Watertown, NY

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The following report is a continuation of yesterday’s story and comes to us from team leader Scott with our team in Watertown, NY:

We met Phil, the security guard for the tournament, and he’d shared some personal information after chatting for a while. So I felt comfortable enough to question Phil about the details of his faith. He revealed to me that he has not returned to Church in many years. When asked why, he explained that he no longer follows Pope Francis because of the things he’s saying and supporting, along with his silence on the abuse and corruption within the Church hierarchy. Dave established a good point in response to Phil’s objection about the Seat of Peter, when he explained to Phil in summary that there is a difference between the “man” of the Pope and the “office” of the Pope. I also explained to Phil that just because we may not like our President or one of our leaders in government, we would not turn on our nation. Phil slightly agreed with some of these points and took it into consideration. I also explained to Phil how Satan wears many masks, and for those who harm children (regardless of who they are), they are from Satan and not from God. Furthermore, I emphasized that there are many Holy Priests and clergy in the world who do much good for others that he probably never hears about. I also reminded him that these trials of the faith we are going through in the modern age is like a test and that we are constantly being tested to see where our heart belongs.

Before the conversation ended, I brought up to Phil a few of his responsibilities as a Catholic, such as weekend Mass, confession and communion once a year. Phil responded by saying “nobody should tell anybody how to live or what to do.” Although I could have taken this a step further by explaining how Christ and the Apostles came into the world to show us how to live, as they clearly and justly told us what to do in order to be saved, I decided not to go any further with this for a number of reasons. The main reason was out of gentleness (something I am working on), because this may have been the first time in many years he considered returning to Church, and I did not want to put too much on him at once so as to turn him off to the idea. Before we went our separate ways, we gave Phil a tract on “Reasons to Return to the Catholic Church,” and a blessed Saint Anthony necklace because he used to go to St. Anthony. He also named his son Anthony, so it made the most sense. Please pray that Phil returns to the faith of his childhood.

Praised be Jesus Christ!