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Wednesday 28 May 2014

The Church Is Not Utopia


Oh to be in Oleanna,
That's where I'd like to be
Than to be in Norway
And bear the chains of slavery.

Little roasted piggies
Rush around the city streets
Inquiring so politely
If a slice of ham you'd like to eat.

Beer as sweet as Muncheners
Springs from the ground and flows away
The cows all like to milk themselves
And the hens lay eggs ten times a day.


In 1852, a famous violist Ole Bull decided to set up a utopia in Pennsylvania by buying 11,000 acres and offering it free to pioneers.  The entire project failed because the violinist knew nothing of farming and the land was totally unsuitable. The project failed. More can be read here. http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/places/4278/ole_bull%27s_new_norway/472266

Too many Catholics see the Church as some sort of experiment of utopia. It is not a millennialist dream of another time of Christendom or a time of triumphant in a material manner. 

The Church is an institution created by Christ to impart grace to the members and guide them to heaven. Heaven is the real goal, not any type of utopia on earth. A Catholic needs to be concentrating on becoming a saint and not on becoming involved in utopian, or other theories of neo-triumphalism.

Liberation Theology was condemned for making Christ into a militant, materialistic Messiah, in the mode of Marxist utopian theories. This theology departed from the idea of the Kingdom of God as within each one of the baptized Catholics, and not something without, not something physically set-up as a utopia.

Do not waste time dreaming of greater days to come. Pray for those who are persecuted and pray to persevere until the end.

We shall not see the return to an Catholic utopias.