Sheen on the Church, Part 1 - How to Find Christ's True Church

  This is Part 1, of an introduction by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, to the  "Radio Replies" series of Catholic religion questions and answers. 
    Fulton Sheen was the first electronic evengelist of national prominance, and more popular than Milton Ble, at a time when "Uncle Milty" ruled the airwaves. He was a familiar voice to tens of millions through across half of the 20th Century.
    Archbishop Sheens style is both compelling, educated - and uncompromising. This feels blunt to the modern ear, since today's reader expects a sugar-coated reality. But the intention of the series was, and still is, to explain the truths of the Church to people with many notions ABOUT that Church - but very little fact or understanding.

A link to part 2, entitled, "The Trouble With Christians," is found at the bottom, along with a link to the entire 'Radio Replies' series - all five volumes and 5,000+ questions and answers! 

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Archbishop Sheen...
    "There are likely not over a hundred people in the United States who really hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church - which is, of course, quite a different thing.
    These millions can hardly be blamed for their feelings about Catholics, because they are constantly told that Catholics... "adore statues"... that they, "put the Blessed Mother on the same level with God"... because they say, "indulgence is a permission to commit sin" (if they think much of sin, at all)... because the Pope, "is a Fascist," or... because the "Church is the defender of Capitalism."
    If the Church taught or had faith in these things, it should be hated. But the fact is that the Church does not believe nor teach any of them. It follows then that the hatred of the millions is directed against their own error, and not against truth. As a matter of fact, if we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church, too.

How To Find The True Church
    If I were not a Catholic, but were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world. In other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates.
    Why would I do that? Wouldn't that be uncomfortable, or difficult?    

    Here is my reason for it:

    If the true Christ, in all his facets, is to be found in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated just as He was when He was on earth in the flesh.

    Therefore, if you want to encounter Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world.

    - Look for the Church that is denounced and hated by the world, as Christ was denounced and hated by the world.
    - Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned.
    - Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth.
    - Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils.
    - Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed in the name of God, just as men crucified Christ thinking they had done a service to God.
    - Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims infallibillty, as Pilate rejected Christ because He called Himself the Truth.
    - Look for the Church which is rejected by the world as Our Lord was rejected by men. 
    - Look for the Church which, even amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its Voice as the very voice of its Founder. 

    In THIS WAY, the suspicion will grow within you that if that Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Once it is finally, and rightly, viewed as other-worldly, it is infinitely loved - and infinitely hated - as was Christ Himself.
    Only that which is Divine can be infinitely hated, and infinitely loved at the same time. That is the mark of the one, true Church of Christ...that is how you are assured of its divinity. And there is only one Church that fufills both: The Catholic Church.
    Other churches may be loved by their members, even as these churches contradict, and perhaps, reject one another - but the world never depises them. In fact, unless they make the news, it generally takes little notice of them at all. But there is one Church, with its members, which unanimously loves the world through its workings..., but which the world unanimously rejects and reviles: The Catholic Church.

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Links
Part Two, of Archbishop Sheens Introduction, HERE:
The Trouble With Christians

Radio Replies - The Series, in its entirety, HERE: Radio Replies

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