Is Synodal Path in Germany a road to schism?
Crux has a very good article on the actual schism in Germany which makes Lefebrev’s movement look like child’s play. In Germany or the Germanic nations, we have cardinals and bishops, many priests and a goodly number of laity who are spinning off into schism.
But this caught my eye in the Crux article:
If you’re seeking power and influence, the last standing institution (in Germany) that is interesting for the people, it’s the Catholic Church,” Schnabel said. “Less than one percent of Protestants go to church in Germany. Being a Catholic is more attractive. What they dream about already exists, but they don’t want to join a sinking ship; they would rather try to change the course of a ship that is doing quite well in comparison.”
Father Nikodemus Schnabel, from the German Benedictine Monastery Dormitio in Jerusalem, said he is not truly afraid of schism, though he sees many in his country adopting an “I’m Catholic but” attitude.
He claimed that it’s often forbidden to argue that these “forward looking” ideas haven’t worked in other churches, despite this fact being an unavoidable elephant in the room: “We have the Protestant church, and it’s more catastrophic.”
You read that correctly! Only 1% of German Protestants go to church. Yet the schismatic Germans don’t want to be Lutheran which is the dead faith of progressives and the faith that is dead, they want to make what success the Catholic Church has with Mass attendance just like the dead progressive Lutheran Church.
IT IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD!
Then, I was on a tweet by Rocco Palma reporting what the Cardinal Papal preacher said at the Lenten Retreat for Pope Francis and the Curia:
"Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
Who is Cardinal Cantelemessa speaking of? Which nation in the world is so traditional that it is a dead nation? Or is he speaking of the growing SSPX? Or the growing FSSP or traditional Masses which are seeing increasing numbers especially with young people and young married couples with many, many children.
Just who is the Cardinal speaking about and why did he not say one negative word about the dead church in Europe which is far from tradition and traditionalism. Why did he not call out the German Church and how progressivism since Vatican II has destroyed religious orders, caused a decline in vocations to the priesthood and left Europe decimated? Why not a word of praise for the USA, especially in more traditional dioceses, seeing growth and in conservative Africa, Asia and South America?
IT IS ABSURD!
The problem in progressive Rome and progressive Catholic media is they suffer from some kind of mental illness. Theology can’t help that, only Sigmund Freud!
13 comments:
If nothing else, there's a supreme irony here. Pope Bergoglio is getting a taste of what inevitably happens when Catholics imitate his way.
Anonymous at 7:58 AM,
Bingo!
The German Catholic Church has been pathetic for decades. When I was last there, I was in a huge Church in Munich for Sunday Mass (I think it was the Frauenkirche) and besides my wife, two daughters and myself, there were about 20 people. We have more people at daily Mass in my parish in Indiana.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the devastating effects two world wars may have had on the German Church and religious practice there? Those events certainly could not have helped.
As a second generation American of German descent, the German will to independence and power is no byproduct of losing only the LAST war, but is something they have ever had as long as there has been a Germanic people who painted their naked bodies blue before engaging Imperial Roman legions and who outlasted and finally dominated Imperial Rome. They KNOW who should be running things.
We can no more put aside our tradition than we could put aside our lineage. Tradition lives in those who possess faith in all that is embodied in the True Faith which has been handed down to us,while at the same time also being " the substance of what is hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"(Hebrews 11:1). It is the good that is handed down to us and that which we pass on.
Regarding the tradition vs. traditionalism bit...
I once pithily tried to explain the difference to someone thusly:
A “traditional” Catholic sees tradition as one of the sources and guiding principles of the faith and happily embraces it. A “traditionalist” is one who can’t make a decision about anything without consulting the 1917 Codex.
(“boo! hiss!” - Yeah, I know!)
A bit simplistic, but if you think about it...often more true than not.
Gaudete in Domino Semper!
I think it is dangerous to denigrate people with words that could be seen in many situations as good, not bad, such as tradition or traditionalism.
