CARDINAL ROCHE AND THE CHANGED THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH

 What year would you say this photo was taken?

If you said 1930, then you win the prize to read my post below free of charge:

Do Catholics have to give obedient consent of the will to a particular theology of the Church or this, that or the other theology? Yes, they may, but no, they don’t have to give it! We only have to give assent to defined doctrine and dogma is the highest form of it, but both require our anssent and obedience.

For example, there is a theology of limbo for unborn children. A Catholic is free to believe this but is not required to do so. Those that don’t have the backing of popes, Pope Benedict XVI, in particular. Limbo is a theology not a doctrine and certainly not a dogma.

The ideology of rupture, masquerading as a theology, is new to the Church since the close of the Second Vatican Council. St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI made inroads into giving the Council with all its ambiguities the proper interpretation in continuity with the 2000 year Magisterium of the Church. They insisted that Vatican II did not create a new Church or force believers to become something else than what they were when they were baptized Catholic and eventually gave an adult consent to their Faith. 

To strip Catholics of their Catholic identity and force them into a new kind of pseudo-Christianity, wreaks of manipulation, coercion, spiritual abuse, authoritarianism and has elements of the political aspects of the Protestant Reformation in monarchical Europe during the time of Martin Luther. It is wrong. It is evil. 

Cardinal Roche of the Dicastery of Divine Worship seems to be the wrong person in this position and not intellectually qualified to pontificate on the liturgy or the Church, tells the truth and an untruth recently.

He lets the cat out of the bag. The post Vatican II Church as incarnated by the Germany synodal way is a completely different Church than the one prior to post-Vatican II synods and Vatican II itself. 

Read this article. It makes sense to me:

From the National Review:

By MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY

March 22, 2023 3:24 PM

In a stunning interview, Cardinal Archbishop Arthur Roche, the man the Vatican has placed in charge of extinguishing the Traditional Latin Mass that Benedict XVI in 2007 had widely permitted, admitted in an interview with the BBC that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his radical traditionalist followers are right — that the faith once delivered to the saints has been abolished and substituted by the Church in the 1960s.

“The theology of the Church has changed,” argued Roche. “Whereas before the priest represented, at a distance, all the people — they were channeled through this person who alone was celebrating the Mass.” Now, however, Roche stated that “it is not only the priest who celebrates the liturgy but also those who are baptized with him, and that is an enormous statement to make.”

Roche is of course misstating the old theology. The priest celebrates the Mass not as a representative of all the people, but in persona Christi. All present at Mass assist him in doing so. All talk of distance is a silly slander.

Roche’s words follow the line pursued by more-radical theologians after the Second Vatican Council. In fact, this is the very line of thought, when I encountered it in Karl Rahner’s Theological Investigations, that caused me to become a traditionalist. (Though Rahner by that time used the language of “president” and “assembly” rather than that of “priest.”)

Just as important as Roche’s confirmation that the present Vatican has done away with wide permission for the old Mass is his affirmation of the underpinning assumptions that Benedict XVI used to license it — namely, Benedict’s “hermeneutic of continuity,” or the idea that the Second Vatican Council did not impose upon the faithful anything substantively new or different from the faith that the Church held before it. Therefore, the old Mass and the new Mass must express the very same faith.

That is not this Vatican’s position. Roche and the Vatican agree with progressives who view the old Mass as unsuited to a Church that has a new theology. And so they agree with radical traditionalists, and the Lefebvrites, that the purpose of the new Mass was to impose a new religion upon the Church.

Benedict’s view — though I’m not sure that it was correct — at least tried to address the crisis of the Church. The Vatican’s current view can only deepen it.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

Cardinal McElroy has let the cat out of the bag. He doesn’t like or tolerate anyone who voices opposition to Pope Francis’ lack of clarity and His Holiness making into dogma mere pastoral solutions. 

In a recent Spanish speaking interview, which you can read HERE, the good Cardinal, bless his little heart, has the temerity to condemn EWTN and its commentators who dare to question the pastoral, doctrinal and moral direction Pope Francis is taking the Church. They dare question his ambiguities and the confusion this has caused and the very serious polarization His Holiness has created within the Cardinals who elect popes and the entire College of Bishops not to mention the poor rank and file laity. 

