The Church sometimes appears to change Her teaching without actually doing so. Vatican II provided an atmosphere in which many chose to believe that anyone who wanted to go to Heaven would do so by some automatic process. “I’m a ‘good person’.” many lapsed Catholics would say, often nodding sincerely while saying so.
The implication “I am going to Heaven.” was clearly there. God, as Judge, had little to say in the matter. One might infer from conversations with such a soul that The Church was no longer necessary. “We don’t need to go to Church. Each of us only needs to be a ‘Good Person’.”
The “Good Person” believed him or herself to have an automatic entry to Heaven. Media encouraged them to believe that a “Good Person” had a greater understanding than Catholic priests or other clergy.
The Act of Contrition was replaced: “There is no need to confess our sins to a man. We may, or may not, choose to tell God directly what we think. Whatever we do is all right because we are ‘good people’.”
When it was suggested that a more traditional approach to salvation, involving Confession, Communion, and Church attendance might be a more reliable method of getting their souls into Heaven, they let people know, “Today, that’s unnecessary.” There was an enlightened understanding that “People shouldn’t believe such superstitions.”
The “I’m a good person.” do-it-yourself approach did not just infect a few supercilious lapsed Catholics. A plague of theological do-it-yourselfers swept through whole nations. The full force of government media encouraged the process. Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy went from being Catholic nations to gaggles of self-important twits. Every day, more souls are lost, not understanding: The Garden is self-weeding.
Catholic Fundamentalism realizes that God has written and downloaded The Creation Program in such a way that The Garden is self-weeding. Every day, vain, self-righteous people pull themselves up and away from The Church and throw themselves onto the pile of weeds destined for burning.
Those who used artificial birth control or uncomplainingly allow abortion weed themselves out of the Garden. Now, the formerly Christian nations are no longer able to defend themselves against their ancient enemies. Lately, He’s been using Moslems to do some of the heavy weeding. They enter into once-Catholic nations with impunity, using their welfare programs to destroy them from within.
Democracies are especially susceptible to destroying plagues of vain self-righteousness. Beginning with the Persians and continuing with Moslems, totalitarian regimes in the Middle East have always been able to subvert Western democracies. How? By bribing elected officials.
Their influence, both on the glorification of self and on pro-invasion legislation is never allowed to be mentioned by any government-controlled media.
Could elected officials be dumb enough to make the decisions they do without being heavily bribed? Theology and politics, vanity and destruction. The Garden is self weeding.