The danger of those who love tradition but despise anything new is that they turn tradition into a false god. Thus dogma, doctrine, moral teachings can be these false gods in that the pursuit and study of them replaces an authentic personal relationship with God. The same with the liturgy. The form of liturgy becomes the false god. Somehow God disappears in the pursuit of a rigid liturgical perfection. The liturgy is what is worshiped or doctrine is worshiped or a moral teaching or premise is worshiped.
Of course, this happens with progressives too, change is worship, ecclesiology is worshiped, active participation is worshiped, noble simplicity is worshiped, creativity is worshiped, the vertical, the community and its initiatives are worshiped.
VATICAN II AND ITS SPIRIT ARE WORSHIPED. ALL OF THESE ARE IDOLATRY WHEN WORSHIPED.
Spot on with liturgy not an end in itself, but a means to an end of conscious union with God in awe and returned love, that is, "worship". Without that, it is a dead letter.
However, I still believe it will be a frigid day in Hades before the Vatican takes a formal step in breaking communion, as this is precisely what is wanted by the Germans, freedom from oppressive Rome and all its silly rules. They see themselves as the new leaders of rebirth, renewal, springtime, glorious new future for new and improved Church, based, of course, on THEIR way of thinking, where THEY will be pastorally calling the shots domestically AND internationally (Amazon Synod, anyone?).
The frustrated Vatican is as the flight to Hawaii where at the halfway point the pilot announced they had lost an engine and would be delayed two hours, then shortly thereafter announced another lost engine and four hour delay, and then again announced a third flameout and a six hour delay, where a frustrated passenger remarked, "If we lose that last engine, we'll be stuck up here all day!"
Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
- Jaroslav Pelikan
The Roman Catholic Church is nearly in the same disaster as the Anglican "communion", with Africa, eastern Europe, and a few scattered prelates and churches in the USA and Europe holding original doctrinal lines, most everyone else quite willing to throw out those nasty old rules that stop them from having fun.
In an actual Catholic schism, huge swaths of the world would side with the Germans, who might pull enough in to claim even Rome. This is their hope. There is no future schism, it has been here for years, and lacks only a formal announcement, where those siding with the Germans nearly own Rome as it is, and they THOUGHT that time was here with the election of their candidate Bergoglio, who has not proved as stable and tractable as hoped.
The only real contention left is who gets to claim Rome and claim to be THE Catholic Church, and who must settle for The German (or Progressive) Catholic Church or The Traditional Catholic Church.
Father,
The good Cardinal is a Cardinal because he uses the same "woke" speech His Holiness and his coterie of supporters love to spin.Catholics who love the Traditions of the Church and above all , the Traditional Latin Mass were supposed to have expired by now.Instead the TLM is growing through a newer generation for whom this is the perfect expression of the Reverence and Worship due God.All about me I see parishes amalgamation and closing, schools and hospitals likewise.But those who hold to the TLM grow in number.Our Episcopal leadership refuses to accept this today.In time they will have no choice-particularly as numbers and funds decrease.Younger Priests who celebrate the TLM, are send-off to the "peripheries"(another favorite Buzz word)of the diocese, where they can do no harm. They too will be the future.
The below links relate in a way to this discussion since it illustrates how we have benefited from what came before us in mathematics and its application and in other areas as well, and certainly in our religious tradition.
Antikythera-mechanism-the-ancient-greek-computer-1
Antikythera-mechanism-the-ancient-greek-computer-2
Pelikan became Orthodox at the end of his life and praised JPII. This formulation occured while he was still Lutheran.
"Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition."
A more Catholic way of putting it would be to say that Tradition is the authoritative work of The Spirit in the Church in time, especially through the celebration of The Liturgy. It is an authority in the Church the same as Scripture and the Magisterium. Traditionalism as an ideology might be more aptly described a sola traditio like one of the Protestant solas.
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