This is what Cardinal McElroy, in a Viganò’s moment, has to say and it is stunning:

This focus of Francis "doesn't have the clarity and security that many have come to trust in their understanding of the faith," said McElroy. "But it does incarnate the pastoral method of the same Lord who calls us to draw close to each person first with a loving embrace, then with help and healing, and after with the call to conversion and to change."

I have just read Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorney General’s report on how the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah handled allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests from 1950 to the present. 

What is clear is that victims often felt they had no right to criticize priests in general if they were errant in any way, and bishops often were worried more about the priests than their potential and actual victims. They were more worried about reputation.

Thanks be to God that ETWN is not intimidated or manipulated by those in the hierarchy who would like to silence them and those who appreciate the whistleblowing! 

THREE TRADITIONAL ASPECTS OF POPE FRANCIS’ PAPACY THAT WILL ENDURE AFTER HIS HOLINESS IS CALLED TO HIS JUST REWARD…

Pope Francis has some very good and traditional things to say about the Sacrament of Penance, aka, Reconciliation, Confession. However, I am not sure I would want to go to His Holiness face to face, please provide me a screen, thank you very much!

There are three areas that I believe will be Pope Francis’ enduring legacy. Not among these three are “confusion, synodality and wokeness” but these three will endure and are appreciated:

1. The Holy Father has emphasized popular piety and traditional devotions, especially those that surround our Blessed Mother and private revelations associated with her all over the world. Almost immediately following Vatican II, we were told that Catholic spirituality, like Protestant spirituality, had to focus on Jesus alone and Marian devotions and the cult of the saints were out, because Vatican II taught us that, which was a lie. But we believed those who said what Vatican II taught, although it didn’t. 

2. The Holy Father has recovered the devil and concern for his tempting and corrupting influence. Angels, fallen or not, fell out of favor because Vatican II taught us that, but really it didn’t but we were told that it did teach that angels were out, so we believed it. Well, Pope Francis has recovered the devil and all the angels, fallen or not. 

3. The Holy Father has emphasized the Sacrament of Penance, Confession, over and over again. Almost immediately following Vatican II there was a drop off of sinners going to confession often due to the emphasis that people should go to Confession as though they were going to a psychiatric appointment, not in a booth, but a comfortable room, not behind a screen, but sitting comfortably before the priest, staring you in the eye as you confessed embarrassing sins. No body, but those use to psychiatric counseling, liked it so they stopped going and of course almost immediately after Vatican II there was confusion about sin and even if it existed, and mortal sin was no longer taught. 

Pope Francis, to His Holiness’ credit, recently said this and it is as traditional as it gets:

Mercy and the Church's missionary activity

Pope Francis explained that mercy could almost be included among the “notes” or distinguishing characteristics of the Church: “The work of divine mercy thus coincides with the very missionary activity of the Church, with evangelization, because the face of God, as shown to us by Jesus, shines through it.”

Therefore, he said, it is necessary for priests to be available, especially during the season of Lent, to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession, also known as Reconciliation.

He emphasized that this priestly availability is shown in “certain evangelical attitudes,” beginning with welcoming everyone without prejudice, and including listening with the ear of the heart, generously absolving penitents, and accompanying the penitential journey of those who approach the Sacrament.

Rediscovering the gift of Confession

Pope Francis noted that “the Church’s evangelizing mission passes in large part through the rediscovery of the gift of Confession,” not least in view of the approaching Jubilee Year of 2025.

Turning to the pastoral plans of particular Churches, the Pope insisted on the importance of sacramental Confession and of ensuring that the faithful have access to the Sacrament. He suggested that cathedrals and other churches should always have a confessor on duty, as part of the effort to “facilitate access for the faithful to this 'encounter of love' as much as possible.'”

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE! SINCE I AM FROM AUGUSTA….HILARIOUS!

 

I JUST SAW THIS ON FACEBOOK!

 

Wait a minute, that’s an old picture, (after I removed the altar railing at St. Joseph Church in Macon and before I restored it) and that priest is me, although much younger version of me and that photo was lifted from my most humble blog and the photographer, Buck Milton gets credit for taking the photo and so many more of this grand church building!

