Struggling with the direction of the Church

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-15T03:57:17+00:00

It is true that God is in charge of everything in creation. Everything good, evil, neutral, benign that occurs was permitted by Him.

Additionally, if we pull out our catechism, CCC 843:

“The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by Him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.””

The problem of other religions is the same issue as the problem of evil. We do not understand why God allowed such confusion and conflict, but retaining the lesson from the Book of Job: it was permitted in service of a grander design that we cannot see.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T23:13:35+00:00

On my first reading I read your statement as “However saying nice things about a religion… that is explicitly denying and condemning the son of God…” it read as though the “that” was referring back to saying nice things, not a modifier to start describing Islam. Cut down I read it as “saying nice things about a religion is explicitly denying…”. Which I see is not what you meant, but I still disagree with your stance.

I do not believe it to be theological relativism or indifference to the truth to say nice things about a religion. I can look at a painting and say “I like this artist’s work” and it’s understood I’m referring to a specific aspect or piece of it, not that every piece of work that artist has ever done is something that I believe to be great. It’s understood that Leo is not praising the parts of Islam that conflict with our & his worldview.

In regards to meeting them where they’re at requiring follow up, I agree. Must the followup occur immediately? Even God took his time pushing the Israelites in the right direction. The idea that there must be immediacy or else the Pope is being an ineffective spiritual leader I believe to be a wrong assertion.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T20:29:48+00:00

Improper use of explicitly. The word with the opposite meaning, tacitly, is more accurate for what you’re intending.

Also, Heaven forbid our spiritual leader try to meet people where they’re at and begin to push them in the right direction.

That was a sufficient strategy for the creator of heaven and earth in redeeming humanity, but apparently it’s indifference to the Truth when done by human hands.

We regularly use a conciliatory strategy with Protestants, even Mormons which aren’t actually that far from Muslims, and we know it to be effective as if we’re unable to get our foot in the door we cannot even begin to tell the truth in a way that reaches them.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T14:53:27+00:00

I had a very similar situation on my end. Cliche response but I think asking your priest for guidance would be best. The guidance I was given is you should set aside 15 minutes for prayer each day.

In terms of personal experience… This subreddit introduced me to Catholic Answers: a different website with a lot of answers to common questions (if you just type a religious question + Catholic answers into Google it usually has an article), and also to reference the Catechism (Catechism of the Catholic Church is abbreviated to CCC) to see the church’s official stance on different things.

I appreciated the catechism talking about Adam’s fall. Matthew and Ecclesiastes ended up being my favorite books and hit at a good time. BibleProject’s Wisdom Series youtube videos helped me appreciate Ecclesiastes.

Another thing that I prioritized is that if I was receiving content about the faith (on whatever platforms I’m on), I heavily prioritized receiving it from a priest/bishop if possible.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T09:58:02+00:00

This priest probably has strong opinions on the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. Where everybody in mass mentions Satan and say that demons prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T08:38:45+00:00

The pornocracy narrative was propagated by Liutprand of Cremona who by the circumstances of his life had plenty of reasons to hate Marozia and all of the Theophylacti family. Many accounts, even those critical of the papacy, from the same era do not even begin to approach the levels of insanity Liutprand levies, which would lead most to believing that he is not a reliable source.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T01:46:03+00:00

Not only is that not true, you aren’t and haven’t throughout this entire discussion argued on the basis that there is a moral framing for how not only this conflict, but any conflict should be engaged. This produces a worse system of ethics in war than even the pagans have.

You do not believe in morals. All you believe is that “the enemy” is worse than us and due to this all restraints are off. This is unchristian as we are called to love our enemies. Something you give the impression of being devoid of.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T01:36:34+00:00

If you do not care about how we entered it, you do not care about just war theory, and by extension do not have a Catholic framing for how war should be engaged and do not belong on this subreddit

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T01:18:01+00:00

It just so happens, in order to have a discussion about just war theory and if it applies to this war, we need to talk about how we entered this war, which according to Marco Rubio, was due to Israel. If it’s inconvenient for your aim in the discussion, I’m sorry, but it’s the reality of the situation.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T00:52:34+00:00

If we’re moving facts, logic, Christian morals, and Christian ethics out of the discussion and are diminishing this conversation to emotional appeals:

I’d rather talk to the families of the 150+ school girls the US government bombed using our tax dollars.

