OF THE CHURCH · The Uncensored Catholic

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A b he. Y'all, welcome today's show. We will continue with the
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Anglican who is questioning the priests and the classic work radio replies, and then
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we'll get into fairly fascinating subject actually the foundation and spread of the church.
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So the person asks the priests, Rumble and cardi have not the patriarchs of
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the Orthodox Church admitted Anglican orders? And they answer, firstly, there is
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no such thing as a united Orthodox Church. That's you know, people get
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really confused about that, but it is. The Greek Orthodox Church is very
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different from the Russian Orthodox Church. For instance, there is some unity,
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there's a great deal of division, and there's a great deal of disagreement.
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The Greek Orthodox Church was very ready to reconcile with the Catholic Church and become
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Catholic. I guess it was what the sixties seventies, and the Russians said,
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absolutely not put their foot down. You know, that was a matter
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of really Soviet influence. Now the Russian Orthodox Church tends to be a bit
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more solid in its biblical beliefs and practices. You know, there's lacking a
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pope, they lack leadership. The pope has a final say on all matters
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of morals and doctrine. Without a pope, you don't have that. There's
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no like one central figure that can tell all Orthodox churches this is truly what
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we believe. And you know, there's almost more like a council. You
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know. Imagine if we had the cardinals with no pope, and they got
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together for their fairly ridiculous synods every now and then, and some of them
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said this, and some of them said that, and depending on what nation
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you're in, you pretty much followed the ones that follow the opinion of your
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leaders. That's kind of what it boils down to. And I know that's
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a broad statement. Some will take a issue with it, but historically,
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yeah, it has not been in any way a unified church. But they
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say there is no such thing as a unified Orthodox Church, nor can the
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admissions of one or two sections of that church be quoted as the universal judgment
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of the Greek Church. Secondly, the Greek bishops do not claim infallibility.
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They may say this is our opinion, but they cannot add and our opinion
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is certainly true. In other words, the admissions of some isolated Greek patriarchs
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prove nothing. That's why you need a pope. Thirdly, such opinions,
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as some patriarchs may have expressed, was based upon defective information. They could
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judge only upon the information given them, but the true facts were not put
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before them. High churchmen submitted to exposition of the case, against which Anglican
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newspapers in England protested strongly as being a most distorted view of the Church of
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English principles. The verdict of a misinformed Greek bishop cannot avail against the verdict
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of a well informed Anglican bishop such as Bishop Knox. And you know,
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really, any unity, I might say among the Anglicans and Orthodox fell apart
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again in the sixties and seventies when the Anglican Church demanded that they ordain female
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priests. That ended any talk of reconciliation essentially between the Anglican and Catholic Church,
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or true unity between the Anglican and Orthodox Church. And of course,
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now the Anglicans ordained homosexuals and practice gay marriage. You're not going to get
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a whole lot of Orthodox agreeing with that. Whatsoever person says, is the
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decision of Rome regarding Anglican orders irrevocable? And they answered, yes, it
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is an infallible decision concerning a secondary object connected with and necessary for the defense
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of revealed dogma. We have to accept the decision not from a motive of
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divine faith, but because of the infallible authority of the Church. The question
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was submitted to a thorough and even sympathetic consideration, the Pope, knowing that
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if Anglican orders could be admitted as valid to as valid, the road to
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reunion would be much easier. But the evidence compelled the Pope to declare them
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invalid. Pope Leo the thirteenth definitely adopted this decision of the appointed Commission and
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published the condemnation Condemnation with his own infallible authority to support it. No Anglican
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clergyman could officiate in the Catholic Church without being ordained by a Catholic bishop.
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And the person continues, well, at least you cannot quarrel with Anglican teaching.
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And of course they said, I am afraid I would have to ask
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you to tell me what you believe to be the teaching of the Anglican Church.
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Anglicans hold all kinds of contradicting, conflicting beliefs. Doctor Gore writes a
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book on the Church of English doctrine, and Bishop Barnes flatly contradicts it.
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I have a dozen Anglican books on the Church of engl doctrine, and all
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explain it differently. Anglican teachings, however, do conflict those that are of
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Christ. And this person says, can you tell me how, And they
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say, all Anglicans at least accept an Erastian Church subject to political and parliamentary
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authority in England and throughout the world. They deny the necessary of necessity of
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submission to the lawful authority of the successor of Saint Peter, the present Bishop
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of Rome. Again, half the members of the Anglican Church say that they
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believe in the real presence of Christ and the Eucharist, and have say they
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do not believe in the real presence of Christ and the Eucharist. Now Christ
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said hear the church. If the Anglican Church were the true church, which
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half must men believe as the teaching church. As a teaching church, Anglicanism
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fails and is compelled to tolerate such men as Bishop Barnes who openly deny the
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explicit doctrines of Christ. And the person answers well we Anglicans have the same
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Apostles Creed as you Catholics. And they answer, you recite the same creed.
