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Wednesday, August 8, 2018

WHAT A MESS!

At this point, I think it is best that we go parochial, congregational and parish oriented and forget the universal Church. I know, I know, that's Protestantism and I still hear ringing in my ears our now deceased former bishop Raymond W. Lessard railing against congregationalism in Catholic parishes and priests acting as though they are in private practice. But I have come to appreciate how Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians ignore national liberal politics in their denomination and just focus on their local churches.

But the horrible politics of the Catholic Church's institution are gut wrenching and who in the name of God and all that is holy wants to be distracted by that in our spiritual journey?  I am posting a commentary below my own commentary from Catholic News Service.

By all accounts, Pope Francis rather than reforming the Church as was his mandate and improving the Curia and the institutional aspects of the Vatican and the Church in general is creating a nightmare and exacerbating the mismanagement of the curia by Pope St. John Paul II because of his absence from Rome for most of his papacy.  Maybe the "Peter principle" applies to our current Holy Father, a well intentioned populist but completely incompetent for the task of His Holiness' office.

What is sad to me is that when I was growing up in the anti-Catholic south, so many of my Protestant friends would tell me of the Vatican's duplicity, corruption and hypocrisy on so many of the areas that are mentioned in the Catholic News Service commentary, but in another era of the Church right after Vatican II.

Were they right? I fear so!

Press the title below this picture for the Catholic News Service Commentary. It is the best I have read about the current disaster in the institutional Church.:

Pope Francis with cardinals and bishops at the general audience in St. Peter's Square Jan. 24.

Can Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals Still Deliver on Reform?

11 comments:

Dan said...

Sounds about how I feel. Utterly discouraged. I feel that they "pimp out" the Bride of Christ in order to be "popular" and invited to the met gala, and claim Katy Perry as a friend.

Carol H. said...

No! They should cancel the meeting about families in Ireland, and the meeting on the youth as well, because they have lost all credibility. They need to focus on the removal of sexual predators, and on cleaning up the seminaries.

ByzRus said...


Given how ingrained the referenced duplicity, corruption and hypocrisy seems to be, it seems fair to wonder if meaningful reform (as opposed to symbolic shuffling) is even possible without a complete tear down and rebuild, including personnel. What Benedict XVI must have suffered through....

Victor said...

It is a mess, but congregationalism is not the best means to seek a safe haven. There are parishes run by good orders of priests who would welcome faithful refugees. For example, when I go to a FSSP parish, the doctrine is sound, and has always been. People in general just ignore the bad goings on in the Church, not dismissing them, but knowing we have very bad leadership in Rome at the moment, and that it will eventually pass away, and things will get better. In other words, in the meantime there are places of refuge in the Church from all this.
On the other hand, FSSPX churches have been suspicious of Rome all along, and it looks like for good reason, and this mess will not improve prospects for full unity.

Anonymous said...

The Church clearly needs real reform. The clergy is a cess pool that is clear. It’s reform and cleansing is THE priority at this moment. ALL bishops, Cardinals or even a pope must be removed if they have committed any civil crime or have habitually sinned against the sixth commandment. Active homosexual activity is clearly a real problem and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with. Better to shut down hundreds of churches do to lack of priests than to continue as we are. It’s intolerable. Francis needs to forget all these synods and changing this and that. I think reforming the clergy would take up all his time and most people would want him to do that. Nobody trusts the bishops anymore. And sorry to say everyone I know, even if they like their parish priest, is suspicious of their priests. This can’t go on. The first thing I am doing is stopping giving money. Not another dime until real reforms take place.

Cletus Ordo said...

If you live in a large enough city, there ARE a few safe havens. If you live out in the Diocese of Savannah's liturgical wasteland, good luck.

"Reform" is a very dangerous word when it comes to the Catholic faith. Martin Luther, John Calvin and their followers thought that they were bringing us "reform". The news media still can't stop talking about the alleged "reforms" of Vatican II (which has, ironically, brought us to this point) and now they await Pope Bergoglio to "reform" the Church.

