Zach Janowski UNI 06 [email protected] 603-557-4687 The staff editorial “Questions of the Catholic Faith” displays a confused understanding as to the nature and purpose of the Catholic Church. The editorial suggests that bishops take a “pragmatic look” into politics and religion and that they concern themselves with a “slide in popularity” of the Church. The Catholic Church is also described as “a system of beliefs and a rubric of tenets”. These statements embody a common misconception about Catholicism. Interestingly, there is no mention of God in the editorial. As a child growing up in a mildly Catholic family, I always thought that the Church was only a system of rules and regulations. After my conversion experience here at Boston University, I realized that although the Catholic Church may include “a system of beliefs and a rubric of tenets” that they function as a framework for a relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is only through this holy relationship that the Church has prospered in the face of great sin for the past two thousand years. In the realm of divine Truth pragmatism deserves little, if any, consideration. Human beings cannot rightly modify the teachings of God and his only Son, especially in the vain interest of making Church teachings more palatable to the general public and more compatible with popular culture. A priest once said to my parish that he would much rather to have been called to “vacation” than “vocation” and to “celebrate” rather than to be “celibate”, but such was not the will of God and, thus, he could do nothing about it. The vast community of the Church is not “floundering”. On the contrary it is vibrant and full of the Holy Spirit. The Church is the beautiful bride of Christ. From this marriage the Catholic faithful derive many fruits and immense bounty. In order to continue to enjoy God’s plenty the Church must courageously fight for ideals that run counter to popular social trends to remain in accordance with God’s will. What holds the one billion Catholics of the world together is not primarily “common beliefs about life, faith, and higher existence”. Instead, the Catholic Church is bound together by a communal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.