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It's very important you recite the Apostles Creed in the Methodist Church. I
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believe we did in the Presbyterian I do not recall ever reciting the Creed in
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a Baptist church, but the Creed was recited in the Methodist Church. They
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say, you recite the same creed, but you do not believe in the
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true Catholic sense. Catholics recite and accept the Apostles Creed in Practicelicans recite it.
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All anglic Can say, I believe in Jesus Christ has only signed our
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Lord. Many Anglicans do not believe he is truly the son of God.
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All Anglicans say, born of the Virgin Mary, but many to deny the
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virginity of Mary. And you're not gonna find a whole lot of Methodists that
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believe in the perpetual virginity of for the blessed Virgin Mary. All Anglicans say,
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I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, but none of them joins it,
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or if he does, he ceases to be an Anglican. Actually,
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in the Methodist version of the Creed, we have a little asterisk that says
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Catholic means universal. Well, that's true. Catholic does mean universal, and
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all Christians in the universe are supposed to be part of the one church called
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Catholic founded by Jesus Christ. Otherwise there is no church where the Methodist doctrine
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has no more authority than the universalist Unitarian doctrine, which, yeah, that's
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pretty confused, or the Mormon doctrine, which denies the divinity of Christ.
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All angler can say, I believe in the community of the Saints, but
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few dare enter into communication with the Saints, And yeah, you're not going
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to find any Methodists that I know of, or Baptist certainly, or Presbyterians
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that pray to the Saints as the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church has practice
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for over two thousand years now. All say I believe in the forgiveness of
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sins, but the vast majority ignore the sacrament of confession, and most Protestants
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will tell you flat out only Jesus can forgive sins, No man can forgive
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sins. You turn to the Gospel John, where it says those who sins
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you forgive or forgiven, and those who sins you retain or retained. And
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they're dumbfounded. They've never even heard that passage before. If they have,
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they try to explain it away in the most convoluted sense one can possibly imagine.
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The truth is the pre in the confessional has the full authority of Jesus
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Christ to forgive or refuse to forgive sins. Anglicans may recite the Creed,
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but most Anglicans certainly do not realize what the words imply. And I think,
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yes, I think that is a very true statement of any Protestant church
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that recites the Apostles Creed. Now, let's get into the thrust of today's
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program, which is from Father Sparaga's classic work, The Exhaustive Explanation of the
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Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Foundation and Spread of the Church. Christ
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compare the Church to a grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of
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seeds, but grows into a tree in which the birds of the air build
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their nests. Now, if you're a gardener, if you grew up on
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a farm, if you know what the plant we call mustard is, you
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may find that a little confusing. The mustard seed that he referred to was
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actually the seed of a tree, not the mustard we ze greens, not
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the mustard we make the condiment mustard out of. And it was a large
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spreading tree that grew in the desert, which would give shade to people.
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You know, that's the first thing people get wrong. They're like, mustard
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seed, mustard only grows about a foot talk. Well, no, actually,
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that's yet another reason why you need to rely on sacred tradition to explain
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the words of the Bible, because that's a very clear instance in which the
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same word has two very different meanings. Jesus spoke Aramaic, and the people
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of his time would know exactly the plant he was discussing, a seed that
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grows into a large tree, not the mustard you spread on your hot dog
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or the delicious mustard greens we Southerners love to eat with our corn bread and
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barbecue or fried chicken. And it is delicious. It's actually my favorite green.
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I love mustard, I love turnips, I love collars, but mustard
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just I love it. It's just, you know, I try to grow
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some every year. My grandparents, my great grandparents, grew it, and
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I am sure you know, my Pentecostal holiness great grandfather at some point looked
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at it out at his field of mustard greens and thought, that doesn't make
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a lot of sense. It's not a tree. Well, it was,
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in Jesus's time a completely different species, a completely different plant entirely. Point
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number one. Christ laid the foundation of the church when in the course of
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his teaching he gathered a number of disciples, and he chose twelve of these
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to preside over the rest, and one to head all. I believe it
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was seventy two disciples he sent out to heal the sick and expel demons.
