Gates of Hell

From the beginning of Christianity, it has been assailed from the outside and the inside. Some could not accept the Catholic Church in its totality, interpretation, or its members. With its colorful history, they expect a pure, perfect Church just like Jesus. A Church with a Judas, a Borgia, corrupt clerics, sexual abusers, political activists, "prayles' who steal land and so on just doesn't go with Divine institution. The expectation from the Catholic Church is high because she claims to be instituted by Jesus, God incarnated.

As history moves forward, more and more anti-Catholics rise. There would always be someone (eventually becoming a group)who wants just a part of it modifying it. Making god into our own image. Every new age adds another group that opposes her or would want to change her.

So why would one want to be in a Church that is continually being contested from the inside and the outside? Why when there are so many religions to choose from. One can even found a new religion tailor-made for one's self. One can even go without religion.

The Church has the keys to the Truth. Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life will always be the Founder and Head of the Church. The ways of perdition, lies, and death would always seek to pervert it diminish it, and denigrate it. The gates of hell would always try to prevail against it, precisely because, the Catholic faith is the Truth. Lies need the Truth for its existence as darkness depends on the light.

Pascal: “Christ is in agony until the end of the world.”

Benedict XVI: "I am now facing the last chapter of my life and I do not know what awaits me. I know, however, that the light of God exists, that he is Risen, that his light is stronger than any darkness, that the goodness of God is stronger than any evil in this world. And this helps me to go forward with certainty. May this help us to go forward, and at this moment I wholeheartedly thank all those who have continually helped me to perceive the “yes” of God through their faith."