Archbishop Christopher Pierre offers an in-depth apologetic for the 10 year old papacy of Pope Francis:
Ever since Vatican II we have been told about the new evangelization and the call to holiness of the laity. These two aspects of Vatican II are perhaps the two greatest aspects of Vatican II and propagating this has not always been done without conflict, but over time I think it is taking root.
The only problem is that Vatican II also weakened the institutional Church in terms of the clarity the Magisterium was to bring to rank and file Catholics so that they could become holy, live lives of holiness and be evangelizers.
Maybe the bishops and clergy and those Catholics in ghetto communities where Catholicism was the predominant religion lived insular lives. Those of us Catholics in the south’s Bible Belt did not.
We were and still are a minority. In days past, prior to ecumenism, we had to deal with blatant anti-Catholicism, not like those in Muslim nations, but prejudice against Catholics was palpable.
But the Church, through her parishes, but more so through her institutions like schools, universities and hospitals, evangelized in a positive way the masses although the Catholic Church was in a minority.
The beauty and mysticism of our pre-Vatican II liturgies drew non-Catholics to the Church through our parishes and many Protestants loved going to Christmas Midnight Mass and Ash Wednesday Mass and were welcomed with open arms but not proselytized. Even in pre-Vatican II times non-Catholics were told they need not kneel at Mass if they chose not to do so.
In Augusta, there were many drawn to the Church by nuns and brothers in our schools that had immediate contact with non-Catholic children and their parents and parents and children (later in life) often converted to Catholicism. So did non-Catholic spouses.
Our hospital in Augusta made a greater impact on a larger swath of non-Catholics and all of Augusta, Catholic and non-Catholic were proud of St. Joseph Hospital with its Sisters of St. Joseph of Corondolet. Prior to Vatican II there were up to 20 nuns in that hospital in full habit. Today that hospital has been sold to a for profit hospital, changed it name and now is a part of a larger corporation called Piedmont Hospital.
Today in Augusta there is perhaps one or two sisters at the most compared to the mid 1960’s when in the metro area there may have been upwards to 80 to 100.
I think, though, that Catholics in my neck of the woods always integrated with the culture, be it with Protestants, Jews or those with no religion. We did not demand that everyone we know not be gay, adulterers or wife beaters. We worked and lived among a diverse reality of people and hoped to help when help was required.
Laity are filling in but often are so confused about what the Church stands for today, that they can’t be a voice of contradiction in a world so imbued with secular ideologies opposed to religion and Divine truth which renders them ineffectual.
The confusion Pope Francis has allowed in his papacy is nothing short of madness. That must be challenged and God willing, the next pope will need to restore sanity and stability to the Magisterium and what is the Deposit of Faith and Morals of the Church as well as her anthropology upon which the Sacraments are built.
Read the Archbishop’s papal apologetic for a confused people of God:
The Leadership of Pope Francis (Missionary Spirit; synodality; reform)
We are now in the tenth year of this Pontificate, and much has been written about Pope Francis and the way in which his Petrine Ministry is charting a course for the Church in the present age. His words and actions have been considered through the lenses of various ideological mindsets, resulting at...
12 comments:
I haven't the time to read the attachment, however, your summation is, to me, very much on point. The current state of affairs is sad mostly because, and again, to me, it seems so very unnecessary. The dominant Roman Church seems driven in a perplexing way to constantly be questioning things that don't require questioning or, doctrinally, should not be questioned. So many years of hard work to contribute, build up, help, teach, worship and welcome seems to be coming undone at the seams. It's a shame and will only leave empty buildings and memories for future generations. It saddens me to be part of this and I feel nothing but helpless regarding a much needed course correction. I find myself getting through my Catholic days thanking the good Lord above that I'm mostly observing from my Eastern side of the fence.
"Ever since Vatican II we have been told about the new evangelization and the call to holiness of the laity. These two aspects of Vatican II are perhaps the two greatest aspects of Vatican II and propagating this has not always been done without conflict, but over time I think it is taking root"
Really? We have had tens of millions of Catholics walk away from the Faith since V II, we have shrinkage in every metric, so I just don't see it. Please Father McDonald, don't fall into the same trap as the others. Vatican II has been an utter flop. Please repeat, Vatican II has been an utter flop. The TLM Catholics willl be the last Catholics standing. The rump of what is left of the Novus Ordo Church are crypto-Protestants.
TJM don’ be overly negative as that is not of the Holy Spirit. Many of the Catholics today who are not practicing are not practicing because they were only cultural Catholics and the pull of other faiths or no religion has been great on them, but also scandals in the Church and confusion since Vatican II. I am not dismissing that.
But in my 44 years of ordination, first as a deacon, I can testify to very strong post-Vatican II Catholics who give their lives to their Church and have found strength and great in their vocation in life and this includes not just the laity but priests. Yes, Catholics participating today are fewer and we still have Catholics who attend Mass but don’t really embrace the Faith. But there is a leaven in those who have and are and there is a significant number of them.
Father McDonald,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
As someone raised in the pre-Vatican II Chruch, I grow less tolerant as the years go by with Church leaders worshipping Vatican II as a sacred cow. It was a Council that has been unsuccessful in stark contrast to Trent. If there was any modicum of intellectual honesty at the Vatican they would set up a high level committee to study why Trent was successful and what lessons the Church might learn from Trent. Vatican II is not the only Council of the Church that has failed. Maybe if the Pope and his branch managers could come to grips with this inconvenient truth we could make some real progress. But I fear that are ineducable.