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He gave them authority. He didn't give it to anybody else. Okay,
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he had at the time, you know, as before his teaching on the
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Eucharist, thousands of people following him and listening to his words and believing him
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to be the Messiah. He chose, hand picked seventy two people and gave
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them the authority his authority. He chose the apostles, and on Pentecost Sunday,
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which we'll talk character a second, they were given the Holy Spirit,
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along with the blessed Virgin Mary, who is to be a mother to the
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Church, as she was a mother to Christ, and they were given the
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full authority and power of God to speak, act, and teach in his
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stead. No one else on earth, and no one else on earth has
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ever or will ever have that authority unless ordained through apostolic succession. Which you
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bind on earth will be bound in Hiven, which you lose on earth will
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be loosed in Heaven. When you see, you know, some Protestant storefront
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church or something that says apostle John Smith or disciple Alex Jones, I don't
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know, Alex, he'd be a good one white, but they have no
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authority. Apostolic succession means that the priest is ordained by a bishop who was
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ordained by a bishop who was ordained by a bishop, going back two thousand
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years to the original Apostles. And as we discussed yesterday regarding the Anglican Church,
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when that apostolic succession is broken, no one has the authority to preach,
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teach, act, or much less form a church with the authority of
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Christ. The Church first began its life on Pentecost, when some three thousand
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people were baptized. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. After the miracle
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at the Gate of the Temple, some two thousand more were baptized. We
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must always remember when people make anti Semitic statements, approximately half of all Jews
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converted to Christianity in the first one hundred years of the church. Our early
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church was almost entirely Jewish, all the apostles were, and then they started
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bringing some Greeks and Samaritans and such. But yes, we have a Jewish
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christ and we have a Jewish Church. That should never be questioned actually because
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well it's well documented in the Bible. We know exactly who these people were
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are living in heaven and to you know, we have as Christians, we
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have disagreements with our Jewish brothers and sisters over matters of religion and doctrine and
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faith and belief. And you know, we're not commanded to be Zionists by
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any sense of the word. But you know, there's still our family in
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God. And to hate a person because they're Jewish is actually to hate Jesus
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because he's Jewish, and you know that's that's not a good thing to do.
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So, you know, Catholics are required required not to be racist,
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not to be anti Semitic. You know it says in the Bible there's no
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longer Jew or Gentile. We're all Christians. Well yeah, I mean we
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don't have to agree on everything. We can try our best to get along
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with Muslims and Buddhists and everybody, because everybody's made in God's image. No
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one is born genetically contemptible. Would that be a good way to put it.
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Bigotry is absolutely not allowed for Catholics. And you know, the Communists
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love to go back and say, well, look, you know all these
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Germans and Nazis were Catholic. Yeah, well, they also renounced their Catholic
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faith when they became Nazis because that ideology was not compatible with Christianity. Neither
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is Communism. They excommunicated themselves when they became Nazis or Communists or any variety
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of socialists. Really point number three. Soon after the descent of the Holy
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Ghosts, the apostles began to preach the Gospel throughout the world in accordance with
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the commands of Christ Mark sixteen fifteen, and founded Christian communities in many places.
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Saint Paul, after his conversion thirty four AD, labored more abundantly than
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all the Apostles at First Corinthians fifteen ten. He traveled Asia Minor, the
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greater part of southern Europe, and many islands of the Mediterranean. After him,
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Saint Peter labored most. After escaping by a miracle from prison in Jerusalem,
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he founded his sea at Rome, where, in company with Saint Paul,
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he suffered martyrdom. That's right. Protestants will say, there's no evidence
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Peter was ever in Rome. Yeah, actually there is. We know where
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he was buried, and in the first century at church was built over it,
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and it's now his bones are under the altar of Saint Peter's Basilica.
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And we have both Christian history and Roman history that discusses his martyrdom in Rome
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under Nero, where he requested to be crucified upside down because he said he
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wasn't worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Christ, and preached to
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the Pagans as he was being tortured to death and converted many by his words.
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There is far more historical evidence for Saint Peter being in Rome than really
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ninety percent of the events in the Bible. You know, we have multiple
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sources on one one source on the other there's more evidence for Saint Peter being
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the Pope in Rome. We have early Christians writing of him and to him,
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we have the record of his martyrdom, we have the whole but absolutely
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well documented by multicultural traditions. There's more evidence than that. There is all,
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say, the sinking of the Lusitania being a just cause of what World
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War? World War One. I mean, we can actually look back at
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history and say, well, we can question many events in history, and
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because we only have you know, certain sources, what we know of the
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sinking of Lusatania was actually you know, came from one source. Our government
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seems looking back at history, they probably knew what was going to happen,
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and it was kind of maybe a setup because the president wanted us to get
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involved in World War One when we really had no business doing so. We
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can also wonder, you know, the Japanese mom Pearl Harbor. We saw
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our intelligence sources and other nations were telling us they were on their way like
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days in advance, and somehow they hit us unaware. That's questionable. Gosh,
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there's so many things that are questionable. The reasons for the Civil War,
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you know, I mean, we go through history and questions many things
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because they only come from one source. There are multiple sources and in actual
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historical archaeological evidence. I mean, you think the millions of Mormons in this
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world, in this nation today, believe based only on the testamenty of Joseph
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Smith, that there were these great cities built by Native Americans before the white
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man ever got here, right, and then after the Resurrection Jesus appeared and
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preached to the Indians. We can't find one single shred of archaeological evidence that
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would even say that was even slightly possible. There were no cities, I
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mean were there were no cities. Now you go down in New Mexico and
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like the Mayans. But he didn't claim that it was to the Mayans.
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He said here right here in North America, right, and we know the
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Mayans and the Aztecs and the Olmecs and the toltext well documented their religion.
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There was certainly no Jesus in it. I mean, the Aztecs were cannibals,
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as were many Native American tribes. Actually, we can find pits,
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piles of human bones with teeth marks. We can't find an ancient city.
