1 Peter 5's Steve Kojec writes: Traditionalist priest, psychologist, and exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger (speaks) about serious problems afflicting the traditionalist movement.
These include pride, impurity, rebellion against
authority, disrespect for clergy, an exaggerated interest in what is bad
in the Church and the world, undue isolation from the world, weakness
in the spiritual life, and so on. These are real problems, and they
really are obstacles to not just our salvation, but our success in
attaining even the most worthy goals we seek in this life.
I have to agree that traditionalists have shot themselves in the foot and lost so much credibility in terms of the rhetoric they use against the pope and others with whom they disagree. It is as though they know almost nothing about about the spiritual life and what constitutes sins, mortal sins, against charity. Com boxes on traditional websites wreak of the smoke of Satan when it comes to the language used against those individuals with whom they disagree as though the laity have any authority even symbolically to name someone as fake, heretical or excommunicated. To do so betrays a complete ignorance of traditional Catholicism.
19 comments:
Yes, Father, I couldn’t agree more.
Even on your rather temperate blog (the only one I regularly read, and this only because we’ve known you for 25 years), the diatribes can get astonishingly heated. My personal resolution is to not contribute to the heat, but to try to support your choice and voice.
That said, there is at least one very predictably liberal voice regularly posting here, who is not supportive of your more traditional stances, who regularly challenges you on nearly every topic you address in a predictably arrogant style, who is bound to be a near occasion of sin for those who support you.
We must ALL, whether of orthodox or progressive leanings, work on avoiding being near occasions of sin for others.
God bless.
All of my last comment notwithstanding, nearly every day the abusive scandals in the Church, arguably promulgated by the progressive clerics involved, can’t but ignite further fires of indignation and anger. Just note the Anderson report two days ago in Chicago. The hits just keep on comin’, and we more “orthodox” folk just keep taking it on the nose. We are bloodied from turning the other cheek, and the progressives continue to scorn and ridicule. The trail of tears from Chicago is deep and wide and long...
I think we should take a page from PF's playbook and show mercy and compassion. These folks have suffered a great deal at the hands of the Church. If they would announce tomorrow morning that they were all part of the LGBT movement, they would be forgiven and praised!
Not everyone agrees that disagreement is arrogance. Nor is disagreeing with a person an attack on that person.
If you find disagreement to be an occasion of sin, you're in for a long, bumpy road.
Anonymous,
Unfortunately that arrogant voice is a priest, who practices clericalism on steroids, but lacks any self-awareness. Sad
The abuse scandals being reported now were reported 20 years ago and most of them having happened in the 1970's. But the current reports make it look like new reporting but it isn't. For example, the most notorious abuser in our diocese was placed on non-assigned status in 1987, then Bishop Lessard came up with policies about reporting priests or anyone working for the church to law enforcement and the same priest was laicized in 2004 or so after having been convicted in Maryland for sex abuse. However, new charges were brought against him in 2017 and you'd think by the reporting this was a new discovery--it was all old news rehashed over and over again for over 30 years.
Bee here:
I have to confess I resisted joining St. John Cantius parish for quite a while exactly because of the reputation of the "trads" Fr. Rippinger describes, even though the parish I had been attending got a new priest who was off the rails during Mass (excessive progressive). I have no more use for the kinds of behavior that Fr. Rippinger outlines than I do for the ideas and behaviors of the progressives (although the clergy here in Chicago is infected almost to the last man.) To me, that "trad" behavior is lot like Martin Luther's, and I at first avoided going to St. Johns thinking it might be that sort of environment. It's not.
It's true I sometimes overhear maybe one or two people voicing this kind of attitude there, but for the most part the 99.9% of people I have met there are kind, obedient and prayerful people. Fr. Phillips was a incredibly fine example of a prayerful, mild and peaceful man who wanted simply to restore the sacred, and there was not a jot of rebellious spirit about him, nor in any of the priests or brothers there. They are submissive and obedient to the Ordinary. They have, this past year since Fr. Phillips was removed, been silent and submissive to this action, and have quietly gone forward with their mission. I have not heard one peep of any criticism of the Cardinal over this matter, or of any matter.
In my mind the "trads" who act like Fr. Rippinger describes are just the flip side of the coin of the liberal "progressives" who militate to make women priests, who want to renounce priestly celibacy, who want to embrace homosexual "marriage" and relationships, who have turned the Mass into some kind of hootenanny. They are wrongheaded and daily crucify Christ by being disobedient prideful Judases, who take matters into their own hands and bring destruction because they think they know better.
God bless.
Bee
I think Fr Ripperger is observing the character traits of people who respond to adversity with their spine. If it is unfortunate then it is because that trait can exacerbate the division Smoke creates in a group of people. It is difficult to remain cordial when people use your courtesy to ignore your position and continue not only obstinately in their own ignorance but also in trammeling two millennia of progress in the name of progress.
Bee in juxtaposing the flip side of traditionalists with progressives, you name the heresy which is Gnosticism that Fr. Rippinger describes.