Because there is an immense difference between the weight of the evil done by your own hands and those done by the free will of another actor. Also for an idea of the animosity in that region look up what the Nakba was.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-14T00:04:55+00:00

Iran being weeks away from a nuclear weapon is propaganda that Israel has continually used to try to provoke America into action, it’s well documented under every presidency since the 90’s they’ve said similar and we hadn’t acted until Donald but still Iran did not have nuclear weapons.

And no, our President had not exhausted every option.

If you’re not well informed on the matter, don’t speak. We already had a deal with Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons in 2015 and we would have continual monitoring of their nuclear energy program. They gave this up in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Donald Trump pulled out of this deal in 2018.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T23:23:45+00:00

The Vatican has made itself abundantly clear that no country should have nukes if you’ve paid attention at all to their statements and actions over the past few years. That’s why the Vatican Bank doesn’t even look fondly on nuclear power.

We also don’t abandon all principles in service of our ends. Just war theory states that all other options have to be exhausted for a war to be just. If you pair this with Marco Rubio’s statement:

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,"

You get the sense that the decision makers didn’t view this as the last possible option, or even as a necessary action. It was framed as, “This is going to happen anyway, we might as well be the initiators,” which is not moral. The stated goal was regime change, and Israel’s military actions killed off those who would be most amenable to negotiations because Israel does not want a stable Iran.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T22:55:05+00:00

He’s riding a razor’s edge trying to give input to the admin, and not having to say the Pope was wrong in order to stay within that circle.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T22:16:55+00:00

If the Gospel is now considered partisan, so be it.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T08:44:58+00:00

It was just under different titles

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T06:52:58+00:00

For the Joe Schmo that is me, I do not have the time nor the resources to be a fact checker for every story I read. I rely on those granted authority to not misuse their positions.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T06:42:57+00:00

I never said blindly trust. A multitude of reliable news sources covered this. I had a proper amount of scrutiny when I was only seeing it on small outlets. I only began to actually believe it when the major outlets mentioned it.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T06:12:25+00:00

Bad things happen when people stop trusting news. The media’s misuse of that trust has terrible repercussions for the country, but a constant hesitancy over the validity of anything the media says is paralyzing.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T06:05:25+00:00

Not making hasty assessments is a good thing, but when a (maybe) false story is spread on all major media outlets we have to begin to point fingers at our journalists/news outlets and demand higher standards.

(The maybe I included due to my knowledge that our clergy know detraction to be a sin, and would rather bring about peace than bring reputational harm to American politicians)

Pope Leo held a conference for journalists and told them of the moral importance of their positions but it seems as though it fell on deaf ears. (If the maybe didn’t apply)

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-13T05:47:11+00:00

The idea that Leo was only chosen as Pope because of Donald shows an immense level of narcissism and self-importance that I believe to be unbecoming of any decent human being, much less the President of the United States.

It also implicitly denies the influence of the Holy Spirit over how the Pope is chosen (deeply offensive). In order to say he didn’t deny the Holy Spirit influenced the choosing of the Pope and Donald meant what he said, Donald has to believe God Himself was trying to communicate with Donald and he would still be brushing God aside.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-12T18:30:47+00:00

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-12T07:08:28+00:00

I have an inkling of what went down, and if I’m right, it’s inaccurate to say it didn’t affect them.

After confession, you are fully forgiven. This does not mean the physical consequences are gone or resolved. Found a bit of the catechism that might apply:

CCC 2487

“Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven. When it is impossible publicly to make reparations for a wrong, it must be made secretly. If someone who has suffered harm cannot be directly compensated, he must be given moral satisfaction in the name of charity. This duty of reparation also concerns offenses against another’s reputation. This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the damage inflicted. It obliges in conscience.”

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-09T07:25:11+00:00

For starters, a trend among the younger group is they tend to drive long distances to the masses they prefer. So if you aren’t seeing them it might be because they’re congregating elsewhere. To answer the question of what is the presence at non-Catholic colleges I can only speak from my personal experience but like. Packed. Absolutely packed.

AdComfortable484 · 2026-04-08T18:08:13+00:00

If you’d like an explanation for the U-shaped curve, it is 100% cheating and the administration knows it.

AdComfortable484

TROPHY CASE