Catholics Come Home

With lay leadership and funding, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati recently began an advertising campaign called Catholics Come Home.  This campaign includes television commercials on local networks and cable inviting lapsed Catholics to come back to Mass.
These dedicated people who are bringing this to the masses recognize the infinite beauty of the Mass and experience profound joy in practicing their Catholic faith.  That kind of joy is meant to be shared.  We can't help but share it.
At the archdiocesan level Michael Vanderburgh is the point man as Director of Stewardship.
Below is a link to Scott Sloan's radio show with Vanderburgh as a guest in late November.  As I listened, I noticed several things:  Sloan, who labels himself a "Cafeteria Catholic," brings up the usual laundry list of objections to the Catholic faith: abuse crisis, homosexuality, all male clergy, celibacy, birth control, divorce and even bad preaching.  Notice that every single item on this list has been thoroughly addressed by the Church with charity, clarity, compassion, wisdom, reason and divine revelation.  One would be hard pressed to come up with a new question for the Church that has not been answered in her 2,000 year history.  I only listened to about half the clip.  In that time I heard the first couple of callers after Vanderburgh was finished.  The ignorance of the self-proclaimed "Recovering Catholics" who call in will blow your mind!  One thing is very evident: Neither they nor Sloan never took the opportunity to find out what the Church actually teaches in the first place. This is the link to the segment on Sloan's show.  Click here to see the "Catholics Come Home" ads.
It seems to me that defying the Church on any of her teachings could easily lead to a rejection of the complete Christian Gospel as a whole.  Defying Church teaching makes Christ a liar.  Did he not say: "I am with you until the end of the age (world)"?  And at what point did the Holy Spirit abandon the Church?  Of course, the answer is "Never".  The Holy Spirit of Pentecost some 2,000 years ago is active in the Church working through the successors of the Apostles, the bishops.  One who believes in the New Testament will readily acknowledge that the Father gives all authority in the Universe to the Son.  It is very obvious that the Son gives authority (to bind and loose) to his Apostles.  Does that authority die with them?  Of course not.  Jesus would not have gone through all the trouble of setting up the structured institution he did.  The Apostles pass on that authority to their successors.  The living, breathing, teaching office of the Church lives on today in the bishops.