I think you parish has tried valiantly to do exactly what you said, restore the sense of the sacred. If I am not mistaken your OF Masses are celebrated ad orientem and with great dignity as are the EF Masses and for most neophytes they probably couldn't tell the difference between the two except perhaps for the vernacular. This is what should have occurred with a modest implementation of the revision of the Mass after Vatican II, only slight variations in simplicity but not of the reverence or mystery removed.
I might add, that the last two years I was in Macon, our 12:10 Mass, the third of four on Sunday was an OF Mass celebrated ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist and communicants knelt at the restored altar railing fro Holy Communion. Then for about two years after that, the EF once a month Mass was moved from 2 pm to the 12:10 PM Mass. I honestly think that most people thought the only difference in the EF Mass and the OF Mass was that it was in Latin and the other in English.
Bee here:
I looked at the report online, and yes, I think almost all the cases are very old, but they have put it in a format that is like a catalog, with photographs of the priests (when available), a brief synopsis of their case, a record of their pastoral assignments with the years noted, and their current status or whereabouts.
I think the law firm (Anderson) did this to create a tool to flush out new cases and generate business. It's very visual. And putting all of the cases together in one booklet makes them appear contemporaneous, even though they happened decades apart.
What's a shame is that the publication was one of the leading stories on all the news stations, and they gave it 5 minutes coverage. They acted like this was all just coming to light and there a new cases reported there. It was misleading, to say the least.
The Archdiocese of Chicago put out a press release clarifying the contents of the report and noting some errors in it. There's also a chart attached that gives a more complete view for at least 22 of the Chicago Archdiocese cases. You can see the chart here: https://www.archchicago.org/documents/70111/1166401/AOC+Chart/bb79afa3-ef54-4291-8e50-eaccb4f8c506
God bless.
Bee
I read one of theGreek Fathers stating that it is a sin not to speak out about problems in the Church provide these are problems. Would you not condems the likes of MvCarrick and numerous others including the HF as they plant doubts among the faithful. Remember the mill stone parable? I am not advocating vulgarity. However even Paul VI mentioned that the smoke of satan has penetrated the Church. I some how can not see that the homosexual plague int he priesthood and its destructive consequences on the faithful require quiet obedience. No wonder we are in the mess we are in today with that kind of attitude!
Thanks much for that update, Bee. Very helpful info.
Anon 11:53: I’ve been on a long, bumpy road. I’m 72 y.o. retired medical professional, and have seen it all over the years, including helping run an AIDS clinic. I’ve watched my church do it’s thing all over the map. And I’ve even met you personally, and, yes, I would characterize you as arrogant. I’m not clueless, nor am I easily scandalized, just saddened by the whole progressive clerical mess.
And, BTW, I actually said “near occasion of sin”. The word “near” is small but important.
Anonymous at 4:20,
Thanks for confirming the character trait of we suspected Anonymous You Know Who might be suffering from - arrogance. I had a liberal pastor who was off the rails and he was far more arrogant and dictatorial than any priest I encountered before Vatican Disaster II. The lack of humility and self-awareness is astounding
O Lord and Master of My Life,
Give me not a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, or vain talking. (Prostration), but rather a spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love bestow on me, Thy servant. (Prostration). Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages Amen. (Prostration)
O Lord, cleanse me, a sinner (bow each time 12 times)
May all of us take the prayer of St Epharim to heart.
Thank you for sharing, Joe. It is a good prayer (even though I could not do the prostrations myself due to physical limitations).
Along somewhat similar lines, I commend the following recent column from Robert Royal writing in The Catholic Thing.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/03/13/they-also-serve-2/?utm_source=The+Catholic+Thing+Daily&utm_campaign=be2a2cb90f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_07_01_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_769a14e16a-be2a2cb90f-244180669
Towards the end Robert Royal writes (quoting Cardinal Sarah):
“Yet it’s by focusing on what really matters, Reality (the Kingdom) that the other things will be added to us – cannot truly be added in any other way. It’s only too painfully evident just now that, for all our good work, we’re failing because we’re missing something crucial – that must come from elsewhere. Otherwise, we’re just Pelagians, like most modern activists, who think it all depends on us.
‘When we retreat from the noise of the world in silence, we gain a new perspective on the noise of the world. . . .To retreat into silence is to come to know ourselves, to know our dignity.’
That’s the only perspective that will produce real revolution, in ourselves and the world.”
Yes, thank you Joe, I love that prayer (A2, in these latter times I just bow deeply from the waist), although the spelling of the good Saint is Ephraim—I know, I know doggone spellcheck.
And A2, thank you as well; I loved the book “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” by Robert Cardinal Sarah. It can be a behavior if not life changer if you allow it to seep in day by day as the format was intended to do.
I suppose one can have extremes of traditionalism. I sometimes tell people that the only European Union I could accept would be ruled by a Catholic emperor and have Latin as a common language. They assume that I am speaking tongue-in-cheek.
One cannot, however, have extremes of orthodoxy. Anyway, Fr Ripperger should consult the 'Pope Francis Little Book of Insults'. He will realize that trads are 'self-absorbed promethean neo-Pelagians' who are 'rigid'. PF uses 'gnostic' to castigate another species - progressive ideologues perhaps?
No trad would ever call PF rigid. He is as firm as a bullrush.
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