We know that Pope Francis is upholding Pope Paul VI's prophetic Humanae Vitae where His Holiness predicted in 1968 the trials and tribulations of a culture drunk on disconnecting sex from marriage and sex from the procreation of children, opposed to natural law. It is all intimately related to much of the demise of Catholicism in Western Europe and elsewhere.
This is what Pope Francis said last night (Trinity Sunday night) in a neighborhood in Rome close to the North American College:
“A people that does not care for its elder members, one that does not take care of its young people, is a people without a future, a people without hope – for young people - children, young people - and seniors carry [the people] forward in history.” Pope Francis went on to say, “Children and young people [do so] with the vim and vigor natural to youth, to be sure [It. I bambini, i giovani con la loro forza biologica, è giusto]. The elders [do so] by offering memory. When a society loses its memory, though, it is finished.”
Pope Francis went on to tie the crisis among the young and the elderly in society to the “throw-away culture” that drives and dominates globally. “In order to maintain such a [system], in which, at the center of the world economy, there are not man and woman, but the idol of money, it is necessary to discard things. Children are discarded.”
“Just think,” he continued, “of the birth rate in Europe: in Italy, Spain, France – and the elderly, [too], are thrown away, with attitudes behind which there hides a form of euthanasia. [The elderly] are no longer useful – and that which is not useful is to be tossed aside,” he said.
“Europe is tired,” said Pope Francis. “We have to help Europe rejuvenate, to find its roots. It is true: Europe has disowned its roots – and we must help Europe to rediscover those roots.”
MY COMMENTS: Pope Francis recently excommunicated two lay people who are post-Catholics and who celebrated "mass" without priests--a mockery of the true Sacrament. But there were other post-Catholic, post-Christian elements that led to the Holy Father's extreme steps to call this couple back to orthodoxy and thus salvation by returning in a repentant way to the full communion of the true Church.
Hopefully Pope Francis will continue to address also the disintegration of the Sacramental and devotional life of the Church. He has done so already in one major way with his revival of popular devotions and making these central in Catholic lives which can be accomplished in the home and in communities by laity themselves. Catholic popular devotions in the home and on the streets will help revive authentic Catholicism.
But the banal manner in which so many of the sacraments of are celebrated, included the source and summit of the Church, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, needs to be addressed. Certainly reviving the Sacrament of Penance which Pope Francis is doing is good and foundational. But the example of Pope Benedict in calling for a "reform of the reform" of the Ordinary Form of the Mass by allowing its roots, the now called Extraordinary Form of the Mass, to exert a greater influence on the Ordinary Form's authentic renewal needs to be recaptured and soon!
The contraceptive mentality logically leads to a sterile form of sexual unions called homosexual sex acts. There are Catholics throughout the world wanting secular society, its judicial, legislative and executive branches of government to redefine marriage (which is ordered by natural law) into something unnatural and thus immoral.
Nancy Pelosi, who should have been excommunicated years ago for her pro-abortion ideologies that encourages people to kill their children, now in line with her ideologies, is criticizing the Archbishop of San Francisco for marching and speaking at a pro-marriage rally later this month in Washington, DC. It is outrageous and the truth of her non-Catholic status needs to be made explicit by the highest authority of the Church in her home diocese which is the very archbishop she is criticizing and calling to join her in her post-Catholicism. Pope Francis needs to act in concert with the Archbishop of San Francisco to make explicit the true status of Nancy Pelosi's post-Catholicism.
What will it take for the Pope to act against the real leaders of the demise of Catholicism in Western Europe and the United States similar to what he did to the two post-Catholics in Belgium which he excommunicated?
In an article at The New Liturgical Movement, I print the following which ties in very clearly with the revival of Catholicism in Europe and the rest of the world. We need to be reminded of this each and everyday:
Tracey Rowland’s tour de force of theological anthropology, “The Usus Antiquior and the New Evangelization” (pp. 115–37) is required reading for both those who already know that the traditional Latin Mass is crucial to the Church’s mission in the contemporary world (these will gobble it up), or those who suspect and worry that it might be so (these will come to a sobering realization and then start making plans for learning how to celebrate the EF). Here is a sample of Rowland’s vigorous style:
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, Aidan Nichols and other lesser names have argued that the liturgy exists to worship God and that if we promote it for any other reason we are promoting sub-theological ideologies. The most common of these are liturgy as group therapy and liturgy as community building. Nonetheless, it is possible to hold that while the sole purpose of liturgy is worship, there are obvious spiritual and educational side effects and it is in this context that the usus antiquior can play an important role in the New Evangelisation. Specifically, the usus antiquior may be an antidote to the ruthless attacks on memory and tradition and high culture, typical of the culture of modernity, and it may also satisfy the desire of the post-modern generations to be embedded within a coherent, non-fragmented tradition that is open to the transcendent. (p. 117)
7 comments:
The Holy Father's comments regarding the weakness of Europe and her continental apostasy, as well as his recent comments condemning the "choosing to be childless" movement in our modern culture, are, I believe, preludes to what is coming later in the year.