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There are no buildings, there's no archeological evidence. But the Mormons believe it
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because Joseph Smith said it. They will tell you flat out that Saint Peter
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was never in Rome because it doesn't say it in the Bible, and Joseph
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Smith didn't say it. We actually have real historical evidence, as real as
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I mean, you know, just the same reason we believe in the crucifixion
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resurrections of Christ. There were multiple sources that wrote about it in the time,
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not just what's recorded in the Bible. The Romans wrote about the Jews
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wrote about it, I mean, the Greeks wrote about it. The historical
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events that took place, the you know, eclipse when he was crucified,
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the message of the Gospel spreading throughout the ancient world. We know this to
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be true because we have contemporary sources. It's like newspapers from the time.
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Look at it that way. Contemporary histories well anyway. But if you're arguing
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with an anti Catholic Protestant who won't read anything except what's written in the Bible
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or by a contemporary author, good luck. I mean, if someone's gonna
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be wilfully ignorant, you can say, well, here's a Roman historian who
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was absolutely opposed to Christianity, who documented all this. They'll say, I'm
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not reading it. I only believe what's in the sixty but sixty six books
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of the King James Bible. Meanwhile, never mind that, you know that's
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not the full Bible. Martin Luther stripped out several books he didn't like.
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But they won't even believe that. It's willful ignorance. It's a wall that
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they put up and it's the only way they can protect their folicious doctrine.
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It's absolutely provable, faults, provably false, but they will not discuss that
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because they can't accept that. It scares them to death to think Catholics may
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be right. It means their parents were wrong, and their grandparents were just
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to start with, and they're wrong, and you know they have no foundation.
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And especially if they call themselves a Protestant minister, explain to them they
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have no right or authority to call themselves a minister, much less to have
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a church that isn't Catholic. And then you're also endangering their income. And
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if they have been divorced once or twice, well what if you tell them
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here in each of the four Gospels Jesus expressly condemns divorce. Explain that to
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me. They'll turn themselves inside out in an effort to do so, but
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they won't accept the plain words of Jesus Christ. All right, So Saint
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Peter's and Paul suffered martyr at Rome. Saint John the Bloved Disciple lived at
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Ephesus with our Blessed Lady and governed over the church in Asia Minor. Again,
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huge amounts of historical evidence for that. We have actual letters going from
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Was it Ironaus? I think yeah, I think it was to say that
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Ironaeus in the first one hundred years of Christianity, actually to Saint John and
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to the Blessed Virgin Mary, correspondence going back and forth. Okay, I
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mean it's it's totally documented and evidenced. But they'll deny that too. His
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brother, Saint James the Greater, traveled as far as Spain and was beheaded
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in Jerusalem forty four a d. His body rests at Compostella. Saint James
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Celeste governed the church in Jerusalem and was cast down from a pinnacle of the
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temple in sixty three a d. Saint Andrew preached to the people living along
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the Lower Danube and died on a cross, and I think the boy can
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pronounced it is aka Achaia. Saint Thomas and Saint Bartholomew made their way to
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the Euphrates and Tigris and as far as India. That's a long journey.
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Saint Simon evangelized Egypt and North Africa. The Apostles established their communities after the
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following plan. Having converted and baptized a number of men in a place,
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they chose assistance to whom they imparted a greater or lesser portion of their own
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powers, And before leaving the place, they made a choice of a successor
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and gave him full powers. In other words, they ordained a bishop and
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priests. Those who received only a small portion of apostolic power were called deacons
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and priests. Those who had ampler faculties. These representatives of the apostles were
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called bishops. Christ gave the apostles the power to choose successors when he gave
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them the self same power which he had received from the Father John twenty twenty
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one. And it was his wish that they should choose successors, For he
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told the apostles that their mission should continue into the end of the world Matthew
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twenty eight twenty Till the end of the world, the Catholic Church will stand
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through Apostolic succession when the gates of Hell will not prevail against it, nor
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will the Martin Luthers and King Henry the Eighths, and John Knoxes and other
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call him pretenders to the throne. Among all the Christian community, that of
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Rome took highest rank because it was presided over by Saint Peter, the chief
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of the Apostles, and because of the head of that community. As successor
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of Saint Peter, the premiscy of Saint Peter was transferred Saint Ignatius, Bishop
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of Antioch in one O seven a D. In a letter to the Christians
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of Rome, begs him not to set him free and calls the Roman community
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the chief community of the holy band of all the faithful. Saint Ironaus,
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Bishop of leone two two a D. Says all the faithful over the whole
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world must conform to the Roman Church on account of its principality. Now that's
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Saint Ironais. Now let's consider this for a minute. Two two a D.
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That is closer to the time of Christ and the time the Apostles were
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alive then, Oh, just say that year nineteen hundred was to the founding
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of America, and we still look to the Constitution as our guide in the
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decoration of independence. They were fully aware of the teachings of the Apostles.
