Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Chapel
205 Fulton Street
Elgin, IL. 60120
(847) 508-9513
"hold fast to the traditions which you have received"
II Thess. 2:15
Traditional Latin Roman Catholic Mass
Sodality of Our Lady
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ALONE IS THE
TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST
Why do we believe this?
The true Church of Christ can be no other than that which has always had a visible being or presence in the world since Christ's time. The Catholic Church was founded byJesus Christ Himself. He expressly stated and promised: "That the gates of hell should not prevail against her." (Matt. 16: 18). The Roman Catholic Church is the kingdom of Christ, which shall never be destroyed. (see Daniel 2:41 on this). The true Church of Christ can be no other than the Catholic Church, which alone has always had a visible being in the world ever since Christ's time: not the Protestants, nor any other modern sect, which only came into the world since the year 1500. Not the Orthodox "national" groups, for these denied the authority of the pope over them, and came into being after the year 1054 A.D. For these sects that came into the world many years after Christ, came into the world many years too late to be the religion or Church of Christ. The true Church of Christ, in virtue of promises both of the Old and New Testament, was to continue pure and holy in all ages, even to the end of the world. The Catholic Church could never need a "Protestant Reformation" because what was of old, the true Church of Christ, must still be so; and it is in vain to seek for the true Church amongst the many sects and pretenders of reformation; because they all build upon a wrong foundation, that is, upon the supposition that the Church of Christ was for many ages gone astray. This is simply not possible, in virtue of the promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
WHY I AM CATHOLIC
Dario McDarby, Sodality of Our Lady
Why I Am Catholic
Father Brown, the heroic Catholic priest who offers the Traditional Latin Mass in Elgin, Illinois, asked me to write a few things for the Chapel website. He said that I write well. After my ego deflated from his kind comment I decided to help out in my small, insignificant way. I thought I would begin by telling the readers why I am Catholic.
First, I use the term "heroic" to define Fr. Brown and all other such priests because this small cadre of priests and religious who hold the true Catholic faith, "complete and undefiled," are a heroic group. They keep that faith against all odds and against all enemies. The latter is a formidable force that proceeds from the depths of hell to abolish and destroy the true faith of Christ. Therefore, defenders of our Catholic faith are heroic. I can only pray for strength and resolve when I am called each day to be "heroic." They, as well as the Saints in Heaven, must be our models as human men, while Christ remains always our standard.
I'm a cradle Catholic. I give thanks to my mother and father for bringing me to the true Church, and to Mr. and Mrs. George Murphy, who agreed to be my godparents. I appreciate their boundless charity to my soul for it set me, as a mewling infant, on the path toward salvation. While they did their job I must continue to do mine for the day of my salvation. And when I pray, which too often is too infrequent, I remember their kind and loving souls to our Lord. My earnest hope is they have already found favor and comfort in Heaven. If not, and bound in Purgatory, my job in part is to pray for them.
I'm Catholic because I can be nothing else. Perhaps I'm not a great Catholic, but still I profess the faith of Christ in Holy Mother Church, through the Chair of Peter to whom He gave the keys of Heaven. What Peter and his priests bind on earth are bound in Heaven; what is loosed on earth is loosed in Heaven. I need much loosening because, even though I am Catholic, I remain a grievous sinner. St. Paul speaks so eloquently for me, and for most of us I’m sure, when he complains in Romans 7. xiv-xxv, and most specifically in xix: “For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do.” Wow, what honesty!
Still, I'm Catholic, no matter the evil I do but will not. Hey, I said "Catholic," not "perfect." As a Catholic, I struggle through the rifts and rills of life, slog through the bitter marshes of sin, climb the handholds of daunting mountains toward my goal- our goal- salvation...Heaven...living with the Lord forever. Our Catechism informs us: “Why did God make me?”; “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the world to come.”
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? For modern man, it’s still too hard. Being a child-like idiot, requiring things to be handed to him for which he does little work, modern man wants an even easier road to salvation.
Modern man wants to "earnestly" believe in something easier to make the job of faith easier by perching on the limb of convenience and easy salvation. You know, shaking the tambourines of those various sects, "religions," "spiritual beliefs" that promise an easier salvation because their god is a god of love and smiles...a nice guy god to offset the stereotypically inaccurate dour God of Christianity. Our God, they say stupidly, is a God of anger, violence and revenge. Why work towards salvation with stress and fear? All you have to do is "envision" god in the image you desire to make the long journey toward Heaven so much easier. Being good is being saved...or as the Protestants might claim..."once confessed always saved."
