(Paul Rosenthal seems to be taking seriously the role of the laity in the Church. I don't think we would see something like this in pre-Vatican II times, except from protestants, be they Catholic or Protestant!)
Church must preach truth, leaving left-wing politics behind--The Augusta Chronicle, 12/24/17
By Paul Rosenthal Guest Columnist
In Part I of “Martin Luther’s Revolution” last Sunday, I mentioned that I would reveal something in Part II about the current need for reform in the Catholic Church (hereafter, “Church”) and explore more of Luther’s beliefs.
EVANGELIZATION: Today, not false ecumenism, but truthful evangelization is urgently needed, not one patterned after a faulty advertising-style hucksterism, but honestly, courageously and lovingly sharing and explaining the fullness of truth as presented by 2,000 years of Church teachings, in Scripture and Natural Law.
Poor catechesis, Protestantized liturgies and vapid feel-good homilies have served to empty the pews. When the truth is preached, people of good will listen because they naturally hunger for the truth.
CONTRACEPTION: The Church needs to confess its failure to strongly refute those who dissented against Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, and to faithfully present and teach it. It needs to go all out in reversing that harm by preaching St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, authentic love and fidelity in marriage and against the intrinsic evil of contraception.
Humanae Vitae presented the constant teaching of the Church. All of Christianity was against contraception for 1,900 years. The Washington Post recognized the harm that the 1930 Anglican Lambeth Conference approving contraception would cause. Why did Catholic bishops not see it in the ’60s and after?
The Washington Post predicted on March 22, 1931, that, “It would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality.”
Their and Pope Paul VI’s predictions were prophetic: More abortions, adultery, divorce, fornication, STDs, legalization of homosexual sex, equivocation of genders, out-of-wedlock births and fatherless children, followed by more poverty, crime, drug abuse and domestic violence and loss of respect for women.
The mindset that sex is primarily for fun made intercourse with anyone and everyone acceptable, regardless of marital status or gender.
“By not preaching against contraception, you will be giving an unspoken approval of it; you would be, in a very real manner, contracepting the truth by acting as a barrier between God’s truth and His people. As Pope St. Felix III so famously proclaimed, ‘Not to oppose error is to approve it; not to defend the truth is to suppress it.’” (Addressing priests in: The “Contraceptive Mentality” and Its Consequences, by Brian Clowes.)
A prime example of such clergy malfeasance today is the Church hierarchy failing to forcefully refute the heretical nonsense verbally spewed out by Fr. James Martin against sexual morality. Our clergy need to read and heed Ezekiel 3:18.
SOCIAL JUSTICE:: At the expense of properly performing their duties to Teach, Sanctify and Govern, the Bishops have engaged in excessive meddling in politics, which is beyond their legitimate vocation and competence.
By playing partisan left-wing politics, they have acted contrary to No. 69 of “The Compendium Of The Social Doctrine Of The Church,” which says in part:
“With her social doctrine, the Church aims ‘at helping man on the path of salvation.’ This is her primary and sole purpose (emphasis added.) There is no intention to usurp or invade the duties of others or to neglect her own; nor is there any thought of pursuing objectives that are foreign to her mission.”
They have largely failed their legitimate duties by excessively engaging in an agenda of liberal and socialistic politics. Today’s hierarchy, instead of working to defeat the leftist politicians who have legislated intrinsic evils — abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, homosexual “marriage” — have supported them and their rhetoric promoting class envy and the false hope of attaining a material utopia by expanding government and its failed welfare state.
MORE OF MARTIN LUTHER’S HERESIES LUTHER ON SIN: No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day.” From Dr. Martin Luther’s Saemmtliche Schriften, Letter No. 99, 1 Aug. 1521.
SCRIPTURE: Revelation 21:8: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”
LUTHER ON GOODWORKS: “He that says the Gospel requires works for salvation, I say, flat and plain, is a liar.” (from Tischreden, P. 137)
SCRIPTURE: James 2:14-17: “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man has faith, but has not works? Shall faith be able to save him? So faith also, if it have not works is dead in itself.” Also, read Matthew 5:16.
LUTHER ON FREEWILL claimed “with regard to God, and in all that bears on salvation or damnation, (man) has no ‘free-will’, but is a captive, prisoner and bond slave, either to the will of God, or to the will of Satan.” From the essay, “Bondage of the Will, ‘Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings,” ed. by Dillenberger, Anchor Books, 1962 p. 190.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 8:3: “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will.” Also read: Philemon 1:14:
LUTHER ON MARRIAGE: “In spite of all the good I say of married life, I will not grant so much to nature as to admit that there is no sin in it. .. no conjugal due is ever rendered without sin. The matrimonial duty is never performed without sin.” From Weimar, Vol 8. Pg. 654.
2 comments:
Some priests no so little of the true Faith that left-wing politics is all they have to offer.
What Luther had rented, following on the heels of John Wycliff and Jan Hus, would be further torn asunder by some of those who followed him. It would seem that his dispute over indulgences was but a pretext to put forward other objections to Church teaching, and to bring about what he, in his corrupted state of mind and soul, desired.
Luther rejected all but two of the Catholic sacraments, his concept and theology of the remaining five being different from what the Church teaches. He considered the other sacraments to be "rites" - reminders of God's mercy and goodness but which conferred no spiritual effect on those receiving them. In addition to also putting away other Catholic doctrines, he rejected the concept of grace as taught by the Church and had a different theology of belief in how it operates in being necessary for salvation.
It was providential that the Church retained and approved the seven books of the Bible which Luther rejected, since with the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls it was found that some of these books did indeed have Hebrew versions.
I would urge Lutherans to take an objective, critical look at the writings, ideas, and philosophy of their founder.
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