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They were living almost contemporary to him. I believe Saint Irenaeus's teacher, his
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priest actually was taught by Saint was he ordained by Saint Peter or Tate Paul
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and taught by him. I mean this is you know. And Saint Ignatius
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I believe lived to be a very long age. He actually knew them personally,
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So I mean, this is what the earliest church taught. That Rome
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was superior. When you know the pope speaks, he speaks with the mouth
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of God. And actually Martin Luther had to admit in one of his diaries
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that Christ came to him in a dream and said, Luther, why do
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you seek the keys to my kingdom? I left them with Peter, and
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there they shall remain. His tongue is my tongue and his mouth is my
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key case. That's from memory. It could have been his tongue as my
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key and his mouth as my key case. Even Martin Luther had to admit
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that Jesus Christ himself told him he did not have the authority of the pope.
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All Christian communities which have been formed in the course of time possessed the
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same faith and acknowledged the same means of grace and the same hint hints.
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They formed one large community, the Catholic Church. All Christians in the known
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universe at the time were Catholic Hints. They used the word universal Church point
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number four. When the great persecutions broke out, the Church spread more rapidly
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over the earth. During the first three centuries, there were ten persecutions,
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the severest being under Nero and Diocletian in two eighty four to three eight five
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AD later, the latter monster condemning some two million Christians. They were martyred
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in various ways. They were beheaded like Saint a crucified like Saint Peter's stone,
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like Saint Stephen, thrown to the lions like Saint Ignatius of Antioch,
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roasted on the gridirons like Saint Lawrence, drowned like Saint Florian, flayed like
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Saint Bartholomew, casts over cliffs, were from high places like Saint James,
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burned at the scaffold, like Saint Polycarp, buried alive, like Saint Chrysanthus,
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et cetera. The very means adopted to exterminate the Christian religion helped to
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propagate it. The speeches of Christians before their judges often converted the hearers.
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The joy was which they faced death. Their superhuman patience and their love for
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their enemies were powerful influences on the Heathen. Added to this were the miracles
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which often happened during their martyrdoms, for instance, in the case of Saint
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Polycarp and Saint John at the Lattering Gate. In the words of Saint Rupert,
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the martyrs are like the seed which is buried in the earth and sprouts
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and brings forth much fruit, or Saint Leo the Great. If the storm
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scatters the seed, this benefit result. Then instead of some fifty other trees,
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this benefit results that instead of one, some fifty other trees grow up.
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The blood of the martyrs, says Tratrullian, is the seed of the
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Christians. The life of the Christians was then modeled. The life of the
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Christians was then a model, and they abounded in Saints at the risk of
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their life, they prayed to God in the catacombs. Two years of probation
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were demanded of the catechumans before entering reception. It's very important. It used
30:30
to be a lot harder to become Catholic. You didn't just have to go
30:33
to Rcia. You had two years of probation before you could become Catholic.
30:42
When the Roman emperor Constantine the Great had permitted his subjects to become Christians and
30:47
later made Christian the Christian religion the state religion three twenty four AD, the
30:52
church indeed flourished externally, but further and religious discipline soon began to suffer.
30:59
Constantine was led to this step by the appearance of a luminous cross in the
31:02
heavens in three twelve AD, and still more by his Holy mother Saint Helena.
31:07
The following were some of his ordinances. Sundays and feast days were to
31:11
be observed solemnly. The temples of the heathens were being handed over to the
31:15
bishops. The gladiatorial combats and the crucifixion of criminals were forbidden, and many
31:21
churches were built by the miraculous drat of fishes relaid in the fifth chapter of
31:25
Saint Luke, and by the two boats almost sunk with the weight of fish,
31:30
was prefigured the future of the Church, which should suffer schism with the
31:33
increase of its members, while Christians should sink down to earthly things. The
31:38
heresy of Arius in three point eighteen AD began its deadly work and the time
31:44
of Constantine and had a great following. A lot of the early Christian writing
31:48
was against the Arian heresy, and it's very interesting to read because the Arian
31:52
heresy is very much alive and well in Protestantism today, and if they would
31:59
read the early Church, they would realize it's not right. At this time
32:04
also seized the test of the catacumbin so that it was easier to become a
32:07
member of the Catholic Church. Saint Augustine had reason to say, if the
32:09
Church is haraspect external foes, there are many in her Bosom who by their
32:14
unruly life, make sad the hearts of the faithful. In the Middle Ages,
32:20
nearly all Heathen nations began to enter the Church. In Austria about four
32:23
point fifty eight AD, the monks Severn Severeness preached the Gospel for thirty years
32:31
along the banks of the Danube, Saint Gregory the Great and six hundred AD
32:35
Saint Augustine at the head of a number of missionaries to convert England. Eighty
32:42
years later the country was Christian and had twenty six sees. It's amazing how
32:45
quickly I mean. England was once one of the greatest Catholic nations on earth.
32:51
Germany owes most to Saint Boniface, who preached the Gospel there for about
32:55
forty years. Around seven fifty five AD, the Greek monks Saint Cyril and
33:00
Methodius worked among the Slavs, mainly of Bohemian Moravia, with great success.
33:06
The Hungarians were converted by their Holy King Stephen in ten thirty eight AD.