AN INCREDIBLY INSENSITIVE AND UNCHARITABLE SLAM AGAINST MENTAL ILLNESS BUT MORESO THE TONE DEAFNESS OF WHAT THE REAL PROBLEM TODAY IS WITH THE CHURCH AND IT IS SPELLED GERMANY AND THEIR BISHOPS…

The super, tripple XXX, ultramontane blog, “Where Peter Is” has an incredibly stupid commentary on the madman, the former nuncio of the USA, Archbishop Vigano. You can read the uncharitable and tone deaf commentary  THE BISHOPS AND THE MADMAN HERE.

A very astute comment by a well known blogger responded to this article on their facebook page and this is what that astute man wrote:

It does seem to me to be exceptionally uncharitable to castigate a man who might well be suffering from a mental disorder, dementia or some other organic mental issue. Then to exploit this condition in the present and apply it to the past when this wasn’t the case and when he found support and respect from American bishops during his time as nuncio, is even more incredibly uncharitable and manipulative. Of course if others are exploiting the condition of the Archbishop In order to undermine the papacy, that is evil. However we know that Pope Francis has played the game of accusing traditionalists of mental disorders and rigidity to manipulate an outcome. There seems to be a need for an apology from the Holy Father to those who are traditionalists but not rigid or mentally ill. But with all that said, even if Archbishop Vigano is sane and takes responsibility for his words and actions, and he finds support from some American bishops, these seem to pale in significance with the what the German hierarchy is doing to this pope which is truly evil and divisive—no apology is asked of them?

I am convinced that the Traditionalists are being played like a fiddle by the Holy Father and other post-Catholic radicals in Germany and elsewhere as a sort of smokescreen to distract from what Germany and other European bishops want to accomplish. 

I really do wonder who the madmen are in the Church and it appears more than likely that Archbishop Vigano isn’t the only one and that there are more people out there that need an apology from those trying to create an apostate church through a hostile takeover. 

But let’s focus on the madness of Archbishop Vigano and those American bishops who thought that he was/is a man of integrity. Yes, they are the really serious  problem for the Church today. NOT!!!

DO THE BACKWARD TRADITIONALISTS EVER HAVE TO BE REMINDED OF THIS?

 

CARDINAL MUELLER TEACHES THE CATHOLIC FAITH WHICH GIVES HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD AND HE ALSO CALLS OUT THE GERMAN GNOSTICS OF THE SYNODAL WAY IN A WAY THAT ONLY A FELLOW GERMAN CAN DO AND HE DOES IT BRILLIANTLY

 I lift this from a longer Lifesite article:

Müller was also asked why he thinks Germany is the center of this “Sonderweg” (special path) rather than Spain, France, or Italy.

“Unfortunately, there is still the Furor teutonicus, the indomitable tendency to always want to instruct and dominate the whole world,” he answered. “German Catholics still suffer from being second-class citizens (and scholars in theology and science) ever since the Kulturkampf [culture war] in the Bismarck Empire and the claims of superiority of the Prussian Protestant Leitkultur [dominant culture]. It is an irony of Church history that in the face of the challenge of an aggressive de-Christianization of the West, Catholics want to overcome their inferiority complex by referring to their common mediocrity.”

“What is your advice to the faithful Catholics in Germany who dislike the Synodal Way but no longer find the usual stability in Rome?” the interviewer asked Müller.

“A look at church history helps us to cope more easily with the ups and downs,” the German cardinal said. “After all, we Christians are not promised a success story like in a human enterprise, but the assistance of the Holy Spirit even in times of decline or even persecution. In the stock market, prices rise and fall. We live from the promise of Jesus that he will always be with us until the end of the world.”

“The rock on which Jesus builds his Church, even the gates of hell cannot overcome. But he who sits in the chair of Peter, like the namesake of this office, can personally fail. This is why Christ prays for Peter that his faith may not be extinguished (cf. Lk 22:32).”

EUCHARISTIC COHERENCE AND VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD

 These are all celebrations of the Modern Roman Missal. Which photo, more than likely, will not encourage a healthy sense of reverence and transcendence in the Real Presence of the Lord?  Which photo will not encourage priestly vocations?

 

I read a story about the vocation crisis in Ireland. To remedy it, the bishops are coming up with a gimmick, I mean, a program to encourage vocations to the priesthood.

As with all gimmicks, I mean, programs to address the loss of Catholic Faith and thus, vocations to the priesthood, these will fail. 

