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Catholic Dorms Being Built on 2 Secular College Campuses in an Effort to Reach Youths

Jan. 8, 2013 11:36am Billy Hallowell

Catholic Dorms Being Built at Florida Institute of Technology & Texas A&M University

Photo Credit: AP

Catholic students at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Texas A&M University-Kingsville will soon have their very own religiously-themed dormitories. Starting next fall, both institutions will begin offering rooms, a chapel and faith-based services for religious pupils.

In December, FIT broke ground on its Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Student Residence and, in October, Texas A&M commenced construction on the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center. The FIT building will reportedly house 140 students, with the Texas A&M initiative accommodating 287 young people.

Until these structures were announced, only one secular college — the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — had a Catholic dorm. Like the two buildings currently being constructed, the Illinois residence hall has a chapel. The announcements of these buildings come at a time when young people are said to be increasingly losing their faith.

Last month, The National Catholic Reporter explained how these new residencies came to fruition:

In a historic collaboration, Bishop John G. Noonan of Orlando, Fla., Anthony J. Catanese, president of Florida Institute of Technology, Matt Zerrusen, president of the Newman Student Housing Fund, and Salvatorian Fr. Douglas Bailey, chaplain of Catholic campus ministry at the school, participated in the ceremonial groundbreaking for Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Student Residence on Dec. 7.

The ceremony was the second in as many months at a secular university in which housing specifically designated for Catholic students is being constructed. [...]

A similar ceremony took place Oct. 3 at Texas A&M University-Kingsville for St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center, which includes a dormitory and chapel. [...]

The creation of these dorms inside of secular campus serves two fascinating purposes: To help young people hold onto their faith during the often-times difficult college years and to expose non-believers to Catholic teaching. Zerrusen told the Reporter last month that the fact that 50 percent of American students lose their faith by the time they graduate is “unacceptable.”

Photo Credit: Texas A&M

“It is a huge, huge deal in campus ministry, and all the Newman Centers want to add dorms. These are the first, the pioneers,” he noted.

The Newman Student Housing Fund is a fascinating endeavor — one that works to provide on-campus faith communities that blend secular campus life with religious adherence. By allowing for faith-based dormitories (and by helping to fund these structures), the group contends that it can help prevent students from drifting away from the faith.

“We believe that student housing facilities built with the purpose of exposing college students to the teachings of the Catholic faith will enrich the world by increasing vocations and building future leaders of the Church,” the company explains on its web site.

Zerrusen claims that the effort to place these Catholic residencies on mainstream campuses allows for Catholic communities to exist “inside secular ones.”

“If we want a way to change the culture of campus life and affect the future of our country, this is a big way of doing that,” he explained. “We can’t sit back and watch these kids go uncatechized. We’ve got to do something, and we are.”

The FIT dorm will be open to non-Catholics, too, with organizers claiming that residents won’t be forced to “memorize the Catechism.” Instead, they will merely be surrounded by “positive Catholic influences.”

With Catholics going out en force to get around the drop-off in faith that is being observed among young people, one wonders when evangelicals and other religious groups will consider following suit. Perhaps other Christian denominations are considering taking similar routes.

This story has been updated.

(H/T: Huffington Post)

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Comments (44)

vaman
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:54am
Shouldn’t they be building dorms on grade school campuses

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RandyLee7
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:42pm
This is an Evil world we live in so don’t think that since you are not Catholic, this can’t happen in your church. It is a problem for all of us to unite behind and support one another, not point fingers and sneer at in order to divide. God calls us to unite and be as one body. Would you pick up a sledge hammer and slam your hand with it. Of course not!! But when we seek to shame and denegrate one another this is exactly what we do. The Vatican has never had this as a policy to hide sin. Individual Priests who sinned embarrassed their Bishop and then the Bishop sinned by hiding the original sinner. Making matters worse some Bishops started working together like Adam and Eve did when they sinned to hide each other. This is human nature, kids do it, we all do it, but it is wrong. The fact that so many people were so profoundly hurt is so damn hurtful. However it NEVER was the policy of the Vatican. John Paul II was deeply hurt when this came out during his tenure as Pope. His response was swift in dealing with this issue. That is why it is very important for me to help you understand this was not a grand plot, but sinful, embarrassed individuals trying to hide sin from other people and from God. They Failed. Justice was and will be served. Preists are good men that only seek to serve God and it is wrong to paint them all with a broad brush because of the actions of a very few sinful men.

