To be a Catholic 3 criteria is required:
1. Baptism
2. Faith in Jesus Christ
3. Acknowledgement of the Authority of the Church's hierarchy; priests,
bishops, archbishops, cardinals, the Pope.
1. The Baptism is the one with water. A spiritual baptism does not count,
it is only with water that it becomes visible.
2. A natural consequence of true Faith is that the person will proclaim it,
and so renders it visible.
3. The acknowledgement and respect of the structure of the hierarchy of
the Church by it's members, renders the unity of the Church visible,
as her members submits to the one same authority and which protects
her from schisms.
The fact that there are heretics at all levels in the Church is no excuse to
revolt against her. Because that is not new, it has always been the case.
There has been many heretical popes and ridiculous carry-on in the Church
throughout her 2000 years history.
How could it not be: everybody that makes up the Church are sinners,
everyone, including the Pope, our current Pope Francis is the first
to say so himself !
The clericalistic attitude that still prevails today, where people think that
these people are beyond reproach, is not helpful.
We have to pray for the priests, the bishops and the Pope, because their
positions and roles are difficult.
Those who say that Pope Francis is not Pope, those who are revolting, and
incites others to do the same, do not accept nor respect the hierarchy which
is the 3.rd criteria of being a Catholic.
They destroy, rather than unite, they try to create a schism, and as they do
not fulfill the criteria; they are not Catholic.
At Mass we confess in the Creed that we believe in
ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
There is only ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH;
it is made up of US; sinners, people with blind spots, faults, weaknesses,
all of us; a bit like a bunch of sick people in a field hospital.
To acknowledge the structure of the hierarchy, to accept and respect it,
does not however necessarily mean that we have to obey it.
Acknowledgement is not the same thing as obedience.
Normally we would obey it anyway, but we can never abandon our own
capacity to reason, to reflect, to think.
Our Pope Francis, who seems to say that all religions, paganism and even
atheism, is on par with the Catholic Faith, obviously upsets and confuse
many Catholics. The document on fraternity published in 2019, is a
political document and does not concern itself with the Catholic Faith,
so as Catholics we do not have to concern ourselves with it either.
Obviously to put the Catholic Faith on par with other faiths is heresy, but it doesn't contain any dogma on our faith.
Pope Francis's pronouncements to Catholics regarding the experimental
covid injection, which he said everybody should take as "an act of
brotherly love", was deeply horrifying and shocking.
These injections are not vaccines as they do not provide immunity against
the disease, they weaken the immune system, they are made from stem
cells from aborted babies and they have maimed thousands of people,
and killed many.
Francis is Pope, but as Catholics we had no obligation to do what he said in
this regard, as he did not speak about the Catholic Faith but on another subject
entirely, and we know he is neither a doctor nor a scientist, also the
moral aspect and the absence of logic could not be explained away, it was
glaring.
All the Catholics who took the injection because he said so, are maybe those
who have a poor understanding of the faith, and who equates obedience to
lack of free will and lack of reasoning power, both of which are fundamental
God- given gifts to humanity.
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