Not long ago, one of my adult children spent hours pummeling me and the Church. The waves of her anger struck repeatedly, tossing me like a small boat in a storm.
With the bitterness of a woman betrayed, she recited the sins of bad priests we knew, and catalogued the failings of Catholic laymen and bishops we trusted.
"I believed," she cried.
"I believed, while those bastards lied and sneaked about, doing the very things they preached against!"
* * *
What could I say?
I won't defend the indefensible.
So, like Peter in that boat
tossed by an earlier storm,
I kept myself focused on Jesus.
"They betrayed us," I agreed.
"But they betrayed Jesus more.
"He condemned these sins centuries ago.
If you thought He was wrong to do so,
you wouldn't be upset today. Your anger shows that even when priests violate them, you think Christ's teachings ---
the Church's teachings --- are right."
That just made her angrier,
so when she comes to Easter dinner
this Sunday, I'll just have
to avoid the topic.
* * *
You know, when I entered the Church
as an adult, I had a profound
admiration for priests.
My faith was so great that I founded Sophia Institute Press to bring back into print the fine Catholic books that had won
me to the Faith, and that --- I was sure --- would convert others, too.
Now, at last count, five of the priests
I've admired for their orthodoxy have
been implicated in the sex scandals,
and one is deep in jail.
That fact didn't make it easy for me
to answer my daughter's charges.
Like Peter, I was left only with Jesus.
Jesus gave sinful Peter the power
to walk on water.
Jesus keeps us from drowning when the world attacks us
and assails our wounded Church.
And Jesus guarantees that,
despite the sins of Her members,
the Church Herself is perfect.
Fr. Ronald Knox explains how
in a remarkable little book,
The Church on Earth, which we
published a couple of years ago.
There he notes that, unlike the
Protestant churches, the Catholic Church
is not a system that men, after prayer and deliberation, devised as the best scheme they could think of for perpetuating
the work of their Master, Jesus.
On the contrary,
the Catholic Church is directly God's handiwork: in the New Testament
Jesus Himself instituted the Sacraments and established the Church,
placing Peter at its head.
Since God Himself established our Church, we must believe that it is perfectly designed to lead souls to perfection;
and that it does so when they abide
by Her teachings and partake
of the graces She affords them.
Had I remembered just this one point
from Msgr. Knox's slim book,
the conversation with my daughter
-- and with others who assail the
Church for the sins of her members -- would have gone much better.
* * *
You know, this past quarter-century
I've published hundreds of books like
The Church on Earth, which, in just a paragraph, can make the difference between faith lost and faith regained.
Indeed, I've brought forth into the world
over two million copies of books by the very best Catholic authors, living and dead -- authors whose holiness and wisdom continually draw souls to the Church
(the perfect Church) that Christ
founded 2,000 years ago.
Now, however, all this is threatened.
Slow sales this spring have
left us with an empty checkbook and overdue bills approaching $50,000.
If I don't pay this soon,
we'll have to cease publishing.
Catholics will no longer have access
to the scores of books we've published by
St. Francis de Sales
,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Bishop Fulton Sheen,
St. Robert Bellarmine,
Fr. Lawrence Lovasik,
and many other good Catholics.
(See sidebars on this page and
our website.)
* * *
Can you help?
Could you buy a copy of
The Church on Earth or perhaps
one of our other books?
And could you buy a few more
books as gifts for other?
If you can't afford that, could you contribute just one dollar?
If you buy a book or two, or give a dollar, and everyone else who receives this email does the same, our doors will stay open; these books will stay in print; and we'll have enough to publish many more Catholic books -- books that will draw souls everywhere to the perfect Church that God so lovingly established
for us men and for our salvation.
Thank you, and on this Holy Thursday, please pray for us . . . and for my daughter.
Sincerely yours,
John L. Barger, Publisher
Sophia Institute Press
1-800-888-9344
Box 5284, Manchester, NH
03108 USA 1-603-641-9344