Editor’s Note: Catholics should beware that on social media a lot of “influencers” who claim to be Catholic, either do not share our faith, or are not in communion with the Apostolic See, or are converts, who teach things which are inconsistent or incompatible with the Catholic Faith. Among those who are the worst, are converts who pretend their ancestors were Catholics.
As case in point is this article by Ann Barnhardt, who has not be a Catholic for more than 20 years. Since her surname is from Prussia, whose ruling Duke Albert, accepted the Protestant Revolt in 1525, she can scarcely claim that St. Pius V, in 1571, was her “father in God”.
A cradle Catholic can claim that, especially one whose ancestors were always Catholic from time immemorial. But not a recent convert from a protestant land. Let’s be that honest.
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The poor things carry that Protestant self-righteousness and do not let go of it. I’m afraid their father is still the heresiarch Luther. We have to pray for these new brothers and sisters. Their intention is good but in some sense they more lost than they were before. I say this with great sadness.
Amen & AMEN !!
The key[s] for me, since my 2012 conversion, have been the virtues of humility, chastity, temperance, brotherly love, and diligence.
We are all on a “journey in Faith” but at different stages; unless you are prepared to continue learning the Truth and absorbing proper Catholic information ‘like a sponge’, and living out your Faith in a devout & prayerful & reverent way, then the demons of pride/covetousness/anger/envy/lust/spiritual sloth will very soon invade your soul & body and become extremely difficult to remove……
Convert or Not.
No one has a monopoly on the grace of the Holy Spirit against error. I find this Catholic/Convert distinction not very helpful at all. Furthermore, the post you link to about Pius the Vth contains no claim that he’s anyone’s spiritual father.
As everyone knows, St. Paul — in a certain sense, first, among the apostles, as he says— was a . . . convert.
Yes, Ann does say this, where she writes: “Remember, not only did Pope St. Pius V Ghislieri, our father in God, assemble the Holy League which defended Europe from musloid invasion .. ”
Yes, Paul was a convert, but you don’t see the Greek convert Saint Luke saying that Abraham was his father in God, since he was not a hebrew.
Now Abraham is our father in faith, in that he was a leader and example to believe by a divine revelation in the coming Messiah, but then again Adam and Eve were also believers in the coming messiah.
But when you say “our father in God” you are taking it out of the realm of a supernatural virtue in our souls and defining the fatherhood according to the Divine Nature, Who is Being Himself, and thus referring to the existential order, and descent by blood or continuity in the same being, such as member of the Church.
Yes, converts are members of the Church, but their ancestors were not. Anyhow, popes are not our fathers in faith, unless we are papolaters. We Catholics call the great popes of the early era Fathers of the Church, but not our fathers, since we are not the Church, but members of the Church.