While walking past our T.V., I thought I heard this young, very articulate priest speaking on Fox News about the recent election in the Vatican.  Sorry I can't remember his name, but anyone who watches whenever they have a priest, he is usually the one chosen to speak and answer questions.  I say I thought I heard, because I did not get the full context of what he was saying.

What I thought he said:  "Ask not what the Church can do for you, but ask what you can do for the Church".

My sincere question is:  Does the Church need us, or do we need the Church?  I remember in Catholic school, being taught that the Church does not need us, we need the Church.

His remark made it seem to me, that the Church is no longer a Divine Institution, founded by Christ, but rather a sort of a worldly club that needs our help in order to survive.  I have been thinking about this and how the Modernist like to twist the meaning of what One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic really means.

What say you!  

I'd say the Church stands strong, built on a rock by Christ to last till the end of time - - it is we who need the Church because there is no other way to get to heaven.

I agree with the other posters, obviously, we need Christ and His Church, but in a certain way, it is true to say the Church requires the prayers, penances and good works of her sons and daughters, indeed the sanctification and salvation of many depends on it according to God's plan - so it is both/and not either/or in my opinion - here is Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi

44. ... It is manifestly clear that the faithful need the help of the Divine Redeemer, for He has said: "Without me you can do nothing,"[70] and according to the teaching of the Apostle every advance of this Mystical Body towards its perfection derives from Christ the Head.[71]

Yet this, also, must be held, marvelous though it may seem: Christ has need of His members. First, because the person of Jesus Christ is represented by the Supreme Pontiff, who in turn must call on others to share much of his solicitude lest he be overwhelmed by the burden of his pastoral office, and must be helped daily by the prayers of the Church. Moreover as our Savior does not rule the Church directly in a visible manner, He wills to be helped by the members of His Body in carrying out the work of redemption. That is not because He is indigent and weak, but rather because He has so willed it for the greater glory of His spotless Spouse.

Dying on the Cross He left to His Church the immense treasury of the Redemption, towards which she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this work of sanctification with His Church, but He wills that in some way it be due to her action. This is a deep mystery, and an inexhaustible subject of meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention and on the cooperation of pastors of souls and of the faithful, especially of fathers and mothers of families, a cooperation which they must offer to our Divine Savior as though they were His associates.