What Francis means by "reform" is scarier than what most of us would want to imagine.

The Egyptian said...

as the sspx works patiently waiting to be called upon, at this point they are lucky to not have been accepted back, maybe they can stay above the fray, avoid Francis wrath and eventually be part of the rebuild

Mark Thomas said...

Welcome to the Catholic Church. Welcome to the Church in which holy, wonderful people abound. Welcome to the Church in which vile people abound.

Welcome to the Church whose first bishops (Judas) betrayed Jesus Christ, fled when Jesus was arrested...whose first Pope three times denied Jesus.

Welcome to the Church in which heresies have abounded from the dawn of Her creation.

Welcome to the Church in which millions upon millions of laymen went to Confession on Saturdays, the TLM on Sundays, then spent Monday-Thursday visiting their mistresses, getting drunk, and beating their wives.

Welcome to the Church in which massive corruption has always existed within the priesthood. Homosexual priests, priests married secretly...priests who have sex with women.

Welcome to the Church...during the reigns of Popes Pius XI and Venerable Pius XII, one seminary after another, as claimed by "traditional" Catholics, was packed with communists, modernists, and homosexuals.

Welcome to the Church...Arianism, Martin Luther...massive, massive, massive rot, filth, corruption for century upon century.

Yawn.

Welcome to the Catholic Church. Assist at the Divine Liturgy. Find the Saints amongst us. Associate with them. Obey the Church's teachings. Deal with the reality that alongside the holiness, rot and filth will also abound within the Church.

Welcome to the Catholic Church.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas said...

The Egyptian said..."as the sspx works patiently waiting to be called upon, at this point they are lucky to not have been accepted back, maybe they can stay above the fray, avoid Francis wrath and eventually be part of the rebuild."

"Avoid Francis wrath?"

The SSPX has benefitted greatly from their friendship with and stellar treatment that they've received from Pope Francis.

From his days in Argentina to date, the SSPX has praised the first-rate treatment that they've received from Archbishop/Cardinal/Pope Bergoglio/Francis.

Pope Benedict XVI declared that the SSPX "has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers...do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church."

Conversely, Pope Francis has conveyed legitimacy upon the SSPX as he has granted them the authority to exercise validly the holy Sacraments of Penance and Matrimony.

That said, the SSPX needs to first "rebuild" itself as strife has existed within the SSPX from the Society's foundation to date.

Just ask the many priests who have abandoned and/or been kicked out of the SSPX...as well as the many laymen who have abandoned SSPX chapels.

Oh, there's also that pesky fact that many Churchmen (as well as laymen), with Cardinal Burke foremost among them, who, unlike His Holiness Pope Francis, insist that the SSPX is schismatic.

Only when the SSPX enters into full communion with the True Church...when the SSPX cleans up its act...will the SSPX realize its full ability to serve Her Mother Church.

Even though Pope Francis has been a true friend and spiritual father to the SSPX, the Society's irregular canonical status, which the SSPX has brought upon itself, has harmed the SSPX greatly...and prevented the SSPX from having served Holy Mother Church to the SSPX's full ability.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

Robert Kumpel said...

Mark Thomas' comment is a much needed meditation for many Catholics. Those who excuse their lax habits of Mass attendance or cultural Catholic lifestyle or, worse yet, their abandonment of the Church because of scandals or bad people in the Church are copping out. The Church has always been a mix of good and bad people, it has, throughout its history persecuted it saints, bestowed honors on dishonorable people and existed and thrived in spite of the human mess we leave it in.

As Cardinal Newman once wrote, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant."

The 70's are over.

The people who inflicted the 70's upon us are soon to be over as well.

Anonymous said...

The Diocese of Savannah's "liturgical wasteland"? In Cletus Ordo's words. Uh, some clarification as to what that is? Like for someone like me who lives in the state's "other" diocese (or rather, Archdiocese).