Catholic Response to "Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus"

The guy who made the original video is very appealing and 15 million have viewed his YouTube poem. No doubt he means well and there are certainly hypocrites in the Church. So what? Jesus didn't say the synagogues were evil, he preached there. When he was accused at His trial he pointed out that He was in the temple every day. He did not separate Himself from the Church; he fulfilled the Old Covenant and started something new, the Catholic Church.

How much worse would many people be if they weren't practicing their religious faith through an established Church? Everybody I worked with at crisis pregnancy centers and on the sidewalk trying to save babies was a Christian, mostly Catholic Christians. I know many church-goers who are foster parents, adoptive parents, missionaries to the poorest of the poor, etc. And most of the charity in the world is done by believers. The Catholic Church founded universities, orphanages, hospitals, and all kinds of services for the poor. It was the monasteries during the Middle Ages that welcomed the poor at the gates and fed them. In England the destruction of the monasteries and the persecution of Catholics created the poor houses and debtors prisons. This young man is clearly ignorant of history You cannot claim to truly love Jesus and cut yourself off from His Church.

What does this young man, who is so hostile to the Church, do to make the world better (besides videotape himself onYouTube? You can't love Jesus completely if you hate the Church because Jesus Himself said to Simon Peter, "You are rock and on this rock I will build my church." And even more important is what follows: "The gates of hell will not prevail against it." Anyone who separates himself from the Church, and the Church founded by Christ is the Catholic Church whose pope is the successor of Peter, faces Satan standing on a sand dune. We need the Church and the Church needs us.