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Friday, January 1, 2021

ON THIS NEW YEAR’S DAY, LET’S TALK ABOUT CLERICALISM AS I AM NOT SURE WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT ISN’T ALTHOUGH VAGUELY I CAN DETECT IT

 


I guess in a nutshell, clericalism is an undue or unquestioning authority given to any one person, no matter their profession. It isn’t a disease of just the priesthood or those in the clerical state.

For example, with the outbreak of the worldwide pandemic, the new clericalism is the unquestioned authority that scientists and doctors now wield and God forbid you question what is espoused by these “experts” or question those who blindly follow them. 

This occurs that despite their expertise, they have been so wrong on how to “flatten the curve” itself a silly meme, and have been wrong throughout history on certain subjects. 

Doctors and scientist have always had a messiah complex but that’s on steroids today—the messiah complex is clericalism in the priesthood or in scientific and medical circles. 

As it concerns the clergy of the Catholic Church, clericalism before Vatican II elevated individuals in the priesthood to other worldly status and nothing they could do could be questioned or excuses were made because they weren’t married and that caused idiosyncrasies or irritability. But the laity followed even errant priests because of the Messiah complex the laity allowed for the clergy, like so many “laity” today allow for doctors and scientists to remain unquestioned. 

Today, post-Vatican II, clericalism allows for what we have seen happen to our Church and Liturgy. Both become the priest or bishop’s playground regardless of what it does to the laity for good or evil. 

Look at how beautiful churches were reckovated or new ones no longer recognized as Catholic. How did that happen? EXPERTS ON VATICAN II, BE THEY CLERGY OR MONEY MAKING LITURGICAL CONSULTANTS SAID THIS IS WHAT VATICAN II WANTED AND THUS WE ARE DOING IT!

Clericalism can be seen in academics and an academic priest or bishop who is into clericalism can inflict the greatest harm on the Church in general and individuals in particular. Academics in high education look down their noses at their students and feel they know it all and know better than those less educated than themselves. Thus being well-educated and in preferable institutions, think Norte Dame or Harvard, places the person above everyone else and contributes to their desire not to be questioned by those not as smart as they. 

I think that’s clericalism. It is arrogance, basically. 

Discuss.

 

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is Pope Francis on this, or the bishops and priests who vote for politicians and parties who promote this?

Abortion was once again the number-one cause of death globally in 2020, with a record 42.7 million unborn babies killed in the womb, according to data provided by Worldometer. As of December 31, 2020, there were 42.7 million abortions performed in the course of the year, Worldometer revealed, while 8.2 million people died from cancer, 5 million from smoking, and 1.7 million of HIV/AIDS.By comparison, worldwide deaths from the coronavirus in 2020 totaled 1.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Worldometer — voted one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA) — keeps a running tally

Anonymous said...

Arrogance is a person who is untrained in epidemiology or infectious diseases claiming to know better than those who are.

Next time you have a heart problem, you can go to the trained cardiologist and tell him what needs to be done.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

That’s clerical silliness. You always advice anyone to get a second, third or 4th opinion. A doctor will be offended. Too bad for his clerical bu...

Anonymous said...

Clericalism is when they forget their function is to KNOW, love and serve God, and then bring as many as possible to that same state, and instead see themselves as functionaries whose main concentration of effort is only on anything BESIDES those essential basics. Knowing God seems quite optional today, from top to bottom.

Anonymous said...

When you get a second opinion, you go to another TRAINED, EXPERIENCED doctor. No doctor is offended by a patient's request for a second opinion, especially in more serious matters.

What would offend her would be a person who is untrained in the doctor's specialty coming in and saying, "I have no training or experience in your field for which you studied 8 years and for which you are Board Certified, but I am going to tell you that you have a messiah complex and I'm going to self-disgnose and self-treat."

Her only reasopnse should be "Have at it, buster."

Anonymous 2 said...

This “blurb” from the Amazon page for Tom Nicholas’ book The Death of Expertise seems apt:

Technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.

Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise shows how this rejection of experts has occurred: the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer service model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine, among other reasons.

Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. When ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy or, in the worst case, a combination of both.

An update to the 2017 breakout hit, the paperback edition of The Death of Expertise provides a new foreword to cover the alarming exacerbation of these trends in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election. Judging from events on the ground since it first published, The Death of Expertise issues a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age that is even more important today.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2,

Thanks for the laughs! Still worshipping the portrait of your god, Obama the Magnificent, in the faculty lounge. I know President Trump failed to follow “expert” advice and start any foreign wars like Obama!

Anonymous said...

Or, as my philosphy dept chairman said back in the 70s, "There are two types of opinions you can hold....those to which you are entitled, and those to which you are not."

Today, EVERYbody is an expert because they heard some, guy somewhere, who said etc etc, and as the old John Prine song says, "I read the mornin's paper, and swear it as God's word."

They are NOT more educated except in how to use technology to save themselves from actual education and learning critical thinking skills and independent thought, same as most math majors today could not solve a single comlplex equation without electronic aid, their every thought a sheeple-ish theft from somebody else, leading to inevitable Borg-like hive mindlessness of conform or be destroyed.

What this has to do with clericalism is simply most functionaries in offices operate the same way....thinking not required...we have "how it's always done".

John Nolan said...

Anonymous 2

Thank you for recommending Tom Nichols's book which I look forward to reading. His and your analysis is, and not just in my opinion, quite correct.

Something which has puzzled me for some time is that despite the internet and the popularity of 'pub quizzes' and their TV spin-offs the level of general knowledge seems to have declined. This also applies to so-called experts. When someone on a TV quiz show opined that Ramsay McDonald was Prime Minister for a shorter time than was Andrew Bonar Law, I might have forgiven his ignorance (we're not all historians) were it not for the fact that he was a lecturer in politics.

Anonymous said...

As for medical "experts", most of them work today off of computerized crib sheets. And switching from one expert to another is no help.

I went to experts for help and they nearly killed me. Was prescribed anti-inflammatories for arthritis, known side effect widely published being kidney damage, and dosage was only increased over time.

Also doctors noted my blood pressure was up, they put me on meds for that which were dutifully taken every AM, and every AM doc visit showed BP just fine.

And so it went for over a year, closer to two . Turns out any other time of day my BP in that time frame had been running at lethal levels of 180-190/120-130, and caused strictly by the anti-inflammatories. This was only discovered when a simple bruise to calf exploded internally due to high BP.

Was sent to expert ortho doc who had me checked by expert cardio pulmonary doc who ignored my complaints of growing agony with entire lower leg now purple and ankle immobile, told only to go home and keep off leg and keep leg elevated, and shuttled me back and forth between them, then further helped along by ortho doc insisting I wear a "boot" despite my saying leg/ankle bloody hurt, and his assistant forcing ankle to conform and sent home again despite pleas for further help/treatment/tests/SOMETHING as for nearly a month already could only bear to stand long enough to shower/shave maybe once a week, and was eating out of cans as unable to cook.

After the force fit of boot, which had been discarded on leaving office as shear agony, over the next two weeks until next follow-up, the thigh started turning purple. Went back to my expert livid with anger over new damage done by boot fitting, and his reply was to send me back to cardio pulmonary for finally further imaging, this being Tues before Thanksgiving, imaging not scheduled until after the holiday this year.

By Thanksgiving, I found myself unable to walk 5ft, and unable to breath after trying. Called 911 and took an ambulance ride to hospital. The expert head ER nurse informed me we were in the middle of a pandemic here, and outpatient treatment should have continued outpatient rather than me bothering them with this this simple bruised leg which imaging (again) showed free of clots....

THEN I finally was seen by a good doctor, a devout Marionite Lebanese doc with actual compassion who listened and ran tests and had studies and imagining done, and I was bleeding to death internally from muscles ripped wide open, PLUS eroded gut from the meds, took three units of blood, was anemic, critically low on near every vitamen, and yet, by Tues after Thanksgiving was discharged despite earlier fears of perhaps losing leg, and able to recoup at home despite being told by experts that I needed to move into an assisted living facility. By the following Saturday, was working on my 2-month neglected motorcycle and then took it for a spin. Am nearly back 100% now.