Peace and Blessings

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RandyLee7
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:19pm
@LOCKED
“Where in scripture are Grudges advocated.”

Honestly? All over the place.

If you are holding a Grudge here is more for why it is wrong for you to continue. God, our Dad wants to take care of these things himself. I am not the one to try and take this from him. I won’t “play God” out of anger. Love is what he asks of us instead. Mat chap 5, Luke Chap 6 and so on. There is a definite theme here. Pray on it!

Lev 19:18 Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD

Deut 32:35 Vengeance is mine and recompense, for the time they lose their footing; Because the day of their disaster is at hand and their doom is rushing upon them!

Deut 32:41 When I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand lays hold of judgment, With vengeance I will repay my foes and requite those who hate me!

Mat 5:39 But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil (LOCKED, this does not mean hold a grudge). When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.

Peace and Blessings

Heb 10:30-31 We know the one who said: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” and again: “The Lord will judge his people.” 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

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- Locked
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 7:19am
  @Randylee
  
  If you can’t read an entire sentence, I can’t really take you seriously. I already said that I’m not justifying a grudge biblically. And it’s not really a grudge: it’s an extreme distrust of the Catholic church’s officials. As I said, and you conveniently ignored:
  
  “But I’m not trying to justify my anger with the Catholic church biblically – I’m saying why it personally irks me when people defend the Holy See for its policies of hiding sexual abuse.”
  
  Report this comment
marinedad3
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:05pm
In the immortal words of star wars”IT’S A TRAP!” I will believe they are serious when they will ban professors who ridicule religion and believers, and when Christian professors are not force to “keep quiet”. This is nothing but an attempt to get kids away from Christian Colleges to get their money and to loop them into their great secularist melting pot. The reason why so many loose their faith in college is that the colleges set it up that way, this is just an extension of the plan!

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sizzlinsexybeckster
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:57pm
They are segregating themselves over religion and now they can be an easy target during this war against Christianity. Probably not a good idea.

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mcsledge
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:48pm
I applaud the intent of keeping God in the lives of our youth. I hope that some where down the line these colleges cannot start dictating what can and cannot be done within these religious dorms because these facilities are on their premises.

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- JRook
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:58pm
  they will merely be surrounded by “positive Catholic influences…… So is that what the abused alter boys thought when they were approached by the Priests?
  
  Report this comment
Dismayed Veteran
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:17pm
Wer’e coming to get your kids. HAHA HEHE HOHO!!!. When we get done, they will all be kneeling.

Seriously, What is the bid deal. If these dorms are successful, maybe other Christian faiths will build faith based dorms. I like the impact on the church/state angle. It is one more step in to reclaim God in our schools.

I am a Catholic who attended Pacific Lutheran University from 1965-1969. I got heavy doses of the Lutheran faith which I actually enjoyed learning. I was so impressed that I encouraged my kids to attend.

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- starman70
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:56pm
  These are publically supported institutions. It won’t be long before the ACLU and the atheist, GOD hating liberals will be filing suit saying that the presence of such facilities on campus represent the state violating the principle of separation of church and state.
  
  The only people who will profit from this will be the lawyers.
  
  Report this comment
DesertRose1960
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:01pm
I have seen public colleges with specialized or themed dorms before. I admit to finding the desire to build Catholic dorms is unusual. I attended a Newman Center when I was in college. It was a very large community and the number of people didn’t really drop during the summers or other college breaks. It had community support as well as college students attending. Newman Centers tend to be Liberal and focused on Social Justice. I lived in a dorm and I found keeping to a Catholic friendly diet during Lent impossible. I spoke to the head of the kitchens, I was told that “most Catholics didn’t observe Lent” so they weren’t going to be offering fish on Fridays for just six weeks a year. Of course, it didn’t stop them from serving fish on Thursday and Saturday a couple weeks a month, but they couldn’t offer fish on Fridays for one semester. My home state is one of the least religious states in the country and Catholics are a small portion of the population, so it was a losing battle from the start.

