I'm ready for my turn to just play the tree lol

Masalah iman tidak perlu malu, semua proses dan belajar, iman yang benar dari Tuhan tidak gampang seperti orang Kristen katakan.

We're living in strange times. Were it not for the sex abuse scandal, I think Catholics would be more confident than ever about their faith (for reasons I'll tackle in the next paragraph). Great strides have been made to successfully combat those instances, particularly with the sweeping canonical reforms established by Pope Francis in 2019. Even before that, much of the controversy was about the horrors of decades past, yet the stigma persists. Those creeps really did a number on us. It's getting better, but there's still a lot of healing to be done. Nevertheless, from what I can tell, we seem to be experiencing a resurgence, especially among ex-Protestant converts, due to the widespread availability of the work of the early Church Fathers and a less tainted view of Catholic history in general. Everybody online seems to be so tied up the Liturgy Wars and such, but that's only a drop in the bucket compared to what we're seeing in the real world, particularly in Africa. The Catholic Church is alive and well, but there still exists a sort of apprehension to proclaim it outrightly due to the sins of the past. The Catholic Talk Show and apostolates like it have done wonders in that regard. The fact that all three of them had reversion experiences lends the guys a certain brand of authenticity. The same can be said for guys like Scott Hahn, Jimmy Akin, Trent Horn, Keith Nester... There's a more intellectual approach to the faith now than there has been for decades, and that's a blessing. All in all, I think the future looks brighter everyday. Maybe not for the world at large, but definitely for the Catholic Church and especially for those of us who practice it on a regular basis. May we all find the necessary courage to profess our faith always, in our thoughts and in our words, and even through the glass of a computer screen. God bless!

Don't forget Alphonsus

When you need catholic artillery

@YAJUN YUAN No, it was not.

All 'truth' is God's truth. Tertullian, who ended up leaving the Church and became a Montanist, eschewed secular truth with the saying, What does Athens (the city known as the home of Grecian philosophg) have to do with Jerusalem (the city which is used as a symbol of the sacred Scriptures, the early Church fathers, the Church's rule of faith, etc). This never held sway as the dominant position of the Church. In contrast, the early Church father, St. Augustine famously quipped, "All truth is God's truth". Whatever is true, good, and beautiful in Confucius, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Hippocrates, Galileo, etc is true because it participates in God's truth, who is the divine and Eternal Word. Lower case truth is true because it participates in God's Divine Word. God made the universe by speaking it into existence, so the laws of the universe are an expression of the order that is built into all creation, etc. This is the Catholic principle that has held the most sway down through the ages. It isn't the 'either'/'or,' of either the secular or the theological, but the Incarnational principle of the 'both'/'and'. Because Jesus Christ is NOT 'EITHER' fully divine 'OR' fully human, but rather, 'BOTH' fully divine 'AND' fully human. Therefore, BOTH sacred Writings (Scripture, the Catechism, Daily Roman Missal, the early Church Fathers, the wriyings of the saints), AND the best of secular literature (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, geometry, physics, etc).

​​​​​@@QuisutDeusmpc I couldn't have said it any better myself, brother. I would only add that it's entirely permissible (and sometimes good) to go about reading objectionable books with a skeptical predisposition. It may be a good thing to expose yourself to the work of Dawkins and Nietzsche in order to form better arguments against those who subscribe to these broken philosophies. It's potentially beneficial to read 'Mein Kampf' in order to better understand the mind of that madman, so that we can better prevent anything like the Holocaust from ever happening again. The important thing is that you orient yourself towards that which is holy and good. For instance, if you're not well-versed in Catholic theology, I might suggest that you avoid reading arguments for atheism until you're perceptive enough to see through the facade. If you're predisposed to thoughts of lust, then you shouldn't subject yourself to that type of content in movies or literature, even if the presence of that content in the work itself (graphic nudity used to make a point about degenerative aspects of society, for example) wouldn't be considered intrinsically objectionable. The bottom line is that God presents each of us with certain gifts and deprives us of others. It's our responsibility to discern our lives in accordance with Him, ever shaping our consciences in proper theology so that our thoughts and actions may always be oriented towards that which is holy and good. Also, G.K. Chesterton rules!

@@ignatiusjackson235 Thank you, brother. And thank you for making that caveat. It is an important point to make. It is particularly difficult to 'see through the facade' [love that phrase, I hope you don't mind if I borrow it] when there is a lot of truth in a position, that obfuscates the error for someone without a solid grounding in common and subtle errors in various secular, philosophical, or theological arguments. Great point; thank you!

@@QuisutDeusmpc Anytime, my friend! I'm especially glad that you chose to reinforce that point, because there are plenty of good people out there who zealously dive into these highfalutin topics of discussion without being able to distinguish an "argument from emotion" or the "burning of a strawman" from a legitimate criticism; and it's those poor souls upon whom the heathens are most eager to pounce. God bless!

I just checked and it seems to be working for me