Had I stayed away from the experts, I would have been at 100% for the last several years. No telling what damage was done to circulation system by running that high a BP for that long....I may be alive today, no thanks to them, but am fairly sure will now have vastly higher chance of a stroke, bleed, heart attack, where formerly chances were very low given family history.

Anyone with blind faith in modern medicine and "science" and expert doctors and nurses is a blind fool. Show many anywhere where mask mandates reduced infection rates....ONE.

Anonymous said...

last line typo....show me anywhere where mask mandates reduced infection rates....ONE....our rate went only up when the mandate came out.

ANOTHER anonymous said...

Arrogance is watching TV ads where trained physicians who know what the consequences of socialized health insurance will be campaigning against the president and falsely blaming the pandemic upon him--just because they "don't like" him.

I'll take it further, arrogance is watching any fool publicly crow about the glories of socialism, giving no thought to its destructive potential.

Arrogance is believing we know more than everybody else. Arrogance is what we are.

It's in our DNA.

Of course, I understand that--you lesser people don't!

Anonymous said...

"Show many anywhere where mask mandates reduced infection rates....ONE."

I can't. That's not to say that there may be someplace where infection rates
have been reduced.

Look at the following though:

Among the states with tightest restrictions and lockdowns for COVID, the below
is where some of them rank in deaths per million:

New Jersey 1
New York 2
Massachusetts 3
Connecticut 6
Rhode Island 7
Illinois 10
Michigan 11
Pennsylvania 12

The state of Georgia, which has had very minimal restrictions, ranks 20th.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:04

Ask an epidemiologist about the impact of population density on the spread of disease. Or, if you are like Fr. McDonald, don't ask.

In any case, of the states you listed, the following have higher population density than Georgia:

New Jersey
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Illinois
Pennsylvania

Only Michigan has a lower population density than Georgia, but it comes it at #24 immediately behind Georgia at #23.

What do studies by trained epidemiologists and infection disease experts tell us, not that it matters to those who think they know more than the highly trained specialists?

"We found that population density has a positive effect on increasing the number of cases of COVID-19 virus. As population density increases, the number of infections increases, especially in coastal regions."

So the idea that more restrictions lead to greater infection rates, or that "minimal restrictions" result in lower infection rates, is baloney.

Anonymous said...

We had 20 whole cases with all the restrictions/closures. With reopening WITH mask mandate, we now have 1:6 people in the city have been infected. Keeping people away from stangers works, sanitizing hand after touching anything touched by strangers or which is around those strangers works.

Fake masks do not do anything but virtue signal. These same fake masks would have had your company heavily fined/shut down by OSHA a year and a half ago had you issued them for protection from hazmat and biologicals, as their effectivity was known to be near nil. Any box of procedure masks you buy flatly states on box that they provide no protection from biologicals and protect only from direct fluid spray. The facial fabric jockstraps are even worse

I spent a career working with hazardous material, including radioactive, organic, and biologicals. Public response has been only symbolic, with nothing done otherwise. There is no regular rigorous cleaning of interiors, there is no rigorous hand santitizing, there is only contaminated hands from contaminated environments handling contaminated masks on faces all the day long.

I have bad lungs and cannot wear a mask. I also am one of those shrinking numbers who have yet to catch this virus because I stay in other places less than 15mins, decon hands and purchases rigorously, keep my distance from others, and in short, follow the original and excellent CDC advise. Any place trying to pretend a mask helps and otherwise biz as usual is only deluding itself.

Anonymous 2 said...

To all mask skeptics and Trump worshipers:

Fine. Go ahead. Don’t wear a mask. Let the blood be on your hands as well as his.

Anonymous said...

The blood on hands belongs to those who have caused innumerable infections via contaminated hands from touching contaminated environments and then touching contaminated fake mask and face all the day long.

