Catholics Unite!

To all non-Catholics: Much of what you are seeing on Social Media and the News about the Roman Catholic Church is NOT, I repeat NOT, who we are, what we believe, and what we do.

To all non-Catholics: Much of what you are seeing on Social Media and the News about the Roman Catholic Church is NOT, I repeat NOT, who we are, what we believe, and what we do.

To all Catholics:
We are supposed to be “making disciples of all men”, not publicly airing our dirty laundry. There is so much more going on in our Church than the scandals. There is so much that COULD be accomplished if we spent our time trying to share the good, the Sacred, the Word rather than what could actually be classified under the heading of gossip.

To me, if nothing good can come out of what you say – it is gossip. If anyone can give me a legitimate and provable “good” that is coming from all of these posts of what is going on with the Bishops, the Vatican, our Diocese, etc., I would love to hear it.

What I see is division. What I see is the devil smiling. What I see is the exact opposite of evangelism. It would be bad enough if it was being discussed in the homes or at the Church – but it is all over Social Media and even the news. Catholic against Catholic. Clergy against Clergy. Laity against Laity. A house divided cannot stand.

It would be bad enough if the audience was all Catholic… but it is not. Even if just posting to friends, I know of no one who has only Catholic friends. I read on at least 10 posts tonight “I am not Catholic, but….”.

How is this helping? Even if you think it is helping, the harm and the damage to evangelism, the fueling of self-righteous behavior, the hatred, the division, the anger, the anxiety it is causing far out weighs any possible good.

So I am begging you – we are the Church founded by Jesus. We are His people. We ARE the ONE HOLY APOSTOLIC CHURCH so I am begging you to please act like it. Whether your are clergy or laity – please just stop it and be the people God has commissioned us to be!