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- Eoghan51
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:40pm
  The Newman Center I am a part of at a liberal college is not liberal at all. We have about 30-40 regulars every week with more who come and go. We do focus on community outreach and nearly all of us are conservatives.
  
  Report this comment
Shasta
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:51am
The Catholics lost me when the pope blasted capitalism and they voted for Oblamo.

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- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:05pm
  I am Catholic and voted for Romney. Only 32% of Catholics voted for Obama and that is hardly a majority. Obama is reelected because of the 4 million people that voted for McCain and sat the election out for Romney. Place your blame elsewhere and get your facts straight!!
  
  Report this comment
justangry
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:51am
You get paid $87 an hour spamming blogs?

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MrSunshine
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:49am
Take it to HuffPo.

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- MrSunshine
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:58am
  Hey Justangry, it looks like they removed that post. Our responses are now moot.
  
  Report this comment
Locked
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:46am
Not a bad idea. Back when I was in school we had “learning communities” that were divided up into several different groups. Honors program, agriculture, medicine, engineering, etc. I believe there were also minority-specific groups, and I know we had several dorms for religious students (they were all off-campus, however).

I think these dorms will fill a positive role for some children who may not have much experience outside of their religious groups, but want to integrate into mainstream society. I think they’d be more necessary for Evangelicals who have been homeschooled and raised only in their small, like-minded communities, but it’s not a bad start.

I may not agree with much of the non-biblical Catholic dogma, but this seems like a good step for both religious and secular students.

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Cavallo
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:45am
Make sure they don’t participate in any unregulated capitalism. That might be as bad as blowing up a Jewish kid, according to the guy in Rome.

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- justangry
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:42pm
  Yeah really.
  
  Report this comment
MrSunshine
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:44am
I bet they won’t have co-ed bathrooms.

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justangry
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:42am
I’d be more comfortable if the Catholic church wasn’t trying to “reach youths” to be honest.
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- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:49pm
  Your attempt at humor is sad. The sex abuse that went on in the Church is sad. The coverup and denial of the abuse is even sadder. It’s the same problem that goes on in so many homes when the dad or step-dad is abusing the kids and the mother just won’t/can’t acknowledge it. But, let’s keep in mind a few facts. 4% of priests from 1952 to 2002 were accused of abuse, much lower then the general population of males. [Newweek magazine April 7th 2010]. The Church today is one of the safest places to trust with your kids. That being said, you should never trust your kids with anyone till you check them out yourself.
  
  Report this comment
- justangry
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:58pm
  Well you just go right ahead and trust that church. I never will. There’s nothing funny about an organization protecting pedophiles from the top down.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:07pm
  @Jogn655
  
  “4% of priests from 1952 to 2002 were accused of abuse, much lower then the general population of males.”
  
  … but there was an organized effort from the leaders of the Catholic church to cover it up. The rates might be lower, but the fact that church officials knew it was going on, decided to hide it, and let it continue for decades is arguably the most horrific thing the Catholic church has done since the time of the Crusades.
  
  I don’t hold the average Catholic responsible for the actions of the church officials, but I also don’t try to write off the horrors the church has permitted.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:13pm
  Then don’t turst your local schools or the boy scouts or your family friend. Also the abuse in the church was not pedophilea, which is abuse of prepubescence children, what happened in the Church is there were homosexual priests who did not take their vows of celibacy or common decency seriously. And they were preying on postpubescence boys. Now I don’t have the time or space here to go into why we had so many homosexual priests in the 1970s and 1980s, let’s just leave it at the devil has been attacking the Chuch for 2000 years and he tageted the seminaies in the 1970s and 80s.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:19pm
  @ locked
  
  When the Church was sending accused priests to psychological treatment, “the criminal justice system was doing the very same thing with convicted offenders – sending them to treatment instead of prison.”
  
