It's OK If People Leave The Church

The Catholic Church is the greatest institution of Mankind. We are the anchor upon which civilization, at least a civilization worth occupying, is built. We give the world a cohesive, complete worldview from which are derived the importance of charity, mercy, kindness, learning, cooperation and more. I don't know of a single other organization that can derive these from first principles.

The Catholic Church necessarily evolved into a creature of Enlightenment thinking. That is, our theology requires objective reality, logic and reasoning. If we adopt the postmodernist thinking of our age, we cease to be the Catholic Church. Once we stop searching for and espousing the Truth, as in singular truth, we cease to be the Catholic Church and civilization has lost the most important part of its foundation.

Postmodernism is the rejection of the belief in objective reality and the value of logic. Multiculturalism, the assertion that all cultures are equally valid, is postmodernist. It denies the existence of any objective measures of goodness. Claims that all family structures are equally valid are similarly postmodern. Objective measures of goodness are central to the Church. Without them, we are not the Church.

To take one example, when the popular culture claims that women can become men through surgery and drugs, we cannot agree and remain the Catholic Church. If the popular culture becomes obsessed with this to the point where 95% of the population is convinced of it and is willing to leave the Church over it, then that's the way it goes. When we adopt a position that is illogical or not based in objective reality, we undermine our very existence.

Popular beliefs come and go. We used to believe in witches. We used to think that illness was a judgment from God. Some of us still espouse socialism. The Church can't move with the times, it must move with carefully-reasoned thought. If that means almost everyone leaves us for a time, then so be it.

For the sake of Mankind, for the sake of civilization, we have to protect the flame of reason and continue the search for the Truth even if that costs us people, money, buildings and prestige.

It would be better to have to drive 50 miles to hear Mass in an old barn with a small congregation than to adopt popular, postmodernist views.