33:09
The Apostolic king, he was called Christianity was gradually introduced into Iceland, Denmark,
33:15
Sweden, Norway, Russia and Poland after one thousand a d. The
33:22
Church was hard pressed by Islam during the Middle Ages. Islamism or mohammedimusim it
33:28
was very hard for me to say as it was called. Mohammedanism was founded
33:31
by Mohammed, a native of Mecca, who gave himself out to be a
33:36
prophet of the one true God and promised sensual joy after death, allowed plurality
33:40
of wives, imposed pilgrige to Mecca, taught fatalism, and after propagating his
33:46
doctrine by fire and sword, was poisoned in six point thirty two by a
33:50
jewis. That's one of the main reasons why Muslims hate Jews so much.
33:53
By the way, she was a great hero who killed a very, very
33:58
evil man. The Quran is a sacred book to the Mohammedans. Mohammedans they
34:05
keep Friday with great solemnity and pray five times a day towards Mecca. Mohammed's
34:09
successors were the Califs, who undertook wars of conquest on a large scale everywhere,
34:15
rooting out the Christian religion. They overran great parts of Asia, North
34:19
Africa, Spain, and the islands of the Mediterraneans. Charles Martel and a
34:22
series of victories between seven thirty two and seven thirty eight ad arrested or prevented
34:29
their advance into France, and ever since their failure in sixteen thirty eight before
34:32
Vienna, their progress in the West was arrested. In addition, the Church
34:37
lost many adherents in the Middle Ages by the Greek Schism, and this kind
34:42
of goes back to what we were talking about earlier. The cause of the
34:45
schism were as follows. The emperors of the East kept trying to make the
34:49
patriarchs of Constantinople independent of Rome, while these were often for their heresies put
34:53
under ban by the councils. In time, it came about that the ambitious
34:59
Photius I guess this is way you pronounced his name, backed up by an
35:01
emperor held council of the Eastern bishops, and broke away from Rome in eight
35:06
sixty seven AD. The succeeding emperor re established the old religion with Rome.
35:12
Two hundred years later, however, the patriarch Michael cerul Laureus renewed the contests
35:19
it around ten fifty four a d. And the schism affected by him lasts
35:22
until present day. They called himself Orthodox Greeks, while we call them schismatic
35:29
Greeks, in opposition to the United Greeks U. N I a t e
35:35
S, who preserved their allegiance to Rome. In later times, many nations
35:42
were newly discovered and countries were converted. The Spaniards and Portuguese led the Van
35:47
of missionary of the missionary enterprise. One of the most famous of these missionaries
35:52
is Saint Francis Xavior, the Apostle to the Indies, who used to call
35:55
the little children together with a bell as he made his way through the cities
36:00
of India, through the islands of Molucca and Japan to teach them the truth
36:05
with religion. In fifteen fifty two AD, he had the gift of tongues
36:07
and baptized some two million heathens. After his death, great works were done
36:13
in China by the Jesuits, especially Ricki and Shawl. Another great missionary is
36:19
Saint Peter Klaver sixteen fifty four, whose work was mostly among the Negroes of
36:23
South America. Yes, in the eighteen Nights they said, negro don't take
36:27
offense to it. Some will, I know Cardinal la Virjieri l'avergerie in our
36:35
own time founding a congregation for the conversion of natives. The College of Propaganda
36:39
was found at Rome in sixteen sixty two for the training of young men from
36:45
all nations for a missionary career. Yeah, propaganda means convincing people essentially.
36:52
It's not always in a negative connotation. At present, some fifteen thousand priests,
37:00
five thousand lay brothers, and fifty thousand nuns are at work and foreign
37:04
missions. Well eighteen nineties. Can we still say that today, that we
37:08
have that many faithful Catholic religious lay brothers, nuns, priests working to convert
37:16
people to Catholicism. I don't know the actual number now, but I don't
37:22
think we have the same zeal that Father spirago. You know, we've lost
37:30
confidence. Multiculturalism, pluralism, socialism, liberalism has taken away that confidence that
37:37
someone just walks up to someone says, you know, let me tell you
37:39
about why you should become a Christian and why other religions fall short. It's
37:45
confrontational. It can also be the best thing that can ever happen to a
37:51
person. I mean, like I said, you may think the Spanish,
37:57
especially at Portuguese, to some extent, they didn't treat Native Americans and South
38:00
Americans especially very well. And that's true. In many cases, the governments
38:05
did not. The priests were kind and open hospitals and schools, and many
38:12
people went from I mean the Native tribes. Your history book won't tell you
38:16
this in high school, but real history will. We're constantly at war practice
38:22
slavery, were often very cruel to each other and many times would eat They
38:27
capture other rival tribes and eat them. You know, when Columbus first landed,
38:31
the first tribe he encountered wanted to form a union with him so that
38:37
he would take his soldiers and capture their rival tribe. And they wanted to
38:39
sell them into slavery to Europe. Well they didn't know what Europe was,
38:43
but they want them out of there, and they were wanted to sell them
38:45
as slaves. They converted to Christianity and have been pretty peaceful and properess ever
38:53
since. I mean, that's not what you're going to be taught in colleges
38:58
these days, but it's the truth. There's been no more, no greater
39:02
force for peace and human rights and prosperity the world has ever seen. In
39:07
the Catholic Church. I don't believe anyone should be forced to convert, obviously
39:14
not, and the church says they shouldn't. You know, at one time,
39:17
if Spain colonized an area and the national religion of Spain was Catholicism,
39:22
anyone who practiced another religion was considered a trader. The same way England declared
39:30
all Catholics to be traders to the crown and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of English
39:37
and Irish Catholics and Scots to some extent, and some Welsh. And you
39:43
know, but we hold up England as this great example and condemn the Spanish
39:47
and the Portuguese and all that. Well, actually that's just the way nations
39:52
work back then. It wasn't the way the Church worked. You know.
