WORD HISTORY An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture is the adoption of names from the comic strips as English words. Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 1924, was a timid and retiring man named for a timid food. The first instance of milquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-1930s. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, including sad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 1942, and Wimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger. If we look to a related form of popular culture, the animated cartoon, we must of course acknowledge Mickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty.
Prior to Vatican II:
1. For the most part in the Latin Rite of the Church there was a single liturgy in a single language (Latin) that was universal around the world for Latin Rite Catholics
2. There was a universal catechism taught to children and in the USA it was the Baltimore Catechism that was very basic, very foundation and very easy to teach
3. There were clear lines of authority and obedience in the areas of faith, morals and Church law (which always encompasses both divine and human law). Divine law cannot change, but purely human law for the sake of the common good can change (like the hours of fasting before Holy Communion, type of penance on Friday, etc)
4. One could not dissent from the teachings of the Church in the areas of faith, morals and canon law and publicly do so without repercussions and being condemned for choosing mortal sin and hell
5. There was a clear understanding of sin, grace, moral living, judgment, purgatory, heaven, hell and how the Redemption of Jesus Christ (Paschal Mystery) is applied to the sinner who otherwise deserves punishment
After Vatican II:
1. The Latin Rite Liturgy becomes so diverse and stripped of its traditional piety and devotion that the differences in the Mass from parish to parish is so great and diversified and even more so from country to country. The Latin Rite Mass no longer is universally celebrated in a monolithic way. This has had dire consequences for Catholic unity and identity. Seemingly minor things that were removed from the Mass in its revision (such as the Introit, Offertory and Communion Antiphons, style of music genre, prayers at the foot of the altar, offertory prayers and the unique role of the ordained priest representing the priestly people of God at the altar as he offers the one Sacrifice of Jesus, In Persona Christi Capitis kneeling for Holy Communion and receiving on the tongue and the proliferation of liturgical ministries carried out in sloppy, haphazard ways and with choirs confronting the congregation in entertainment style) contributed to what was deemed even in the 1970's as a loss of respect for the holy and a Catholic sense of reverence
2. Catechetical materials replacing the Baltimore Catechism are either to complex or to simple or simply vapid and has had the most deleterious effect upon Catholic identity and moral living that will take generation to overcome
3. Complete individualism when it comes to personal and public morality, rejection of divine law contained in natural law and contempt for the ecclesiastical authority of the pope and bishops (in part brought on by Humanae Vitae and the theology of dissent from it, but also the lack of strong decisive leadership from the Holy Father and the bishops when dissent becomes public in the clergy and laity and their role in mismanaging perverted priests and the sex abuse scandal--devastating to them and Catholic identity
4. Lack of backbone in the appropriate use of Church discipline, public excommunication, censure, and the like
5. Complete loss and lack of catechesis or preaching on sin, grace, moral living, judgment, purgatory, heaven hell and the other-worldly and this-worldly aspect of the Paschal Mystery (redemption)
Vatican II help create apostates such as Nancy Pelosi and Katherine Sebelious, Joseph Biden, Ted Kennedy and other public but infamous Catholics who trash the Church and her true identity and all have done so without impunity or the threat of excommunication the possibility of hell fire and damnation.
In the area of Church discipline, the bishops and liberal Catholics have become like the character from literature Milquetoast; they have no backbone or desire to rock the boat of dissent and loss of Catholic identity and thus they exacerbate the loss of Catholic identity that now can very well lead to the loss of Religious liberty in this country and freedom of conscience.
This is a wake-up moment for Catholics in the history of the Catholic Church in this Country and the decline and nearly to the point of "fall" of the Catholic Church worldwide--but of course that can't happen because of the promises of Jesus Christ to the Church, but the Church can be diminished by these ungodly forces.
4 comments:
First, I am old enough that the post-Vatican II changes were imposed when I was in college. They pretty much marked my falling away.
Relating to numbered points:
1. I grew up with the Latin Mass, and began actually following it in print from roughly the age of seven. As a teen, I had a St. Joseph's Sunday Missal, with Latin and English, and so it was both easy to follow, and easy--for those who were motivated--to learn the meaning in English of the entire Mass. The need for the vernacular may have existed in mission lands, but not in America. No matter which parish I attended, my Missal was equally useful.
2. I was not raised with any catechism, but as an adult, I have explored in the catechisms of Trent, Baltimore, and the current post-V2 CCC. I have also found useful Canon Ripley's This is the Faith. I find the CCC incredibly useful, though in my two years of RCIA as an adult, it was never mentioned, much less referenced. (The story of my need for RCIA as an adult is long, and not relevant to the discussion at hand.)
3. I look to the Church for instruction; I do not expect to decide for myself what is right and wrong. Yes, I am responsible for discernment, but before I am able to discern the right path, I shall most certainly consult the CCC. In passing, I note that I consider the CCC most useful as a reference document, an instruction manual, as it were. I can readily appreciate why it would not be a great text for pre-adolescents, especially given the failure of our schools to teach English beyond the mundane.
4. I continue to ba appalled at the lack of backbone in many of our bishops. I freely acknowledge that they have had extensive training and experience, but assert that these are no guarantee of wisdom.
5. If my time in RCIA is indicative, the loss of teaching is profound. The depth of this class was minimal, and the answers to questions, more often than not, were influenced more by Protestant and dissident Catholic thought, than by Church doctrine.
I continue to believe that in our current situation, there needs to be a list, a public list, of public "leaders" who self-identify as Catholic, but are either excommunicated, or clearly out of communion with Church teaching. The use of excommunication by the bishops needs to be revived, and ought really to make such folks as notorious as a scarlet A on the clothing.
The insipid yearly letters on exercise of citizenship need not declare in so many words that particular individuals by name cannot receive votes form Catholics, but they should make abundantly clear that there are positions which render a candidate entirely unacceptable in Catholic terms, and that to cast votes for such folks is emphatically not a decison of conscience, but a grave sin.
...oh, and every time I see those ugly puppets I want to scream.
The Church consists of the Church Militant (on earth), the Church Triumphant (in heaven), the Church Suffering (in purgatory).
The Churches Triumphant and Suffering will certainly continue, but the Church Militant can disappear in particular locations--or perhaps almost everywhere for a time--especially when it's bishops are not in fact militant.
Well, now that we've idnetified the problem, all we need to do is fix them. Count me in.
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