"That ol time religion"

Gimme that ‘Ol Time Religion vort-2012-04-19 Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris .. coming to you from Auckland New Zealand. As we wrap up our time here in New Zealand, land of sheep, kiwi and hobbits and push on to Australia, just a few observations about the Faith here. The overall population of New Zealand is roughly four and half million of which about 15 percent are baptized Catholics. So that means close to 700,000. New Zealand has been under the British Crown as far back as the 19th century, so the predominant religion here has historically been the Church of England .. or Anglicanism. In like so much of the English speaking world, Catholics find themselves a distinct minority .. that by the way is traceable all the way back to Henry VIII wanting the Church to approve his adultery and grant him a divorce. He quickly added murder to his list of misdeeds, both of faithful Catholics and some of his wives. Now the minority Catholic population is undergoing the same stresses here that the Church is in many parts of the world. Only about 15 percent of the baptized actually attend Mass each week .. and that is kind a baseline. So if you run the numbers .. that means of the roughly 700,000 New Zealand Catholics .. only about 100,000 actually attend Mass. The city of Auckland on the North island .. where we are coming to you from right now s the largest city in New Zealand .. accounting for one third of the total population. What that means is that approximately one third of the nation’s faithful Catholics attend Mass here in Auckland each Sunday .. so about 33,000. Doesn’t seem like very much does it? Of all the diocese’s 65 parishes .. about 33,000 people attend Mass each week. We wanted to look a little closer at these numbers because the base number .. the overall population is small enough to be able to draw some conclusions. This situation is one n which the Church throughout the western world finds herself. But an interesting note here is this. With a faithful population this small in number .. we have noticed that each conference we have given here for the past four nights has increased in attendance quite visibly. It’s very clear from some of the questions that people ask .. that they are coming because there is much they have not heard and here’s the main point .. THEY WANT TO HEAR IT. If you follow us with any regularity .. you know that we speak very plainly and directly and we talk about things like Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell, Sin, the Diabolical, The Glory of the Faith, The Real Presence, and all the rest.We talk about these things non-stop because this is what Our Blessed Lord talked about. To gut the faith of everything that seems unpleasant is to deny truth. Our Lord spoke incessantly about Hell and the need to do everything we can to avoid it. He came to save us from it. He spoke incessantly about the cost of love, of discipleship, of the cross. Not just his own, but the need for us to pick ours up as well and follow him. Being a good Catholic is tough. It isn’t abut getting together at Mass each week and having a hand holding happy clappy emotion laden session with everyone sitting around you. Its about active .. meaning highly concentrated and full attention .. participation in the representation of Our Lord’s sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. Being Catholic is ultimately about becoming sanctified as we pass through this life onto hopefully Eternal Joy in the next. Don’t let anyone tell you there is not a deep thirst for this message of truth and reality out there. There absolutely is. We see it everywhere we go. Preach the truth and they will come. Sure others won’t like it .. but that’s thee free will. For those who WANT to hear it, there is an obligation to preach it rooted in the command Our Lord Himself to go out and teach all nations. Dump the lemon meringue flavor of the Faith and get back to the basics .. the toughness of the Faith .. the toughness that tamed an Empire and brought an entire civilization to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and He established One True Church for the salvation of mankind. You preach that and they will come. You don’t preach that and many will wander around and most will abandon you. Its just that simple. Truth attracts. Reporting from New Zealand GOD Love you. I’m Michael Voris.