Pope Francis will very soon, probably around the time of the Synod on the Family or shortly thereafter, have his Paul VI-esque "moment" where he will clearly and vociferously defend the perennial teaching of the Church on the nature of Marriage and the Family, in spite of all the media-hyped false expectations to the contrary (Surprise! The Pope is Catholic!). This will result in a stark and unmistakable separation of those who are followers of Jesus Christ from those who pay Him lip service, such as happened in the immediate wake of Humanae Vitae.
Pray daily for the Holy Father, your own diocesan bishop, and all the clergy, that they may boldly proclaim the Gospel and be filled with zeal for souls.
Gaudete in Domino Semper!
Yes, you are correct and I do see 1968 all over again with all the silly expectations about radical change in defined moral teachings concerning marriage and divorce. For the most part the agitation for reform is coming from rich, corrupt bishops and cardinals who Pope Francis in his Monday homily condemned as corrupt along with politicians and others who abuse their power and grow rich. I do see coming from the synod an expansion for ground for nullity the absence of the Catholic understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage which I would welcome!
..."I do see coming from the synod an expansion for ground for nullity the absence of the Catholic understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage which I would welcome!"
As would I Father. I do believe that an entire generation has been brought up so woefully ignorant of what marriage is that there are innumerable people who can't possibly be entering marriage "according to the mind of the church" (one of the three requisites for sacramental validity) because they don't know what that is!
I believe it was Ennio Cardinal Antonelli who said a couple of years ago that the previous ecclesial practice of assuming marital validity until proven otherwise may no longer be tenable in a world where there is so much genuine ignorance of what marriage is, or what constitutes an irrevocably valid union. In short, he was saying that maybe now (or at least for a while until things are corrected) we should assume IN-validity until proven otherwise.
Well, regardless, we must all pray, pray, pray!
Gaudete in Domino Semper!
As far as marriage is concerned, perhaps we should stop allowing sacramental marriage for non-practicing Catholics. If a couple knows what sacraments are, and if they understand the prerequisites for receiving sacramental grace, then they will be going to Mass every Sunday. The present practice, on the other hand, only perpetuates the myth of the acceptability of the non-practicing, non-believing Catholic, a myth that makes the new evangelization nearly impossible.
Make Catholics behave as Catholics if they wish to remain in the Church, and then we can begin reconverting lost nations.
The fact that traditional monasticism is undergoing a revival in continental Europe despite the enormous damage caused by Vatican II (the agents of destruction still have influence, as shown by the recent treatment of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate) is probably the best hope for renewal. That, and those societies (including the SSPX) who are attracting increasing numbers of young people by presenting the Faith in an undiluted form, and celebrating the Church's liturgy in a fitting and authentic manner.
I don't intend any disrespect towards Pope Francis, but we need another Innocent III (only 37 at his election in 1198) to face a crisis which is in the opinion of many worse than that of the Protestant Reformation.
I think there will be a young, very orthodox Pope elected in the near future. In spite of what one hears in the media, the Sacred College is getting more young, tradition-minded Electors added to its ranks, many of whom have celebrated the EF publicly, and some of whom, as diocesan bishops, have established "bi-formalist" seminaries in their dioceses. I really do see the '60s old guard as, effectively, breathing their last. We must pray for them.
Gaudete in Domino Semper!
Thank you, Father, for this and others you've posted that contrast the Church between pre- and post-Vatican Ii. As a child learning about the historical Church, I distinctly recall feeling "robbed" of experiencing the frustratingly recent reverence the Church commanded before 1965. Today, as an adult with a bit more learning and life experience, I imagine I possess a more sophisticated understanding of the current Church, except when it comes to fully grasping the depth of its 50 year old crisis. Thankfully, your blog is helping me in this respect.
--Paolo P.
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