THE BREAKDOWN OF CHURCH DISICIPLINE

Making a mockery and sacrilege of the Most Holy Eucharist and the priesthood Christ instituted, but they have been excommunicated!

These women call themselves Catholic priests, but they have been excommunicated!

Do you think Catholics formed by the Extraordinary Form Mass would do this?

What is it about the manner in which the Ordinary Form Mass has been celebrated that makes some Catholics think this is permissible in a Catholic Church and Mass?

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI in his recent letter to Ireland wrote:

"In recent decades, however, the Church in your country has had to confront new and serious challenges to the faith arising from the rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected. Significant too was the tendency during this period, also on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel. The programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings."


My comments:
Since the Second Vatican Council, the "spirit of Vatican" contributed in no small way to the break down of Church discipline and a loss of respect for the Church and her teachings. The baby was thrown out with the bath water and abuses in liturgy became the norm in many places throughout the world. Evidently, abuse of people, either children, teenagers or adults took place also. In both, the priest who abuses the liturgy and abuses people, is using his power not for good but for evil. It is a corruption of power focused on the need to control and manipulate for one's own sick satisfaction or need to feel powerful.

I have heard of priests shortly after Vatican II publicly castigating parishioners who would not open their hymnal and sing a prescribed song. One priest took the hymnal, opened it to the right page, shoved it in a non-singing parishioner's hands and was told, sing!

Were there any bishops suspending priests for grievous behavior toward the Mass or their parishioners? I suspect some did or called them in for a talk or had to meet pastoral councils who had real issues with their priests. But apart from that, little occurred. What sanctions can a bishop place against a disobedient, errant priest, apart now from sexual abuse of a minor? I suspect there are canonical sanctions, but these are seldom used.

Bishop Raymond Lessard the retired Bishop of Savannah, back in the late 1980's lamented the fact that priests since the Second Vatican Council had lost a sense of "majesty" in terms of their high calling and how to celebrate the Mass and live their lives. This included everyday etiquette also. The bishop was ridiculed by many of our priests for suggesting such a thing, a throw back to earlier times that had no place in the priest's life in the post Vatican II Church. The prevalent thought of the day was that priests should be no different than their "lay" counterparts. To be "incarnated" in the lives of their parishioners,meant being no different than they. Secular dress, public language that would make a sailor blush, and a more materialistic lifestyle have become the "Christ with the Culture" symbol of priesthood today, rather than "Christ transforming Culture" through Gospel simplicity. But that's another story.

The latest bomb thrown at the Church's esteemed discipline are the dissident sisters and the Catholic Health Association who defied the National Conference of Catholic Bishop's agenda concerning the Health Care Bill just passed by the House of Representatives. If you don't think this act of defiance and setting these groups up as an "alternative" Magisterium aren't part and parcel of the breakdown of Church discipline tied into the decline that Pope Benedict writes to Ireland, then you live on another planet. Will these "Catholic" groups face any sort of sanction that is permitted by Canon Law? Probably not, thus continuing the legacy of abuse of Church discipline leading to its further erosion.

Some in the past may have thought that "therapy" and then holding hands and singing "Kumbaya" would conquer all problems. The "Kumbaya" approach to being Church has destroyed lives and it has shaken the Church to her Foundation. That Foundation, of course is Jesus Christ and no better place than to start rebuilding according to the Hermeneutic of Continuity that Pope Benedict is directing the Church to do. Begin with the Liturgy, go to the bishops, priests, deacons and religious and the laity will be sure to follow.