Just as we already knew from decades of medical and industrial experience, you wear the right gear or stay home. What we needed and never got was a domestic supply of REAL N95 masks in sufficient supply for disposal anytime removed, for truly safe reopenings.

THAT's how it works in the REAL scientific world.

Blood on hands, what theatrics. I avoid infection (which makes it rather hard to pass it along) by TRULY following original guidance, and some ninny who wears a fake mask, likely sanitizes hands once a week, whether they need it or not, calls me a murderer, when it is THEY who will catch it and pass it along.

Anonymous 2 said...

I leave the theatrics to Trump and his cultists.

Anonymous 2 said...

Have we lost the ability to reason? Just because people can contract and spread Covid-19 when improperly using a face mask is not evidence that a mask does not help reduce spread when used properly:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-mask/art-20485449

Anonymous said...

Compare states that do and do not follow guidelines:

- Vermont - strict restrictions
(population 627,180)
* total cases 7,689
* total deaths 139

- South Dakota - no restrictions
(population 892,631)
* total cases 99,829
* total deaths 1,501

Among the states, territories, and the D of C, Vermont ranks 37th in population density (67 per square mile), South Dakota 52nd (11 per square mile.)

Anonymous said...

You are miataking effecta from reateictiona with those of fake mask wear. We had very few cases with restrictiona. skyrocketing numbers with mandated masks and fewer reatrictiona. How hard can this be to underatand? We had a perfect teat case and fake maska failed miserably, both city and statewide.

Anonymous said...

If anyone tries to say my city example would be even worse minus the fake masks, consider we went from only handful of cases while having no mask mandate but loads of restrictiona, to reopening WITH mask mandate and promptly had an explosion which has yet to slow up, over 100 TIMES (not percent) more cases, and now 1 out of every 6 in city has been infected.

And yet you might still say it would/could be worse but for the magic masks which were illegal 1.5yrs ago due to knoen ineffectivity? If that is the case, and it THAT virulent, and masks that much help, then pray tell how do you explain we, by medical neccessity, maskless folk in same town, using same stores for (far less) shopping, otherwise following original CDC guidance, and staying quite well, thank you?

While mask wearers continue to become infected at an unimpeded rate. I have tracked our daily and weekly average for entire pandemic, and they have done nothing but accelerate at precisely national and state average rates, masks or not.


Anonymous said...

wow, I need to tap/type in better light with screen brighter. Teat case? Could have been worse, I suppose.

Anonymous said...

The comments at 5:50 PM and &:05 PM appear to contradict each other.
One refers to high population density states the second one to low.

The list of the top 15 states in deaths per million is one that contains both high and low population density states.

The point to be made is the cost in businesses and jobs lost along with deaths from causes other than COVID, and also mental health issues.
COVID-centric people lose perspective and don't look at the overall picture.
Georgia not only has many fewer deaths per million than Michigan, but a much healthier economy (and this despite having a high at-risk population).

Anonymous said...

South Dakota has a significant Native American population. That is one group that has been particularly hard hit by COVID owing to health issues such as high rates of diabetes and poor health in general. This also contributes to transmission out to the wider population.
You can't make a valid comparison the relatively healthy Vermonters.

Anonymous 2 said...

Anonymous at 2:53 p.m.:

I am very sorry you had this dreadful experience. Although my own experience at the hands of orthopedic practitioners for the past eight years is not as awful as yours, it is bad enough and I have not been well served by them. So, of course, I agree that there are many physicians who are either incompetent, too narrowly specialized, lack compassion, or even more interested in performing a walletectomy than in doing what is best for the patient. Something similar may be said about lawyers (and doubtless many other types of professions and occupations, from accountants to plumbers). But this is not a good reason to reject the opinion and advice of those who do not suffer from these shortcomings. It is always important, therefore, to try to evaluate the qualifications and reputation of the service provider in question (through various ratings agencies, anecdotal word of mouth, etc.). Your own experience seems to conform the point: Wasn’t the good doctor also an “expert,” only this time a real one!

Consequently, I trust Dr. Fauci far more than I trust Donald Trump.