What our bishops together with the clergy and laity need to do is to study how the Catholic Faith is lived in local parishes and what is the state of the Liturgies in local parishes and how the priesthood is expressed in those very same parishes.  

Then, there needs to be a study of parishes which actually have vocations coming from their parish. Why is that? What are the qualities of the parish, its liturgies and how the priesthood is lived in those parishes.

Of course, the point of contact with their institutional  that about 99% of Catholic who still bother to attend Mass, have with their parish is at Sunday Mass.

So, let's ask some fundamental questions about what 99% of Catholics who bother attend Mass, whose only experience with their parish is Sunday Mass, experience at Mass.

1. Is there a sense of transcendence and the work of the Liturgy planned and executed with care, dignity, reverence and fear and wonder in the Real Presence of the Supreme Being, God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? 

2. Are the clergy and laity swept up into the timelessness and eternity, of the heavenly liturgy which the earthly liturgy is meant to symbolize and be a sign of, a Sacrament, although veiled of the beauty of heaven?

3. Are liturgical vestments and lay clothing the best possible, clean, beautiful and befitting the worship of the Supreme Being, Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Is there a proper understanding of the role of the laity and their lay clothing which they wear to Mass as being their "Sunday Best?"

4. Are all of  the formal ministries of the Mass, from altar servers to lectors, to cantors, etc carried out in a dignified and rehearsed way with a beautiful choreography and sound?

5. Is the moment of the reception of Holy Communion a sign and symbol of reverence in receiving the Real Presence of the Crucified and Risen Lord under the palatable glory of the Sacramental sign of Bread and Wine, either/or or both/and?

Augusta in my Diocese of Savannah has produced more priests for our diocese and religious orders than any other city in our diocese, to include the see City, Savannah itself! This was true prior to Vatican II but more so after Vatican II.

In the post-Vatican II period, beginning toward the mid 1990's, one community in Augusta in particular has produced an abundance of vocations--the Alleluia Community, an intentional charismatic community.

What do they do in that community, which every parish should try to do?

1. There is community and strong faith-filled friendships created and sustained, but within the context of encouraging faith, hope and love.

2. The members pray together apart from Mass at a weekly prayer meeting, of a charismatic nature, pray in their homes and provide Bible studies and support systems to live out their Christian walk. 

3. They have a strong, personal relationship with the Risen Lord whom they experience in community, in their personal prayer life, in their prayer meetings and in the parishes, especially at Mass and there is a deep and abiding belief in the real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament especially as it concerns adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. 

We don't need programs to encourage vocations to the priesthood or Eucharistic Coherence. We simply need to be what God calls us to be in our local parishes. We need to look at what worked in the past and will work today if properly recovered and lived!

LIKE THE CHURCH, THERE ARE MANY SHADES OF ROSE COLOR VESTMENTS!

 I am sure the first one is everyone’s favorite!

LAETARE SUNDAY AND MACON’S CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL AND PARADE…

 I don’t know if Macon’s Cherry Blossom Festival parade is today, Laetare Sunday, or not, but it regularly falls on Laetare Sunday. It is a two week festival and everyone wears pink. Pink is pretty. Does your priest wear pink in Lent?

VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD, MY MOST HUMBLE EVALUATION AS A FORMER VOCATION DIRECTOR…

Young boys and men are not attracted to this, although a woman might be:

With the recovery of the Traditional Latin Mass, I have seen many boys and young men willing to serve it and become interested in the priesthood. This attracts healthy young men to the seminary:

 Press title for news story:

Vatican data shows ‘uninterrupted decline’ in vocations since Francis became pope in 2013

My comments:

Under Pope Francis, we have seen a reversal in the number of young men interested in pursuing a vocation to the priesthood. 

Why is that? It is plain, simple and out in the open for everyone to see and know why. The liberal implementation of the spirit of Vatican II has been highly destructive of Church tradition, piety, liturgy, catechesis and a balanced view of the feminine and masculine aspects of the Church and her ministry. 

I know of no dioceses or religious orders that embraced the most liberal implementation of Vatican II which are prospering with eager applicants for a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, none whatsoever. And those who are applying for a liberal, heterodox view of Catholicism give me a moment of pause. 

