It isn’t that heretical doctrine is being formally taught, but confusing and ambiguous documents, informal comments, and perplexing events and actions seem to regularly muddy the waters on what exactly the pope or a particular synod of bishops might actually be attempting to communicate and what we are still supposed to believe as Catholics. This confusion sometimes seems to be emanating now also from Rome. We are not, then, a generation dealing with profligate popes, but we are dealing with serious confusion in the Church over doctrinal and moral matters of the utmost importance. We have been blessed in our lifetimes by solid popes, some of whom have been canonized.

Many human rights groups who track the persecution of Christians worldwide claim that even more Christians are being persecuted and killed for their faith today than in the early centuries of the Church when Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire.įortunately, none of us reading this have had to live through the terrible centuries and decades where there were corrupt popes engaging in immorality, selling church offices, and carrying out military adventures. The world is always beset by confusion and division, but it is certainly intensifying throughout the world as hostility to the Church and its teachings grows. And it is our time and our confusion, so it is something we must deal with. I am not qualified to evaluate whether this is the worst confusion the Church has seen or not-we have been through some pretty bad times over the centuries-but it is serious.

It’s clear that we are living in a time of confusion and division, both in the Church and in the world. Martin is the author of A Church in Crisis. He was also appointed as a peritus for the Synod on the New Evangelization which was held in Rome in 2012. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Angelicum University in Rome.

Ralph Martin is the president of Renewal Ministries and Director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization and a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

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