Being Fully Catholic

I wrote recently about how some Catholics have a very narrow view of the faith (which usually only includes a modernist Novus Ordo parish). This is not just the wrong way to view the Catholic faith; it is also contrary to the nature of being Catholic. The very word "Catholic" means essentially "universal". Thus, to be "Catholic" in the proper sense means that there will be differences that are brought together and properly connected to one another. This does not necessarily include any and all differences, for some differences are contradictory.

The Catholic Church has one dogmatic theology and contradictory teachings cannot be brought together without chaos. You cannot teach that God is triune and not triune because those are contradictory statements. You can, however, teach that children can be confirmed at baptism (as do the Eastern Catholics), and that they can also be confirmed right before their first communion at around seven years old (as do the Western Catholics) because those are not contradictory statements, but would better be described as complementary statements, for each points to a different truth.

Those who claim that in eliminating the Latin Mass they are working for greater unity are seriously confused. They are not seeking true Catholic unity (which means bringing different things together) but rather a non-catholic uniformity. Uniformity means making everything look the same, and that does not usually lead to actual unity. Uniformity is the heart of sodomy, and that is what makes it so problematic. Sodomites seeks sameness in an area that God commands difference. As another example, if you are manufacturing a particular model of mototcycle then you definitely want uniformity. When you are making a marriage you do not want uniformity because man and woman are different, and rightly so.

Faithful Catholics recognize what it means to be Catholic: that there are certain differences rightly within the Church that are good and holy, and some that the devil wants to bring in that are evil and destructive. The Church has already told us what the distinction is, and we would be foolish to ignore that distinction. To be Catholic is to accept that in some things it is a "mixed bag" that we will encounter. The denial of this is what led to many of the protestant denominations. They each want to do it their way, and that leads to greater and greater division. Let us accept what it means to be Catholic and not try to force uniformity. To be fully Catholic is to stand in unity; even when it is hard to do so.