  “From the 1950′s to the 1980′s, these treatment-based interventions for sexual criminals were not only enormously prevalent in the United States, but surveys of ordinary citizens showed that they were enormously popular …
  
  “[T]he science of human sexuality and sexual offending is extraordinarily young. Virtually all of the information we utilize today regarding the treatment and supervision of sexual offenders has been discovered since 1985.”
  – Dr. Monica Applewhite, Ph.D.
  
  The Church was wrong but so was society.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:44pm
  @John655
  
  It wasn’t the church’s place to decide if they were more or less wrong than society. It was their place to defend the children they oversaw and report the abuses when they happened. They didn’t.
  
  The Holy See might be its own country, but US priests are US citizens and subject to our laws. The church purposefully and knowingly ignored those laws to cover up the abuse done by their priests, and that should never, ever, be forgotten.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:40pm
  Where did I ever claim it should be forgotten or did I condon the cover up? You sir are putting words in my mouth, so to speak. Read carefully what I wrote.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:05pm
  @John655
  
  “Where did I ever claim it should be forgotten or did I condon the cover up? You sir are putting words in my mouth, so to speak. Read carefully what I wrote.”
  
  Where did I say you did I am speaking in general. The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for, and while you’ve said that it’s too bad about the sex abuse and it was wrong, you also volunteer a lot of other reasons that I can only look at as excuses.
  
  From your responses, you’ve said:
  -The church is one of the safest places to have your children, despite institutionalized protection of the priests who have sexually abused children.
  -Sexually assaulting underage boys wasn’t peodphilia (an erroneous claim, as plenty of the children were prepubscent, some as young as three, and majority between 11 and 14).
  -The devil caused them to do it
  -If these priests had been reported to the police, they would have had the same result: psych treatment.
  
  About the only response you had that I think is even remotely relevant is the rate of abuse compared to other areas, but even that came out as apologistic when you put forth that the church whose hierarchy knowingly concealed decades of abuse, is anything approaching “safe.”
  
  Sorry if you feel I’m jumping all over you for this. When the scandal broke I learned that 2 people I had known as a child has been sexually abused by a local Catholic priest – and the church knew about it, as he had been reassigned there. I hold a grudge.
  
  Report this comment
- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:09pm
  There are just as many pedophiles in protestant churches. But since they are all independant it doesnt make national news. When you are the worlds largest CHRISTIAN church everytime we sneeze the wrong way it is publicized.
  
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- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:23pm
  They are reported to the police and now their names are even published on the internet. It was truly sad and shameful what happened but the faith is not the problem but the cure. Mistakes were made and processes have been put in place to make sure this never happens again. EVERYONE including priests that are working with children are background checked and fingerprinted. When an allegation is made of abuse, the police are called immediately and the person is taken out of ministry until cleared of all charges. This can only happen when there is organization and unity like the Catholic Church. Independent churches can be closed and opened like doors with no way to keep track of offenders. Just a month or so ago there was a local pentecostal church pastor and his wife that organized youth sleepovers at their house. The only problem was the pastor was the only one being “ministered” to. This occurs everywhere and is not a “Catholic Problem”. It is true some priests were hidden for a while but the truth always comes out. There is a little Adam in all of us that when we sin we look to hide from God and certain Judgement.
  
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- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:32pm
  @LOCKED
  Where in scripture are Grudges advocated. Try this instead Luke 6:27-36. It was not the church that did this it was “that priest and that bishop” who did this. Mortal men who are able to sin that took the role of Adam and Eve and sought to hide from God and everyone their sin. I will pray for you and your friends. I know this pain well. My pentecostal step father sexually abused my sister for five years without my mom or me knowing about it. Let the blame fall where it should, on the shoulders of the offenders, and not on the entire church that includes me and people like me.
  
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- Locked
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:54pm
  @Randylee
  
  “Where in scripture are Grudges advocated.”
  
  Honestly? All over the place. God holds grudges like no other. But I’m not trying to justify my anger with the Catholic church biblically – I’m saying why it personally irks me when people defend the Holy See for its policies of hiding sexual abuse.
  
