The Church Today

“We have to realize what the Church is. It is not simply a human institution that has one policy in one administration and a different policy in another. It is more than a human institution. It is something that comes to us through Christ, and the action of the Spirit, accomplishing His will in His time and His way.
We must be conscious of the action of the Spirit, not here and there, but at all times. I speak as one who was present for what I would call dramatic moments in the manifestation of the Spirit, particularly in the (Second Vatican) Council. You could almost feel the Spirit moving us in a particular direction.
When you are conscious of that, then the Church isn’t something you judge by human standards or procedures. It is something of God, in spite of its human imperfections. I know and you know that it is never going to achieve the fullness of its perfections on earth.
We have to accept the imperfections. We are, after all, pilgrims on a journey, and pilgrims get dirty. The road is a dusty one. But we should not let this cause us to lose sight of the more profound reality of what the Church is – the instrument of God that He has given us to bring all people closer to Him.
It is this that gives me hope, and confidence, a love for the Church. A love of the Church ought to be a basic part of our lives. But you can love it only if you understand it, and you can understand it only though faith. The first chapter of Lumen Gentuum, on the mystery of the Church – the one that is so often passed over – is profound. It presents to us God’s design for His creatures, and it talks of how this design is to be realized – imperfectly, but realized nonetheless.
This is the underlying reality of the Church. And in God’s own way, and in God’s own time, it will come.”

John Cardinal Dearden
His response to a question asked by Bishop Ken Untener, on how to advise young people who might get discouraged now and then because of certain things that they see happening today.