[Apologetics] What The World Would Look Like Without The Catholic Church

[DianneD]

What The World Would Look Like Without The 
Catholic Church 

Take a journey into 
your imagination with me for a minute and imagine a world without the Catholic 
Church. As John Lennon sang, "imagine there's no heaven...and no religion 
too".

What would it look like?
How would we be structured?
What 
would our culture be like?

Some might rejoice at this. In fact, this 
number is growing rapidly.
Some would mourn.
Some would be 
indifferent.

Regardless of our initial reaction to this exercise, I think 
it is important to remind ourselves of what the Catholic Church has 
done.

Here are a few things that Church has given to the world:

	* The Bible 
	* The University and the modern education system 
	* The Church educates 2.5 million children in the USA alone 
	* Over 600,000 college students attend over 200 colleges in the USA  
	* The Big Bang theory 
	* The Gregorian Calendar 
	* Optics 
	* Theory of Evolution 
	* Modern development of: 
	* Genetics 
	* Astronomy 
	* Meteorology 
	* Seismology 
	* Electricity 
	* Radioactivity 
	* etc  
	* Modern Astronomy 
	* Some of the greatest artists, composers, and buildings ever 
	* Many principles of law used in every government today 
	* Many of the greatest books, plays, poems, etc 
	* Non-profit hospitals for all 
	* treat 1 in 5 patients in the USA 
	* over 600 hosptials treat 84 million people annually 
	* Largest supporters of AIDS and HIV treatment in the world  
	* Easter / Christmas / Good Friday / etc 
	* Prolife movement would virtually not exist 
	* Upholds marriage & family by fighting divorce, abortion, contraception, 
infanticide, slavery, etc. 
	* Monks helped preserve many great ancient documents we would not have without 
them 
	* Brought Western civilization, morality, language, and religion to 
far-reaches of the world 
	* Social Justice as a way of life This is the short list. A fuller 
list can be found in the book "How The Catholic Church Built Western 
Civilization" by Thomas Woods.

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.

Still, I have not even mentioned the most 
important thing the Catholic Church has done - it brings us 
God!

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.

Through the 
Catholic Church we bring God to others through the Sacraments.

Through 
the Catholic Church the Good News that Jesus saves us is given to the 
world.

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.
A momentum 
toward a post-theistic culture.
A land where God is anathema and where vice 
is called virtue.

What would the world look like without the 
Catholic Church? Well, this explains it for me:

"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." -Genesis 6:5-6What 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.

"You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no 
saint at all." -St. Therese of Lisieux 
"The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in 
the most difficult moments in the Church’s history." -JPII 
"There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint." -Leon Bloy
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