  “It was not the church that did this it was “that priest and that bishop” who did this”
  
  It was the church that knew about it, failed to report it, hid it, and denied it. As I’ve said several times.
  
  “Mortal men who are able to sin that took the role of Adam and Eve and sought to hide from God and everyone their sin.”
  
  And the Catholic church’s officials were complicit in their hiding.
  
  “Let the blame fall where it should, on the shoulders of the offenders, and not on the entire church that includes me and people like me.”
  
  I have. I explicitly wrote: “I don’t hold the average Catholic responsible for the actions of the church officials.” It’s like… 3 comments before this one. The individuals who committed these crimes are to blame for these crimes. But the Catholic church is the US is to blame for hiding these crimes, refusing to turn to police, and allowing the abuse to continue for decades. THAT is the reason you don’t hear as much about abuse in non-Catholic churches: there wasn’t an organized, systemic effort among hundreds of churches to cover up the sexual abuse.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:00pm
  @Randylee
  
  “Mistakes were made and processes have been put in place to make sure this never happens again.”
  
  And this is great news, and hopefully will make a positive difference in the future. I hope the Catholic church is a positive role model for combatting sexual abuse going forward; and indeed, some of the acts in mainline Protestant faiths are just as horrible (though without the systemic problem). But that does not mean that the abuse did not happen, or the horror can be lessened like it seemed John655 was trying to do.
  
  I do not hold anything against Catholics at all, and I sincerely hope the Catholic Church does well from here on in. The church officials owe it to the victims.
  
  Report this comment
- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:45pm
  That is my point. “The average Catholic” IS the church. The handful of priests and bishops that did know and perpetrated this tragedy were the problem. Our bishops today, in my opinon, have dealt with these problems sufficiently. I work with catholic teens, and the new procedures were put in place many years ago. I can’t, nor can any adult priest or not, have anyone who is under 18 and not a blood reletive as a friend on a facebook page. If we have to email a minor a copy must be emailed to their parent. It is long and exhaustive, the rules to protect our children. At first I was of the impression that this was overkill. Then I heard about the Baptist Youth Pastor in Boston that was using X-box to meet kids at his church and molest them. You are right that in protestant churches it is not “systemic” but what protestant church has a heirarchy that links us all together like ours. We follow the same rules, doctrine, beliefs. We are truly united and this problem hurt all of us. It is like Pauls analogy of the Body of Christ. We are the Body and when a part of it gets hurt we all hurt and we hurt when others make fun and mock our scars. Lay people, Priests, Bishops and Nuns all have the same goal and intentions when it comes to our kids. We will protect them from any one. It has taught us that the threat is everywhere.
  
  Report this comment
- RandyLee7
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:59pm
  “Where in scripture are Grudges advocated.”
  
  Honestly? All over the place. God holds grudges like no other.
  Romans 12:12-21 with emphasis on 19
  
  12. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.
  13. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,j exercise hospitality.
  14. Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them.
  15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
  16. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.
  17. Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.
  18. If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.
  19. Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
  20. Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”
  21. Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.
  
  Romans is my Favorite book!! you will find that it over and over to let God handle the problems. Ever heard “Let Go and Let God”?? “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” The Bible never ever contradicts itself. He will not tell us to do this and behave a different way a few chapters later.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:59pm
  Wow, I go to take care of a plumbing problem(I had to install a shut off valve in the main line into the house, after the meter) and a lot has taken place. Thank you Randy for explaining things better then I could. Your explaination shows exactly why the Catolic church is, today, one of the safest places you can leave your child. Again though, you should always check things out for yourself.
  
  @Locked
  
  I didn’t exactly say the devil made them do it, although in way he did. I said, “the devil has been attacking the Chuch for 2000 years and he tageted the seminaies in the 1970s and 80s.” By this I should elaborate, I meant homosexuals took over the seminaries in that time and were keeping out good men called by God and promoting a moraly loose life style. Read “Goodbye Goodmen” if you really want to understand what happened to the Church. Fortunately, God, has let the seminaries die on the vine while orthodox semaries have been filling up. It also goes for nuns. Have you ever wondered were all the nuns went? They all started wearing regular clothes and a lot abandoned the Catholic faith altogether. But again those nuns are dieing out and orthodox nuns are coming. What is old is new again.
  