Anonymous said...

As a teenager in Australia, I had an uncle define a doctor as a person who earns a 6 figure salary and buries their mistakes.

Anonymous said...

Strange how an allegedly educated man like Anonymous 2 leaves out the fact that two of the most heavily populated states, Texas and Florida, had less of a problem with Covid than New York.

For example Texas has 89 deaths per 100,000 compared to New York which has 188 where Florida has 96 deaths per 100,000 compared to New York's 188. Also, Florida and Texas are considerably more populated than New York:

Texas
28,995,881

Florida
21,477,737

New York
19,453,561


Does that give you the sads, Anonymous 2? I guess if an Obama worshipper like you doesn't read it in the New York Times it isn't so.

Anonymous said...


The population density to be concerned about is at weddings, funerals, and family gatherings.

Note the spike in COVID cases after Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Especially problematic are the family gatherings which is where people are together for a lengthy period of time and maskless for the most part.
This doesn't explain cast count differences and deaths per million between differing states though. And family gatherings would be problematic for the state to control.

Michigan with slightly less population than Georgia and similar population density has 300 more deaths per million. North Carolina, a state with a an almost identical population number as Georgia, has over 370 fewer deaths per million than the Peach state.

At what point does the benefits of a tight lockdown, such as in the state of Michigan, outweigh the adverse effects it has on the livelihoods, mental health issues etc., of the residents of that state?

By the way, I am not an anti-masker. I do wear one where ever I go.

rcg said...

A2, I need to read the Nicholas book, although I will need to control skepticism based on a blurb referencing a transient political situation. The topic is interesting because a related factor in the death of expertise is the growth of credentialism. This maybe the secular brother of clericalism where someone has an advantage of knowledge in some area, so is thought to be expert in that area and possibly several other areas, as well. Neither of those may be true but is, instead, a sort of cargo cult. The internet has leveled the volume on all voices so telling the intellectual wheat from the chaff can be difficult to impossible. Attempts to censor information has amplified the problem because the censors are rarely experts, and may even have a dog in the fight. Dr Fauci seems to be suffering from the halo effect of significant competency in one area causing observers, including Dr Fauci, to assume expertise in another area. His approach to helping the nation through the pandemic has been solid advice in medicine taking priority over the general well being of the nation as patient. I listened to many interviews and addresses by Dr Fauci with the objective of learning about the disease as well as the medical community and national medical assets abilities to respond. In every case Dr Fauci ignored the effect of his recommendations on the nation’s ability to maintain the response. Of course the core of his recommendations were sound and the flaws should not demand rejection of the good. But even the advice of an expert must be considered within the broader context.
In addition there has been a disastrous belief in the accuracy of ‘science’ elevating the experts to the level of prophets. This has been a dreadful time of bad science and math that has undermined the public understanding to the point that arguments over masks have taken on a moral and theological dimension. I am concerned that I don’t see a moral dimension beyond helping control the spread of the disease.
So I am not as convinced that expertise has died but that it has proliferated, like a puppy mill with tassels, to devalue the real experts we have.

Anonymous 2 said...

Anonymous TJM:

Unlike you, I do not pretend to be an expert on the pandemic, tossing cherry picked and de-contextualized statistics around like they were confetti. I have enough humility to defer to those who know better than I do, especially those who tell me that wearing a mask, when done properly, reduces the incidence of transmission.

Anonymous 2 said...

Rcg:

I think you will find that many of your concerns and questions are addressed by the Nichols book, including the limitations and proper role of expertise.

Trump Cultist said...

If some schmuck thinks calling Trump supporters "cultists" is going to change our minds about the president, feel embarrassed or be silent...good luck.

Yeah, I voted for Trump BOTH TIMES.

Yeah, he KEPT most of his promises.

Yeah, he's NOT a globalist.

Yeah, he's the main reason we have not yet fallen completely into the jaws of the "Great Reset".

Yeah, I'm sick of just "accepting" that American can no longer keep moving ahead economically and Trump is one president who proved it.