What Pope Francis has recaptured by canceling the papacies of St. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI is the malaise of the late 1960’s and 70’s where the sexual revolution of that time (tame compared to today’s off-the-rails revolution) killed vocations, inspired immature priests and nuns to experiment with sex and then leave to get married or have partnerships with same sex people. All of this eroded any sense of vocations and that the Church had anything to teach the world as  Vatican II asked that we dialogue with the world and listen to contrary voices and apologize for the Catholic Church’s dogmatism and corruption that led to the Great Schism and Protestant Reformation.

Celibacy was thought to become optional, ordained priests could get married and women would soon be ordained. 

Anything that smacked of the pre-Vatican II Church’s emphasis on truth, piety and fixed beliefs had to be challenged and anyone interested in the priesthood or religious life nostalgic for the 1950’s version of Catholicism was to be weeded out as rigid and pre-Vatican II, the ultimate sins of the post-Vatican II Church.

Pope Francis has recovered much of this 1960’s and 70’s ugliness and a Church of the ugly as symbolized by the raping of traditional church buildings and making them look more Presbyterian than most Presbyterian Churches.

But the ugliness was truly the war against the pre-Vatican II Church and thinking its style of being Church was a 2,000 year disaster. 

Pope Francis, though, has recovered the feminine ethos of ministry but imposed on men. It is fine for women to be feminine but when men are feminine one sees that a man is going against his nature to be a man. 

And of course, women want to be men and a femininity that embraces masculinity, especially in a liturgical setting, such as the priestesshood, is astoundingly ugly and off-putting as is an effeminate man in the ordained priesthood, especially in a liturgical setting. 

This shows up in a touchy-feely form of ministry, where empathy is emotional and tear laden and liturgy makes a man into a woman in terms of ethos and gender bending ritual styles. 

What healthy boy and man wants to be feminine? 

That is why the older form of the liturgy and the Church as she was prior to Vatican II attracted so many men to the priesthood. Yes, some should have been screened out and the system of formation of strictness and discipline, if removed, showed that these men often had not internalized the discipline and were still children in an adult body and would do as they pleased when pre-Vatican II strictures were removed and a disciplined lifestyle built on asceticism was removed for a more personal self discovery which led into license to do what had been forbidden by discipline. 

That could have been addressed and should have been addressed but we need not make men into women. 

But what is clear, the post-Vatican II Church encouraged a freedom built upon internalized maturity but with no real consequences if a priest or nun completely failed in the public promises they made. 

That doesn’t encourage anyone to consider a vocation. 

WOW! THIS IS SCARY! IT’S A PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH NOT CATHOLIC AND IN A CITY NAMED SAINT AUGUSTINE, THE PROTESTANT PRONUNCIATION PLEASE…

 

Presbyterian Church in Saint Augustine, Florida.

Constructed in 1889 by Henry Flagler using the same revolutionary poured concrete method used in his Ponce De Leon and Alcazar Hotels Now Flagler

College and Lightner Museum respectively). Local coquina shells used as aggregate in the concrete gives these structures a unique look and color. Lightner named the church memorial in honor of his daughter Jennie Louise Benedict who died the year it was built. Lightner himself is interred there as well.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY FROM SAVANNAH, KIND OF!

 Savannah’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade begins first for the reason for the parade, celebrating the great evangelizing saint, Saint Patrick of Ireland. The Mass for the Feast of St. Patrick was televised on Savannah’s local CBS affiliate, WTOC from the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist. Then the Grand Marshall and his entourage have breakfast with Bishop Stephen Parkes in the Cathedral Rectory attached to the back of the Cathedral. The parade passes in front of the Cathedral. It is purported to be the second largest parade in the country after New York’s . There are over 500,000 people lining the street all the way to Savannah’s Riverfront. Bright and sunny and close to 80 today!

Photos of the Cathedral Basilica's Solemn Mass for the Feast of Saint Patrick of Ireland. These are taken from the comfort of my recliner watching TV in beautiful downtown by the sea, Hilton Head island! TJM will be happy to know that Fr. Michael Kavanaugh provided narration for the televised Mass. He spoke of the significance of the Mass, especially as Sacrifice, why we don't have open-communion and about transubstantiation. Not really a bombshell, though.

