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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

OH BROTHER! OR SHOULD I SAY, OH FATHER, FATHER THOMAS REESE, AN AGING PRIEST

 


FATHER REESE, SJ, JOTS DOWN THE DOTS BUT HE CAN’T CONNECT THEM. READ HIS INTERESTING COMMENTARY BY PRESSING THE TITLE FROM THE NCR:

Conservatives can win the debate over Vatican II only by ignoring history

Father Reese makes a good case, and in his case, he can’t connect the dots which he has made. He’s a Jesuit, so let’s give him a pass, an aging one at that. Don’t accuse me of ageism as I am aging too. 

He says that there are very few people left who remember Vatican II or remember the controversies afterward or were excited about what the Council wrought. They are close to death or have died.

But Reese can’t connect the dots. No one today is excited about Vatican II. They don’t remember it and could care less about it. They have other things to worry about. 

While Reese points out what the Council changed and opened the Church to further more radical change, and he sees this as a plus, he fails to connect the dots to this and the fact that in many European countries less than 5% of the laity attend Mass and of those who do attend Mass, they want women priests (or non-binary people in various forms of wedlock) or no marriage at all, simply living together in various fashions will do. 

Reese cannot connect the dots of the reformed Mass and its adherents who for the most part are heterodox and want a non-Catholic, non-Christian religion especially as it regards sex, birth control and abortion. 

Yes, Fr. Reese spells is out but he can’t connect the dots.

No one today is excited about Vatican II and they are not excited about the synodal way, except those who are heterodox and there ain’t many of them either. 

11 comments:

TJM said...

Hopelessly lost in the past, fighting the last war. Their lives must be pretty empty. I remember the vibrant pre-Vatican II Church in the US and am deeply saddened my children and grandchildren did not. Logic must not be Reese’s strong suit

Anonymous said...

Father McDonald said..."Don’t accuse me of ageism as I am aging too."

Nonsense.

Father McDonald, you are not aging.

Now, please tell about the time you were a boy on Patmos, and the Apostle John stopped at your lemonade stand.

:-)

Pax.

Mark Thomas

Anonymous said...

Father McDonald said..."No one today is excited about Vatican II. They don’t remember it and could care less about it. They have other things to worry about."

Pope Francis is excited about Vatican II.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has remained tremendously excited about Vatican II. It was only two months ago that Pope Emeritus gushed about Vatican II. He insisted two months ago that he characterized Vatican II as "not only meaningful, but necessary."

He has insisted for 60 years that the authentic Council has renewed the Church.

Catholic News Agency. November 14, 2022 A.D.

-- Benedict XVI Reflects on Vatican II in New Letter

"In a new letter, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI characterizes the Second Vatican Council as “not only meaningful, but necessary.”

"Franciscan University of Steubenville...which concluded a two-day conference on October 21, centered on the theology of Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger. Nearly three-and-a-half typewritten pages long, the letter provides fresh observations about Vatican II..."

========================================================================================

Nobody cares about the Council?

Then, all the events, talks, and articles that focused upon Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's important attachment to Vatican II have proved meaningless — at least to virtually the entire Faithful.

They couldn't care less about a Council to which Pope Emeritus has, during the past 60 years, defended and promoted to the hilt?

Then a monumental portion of Pope Emeritus' life/work — his key role at, then following, the Council — is down the drain.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Mark, you are confirming the quote I post from Reese, “no one except”:

He says that there are very few people left who remember Vatican II or remember the controversies afterward or were excited about what the Council wrought. They are close to death or have died.

Catechist Kev said...

MT: "Pope Francis is excited about Vatican II."

Uh, respectfully disagree. Many would say that PF is excited about his *1970s understanding* of Vatican II.

Anonymous said...

Father McDonald said..."No one today is excited about Vatican II. They don’t remember it and could care less about it. They have other things to worry about."

Actually...

Tens of millions of 70 (or so)-year-old Catholics throughout the world (at least, if they were raised as Catholics) recall Vatican II.

It is another matter as to whether the Council has, or had, any great personal meaning to them. Nevertheless, the Council's reforms had a dramatic impact upon them...certainly the manner in which they worshiped.

Father McDonald, you believe that Pope Francis is determined to erase Pope Benedict XVI's legacy...(and, for that matter, Pope Saint John Paul II's legacy).

Well, the bulk of Pope Benedict XVI's legacy is linked in powerful fashion to Vatican II.

During the past 60 years, via his important role at the Council...then in having defended, and promoted the Council...then having implemented the Council...

...Emeritus has dedicated a tremendous portion of his life having preached a Council that supposedly "No one today is excited about...don’t remember it...and could care less about it."

If that is correct, then Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has all but erased his legacy. He did that to himself.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has preached a message....has, in powerful fashion, linked himself to — Vatican II — about which nobody is excited...a message about which nobody cares to heed.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

TJM said...

Catechist Kev,

You are dealing with someone unhinged from reality who knows nothing about the wildly successful US Catholic Church prior to the Council. He thinks its ruins show vibrancy!

TJM said...

Catechist Kev,

For example MT totally ignores the collapse in Catholics attending Mass and believing in the Real Presence. I think his posting here is some sort of therapy for him

TJM said...

A bunch of lefty, geriatrics are excited about Vatican II. Those of us who knew the Church before this disaster, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Catechist Kev said..."Uh, respectfully disagree. Many would say that PF is excited about his *1970s understanding* of Vatican II."

Catechist Kev, thank you for your reply.

Many people say many things about our holy Popes. Pope Venerable Pius XII, for example, was "Hitler's Pope" supposedly. There are people who have insisted that Pope Benedict XVI was a right-wing extremist.

Archbishop Lefebvre insisted that Popes Saints Paul VI, and John Paul II, as well as then-Cardinal Ratzinger, were apostates.

I am leery about many things that many people utter. I am far more interested in that which Holy Mother Church has to say.

In regard to Pope Francis' supposed 1970s understanding of Vatican II...whatever that means:

God has empowered Pope Francis to interpret Vatican II.

Therefore, Catechist Kev, it matters not what many have said in regard to Pope Francis' supposed 1970s understanding of Vatican II.

What matters is that in line with the Holy Ghost, Pope Francis pronounces in authoritative, orthodox fashion, upon Vatican II.

Pope Francis' Magisterium is unassailable. That is what Holy Mother Church has to say.

Thank you.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

TJM said...

MT,

What did PF’s “unassailable magisterium” do to discipline the clerics involved in a cocaine fueled gay sex orgy at the Vatican? Answer that or you will prove the emptiness of your cutting and pasting non sequiturs