ANDREA TORNIELLI VATICAN CITY
After his criticisms about the Synod being manipulated and censored, the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, is continuing to raise concerns – in an increasingly distressed tone – about the direction the Church is taking, criticising the Pope, whilst at the same time claiming he does not wish it seem like he is speaking out against he Pope.” His latest interview with Darío Menor Torres was published by Spanish religious news weekly Vida Nueva.
“Many have expressed their concerns to me. At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a helm, whatever the reason for this may be; now, it is more important than ever to examine our faith, have a healthy spiritual leader and give powerful witness to the faith.”
“I fully respect the Petrine ministry and I do not wish it to seem like I am speaking out against the Pope. I would like to be a master of the faith, with all my weaknesses, telling a truth that many currently perceive. They are feeling a bit sea sick because they feel the Church’s ship has lost its bearings. We need to set aside the reason for this disorientation because we have not lost our bearings. We have the enduring tradition of the Church, its teachings, the liturgy, its morality. The catechism remains the same.”
“The Pope rightly speaks of the need to go out to the peripheries,” the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura said. “The people have responded very warmly to this. But we cannot go to the peripheries empty-handed. We go with the Word of God, with the Sacraments, with the virtuous life of the Holy Spirit. I am not saying the Pope does this, but there is a risk of the encounter with culture being misinterpreted. Faith cannot adapt to culture but , must call to it to convert. We are a counter-cultural movement, not a popular one.”
9 comments:
The first job of any missionary is to not lose their faith as they strive to ingratiate themselves into the local population.
Be not conformed to the world but convert it. Salt, light, leaven changes the medium they find themselves in. Jonah sent to the Nivevites preached and so changed them from top to bottom. He didn't slide into Nivevite mode and sorta, kinda, 'gradually' suggest they change. He said "40 days more and Niveveh will be destroyed".
"there is a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a helm"
I wonder how anyone could disagree that this is how the present situation appears. We need someone who stands rock solid as a defender of faith and doctrine, with no ambiguity whatsoever in what he says or does. Other than Cardinal Burke, it's hard to think of many high prelates in Rome who are doing this.
Oh and title typo alert.
It's "Mode to" not "Mose ot" ;-)
You know it occurred to me that the media spin and partisanship sets up these confrontations between the two sides and assigns the good cop/bad cop monikers but also roles....
So liberal progressives are the good guys who only want to be welcoming, inclusive, kind hearted, merciful to people who prefer adultery to marital fidelity whereas Conservatives/traditionalists are type cast as scolds, killjoys, mean spirited, older brother, Pharisees for pointing out both Jesus' words and constant tradition, the saints and mystics all teaching that fidelity even when challenging is worth it.
The defenders of virtue are type cast as negative, whereas the aggressive transgressors are type cast as positive.
It's very telling isn't it? When people want something convenient to their whim, lusts, good pleasure, it's all positive, it's all good, no downside. Like puppy love. Telling the child they can't eat that second helping of chocolate cake sounds so mean.
Thus we're back in the garden and Satan is offering us the forbidden fruit by telling us that it's not really forbidden, it's not really deadly, it's got a lot of good things going for it, think of all the goods found in this forbidden fruit, the denial of which is actually harmful and bad and thus can't be God's will...surely!
So now we're being set up to choose adultery over monogamy, to choose public acceptance and promotion of sodomy over chastity...or else what? Heaven and earth are offered, the Utopia to come all if we only submit to the whims of the small minority who make up the elite of Western culture. Hell and destruction offered if we refuse them and say "no thanks but good try".
I think it's vital in such times to call their bluff. To say no, and this is why.... to refute their claims that just this one change will suddenly flood the pews with "loyal" "faithful" Catholics again.
If bishops admit that most people don't know their Catholic faith (after 50 years of abysmal catechesis entirely in the hands of said Bishops and religious) how can their conclusion be to further water things down by admitting people to communion as though it doesn't matter what people do, believe, or desire so long as they want to waltz up to communion? If anything wouldn't the conclusion be to restrict communion more and quintuple the resources devoted to better catechism and counter-cultural evangelization?
We are in the throes of collective temptation, on the knife edge of decision... shall we trust in the Living God and His promises and grace to be faithful to His Gospel or demand that our stubbornness of heart obliges God to allow us to call evil good and good evil?
If you have it nearby, grab your bible and check out the letter of St. Jude. It's short. But on point. Those calling for a doctrinal change (de facto) even though they'll claim only one in praxis are fulfilling St. Jude's warning. It's not in following the most popular moral trend that one finds God's will.
"If bishops admit that most people don't know their Catholic faith"
Or is part of the problem that many bishops--products themselves of the poor catechesis and the poor seminaries of the 70s and 80s--don't know their Catholic faith? How else to explain their collective performance and fiascos like the recent Synod. Would the only alternative be that they once had the faith, but lost it somewhere along their way to the top?
There is perhaps a Marxist methodology at work which promotes the breakdown of the known order in favor of a new one. This revolutionary fervor seems to energize some antagonists. In evidence of this, one cannot help but notice that the cause of unrepentant sinners and liturgical iconoclasts is now promoted, while the efforts of repentant sinners and promoters of reverent worship are denied and demoted.
500 years from now, Cardinal Burke will be as revered as St. John Fisher. And a very powerful bishop of a major diocese in a European country will probablly be regarded as anathema.
JBS
The methodology you mention was certainly prevalent in the 1960s. The New Order of Mass could only be introduced after the Old Rite had effectively been destroyed, a process which began while the Council was still in session. The overthrow of an existing regime and its replacement by another is not in itself the revolution - this comes afterwards, as Lenin and Hitler knew and demonstrated.
Counter-revolutionaries cannot be tolerated, which accounts for the attitude of the progressivists in the Church towards the traditionalists. The latter, we are told, are an insignificant minority and logically should not be a threat; yet their very existence threatens the revolution.
The Holy Ghost has sent His Grace Cardinal Burke to save Holy Mother Church and restore The Mass of All Times to its rightful place, please please pray for this real humble man called Burke!!!!!
Post a Comment