39:55
The Church was there advocating for the people and the soul were there, you
40:00
know, saying you accept our rule, or you die, or you get
40:06
sold as a slave. Well, anyway, let's see, we just talked
40:12
about how many people in eighteen nineties were missionaries. The missionaries belonged to the
40:15
most part the Order of Jesuits, which they really need to get back to
40:20
what they were founded for. They've become rather corrupted, we shall say.
40:24
In recent decades. The Franciscans, the Capuchins, the Benedictines and the Lazarus,
40:30
especially the Benedictines, are so responsible for spreading Christianity throughout Europe just by
40:37
founding free hospitals and schools and orphanages. I mean, Christianity spread through charitable
40:45
acts before it became sort of nationalized by certain nations, which you know,
41:00
as I always say, you know, America needs God doesn't need America.
41:05
Well, Spain needed God. God didn't need Spain, and the same it's
41:08
true of France and England and any other nation. Well. Anyway, the
41:14
organizations for the support of the missions of the propagation of Faith and the Holy
41:17
Childhood is a sacred obligation to help in such work, and the efforts of
41:22
non Catholics in this direction may well put us to shame. True, there
41:27
are many good Protestant charities and missionary organizations. Unfortunately now most of them are
41:32
getting paid by the government to help facilitate human trafficking and drug trafficking across the
41:37
border, and are helping promote slavery as opposed to work against it. And
41:42
that's true of both Catholic charities, Lutheran Family Services. Oh so many the
41:47
Methodists, the Seven day Adventists, that there's a Jewish organization, these NGOs,
41:52
these they really need to be abolished. In later times, the church
41:59
has lost many members by the Lutheran Anglican heresies. Martin Luther and Augustinian Monk
42:02
of Erfurt and later teacher in the high school in Wittenberg, took offense because
42:08
he thought that he was not sufficiently held in esteem. At Rome, when
42:14
Pope Leo the tenth, anxious to help complete the building of Saint Peter's,
42:16
gave indulgences to those who should subscribe to the work and set out preachers to
42:21
promulgate these indulgences, Luther came forward with his ninety five propositions on indulgences and
42:27
nailed them to the doors of the church at Wittenberg. These propositions at first
42:30
condemned only the abuses of indulgences by the church, but later went on to
42:35
combat the teaching of the church on the subject, refusing to withdraw them at
42:39
the command of the Pope. He was excommunicating fifteen twenty and also outlawed by
42:44
the Emperor for not answering the summons requiring him to appear before the Council at
42:47
Worms, he saw protection from the Elector at Saxony. His heresy soon spread
42:53
all over Germany and led many led to many religious wars. The name Protestantism
42:59
was soon by the Lutherans' inspires in fifteen twenty nine on account of their protests
43:04
against Catholic doctrines. The Peace of Augsburg secured the Protestants the same rights as
43:09
Catholics. In fifteen fifty five. The Council of Trent set forth the points
43:15
in dispute between Catholics and Protestants in fifteen forty five to sixty three. Luther
43:20
died in fifteen forty six. His chief errors are contained in the following proposition.
43:24
One there is no supreme teaching power of the Church. Two, the
43:28
temporal sovereign has supreme powers and matters ecclesiastical. Three there are no priests,
43:37
seriously. Four. All that is to believe is in the scripture seriously.
43:43
Five. Each may interpret the Holy Scriptures as he likes, as he likes,
43:46
not as you know. Jesus said, not as the Church his apostles
43:51
taught, but as he likes. Six. Faith alone says and good works
43:54
are superfluous. He actually changed the words of Jesus in the Bible to imply
43:59
that the last followers from the fact that man has lost his free will by
44:05
original sin, we believe man has free will. There are no saints,
44:09
he said. There are no saints. There's no Christian sacrifice, no sacrament
44:14
of confession and no purgatory. The Jesuits, founded by Saint Ignatius at Loyola,
44:20
won back many to the fold of the Church. Zwingli and Calvin in
44:23
Switzerland, Henry the eighth and England about the same time helped in Luther's deadly
44:28
work. The errors of the Anglican Church were drawn up later in the form
44:31
of thirty nine articles, which are quite Lutheran in tone. At present this
44:37
was eighteen ninety. The Catholic Church numbers about two hundred and sixty million.
