{"id":564,"date":"2004-10-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-10-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lanuera.com\/cmwp\/?p=564"},"modified":"2004-10-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-10-07T00:00:00","slug":"from-sts-joseph-michael-parish-nj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/?p=564","title":{"rendered":"From Sts. Joseph & Michael Parish, NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"
From<\/strong>: mbrito@HanoverDirect.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Mouse,<\/p>\n

My name is Monica and I am a NeoCat as you call the way. I’ve read some of the articles which are posted on the site and I can’t tell you how disturbed I am that this movement within our Church is the cause of much division in certain parishes. I am a revert to the Church and I belong to a wonderful little parish in NJ which just introduced the Way about 4 months ago. Being a CCD teacher I have learned much about Church’s teaching and have fallen in love with the truth. I stay as far away as possible of anything that goes against Church’s teaching. Moreover, if given the chance, I defend the Holy Mother Church and her teachings. I am sure that this email will not be posted, but in any case I’d like to address one of the points listed in Pam Aitkins and Clive Maher against the priest in her parish.<\/p>\n

1. The priest said that the church is only bricks.<\/p>\n

There is a big difference between the church and the Church. I am afraid that the priest’s words were horribly misinterpreted. I am sure that he was referring to the building itself which we all tend to call "church". Even a malformed priest knows that the Holy Catholic Church is not made up of bricks – each of us make up the body of the Church. Those of us who walk this earth are part of the Church Militant, those who have gone before us and are in Purgatory are members of the Church Suffering, and the saints and Martyrs who are in Heaven are members of the Church Triumphant, the head of the Church being Christ Himself. It is the Holy Spirit who unites and binds us together as one entity. This is basic Catholicism 101 – any child in my parish’s CCD program knows that we are the Church, not the building in which we celebrate the Holy Mass; that church is made up of bricks.<\/p>\n

It took me a long time for me to become convinced that the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by our Lord; anything that she teaches through her ministers comes from the fullness of faith which was entrusted to her by Jesus Himself; and so I subject myself to her authority. If the bishop of Rome approved "The Way", who am I to question it? Unfortunately, through out Church’s history it is her own members, laity and clergy alike, that tear at her and cause disharmony by trying to impose our own point of view instead of accepting the Church’s authority to rule us in matters of faith and morals. That’s how the Protestant reformation began with Martin Luther. In His wisdom the Lord knew that if left to us His Bride, the Holy Mother Church would be torn to shreds by our fallen nature. It is only because the Holy Spirit lives within Her that the Church has survived our wrong doings for over 2000 year and will continue to do so until the Lord’s second coming as Jesus promised. Personally I would not be so quick to bite the hands that feed, give my soul my Lord’s body, blood, soul and divinity – specially when all the facts are unknown. In order to find out if all these allegations are true or not your parish members have the opportunity to walk in "The Way". To continue to take a stand against "The Way" without getting all the facts is pure ignorance and plain disregard of the Church’s authority to rule and guide the flock. Thank you for taking the time to read this email; may God bless you and cause His face to shine upon you.<\/p>\n

Monica
\nSts. Joseph & Michael Parish Co-Responsible
\n3rd Neo-Catechumen Community Fruits of The Way<\/p>\n

Out of 31 men who were ordained priest by the Holy Father on April 25th, 15 were Neo-Catechumens. http:\/\/www.zenit.org\/english\/archive\/9904\/ZE990425.html#item1<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From<\/strong>: mbrito@HanoverDirect.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Mouse,<\/p>\n

My name is Monica and I am a NeoCat as you call the way. I’ve read some of the articles which are posted on the site and I can’t tell you how disturbed I am that this movement within our Church is the cause of much division in certain parishes. I am a revert to the Church and I belong to a wonderful little parish in NJ which just introduced the Way about 4 months ago. Being a CCD teacher I have learned much about Church’s teaching and have fallen in love with the truth. … Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-neocat-sympathisers-have-their-say"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}