  Pardon my spelling.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:17pm
  @ Locked
  
  I shouldn’t have said there was no pedophilea in the Church. I was speaking generaly. There is about 22% of the claims would be considered pedophilea. A last here is where I am perhaps unjustly defending the Church. I ask how many of these claims are even true? Since nearly half of the accused priests had died before they were accused apparently only God knows and he is a just God.
  
  I also should have said that the problems in the semaries really started in the 1950s but was going strong in the 70s and 80s.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 7:21am
  @John655
  
  ” I ask how many of these claims are even true?”
  
  Of the claims brought forward, about half have been prosecuted (if I remember correctly, 4% of all US priests have been accused, and about 1.9% of all US priests have been tried and found guilty). Many have not because the abuse took place so long ago the priests who stand accused are already dead.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:20am
  @John655
  
  “I didn’t exactly say the devil made them do it, although in way he did.”
  
  So, you’re saying that devil did it. I disagree. Men did it. The devil was not involved, and fingers should not be pointed at him as it detracts from the full responsibility that falls on the guilty persons involved.
  
  @Randylee
  
  ““Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””
  
  And as I said, God’s a huge fan of grudges. I would guess you’re Catholic; perhaps you’ve heard of the concept of Original Sin? God’s grudge, according to Catholic dogma, has lasted through to every single human ever.
  
  Bit of a moot point though, as I said I’m not looking to justify my anger toward the Catholic church’s officials biblically. And anger is fine by the Bible. And well deserved in this case.
  
  ““The average Catholic” IS the church.”
  
  Perhaps we’re talking about different things. Christians make up the “church” of Christ (and I use quotations because we’re not talking about a specific lbuilding or country like the Vatican). When I talk about the Catholic Church here, I am referring specifically to the hierarchy of priests, bishops, cardinals, etc that has been set up by Roman Catholicism; a vastly different concept than the spiritual “church” of Christ’s followers.
  
  If you want to say that the average Catholic is the Catholic church, and they were as culpable as the church officials who hid sexual abuse for decades, then those are your words, not mine.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 11:19am
  @ Locked
  
  God bless you, but don’t you understand that all evil comes from the devil? We are waging a spiritiual war here on Earth. The good wroks we do are prepared for us by God (EPH 2:10). Original sin still stains us all. At Baptism we are forgiven our original sin but there is still damage from it. We call this concupiscence. All sin is from the devil. If you’re not with God then you are with the devil whether you believe in him or not.
  
  Report this comment
- Locked
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:03pm
  @John655
  
  “don’t you understand that all evil comes from the devil”
  
  Er, no. I don’t. Evil comes from distancing ourself from God. The devil is just one of the agents of evil, not the cause of it.
  
  “If you’re not with God then you are with the devil whether you believe in him or not.”
  
  This is only true in the way that voting for Ron Paul meant you voted for Obama. Distancing yourself from God might mean you’ll act in the way the devil would like, but it does not mean “the devil made me do it.” The devil doesn’t make bad things happen: free will allows for us to choose to do bad things.
  
  I’m curious, is that a Catholic dogma? That the devil is the source of all evil? I’ve not encountered that line of thinking in a long time, and never among non-Catholics.
  
  Report this comment
- John655
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:58pm
  We have free will, but the source of all evil is the devil and the source of all good is God. We can either choose to coroporate with God for the good works he has prepared for us or we can choose the devil for the evil he has planned for us. It is our free will that allows us that choice. I don’t speak as an official of the Church. I am speaking the faith as I know it. I’m always learning more so if I speak dogmaticly incorrect the error is mine and not the Churches. Read Eph 2:10, if all the good works we do are prepared for us by God doesn’t follow that the devil’s plan is to keep us from those good works? This is a rather techical point and if we disagree on it, it’s no big deal. I’m tired of searching for this story to keep checking on this comment section. I won’t be coming back to, so agree or disagree let’s just part as friends. God Bless.
  
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