1. It was easy to find them before. In the early times of the Church just ask where the Catholics were and you get a hand and a straight finger pointing directly at a whole community of Catholics. They lived apart from the worldly people, they lived in community shared all things in common and they loved one another. They were usually found outside of towns and cities. Later on they were found in huge communities living in the desert, in cities carved out of volcanic mountains, on islands, on top of mountains….it was easy to find them and they can be pointed out apart from the rest.
2. At the beginning of the 19oo I had the impression that Catholics could specially be found in two organizations, the Catholic Action and the Legion of Mary. Of course, they were around but it was almost impossible to point them out. But the members of these two organizations looked different from the rest. Even Hitler feared them. And they were Catholics both in their behaviour and in their speech. Talking to them it is clear their doctrines are correct. These were laymen whose basic Catholic doctrines were right.
3. Today we have hundreds of so- called Catholic organizations of laymen founded by both laymen and the clergy. There are many quasi religious groups founded by nuns and priest. There are even clerical or priestly groups founded by Bishop’s conference. But the foundational doctrine of their way of life does not exhibit the purity of Catholic doctrine. It is even evident in their way of life and in their speech. . . which should cause us to raise our eyebrows.
4. Many laymen groups that are even approved by the Congregation of religious and secular life are founded by laymen who have no knowledge of Divine Revelation. They have held the bible briefly for the first time in their lives and before you know it they are founding huge secular followings. This is a danger the Council of Orange warned the Church: the danger of laymen getting hold of the bible and immediately starting a new sect. As St. Paul described it “unenlightened zeal”.
There are many nuns, probably discontented with their orders had left and founded new groups with themselves as superiors. Some nuns had left their orders to become hermits. St. Benedict warned us of religious who cannot live the community life and rushes into the heremitical life to avoid the burden of community living. And there are some clerical/ priestly groups organized by Bishop’s conference whose way of life is Pelagian heresy resurrected in that they think they can improve the world on their own as in the case of liberation theology. What is evident among them is the lack of a solid doctrinal foundation. In short, they do not know how to go to heaven. They just presume because they belong to this established catholic organization or community approved by the Bishop and even by Rome they will surely go to heaven. Even the vast numbers of converts entering the Church today do not realize they do not immediately become Catholics. There is still a long process before they can attained orthodox Catholic Faith.
5, So where have all the Catholics gone? Where is the Catholic Church? Can anyone raise his hand and point them out with their finger showing the Catholic apart from the rest? When I hold retreat for priests, seminarians or nuns I would tell them jokingly “show me the four signs that you are Catholics.” They would smile but none can show the four signs of the Church. And when the question and answer come all their complains show they have problems with the 4 visible signs of the Church. That’s why they cannot show them. Isn’t this sad?
6. The Church of Christ have four visible signs. If we cannot show them we must at least know what they are and explain them. This would at least show we have some inkling of the signs. But the true Church must not only have the four visible signs of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. She must be able to explain the dynamics on how those signs are produced. This will be the explanation of the spirituality of the life of the Church that produces these signs.
7. In short, if we put together what Pope Benedict as Cardinal mentioned that the Church is undergoing a crisis of Faith, since the four visible signs of the Church are signs of Faith, Hope and Charity, the reason why we cannot point with certainty where that Church is is because we cannot find those marks anywhere. The Church must exist up to the end times. So where is the Church? Where have all the Catholics gone. The answer is in the Apocalypse. It says that the Church used to be in the world calling all souls to embark into the ark. But at the end times, God would give the Woman, the Church, two giant wings to fly into the desert in a place specially prepared by God to protect her. Where is that? St. John Chrysostom says that this is not a physical desert. It is the symbol of a way of life lived in the privacy of one’s soul. It is the way of life lived by Christ for 30 years at home and lived by John the Baptist for 30 years in the desert.
St. Grignon de Montfort tried to establish the Catholic Church with her four visible signs and with a Marian personality and Pope Benedict described it in his thesis on St. Bonaventure. Thank God we have a Pope who knows where all the Catholics have gone.