News from Around the World

This reminds us of a Chinese fortune cookie we read recently:

Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory, erred catastrophically in fishing for young converts with the net of pop culture (i.e. World Youth Day and other such events). Notwithstanding his personal charisma, John Paul II's reign was marred by a plummeting of morals among the faithful and a proliferation of rebellion against Church teachings. The permissive message of rock music from the beginning has been, "If it feels good, do it". It should be no surprise, then, that in the "mainstream" Church where Life Teen "rock masses" are becoming more common, that some 98% of Catholics dissent from Church teaching on contraception, and in Canadian polls over 50% support homerast "marriage". Interestingly, trying to attract youth to Christ with pop culture doesn't work because the two are incompatible. There are more young adults at the tiny S.S.P.X chapel I attend than at the majority of the "mainstream" parishes which are many times the size of ours throughout Winnipeg.