Deism and Its Consequences
January 14, 2024
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
World War II officially began in 1939 (some argue 1936) and ended in 1945, so it was at least six years long. And again, depending on how you count deaths, 50 to 60 million died as a result of the war. World War II was a really big deal. The world is still largely structured along the lines of its aftermath 78 years on. So, it came as something of a shock when I read last week that in the year just concluded, 2023, 73 million babies were aborted world-wide. That’s more killing per-year of innocent non-combatants than the world lost in six years of the biggest war in history. Where is God in all this?
The vast majority of people either don’t believe in God’s existence (a growing minority) or don’t think God involves Himself in the affairs of humanity. The latter is called deism. Deism is the false belief that there is a God who created us, but He is not involved in our lives. Yet God does exist, and He is very much involved in the affairs of the whole human race, as well as each one of us, and our future too. We and the world ignore Him and His commandments at our peril. Just ask the people in the age of Noah, or the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It is understandable why anyone would be a deist with all the suffering that goes on in the world, but it is dangerously untrue to believe it. It is also cruel. God exists. He has always existed, creating time and space. He is infinitely loving, knowledgeable, and beautiful. He cares so much for each one of us that He would die on Calvary all over again on the chance that you, and you alone, would accept Him and become his disciple.
As the world abandons Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, it abandons itself to insanity, evil, misery and death. Don’t you go down that road. Resist popular culture and cling to the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Catholic Church. Knowing that in Jesus Christ is life and light, the Light of the world, a light no darkness can overcome.
This Friday at 6pm, you are invited to come to our memorial for the unborn in front of the church to pray a Rosary for life, then follow us into the church for a Mass for life. We can pray for the end of the grave evil of abortion, the mindset that justifies it, for the tens of millions the babies who will suffer it this year, for their mothers and fathers, and for penance. We can pray too for the conversion of the world to Jesus Christ, and for an increase in our own sanctity.
I’ve attached below portions of a couple of articles about the persecution of the Church in the past year. Before this decade is out, it stands to reason that persecution of Catholics will get much worse. Sooner or later, we will return to the early Church’s example of being a legally persecuted minority. And then from the ash heap of what was civilization, begin the re-conversion of the world to Jesus Christ.
May Almighty God Bless You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
VATICAN - Missionaries and pastoral care workers killed in 2023.
Saturday, 30 December 2023
Dossier edited by Stefano Lodigiani
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – According to information gathered by Agenzia Fides, 20 missionaries were killed in the world in 2023: 1 Bishop, 8 priests, 2 non-religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice and 7 laypersons.
Although the lists compiled by Fides are always open to updates and corrections, there were 2 more missionaries killed compared to the previous year. This year the highest number of missionaries killed is again registered in Africa, where 9 missionaries were killed: 5 priests, 2 religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice. In America, 6 missionaries were murdered: 1 Bishop, 3 priests, 2 lay women. In Asia, 4 lay men and women died, killed by violence. Finally, a layman was killed in Europe.
As it has been for some time, Fides uses the term "missionary" for all the baptized, aware that "in virtue of their Baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization" (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 120). Moreover, the annual list of Fides does not look only to Missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but tries to record all baptized engaged in the life of the Church who died in a violent way, not only "in hatred of the faith". For this reason, we prefer not to use the term “martyrs”, if not in its etymological meaning of “witness”, in order not to enter into the question of the judgment that the Church might eventually deliver upon some of them, after careful consideration, for beatification or canonization.
One of the distinctive traits that most of the pastoral workers murdered in 2023 have in common is undoubtedly their normal life: that is, they did not carry out any sensational actions or out-of-the-ordinary deeds that could have attracted attention and put them in someone's crosshairs. Scrolling through the few notes on the circumstances of their violent deaths, we find priests who were on their way to celebrate Mass or to carry out pastoral activities in some distant community; armed assaults perpetrated along busy roads; assaults on rectories and convents where they were engaged in evangelization, charity, human promotion. They found themselves, through no fault of their own, victims of kidnappings, acts of terrorism, involved in shootings or violence of various kinds.
Editor's Note: Pope Francis expressed “deep concern” for Nicaragua following a Christmas crackdown that saw the arrests of a bishop, 14 priests, and two seminarians.
At least 63 Catholic churches in US vandalized, attacked in 2023
Editor's Note: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has documented 308 acts of vandalism, arson, and other destruction at parishes and other Catholic sites in the United States since May 2020; 63 of these acts took place in 2023.
The wave of attacks on crisis pregnancy centers that began in June 2022, after the Dobbs decision, has also continued in 2023.