Yeah, I have no desire to be part of a giant cog in China's ambitious hegemony.

So go ahead and call me and other Trump supporters names. Your opinion doesn't mean jack to me and I'm betting a lot of others feel the same way. If anything, thanks for the compliment.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2,

It is not cherry picked data. But as a person who calls everyone who disagrees with you a Trump worshipper, I understand where you are coming from, you’re just another version of Fr. K

Anonymous 3 said...

Anonymous 2,

One more thing. Academics like you are good are taking cheap shots, calling people Trump worshippers, a typical leftist debate tactic. Since most academics have lost the ability to reason and defend their positions they attempt to shut down debate by referring to others as racist, homophobic, mysogynistic, etc., and in your case, "Trump worshippers." Well at least President Trump did not start any foreign wars like your wooden god, Obama, but I imagine people like you don't care about wars, since you do not have to fight them.

Anonymous said...

And he did not start any "domestic" wars either...although one might argue whether the GOP is at war with itself these days. Guess we'll see to what degree that is true tomorrow when Georgia votes in its 2 Senate runoffs. Early voting there is not looking good for Republicans.

Anonymous said...

The most prominent form of clericalism in the USA is that of the new age state and federal church. That is the church of cancel culture and the woke. Second is the media that publishes and distributes their gospel. Third is the pastor who feels a responsibility to support a government religion rather than their Church’s religion. Far far down the list is a priest in ornate robes praying an ancient ritual in an ancient language.?

Sophia said...

Sophia here: On this the eve of one of the most pivotal Senatorial elections in at least decades, I sent out this email today.
Fellow Faithful Catholics. Many of you have already voted. Thank you. This reminder is for the ones of you who have not yet done so. Please do not sit this one out-no matter what! These 2 Senators are the final defense against the Socialist debacle which Biden/Kamala/Pelosi already have planned for our beloved Nation. Adding a Schumer controlled Senate to this mix, would be the equivalent of adding gasoline to a burning building. Please vote your solid Biblical, Catholic values- not for what you feel is right, but for what you know is right- for policies, not personalities! In other words, please vote according to a "well-formed" conscience that conforms to timeless Biblical Truth supported by hundreds of years of authentic Roman Catholic Teaching which can never contradict the Bible, regardless of who tells you differently!

As Gustavo Solimeo says in his article "What the Popes Have to say About Socialism" printed in The American TFP
"Anyone who examines the ideology of socialism will see the contrast between the socialist doctrine and the doctrine of the Church. All the same, it is not out of place to review the condemnation of the (10) popes starting with Pius IX (1846-1878) and ending with Benedict XVI (2005-2013). Thus, we present what the popes have to say about socialism as they condemn the socialist doctrine thoroughly and entirely." He then proceeds to list quotes by these Popes.



Sophia said...

sophia here: He quotes from Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) who speaks of Socialism this way:

“…there is need for a union of brave minds with all the resources they can command. The harvest of misery is before our eyes, and the dreadful projects of the most disastrous national upheavals are threatening us from the growing power of the socialistic movement. They have insidiously worked their way into the very heart of the community, and in the darkness of their secret gatherings, and in the open light of day, in their writings and their harangues, they are urging the masses onward to sedition; they fling aside religious discipline; they scorn duties; they clamor only for rights; they are working incessantly on the multitudes of the needy which daily grow greater, and which, because of their poverty are easily deluded and led into error. It is equally the concern of the State and of religion, and all good men should deem it a sacred duty to preserve and guard both in the honor which is their due.” (Encyclical Graves de Communi Re, January 18, 1901, n. 21)

Anonymous 2 said...

Anonymous 3 TJM:

You have a very bad case of projection (as usual), cannot take your own medicine (fine for you to call me an Obama worshiper, of course), and sound as desperate as Trump does (I’m sorry your guy lost the election but that’s the way it works).

How can you, as a lawyer and a Catholic, continue to support a man who is clearly trying to cheat his way to victory, just as he has cheated throughout his entire life. Or perhaps you really don’t believe in democracy and the rule of law, just as he doesn’t.