Publisher for Sophia
Institute: John L. Barger goes on to say:
You know, when I entered the Church as an adult, I had a profound admiration
for priests.
My faith was so great that I founded Sophia Institute Press to bring back
into print the fine Catholic books that had won me to the Faith, and that
— I was sure — would convert others, too.
Now, at last count, five of the priests I've admired for their orthodoxy
have been implicated in the sex scandals and one is deep in jail.
That fact didn't make it easy for me to answer my daughter's charges.
Like Peter, I was left only with Jesus.
- Jesus gave sinful Peter the power to walk on water.
- Jesus keeps us from
drowning when the world attacks us and assails our wounded Church.
- And Jesus guarantees that, despite the sins of Her members, the Church
Herself is perfect.
Fr. Ronald Knox explains how in a remarkable little book, The
Church on Earth, which we published a couple of years ago.
There he notes that, unlike the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church
is not a system that men, after prayer and deliberation, devised as the
best scheme they could think of for perpetuating the work of their Master,
Jesus.
On the contrary, the Catholic Church is directly God's handiwork: in the New
Testament Jesus Himself instituted the Sacraments and established
the Church, placing Peter at its head.
Since God Himself established our Church, we must believe that it is perfectly
designed to lead souls to perfection; and that it does so when they abide
by Her teachings and partake of the graces She affords them.
Had I remembered just this one point from Monsignor Knox's slim book, the
conversation with my daughter — and with others who assail the Church
for the sins of her members — would have gone much better. |