FREED FROM AMBITIONS TO GO HIGHER IN THE ROMAN CURIA, CARDINAL MUELLER IS FREE TO BE A PROPHET AND NAME THE MORTAL SINS, HERESIES AND APOSTASIES AFFLICTING THE CHURCH AND VATICAN

 We need more bishops and those who are cardinals to be prophetic like the prophets of old. As the prophets of the Old Testament knew, there will be a persecution of them by those who think they know better than God—that old Gnostic and Arian heresy.

Kudos and blessings to Cardinal Mueller:

THE CHURCH CONSTANTLY REFORMING—ISN’T THE TRUE MEANING OF THIS A CALL TO PERSONAL AND COMMUNAL PERFECTION? AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

 I have always believed and continue to believe that Vatican II’s call for the Church to be constantly reformed referred to souls baptized in Jesus Christ, gifted with the Holy Spirit, called to know, love and serve Jesus Christ in this life and to be happy forever with God and our Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints in heaven.

Thus, the meme of constant reform refers to the people of God, the mystical Body of Christ, and our call to holiness and moral perfection. 

This won’t happy fully in this life, it is already but not yet. But that is our high calling. It is an arduous calling entailing many sacrifices and an ascetic lifestyle of fasting, prayer and alms giving..

Yet, it appears that the most corrupt understanding of a Church in need of constant reform means redefining the institutional Church and changing her Faith and Moral content as well as the manner in which she worships and prays. It is all about structures and teachings and blessings. It is all about externals and discipline. 

And now, Pope Francis who seems hell bent on serving mammon by converting the Church to the LGBTQ+++ ideologies of the world, not of Christ, will allow Germany to “jump start” the pre-planned results of the Universal Synod on Synodality and its talk about walking together with the LGBTQI++++ ideologies. 

Astoundingly, the Church in Germany and one day universally will be blessing not just sinners, who need God’s graces and blessings to convert from sinful ways and be saved, but sin itself will be blessed to say it is no longer a sin and sinners need not convert but glory in the sins they love more than God.

Will God be mocked for long? I, the poor miserable, disordered sinner that I am, do not think so. The broad sweep of Church history seems to back up my opinion. 

WOW, POPE FRANCIS WEDNESDAY AUDIENCE TWO DAYS AFTER HIS HOLINESS’ TENTH ANNIVERSARY

 A picture is worth 1,000 words….

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE RIGID BACKWARDISM OF POPE FRANCIS AND SYNODALITY AS HE ORGANIZES IT…WOW

 

We would expect the National Catholic Reporter, a “c”atholic new source for aging baby-boomers who think the world has always revolved around its fads and shams, the “me generation” would publish a news article by a fairly young reporter who is clueless that he is playing into the backwardism and nostalgia we baby-boomers have for our radical, drug induced highs of the 1960’s. 

You can’t make this stuff up and the NCR doesn’t. It tells it like it is and I mean it is really groovy and day by day we will make a place for the I’m okay; you’re okay” church of kumbaya as we all hold hands and smoke the sacrament of LSD and weed:

Hope for change endures decades after Vatican II and Detroit's '69 synod

I HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THIS COMMENTARY ISN’T TRUE AND I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT THE NEXT CONCLAVE WILL ELECT A NEW POPE WHO WILL MAINTAIN CONTINUITY WITH THE CURRENT DYSFUNCTIONAL PAPACY

 TYPICAL SCENE IN VATICAN OFFICES TODAY:

A SOMBER ANNIVERSARY

March 15, 2023 / by George Weigel

The mood in and around Vatican City before, during, and after the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’s election was more somber than festive. Continue Reading »

A GOOD QUESTION: WHY HASN’T POPE FRANCIS REMOVED THE GERMAN SCHISMATIC BISHOPS FROM OFFICE—HE HAS DONE SO WITH OTHER BISHOPS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Only a fool would not recognize that the Church is on the brink of schism and it can go several ways and we can thank Pope Francis for not stopping it, unlike St. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had the courage and integrity to do so out of love for the true Catholic Church.

What Pope Francis could do is simply do what he did to the Puerto Rican bishop whom he removed and without due process. No one even talks about that anymore. 

Or the pope could remove the entire episcopate of the German Church, like he did in Chile. No one even talks about that anymore.

We are on the brink of a true schism unlike the SSPX which wasn’t a true schism. To think that they are in schism when Germany isn’t would be a joke that most sensible clergy and laity would recognize out of common sense. 

