It seems like every time Pope Francis so much as sneezes, Internet commentators start sounding like Chicken Little: “The Church is falling! The Church is falling!” Now, I haven’t read any of Amoris Laetitia, and I don’t know when I’ll get around to reading it, so I don’t know if it’s good, bad, or just plain ugly.
What I do know, however, comes from the words of Rabbi Gamaliel in yesterday’s Gospel:
For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.
The fact is, the Church survived Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin, the Roman Empire, Germanic Invasions, and many other empires and rulers that thought they could take Her down. She survived heresy, division, the (sad) schism with the Orthodox, the Protestant Reformation, Secular Humanist movements in Europe, Soviet-style Communism, and many more movements and philosophies. There have been bad popes, worse bishops, terrible priests (some may think I could among this number), and apathetic laity; and the Church still survives today. Some of Her strongholds have gotten weak (Europe, North America), and some of the lands washed by martyrs’ blood have become Her strongest bastions. The Church has survived, and will survive until Christ Himself returns.
To those who fear that Pope Francis will destroy the Church, I say, “Have hope! The Church will survive him.” There may be confusion right now. Certain movements within the Church may be celebrating and promoting their misunderstanding of what Pope Francis has taught and said, but it won’t last. Even during the most corrupt and decedent popes, great saints have arisen to call the Faithful back to Christ’s teaching and to evangelize the world.
The call for us as Catholic Christians is not to seek cover, crying “The Church is falling! The Church is falling!” It’s not for us to criticize every little word and action of Pope Francis. Our call is to be the great saints in our time by first living lives of virtue and hope, then proclaiming the Good News of Christ. Yes, the great saints in the past would occasionally “call out” popes, bishops, priests, and so on, but they recognized that their primary mission was to live according to the teachings of Jesus and proclaim those teachings to the world. That is our mission as well. If we wish to reform the Church, we must reform our lives first of all.
