<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><span><h3 class="post-title entry-title">What The World Would Look Like Without The
Catholic Church </h3><div class="post-body entry-content"><br>Take a journey into
your imagination with me for a minute and imagine a world without the Catholic
Church. As John Lennon sang, "<i>imagine there's no heaven...and no religion
too</i>".<br><br>What would it look like?<br>How would we be structured?<br>What
would our culture be like?<br><br>Some might rejoice at this. In fact, this
number is growing rapidly.<br>Some would mourn.<br>Some would be
indifferent.<br><br>Regardless of our initial reaction to this exercise, I think
it is important to remind ourselves of what the Catholic Church has
done.<br><br>Here are a few things that Church has given to the world:<br>
<ul>
<li>The Bible
<li>The University and the modern education system
<ul>
<li>The Church educates 2.5 million children in the USA alone
<li>Over 600,000 college students attend over 200 colleges in the USA </li></ul>
<li>The Big Bang theory
<li>The Gregorian Calendar
<li>Optics
<li>Theory of Evolution
<li>Modern development of:
<ul>
<li>Genetics
<li>Astronomy
<li>Meteorology
<li>Seismology
<li>Electricity
<li>Radioactivity
<li>etc </li></ul>
<li>Modern Astronomy
<li>Some of the greatest artists, composers, and buildings ever
<li>Many principles of law used in every government today
<li>Many of the greatest books, plays, poems, etc
<li>Non-profit hospitals for all
<ul>
<li>treat 1 in 5 patients in the USA
<li>over 600 hosptials treat 84 million people annually
<li>Largest supporters of AIDS and HIV treatment in the world </li></ul>
<li>Easter / Christmas / Good Friday / etc
<li>Prolife movement would virtually not exist
<li>Upholds marriage & family by fighting divorce, abortion, contraception,
infanticide, slavery, etc.
<li>Monks helped preserve many great ancient documents we would not have without
them
<li>Brought Western civilization, morality, language, and religion to
far-reaches of the world
<li>Social Justice as a way of life </li></ul>This is the short list. A fuller
list can be found in the book "<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596983280"><font color="#3dd880">How The Catholic Church Built Western
Civilization</font></a></i>" by Thomas Woods.<br><br>The Catholic Church is the
backbone of Western Civilization. Without it, we will not be able to stand tall
and be the leaders in the world. Run the Catholic Church out and our culture
will quickly crumble. Catholics are also the heart of Western Civilization.
Without the heart we have nothing left to hold us back from our passions, our
vices, and our fallen humanity.<br><br>Still, I have not even mentioned the most
important thing the Catholic Church has done - <b><u>it brings us
God!</u></b><br><br>The Catholic Church incarnates God in the world. Through the
members of the Catholic Church we are able to show others the face of Christ,
the mercy of Christ. We are His hands, feet, and voice.<br><br>Through the
Catholic Church we bring God to others through the Sacraments.<br><br>Through
the Catholic Church the Good News that Jesus saves us is given to the
world.<br><br>The result of a world without the Catholic Church = A meaningless,
sad, nihilistic world, because the Catholic Church is the only institution left
in our Western Culture with the ability to stop the momentum toward moral and
structural decay which has been driven into our culture by others.<br>A momentum
toward a post-theistic culture.<br>A land where God is anathema and where vice
is called virtue.<br><br><b><u>What would the world look like without the
Catholic Church? Well, this explains it for me:</u></b><br>
<blockquote><i>"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him to his heart."</i> -Genesis 6:5-6</blockquote>What other choice do
we have but to pray and become holy? Only if the members of the Catholic Church
rise up and live as we ought - as saints - can we hope for any change. The only
hope is found in Christ, who can transform us and by transforming us - we can
win our culture for Him.<br>
<blockquote><i>"You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no
saint at all." </i>-St. Therese of Lisieux</blockquote>
<blockquote><i>"The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in
the most difficult moments in the Church’s history." </i>-JPII</blockquote>
<blockquote><i>"There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint."
</i>-Leon Bloy</blockquote></div></span><div></div><div> </div><div><div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>