Will Pope Francis have the courage to remove the bishops of Germany? Pray that he will do something. Usually he has to be pushed into a corner to act. It took a catastrophe in Chile during Pope Francis’ pilgrimage there for him to finally act, but at least he did. 

EDWARD PENTIN ON THE 10 YEARS OF POPE FRANCIS WITH A FAIR AND BALANCED INTERVIEW WITH THREE THEOLOGIANS, ONE OF THEM QUITE PROGRSSIVE:

When I was in the seminary in the late 1970’s in a very progressive seminary, quite Pope Francis, at the time and ahead of its time in the backwardness of the 1970’s we experience in the present, we were immersed in speculative theology and the heritage of Protestant liberalism of the late 1800’s, especially that brand of theology that wanted to strip the post-resurrection narrative of the New Testament and the Gospels to get back to the real, historical Jesus independent of 20/20 hindsight that the Holy Spirit brought to the sacred authors of the Gospels. 

In other words, Jesus was a product of his time, probably quite unaware of His divinity and capable of growth in truth. If the historical Jesus returned to the present, he would embrace the culture, especially the ideology of inclusivity proclaimed by the secular world. This then opens the Church to radical change, because Jesus is just a dead hero and the starting point for the Church today, not the 2,000 years of Scripture and Tradition, the Deposit of Fait all built upon the illusion of a post-Resurrection Jesus which has nothing in common with His historicity. 

In additon to that, the emphasis isn’t on the other world and salvation, but rather Marxist utopian eschatology to bring about the perfect world here and now. Thus one did not need to believe in the resurrection, only the historical Jesus and what he accomplished in ushering in the Kingdom now, the Church true priority.

Thus read Edward Pentin’s interview with three theologians concerning the 10 decade, I mean, year papacy of Pope Francis HERE. 
Here’s a money byte:

Three esteemed commentators on Francis and the Church: Italian theologian Father Nicola Bux, a former consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Riccardo Cascioli, editor of the Italian Catholic daily La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana; and Francis biographer Massimo Borghesi, author of Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis. Here below are their responses.

 Pentin: Do you think these revelations were Providential, could they have been intentionally revealed?

FATHER BUX: Above everything there is a divine intention which causes that which is hidden to be manifested. Not praxis, but faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). If Pope Francis follows the “agenda” of Cardinal Martini, who stated that the Church had fallen behind by 200 years, it means he is not interested in the Church as the Mystical Body (this year marks the 80th anniversary of Pius XII’s famous encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi) that is, connected to its head, Jesus Christ. In fact, Francis never talks about the crisis of faith. He does not consider it worthy of attention. Thus his reform has feet of clay, that is, it is based on ideological and worldly assumptions such as those of equality and universal fraternity, slogans of the French Revolution — originally Christian, but detached from the root that is faith and therefore incapable of implementation and generating action. He believes that preaching fraternity will stop wars. As soon as he published Fratelli Tutti, the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out. Instead, the Pope must preach God and His Sonship, perfectly implemented in Jesus Christ. That is, one must proclaim the Son, so that men may be converted and become sons, in the Son, of the One Father. This is the condition of peace, for the peacemakers will be called sons of God, Jesus said. Then they will realize that they are brothers.

CASCIOLI: Frankly, it is difficult to know. What seems certain to me is that he clearly had in mind an agenda of his own with reforms, starting with the pontificate itself, which has become highly secularized in these 10 years. The determination and systematicity with which he destroyed the legacy of St. John Paul II and even Benedict XVI is revealing. On the other hand, when one starts processes — which is his stated will — they can easily get out of hand. Such is the case with the German Church, which has been offered an inch and is taking a mile. It seems to me that the German Synod’s charge forward risks ruining Francis’ plan to bring the German Church’s demands into the Synod on Synodality to act as a driving force for the whole Church.

BORGHESI: There is perfect continuity between Francis and Benedict XVI when it comes to the intention to bring clarity within the Church, bringing to light the grave sins that have been hidden over the past 50 years. The “filth within the Church,” which Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of before his election as Pope, is an intolerable stain. The fact that the misdeeds of priests and religious have been hidden for so long reveals a “clerical” conception of the Church, that of a closed world that considers itself perfect, immune from all sin.