Things to remember...

I began reading a book a dear friend gave me called “Redicovering Catholicism” by Matthew Kelly.  Still in the forward I am already liking this book very much.  I want to share with you a passage that makes one proud to be a Catholic.

"Catholicism is more than a handful of priests who don’t know what it means to be a priest. There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. There are 67 million Catholics in America-that’s at least 15 million more people than it takes to elect an American president. And every single day the Catholic Church feeds, houses, and clothes more people, takes care of more sick people, visits more prisoners, and educates more people than any other institution on the face of the earth could ever hope to.

Consider this question: When Jesus was alive, where were the sick? Were they in hospitals? Of course not; there were no hospitals at the time of Christ. The sick were huddled at the side of the road and on the outskirts of town, and that is where Jesus cured them. They had been abandoned by family and friends who were afraid they would also become sick.

The very essence of health care and caring for the sick emerged through the Church, through religious orders, in the direct response to the value and dignity that the Gospel assigns to each and every human life.

Allow me another question: How many people do you know who were born to nobility? Men & women whose parents are kings, queens, dukes, earls, duchessess, knights, and so on? Not many I suspect and probably none. Well, that is how many educated people you would know if the Catholic Church had not championed the cause to make education available to everyone.  Prior to the Church’s introduction of education for the common man, education was reserved for nobility. Almost the entire Western world is educated today because of the Church’s pioneering role of universal education.”

Obviously the book continues & breaks down the impact of the Church on a national, then on an idividual, community level. The author was suggesting that although the Church has gone & is going through a difficult part in its history with dwindling numbers and so few religious & priests many have forgotten our beautiful past…

I’ll keep you posted on more wonderful things uncovered…