Fr paul scalia church belligerent define

The Pitfalls

Since we must do battle, we must also be on our guard, lest our fighting sense become the only sense we have. Perhaps by considering certain characteristics of the Church Belligerent, we can better guard ourselves against it.

First, prizing principles over persons.
Evangelization and apologetics try to unite two things: God’s truth and the human heart.

Let us keep in mind these two things are meant for each other. To effect this union we must possess a love for both the truth and the person.

It is not an organized group, it is a mindset to defend the Church against verbal attacks in the form of misinformation & even lies about.

He has the heart of Christ in the sense of the Church Militant rather than the Church Belligerent and how as Catholics we have to have a heart.

"Church Belligerent" is a term that indicates the necessary fighting spirit of the Church Militant severed from the principle of charity.

A similar article by Fr. Paul Scalia appeared in “This Rock” a couple years ago: The Church Militant or the Church Belligerent?

How religious zeal turned militant and gave rise to a strident belligerence toward Protestant reformers; even among Catholics, opposing.

The goal is not just to prove our point or, worse, to prove ourselves correct. Rather, the purpose is to bring people to Christ and to establish his truth in their hearts. To do that we must possess the truth. But we must also keep hearts intact.

We depart from the right path when we prize a certain principle or truth and run roughshod over the person in our delivery.

In short, the Church Belligerent succumbs to the temptation to