As a history teacher I
am fond of pointing out to my classes examples of how the Evil One working with
his compatriots have attempted to drive Catholicism from the public sphere and
out of existence altogether. The Body of Christ is still here, but that doesn't
mean that the historically ignorant will not continue trying.
Catholics have Our
Lord’s promise that the gates of Hell will not prevail over the Church. But the
hellish gates always want another crack at the Church.
Let’s start with the Roman
Empire - not content with the crucifixion of Christ, they persecuted and killed
his disciples for hundreds of years. Emperors came and went and all sorts of
policies and goals changed but one thing they all had in common was that they
all seemed to think killing and persecuting Catholics was a good thing. The
more the Church was persecuted, the more people wanted to know what the Church
was about. The blood of the martyrs was seed for the faith.
As the saying goes, if
you cannot beat them, join them, Thus the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.
The Roman Empire was not long for the world, but the Church survived.
Of course Mass attenders
know the story of Saul Paulus of Tarsus, who approved of the killing of
Stephen, martyr #1, and then went from house to house arresting partisans of
Christ and sending them to prison. That is until a light from heaven flashed
around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me?” Saul next went blind, got healed, and then became Paul, the
apostle.
In 1517 came Dr. Luther
and the Protestant Reformation—the Lutherans soon divided, and the divisions
divided, and now there are over 30,000 divisions or denominations, and the One,
Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church still stands. Divide et impera???
During the godless
French Revolution the attempted dechristianization of France had as its goal the
erasure of the Church. The French attempt to destroy the Church included appropriation
of Church lands, obliteration of statues and crosses, and making all priests
and all those who hid them susceptible to death. In 1794 Maximillian Robespierre introduced the Cult of the Supreme
Being as the replacement state religion, hoping its acknowledgement of some
form of deity would foster moral behavior. Unfortunately Robespierre
was guillotined in 1794. The Church stayed on.
China - The government
of China has long persecuted the Catholic Church by destroying Churches,
removing crosses, and arresting or simply "disappearing" Christians. After
years of murderous persecution there are still millions of Catholics, and the
number is increasing.
The New York Times once
raised the question, "Is
Anti-Catholicism Dead?" and printed a
full-page ad against the Church
in response to her refusal to take part in the sexual revolution. How is the
paper that prints all fitting news performing? The Times laid off 21 workers
just last year and offered early retirement to about 80 others, as the Church blossoms
all around the globe.
Today in the Middle East
we witness radical Islamic terrorists revisiting their
kill-every-Christian-they-can-find tactics. The world has essentially remained
silent, but the Church still stands as the lone voice in opposition, continuing
to spread Our Lord’s message throughout the world. Recent events in the Emerald Isle seem ignorant of history’s lesson to those
who wish to destroy the Catholic Church--Hit me with your best shot.