But beware of the God you worship; for all gods of the enemies of God are devils, and in worshiping them, the “heaven” which you seek is actually hell. Protestants are always hectoring Catholics on this point, while stupidly sliding into the same abyss for which, they claim, we are destined.
Catholics, however, know the truth. We can be saved but not by guarantees from our subjective belief—our individual assent---in Him. There is something else, something important. What is it?
Let’s just call it doing the Will of God. And where do we find that Will? In the Church of the Apostles whose authority came from Christ and continues uninterrupted through the ages. The Holy Catholic Church!! We know from whence we spring. The Protestants have no clue, but use fable, hair-splitting, and denial to cobble bits and pieces of truth into a gross lie. Truth used speciously, and partly, to create a new truth, must remain a lie. If they are liars, they must therefore serve that from which all lies spring. It is NOT Christ, NOT the Church….but the father of all lies: satan.
Well, I'm Catholic, not a fool. So, I need guidance for my soul. If I were to read and cobble my own interpretations of His Word, I would fall immediately and deeply into error and heresy. I would be squirming in theological molasses from which there is no escape. Such private interpretation would condemn me by its very nature of subjectivity. It’s the nature of the man of flesh to be more like God so we make Him more like us. We need so much more than that gross reductionism.
I look to the Timeless Church for the truth… and find it, unlike Protestants who always seem to stumble in their darkness, switching on what seems to be a light, then finding themselves, yet again, wandering within another “church” or “denomination.” When the heathen, communist Mao Zedong proclaimed in the “cultural revolution” in Communist China, “let a thousand flowers bloom,” we hear a resonation in a satanic cry among Protestants to “let a thousand denominations bloom.” Where will these madmen stop in their infamy?
I listen to the words of our ancients, the fathers, martyrs, saints, apostles, disciples and the army of Christ who, preceding me, suffered and bled with Christ on their individual crosses. His yoke is light, but the pain from the hatred of the world against us and our Lord is incredible. Only the strong can endure. I am weak; my faith strengthens me!!
The faithless weak slide off into sects, errors, lies, and deceptions that pretend that all men are good, all men strive toward god in their own way that is as valid as any other. Horsefeathers!!! In their wretched stiff-necked nature, they contend to “let a thousand denominations bloom.” Splitting Christ, His Word, the Holy Ghost, as if they were bread loaves to be consumed. Christ is the bread of life: One Christ; One Church; One Word…..and it sure ain’t in the stink weeds of the nefarious blooms of infernal Protestantism!
I am too weak, I guess, to even be a Protestant, who appears to be a man that can stand before God and say “I will not serve!” I’m too weak, too frightened to challenge the Almighty in such a way. Plus, I love my Father and would not coherently and consciously challenge His Authority!
I also learn from experience. A third of the angels fell because of such a belief of “non serviam.” I am at a loss to figure out the audacity and rebelliousness needed for men, Protestants and others who should know better, who do not learn from salvation history, but continue to make the same mistakes time and time again, who tumble like the fallen angels into the pit of Gehenna.
George Santayana, the Spanish philosopher and agnostic, said that those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. While the fall of angels is unrepeatable the continuous fall of man is a daily occurrence.
Let me ask you this: If you know you will fall each day, would you prefer a safety net or would you desire to take your chances with an endless abyss? The Catholic Church is my safety net. The Protestant has no church and therefore is doomed to fall into the abyss. Like dead leaves blown about in fall, their days are numbered and their resting place nearly certain.
I am Catholic because I worship God in fear and trembling. I am Catholic because I was born to fight….for Him, for His Church. I am Catholic because I will serve!
Note: Dario McDarby is a member of the Sodality of Our Lady. He and his family were received into the Sodality a few years ago, while they resided in Arizona. Fr. Brown traveled to Arizona and offered Holy Mass and received Dario and his wonderful family into the Sodality. Besides his professional writing background, Dario has both written about and investigated the abuse of children. 3 years ago Dario was able to visit Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Chapel and speak about his return to the Traditional Latin Mass and his work as a writer in the investigation of sexual abuse. We hope to feature his materials regularly.
