Boccaccio nailed it almost seven centuries ago:
The Jew mounted his horse, and as quickly as possible went to the court of Rome, where arriving, he was by his fellow Jews honorably received; and living there without saying to anybody why he came, began cautiously to study the manners of the Pope and the cardinals and the prelates and all the other courtesans; and he learned, being the honest man that he was, and being informed by other people, that from the greatest to the lowest they sinned most dishonestly, not only in natural but in unnatural ways, without any restraint or remorse to shame them; so much so that for the poor and the dissolute of both sexes to take part in any affair was no small thing. Besides this he saw that they were universally gluttons, wine-drinkers, and drunkards, and much devoted to their stomachs after the manner of brute animals; given up to luxury more than to anything else. And looking further, he saw that they were in the same manner all avaricious and desirous of money, so that human blood, even that of Christians, and sacred interests, whatever they might be, even pertaining to the ceremonies or to the benefices, were sold and bought with money; making a greater merchandise out of these things and having more shops for them than at Paris of stuffs or any other things, and to the most open simony giving the name and support of procuration, and to gluttony that of sustentation: as if God, apart from the signification of epithets, could not know the intentions of these wretched souls, but after the manner of men must permit himself to be deceived by the names of things. Which, together with many other things of which we will say nothing, so greatly displeased the Jew, that as he was a sober and modest man it appeared to him that he had seen enough, and proposed to return to Paris.
Accordingly he did so; upon which Gianotto, seeing that he had returned, and hoping nothing less than that he should have become a Christian, came and rejoiced greatly at his return, and after some days of rest asked him what he thought of the Holy Father, the cardinals, and the other courtesans; to which the Jew promptly replied:—“It seems to me evil that God should have given anything to all those people, and I say to you that if I know how to draw conclusions, there was no holiness, no devotion, no good work or good example of life in any other way, in anybody who was a priest; but luxury, avarice, and gluttony,—such things and worse, if there could be worse things in anybody; and I saw rather liberty in devilish operations than in divine: on which account I conclude that with all possible study, with all their talent and with all their art, your Shepherd, and consequently all the rest, are working to reduce to nothing and to drive out of the world the Christian religion, there where they ought to be its foundation and support. But from what I see, what they are driving at does not happen, but your religion continually increases; and therefore it becomes clearer and more evident that the Holy Spirit must be its foundation and support, as a religion more true and holy than any other. On which account, where I was obstinate and immovable to your reasoning and did not care to become a Christian, now I say to you distinctly that on no account would I fail to become a Christian. Therefore let us go to church, and there according to the custom of your holy religion let me be baptized.
Go here to read the rest.
Well said. That the Catholic Church survives is proof of its divine origin.
The faith as handed down by the apostles…
Matthew 7:21 “Not all those who say Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven….”
Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam are also alive and well.
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Truth has a way of coming out into the open.
I applaud the forces behind this effort to educate and edify;
https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-catholics-vatican-rebuff-same-sex-unions-d51a65e2880c4daf7ef58a199e2fd47f
[Take what is good, and discard what isn’t. ] Poor paraphrasing but finally a teaching from Rome without ambiguity.
True, DJH, but they are not institutions. Hinduism is older but has changed significantly many times and is more a diffuse group of cultural traditions, which CH has never had any hierarchy or institution running it. Islam and modern Judaism (which is very different from biblical Judaism) are much younger. Islam did have a Caliph in theory running it but recognised by fewer and fewer and finally abolished in 1923 and not replaced. The only institutions which are even almost half as old as the Catholic church are the oldest of the universities, and they have changed beyond recognition.
True Philip, but the criticism of so-called “blessings” of so-called same sex “couples” was phrased in the mildest possible way as being merely “illicit” ( like e.g. using an earthenware ciborium instead of a metal one. They didn’t call it what it is, a diabolical and blasphemous abuse and a gross insult to the sacrament of matrimony and to the church’s liturgy, doctrines, sacred tradition and sacred scripture.