44:42
It's actually quite larger now. These are under the direction of about twelve hundred
44:45
bishops, counting about fifteen patriarchs, two hundred archbishops, twenty prelates prelates with
44:52
the diocese. There's some three hundred and fifty thousand Catholic priests in the whole
44:55
world. I think we have fewer priests now actually, but dear a lot,
45:00
a lot more Catholics in Africa than they used to be, and of
45:02
course in Mexico is South America. You know, this is eighteen nineties.
45:07
You know when he wrote this, the inhabitants of Italy, Spain, France,
45:12
Austria, Belgium and Ireland are nearly all Catholic. I wish that were
45:15
still true. The many may call himselves Catholic, they're just nonpracticing anything lapsed,
45:21
as they might say. In Switzerland, about half are Catholic. In
45:23
Germany over a third of the population. Russia eleven million. That was before
45:28
the revolution. Russia was a very Catholic nation before the Bolsheviks. In Europe,
45:35
about three coreps the entire population of Catholic. In Europe, about three
45:38
coreps are the population of Catholic. And in America there's some eighty million Catholics.
45:43
We have more Catholics now, so America is one that has grown in
45:46
Catholics, whereas obviously Russia and China have decreased and Europe has fallen into the
45:58
complete decay. You know, let's see what he actually said. In the
46:04
Americas, there's some eighty million Catholics, of whom ten million are America in
46:07
the United States, so we actually do have more now. That's a good
46:09
thing. But at that point it was one seventh of the population, with
46:14
Mexico, South and Central America and Brazil being almost entirely Catholic. And unfortunately
46:20
that is not true. The Protestants have especially the Pentecostals have really made huge
46:24
inroads into Brazil. In Asia, there are ten million Catholics in Africa,
46:30
three million. Well now they're a lot more in Africa, so that's good.
46:32
In Australia million the Protestants, comprising the various sects of Lutherans, Calvinist
46:38
Anglicans, et cetera, number one hundred and fifty million at the time.
46:43
You know, this time in eighteen niney there are a whole lot more Catholics
46:45
than there were Protestants. And he goes on and says where they were kind
46:47
of, you know, distributed, and that the year there were at that
46:52
time one hundred million Greek Orthodox you know, this isdemic for US. Now
47:00
we're quite past these numbers. But in eighteen ninety there were one hundred and
47:05
seventy million Muslims and eight million Jews, and of course this is before World
47:12
War Two, so pretty horrible. Anyway. Finally, there are still eight
47:19
hundred million Heathens dwelling for the most part in Africa, India, China,
47:22
and Japan. Unfortunately, now it's far more than eight hundred million Heathens,
47:28
most of which are of no religion whatsoever. Secularist liberals or just plain people
47:35
who have never been introduced or taken interest in Christianity whatsoever, of either the
47:39
Catholic or the Protestant vein. And that's our job. That's why I do
47:45
this show. It's not just say look how great we are as Catholics,
47:50
so we can understand why we're Catholic and as a convert's s important for me
47:54
to say why Catholicism is different to Protestantism. And my hope is that after
47:59
listening to my program and reading my articles and my books and everything, you
48:02
can talk to your Protestant or non religious friends and say, this is what
48:07
we actually believe, you know, if we get all the lies you've been
48:09
told, and this is why we believe it. And I like to give
48:13
you biblical passages so you can actually point out to your prostant friends you know,
48:16
Catholicism is actually very biblical. Protestantism is not. But make those strong
48:23
religious and historical arguments to convince people. But you know, the best way
48:30
to convince someone is to be a person they would like to be like,
48:36
you know, to show them that joy, that faith, that foundation in
48:40
times of trouble, you know, to get married and raise a strong family,
48:45
and not to get divorced, you know, to raise good kids that
48:49
people would want to look up to. Be honest, be fair dealing,
48:52
don't cheat people, don't steal, don't have cheat on your partner and commit
48:57
adultery. And you know, I mean, actually lived a life someone else
49:00
might want to emulate. It's they say, it's not an actual quote.
49:06
You know, preach to the Gospel. Always only use words when you have
49:09
to. I think that's attributed to Augustine. It was a false quote,
49:14
and I may be wrong, but it is true. But it's also very
49:17
important to use words. And to use words, you have to have the
49:22
logical and historical foundation. You have to actually know what you're talking about.
49:27
So that's what I'm hopefully helping you with. That's what I'm hopefully doing in
49:30
my own life. And you know, it's not always easy. Arguments with
49:37
anti Catholics can be really uncomfortable, whether they're atheists or anti Catholic Protestants,
49:44
and usually the Protestants are a lot worse. You at least get some respect
49:47
from someone who doesn't just hate you because you're a Catholic. But that's the
49:52
goal. And in the words of Saint Padre Pio, Pray, hope and
49:58
don't worry, and y'all I will out. Next step