I have been listening for a second time to the series of interview conducted by Bernard Janzen of the late Father Malachi Martin in the 1990's. I know that for many, the name of Father Martin, raises eyebrows and has varying levels of controversy that doggedly follow its mention, but, so far, most of what he says has either come to pass, appears to be shaping up or makes complete sense.
In particular, he asserts that when John Paul II was elected in 1978, he had inherited a Church that was so devastated by poor leadership, bad appointments, disobedience and no discipline that he soon realized he could not restore it or reform it. He would have had to fire thousands of bishops and bureaucrats. The deck was stacked against him and he realized he was a prisoner of the Vatican. Many of his directives and messages to other Catholics or to the Church at large never saw the light of day, as they ended up being buried in bureaucracy. At that point, he resolved that he would do the one thing that he was able to do and do well: Speak to the world. So the traveling papal roadshow, which I used to complain about, began. Now I get it. It was all he COULD do. He proclaimed the truth of the faith to whomever would hear him and many did. He realized that the only thing that would bring the Church back to life would be a monumental chastisement, which he certainly believed was coming, as revealed by his remarks in Fulda in 1980. He spent his papacy waiting for the Blessed Mother to move.
One particular remark of Fr. Martin certainly grabbed my attention: He said that if John Paul II was to restore the Traditional Mass, he believed the malignant forces in the Vatican would have him killed. Now this remark was made long after the 1988 indult had been granted, but we must remember that most bishops were pretty stingy with that indult. The fulfillment of that task came from Pope Benedict. While his underlings didn't manage to kill him, the did, in effect, kill his papacy.
In light of these things, it is fascinating and horrifying to see the momentum against the faith that continues to run amok at the highest levels.
In biblical times, Malachi Martin would have been regarded as a prophet.
"He said that if John Paul II was to restore the Traditional Mass, he believed the malignant forces in the Vatican would have him killed... While his (Benedict's) underlings didn't manage to kill him, the did, in effect, kill his papacy."
"Experiments have revealed that feelings of anxiety make people think more conspiratorially. Such feelings, along with a sense of disenfranchisement, currently grip many Americans, according to surveys. In such situations, a conspiracy theory can provide comfort by identifying a convenient scapegoat and thereby making the world seem more straightforward and controllable. “People can assume that if these bad guys weren’t there, then everything would be fine,” Lewandowsky says. “Whereas if you don’t believe in a conspiracy theory, then you just have to say terrible things happen randomly.”
YES! Conspiracy! Intrigue! Uber-sophisticate naysayers!
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/breaking-bp-oconnell-executed?mc_cid=b328f4177a&mc_eid=16c083a66d
Fr Kavanaugh,
Conspiracy theories are strange things.
Remember the Church Committee (formally the United States Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) in 1975? And what it revealed? In 1975, there was also it’s House counterpart, the Pike Committee, and the presidential Rockefeller Commission. 1975 - the “Year of Intelligence”…
In 1975, it was revealed what the CIA and the FBI had got up to over 3 decades with Operation MKULTRA, operation Countelpro, the “family jewels” program, Operation Mockingbird and project Shamrock etc…
If any average American citizen, or any ordinary American journalist between 1945 and 1975 had made certain claims and statements about the CIA, FBI or even the NSA or IRS (re what it was later revealed the CIA and FBI etc were at times TRULY and actually doing) such person, between 1945-1975, would have been regarded as mentally ill or at least mentally unstable and deserving either pity and/or even requiring psychiatric help.
Paul - Conspiracy theories are one thing. What worries me is the mental status of those who credulously buy into them.
The government does and should keep secrets. Some of the secret operations are necessary. Some, like MKULTRA, were immoral and illegal.
Was Pope Paul kidnapped and replaced with a look alike? I've seen the "pictures" that prove it.
What Pope John Paul I murdered? Was is by Baggio, the "Freemason?" Was it the CIA in order to get someone in the Chair of Peter who was more in sync with American foreigh policy?
And what about those Dominion voting machines controlled by a dead Venezuelan, the chemicals being dropped on us from jet vapor trails, or the black helicopters under Chicago?
Saint Ignatius warned about this suspicious mindset. He wrote that when we’re overly suspicious, it’s generally our own ego and our own sin that takes us away from the truth.
And, wanting to believe that Bishop O'Connell of Los Angeles was murderd by Jews and Masons, we get a link to a story that has NOTHING to substantiate the claims made.
Ego and Sins.
There are no conspiracies.
There are no coincidences either.
There are conspiracies. And then there are conspiracy theories. And it is the people who throw in with these unsubstantiated conspiracy theories who are problematic.
The Romans spread conspiracy theories about the early Christians and many were martyred.
The Catholics spread conspiracy theories about the Jews and many were martyred. This went on for centuries and in many parts of the western world.
Major Roberto D'Aubuisson and his right-wing ARENA party spread conspiracy theories about St. Oscar Romero and he was assissinated.
Daniel Ortega and his corrupt regime in Nicaragua are spreading conspiracy theories about the Catholic clergy of that country and many have been killed, jailed, or exiled.
The control of Dominion voting machines by a dead Venezuelan Hugo Chavez and a living billionaire George Soros, the "massive" fraud in the election that led to Trump's defeat, the suitcases full of ballots that Georgia elections employees broght in under cover of darkness - all fantastical and all false conspiracy theories.
The problem is that people still want desperately to believe them.
Post a Comment