The Revival of the Catholic Faith

 Heretical groups, that is a Church where the people decided not to follow original teaching but introduced errors, were frequent in the early Church.    They would still call themselves Christian however, and those who remained faithful to the  teaching of the apostles, if they visited a town and asked for the Christian Church, they were often directed to these groups.  Heresies were usually confined to a particular area in the early days, and the faithful Christians could well have been unaware of these local groups.    So they decided to look for the 'Catholic' Church, those who were still in teaching and liturgy faithful to the main body of the universal Church under the leadership of Rome.    The heresies were condemned by the bishops still in communion with Rome at Councils of the Church.   Without this structure it would have been difficult indeed for the truths taught by Christ to survive, or even the Christian Church to survive.   There had to be a point of reference.    When the secular world invaded the Church in the 1960's, they were well aware that this structure of unity had to be destroyed if they were to destroy Christianity.

The adversaries taught to the people to act like the heretics and become a 'mature Christian'.    They were not to follow these devotions which were childish, especially those  to Mary, the Eucharist is to be eaten but not adored, so the altar rails were removed and people compelled to stand and receive in the hand, new catechisms were introduced into schools which did not teach childish nonsense  It was well planned and executed.  AND I SHOULD POINT OUT THAT THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH VATICAN II.    The first triumphal result was that young people from Catholic Schools were alienated from the Church.   The second was that Mass attendance dropped, priestly vocations dropped and if it had not been for the large immigration of faithful Catholics from Europe and Asia, it is to be wondered just how many Catholic Churches would have closed.

The marvel is that the church survived despite these attacks.   And there is an awakening to the false teaching that the people endured, especially on the Blessed Sacrament.   The Authority of Church teaching is growing again, and devotion to Jesus and Mary is steadily growing.

Truly the Church is built on a Rock and the gates of Hell cannot prevail against Her.   


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