The Pillar this morning provides a link to a scholarly paper by German dissidents who think that there is no problem with their schism as long as the rest of the Church goes along with them and their brilliant logic and way of seeing things. It reminds me of a sort of dictatorship from this group in Germany, who knows very well how one dictator there try to perfect what he thought was a broken world, but imposing his vision in an authoritarian and dictatorial way, utopian ideology gone insane.
I am coming to the conclusion that the Church, meaning the true Church of all the ecumenical councils and popes, not just those who think the Second Vatican Council and the current pope can trump all that came before, needs to allow those who want to go another way to let them go and sink or swim.
Tell them though, when they separate themselves from the Church Jesus founded, they risk their eternal salvation. If they want to take this risk, let them go! Press the word argue for their brilliant analysis:
Sigrid Grabmeier and Christian Weisner argue that “warnings that the German Synodal Way endangers the unity of the universal Church are … not very convincing.”
10 comments:
Agreed.
God's gift to us is free will, which is why Adam and Eve had a choice. It is why God tested Abraham and Job. It is why Christianity spread under the threat of execution during the Roman Empire, compared to Islam's maxim of "convert or die!"
The problem is that we don't have very many leaders willing to cut the tethers that keep heretics and apostates from enjoying the privilege of calling themselves Catholics. The only time in the last 70 years that the hammer has come down has been when Tradition is affirmed. Apostate Rome is only too happy to punish and sanction the more conservative or traditionally-minded sectors of our Church and to do so with merciless overkill. But the Rahners, Schillebeeckx's, Kungs, James Martins of our Church continue to enjoy veneration and, sometimes, celebrity status. Cardinal Daneels went to his grave enjoying high status while Cardinal Burke was stripped of his position in the Signatura and Cardinal Pell did hard time for false accusations.
The Ape of the Church DOES let go--it lets go of the REAL Catholics. Those Germans are the future. It's a short-term future doomed to fail, but, for a time, their influence will grow and their vision will hold sway.
They can go, along with the Pope who refuses to put a definitive STOP to this. I have said before that Francis "The Authoritarian", who has no trouble cracking down on what he cares about, has so far been loath to end this German nonsense in a clear, definitive way. In failing to do so, and with his record of cracking down on other issues he is passionate about bringing into "his line", I can only continue to surmise that in fact, Francis is on-board with the Germans and is letting them do the "dirty work" for him. I say go!
It is amazing that the Germans, of all people, do not learn from history.
The German Church is a joke. But for state subsidies, they would be out of business.
Gentlemen,
Be prepared for a list of non sequiturs from “you know who!”
Father McDonald, does the following apply to the question of urging dissidents to leave the Church?
Pope Benedict XVI declared that the SSPX was saddled with serious doctrinal issues, as well as "distorted and unhealthy elements."
However, Pope Benedict XVI was willing to tolerate the SSPX to prevent the Society from having drifted "farther from the Church."
"Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?"
Is the above applicable to the German dissidents? That does not mean accepting their errors. Just as Rome has tolerated the SSPX without having accepted the SSPX's serious errors.
Thank you, Father McDonald.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
This subject must not be in “you know who’s” wheelhouse!
Mark Thomas,
Did it ever, even ONCE, occur to you that as bishop, then a cardinal and, certainly as a pope, good Pope Ratzinger was a master of diplomacy?
When a leader has two factions and needs to satisfy both of them, when he gives in to one, he must also "throw a bone" to the other. OF COURSE, he would acknowledge some vague faults in the SSPX and label "distorted unhealthy elements" (and I've read the letter from which you've clipped this partial quote), while he is also careful not to give any specifics on these purported elements. He leaves the vague ideas or idealists for the others to contend with.
A man of Ratzinger's learning would certainly have a strong working knowledge of philosophy and theology. And a man of his responsibility would certainly have read and studied the techniques of Baltasar Gracian, Nicolo Machiavelli and even Sun Tzu.
There's a whole lot more to governing this monster of a Church than merely being "holy, holy, holy". Of course, holiness is a huge plus, but if that's all that were required, few of the cardinals would be candidates and most of our popes would have come from monasteries.
Jerome Merwick,
You are so kind, deigning to engage with the contumaciously uneducable
TJM,
CONTUMACIOUS? Are you mocking me--or just using words from the AP Language & Composition handbook (a class I teach)?
Or if you honestly DO think I'm kind, forget it. My reaction comes from my impatience.
Ahem! Yes, most contumacious and obdurate too!
Obdurate, a beautiful word!
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