HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AND THEOLOGY…

 

From the Catholic Guy:

The days of the dead center around All Saints' Day (also known as All Hallows') on November 1, when we celebrate all the Saints in Heaven. On the day after All Hallows', called "All Souls' Day," we remember the saved souls who are in Purgatory, being cleansed of the temporal effects of their sins before they can enter Heaven. The day that comes before All Hallows', though, is one on which we unofficially remember the damned and the reality of Hell. The schema, then, for the Days of the Dead looks like this: 

31 October:

Hallowe'en: unofficially, per folk custom, recalls the souls of the damned. Practices center around recognizing and remembering the reality of Hell and how to avoid it.

1 November:

All Saints': set aside to officially honor the Church Triumphant (the souls in Heaven). Practices center around recalling our great Saints, including those whose names are unknown to us and, so, are not canonized

2 November:

All Souls': set aside officially to pray for the Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory). Practices center around praying for the souls in Purgatory, especially our loved ones

The earliest form of All Saints' (or "All Hallows'") was first celebrated in the 300s, but originally took place on 13 May, as it still does in some Eastern Churches. The Feast first commemorated only the martyrs, but came to include all of the Saints by 741. It was transferred to 1 November in 844 when Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to All Saints (so much for the theory that the day was fixed on 1 November because Irish pagans had harvest festivals at that time). 

All Souls' has its origins in A.D. 1048 when the Bishop of Cluny decreed that the Benedictines of Cluny pray for the souls in Purgatory on this day. The practice spread until Pope Sylvester II recommended it for the entire Latin Church. 

The Vigil of -- i.e., the evening before -- All Hallows' ("Hallows' Eve," or "Hallowe'en") came, in Irish popular piety, to be a day of remembering the dead who are neither in Purgatory or Heaven, but are damned, and these customs spread to many parts of the world. Thus we have the popular focus of Hallowe'en as the reality of Hell, and hence its scary character and focus on evil and how to avoid it, the sad fate of unsaved souls, etc. 

One hears too often from the secular world that "Hallowe'en is a pagan holiday" -- an impossibility because "Hallowe'en," as said, means "All Hallows' Evening" which is as Catholic as it gets. Some say that the holiday actually stems from Samhain, a pagan Celtic celebration, or is Satanic, but this isn't true, either, any more than Christmas "stems from" the Druids' Yule, though popular customs that predated the Church -- such as the use of holly to decorate -- may be involved in our celebrations (it is rather amusing that October 31 is also "Reformation Day" in Protestant circles -- the day to recall Luther's having nailed his 95 Theses to Wittenberg's cathedral door -- but Protestants who reject Hallowe'en because pagans do things on October 31 don't object to commemorating that event on this day).

THE WAINING DAYS OF A PROGRESSIVE PAPACY WHERE NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN IT…

 The deceptive cover (a photo from another time and era) for the Vatican News video of Pope Francis’ opening Mass for the Synod on Synodality to hide the incredible reality of an empty square:

This is the screen shot I took of the live feed of the Papal Mass for the opening of the Synod on Synodality and this was taken just as the opening procession of the Mass was taking place, a triumphant procession similar to what occurred at the opening Mass of Vatican II:

The progressive agenda of the post Vatican II Church, in discontinuity with Jesus Christ, has led to the dying and death of many religious orders. Once strong Catholic European countries too, like Holland, France, Germany are in death’s grip. It is now occurring to this papacy and the entire Church. Of course the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, thus we should see this as the dying breath of progressivism that is like a reed swaying in the wind, rather than buildt upon the rock, the rigidity of the Faith of St. Peter the Apostle. Christ is the Rebuker of Peter when Peter gets it wrong, but the rebuke leads to rehabilitation. That will take place in a new papacy.

This is from Rorate Caeli. The author is not enamored with this pope, but he gets this story right:

"The Death of a Pontificate" - by Aldo Maria Valli

Empty square and exhausted rituals: The Death of a pontificate

Aldo Maria Valli

October 26, 2023

The image speaks for itself. A Wednesday general audience. An empty square. Only a few dozen people. All right, it's raining. But once upon a time, when it rained, the square became a sea of umbrellas.

The image is bleak, and the Vatican media, starting with the TV center, no longer know how to hide the fact: no one goes to listen to Francis. They try to make up for it with close-ups, indeed very closed-up images, somewhat like the Polish TV did with John Paul II on his visit to his homeland. But if, in the case of Polish television, the problem was hiding the crowds flocking to Wojtyła, in the Vatican the problem is the opposite: hiding the embarrassing gaps.

This pontificate is dying like this, of starvation. Begun with so much hope, it is running out of steam in a general lack of interest. These are things that happen when the Church follows the world. Because the world is always one step ahead, and the Church simply becomes pathetic when it pretends to go in tow.

In the meantime, it's raining inside the Vatican basilica. Infiltrations just about everywhere, even in the archives. Of course, managing such a large asset is not easy, but for a long time the maintenance has been -- literally -- leaking. Witnesses say cleaning also leaves something to be desired. In the absence of papal celebrations, St. Peter's increasingly resembles a museum in a growing state of neglect. And things are no better at Castel Gandolfo, where the popes' palace, no longer used as a residence, has become for all intents and purposes a museum and is beginning to suffer from all the problems typical of such places (including a recent fire).

In the meantime, the synod participants, gathered around their tables, talk, talk, and talk. A kind of grand dance of words on the deck of the sinking Titanic. Nothing wrong with talking, mind you. The problem is that the participants seem to be moving on another planet than that of actual reality. The Church agonizes, the faithful flee, vocations disappear, but the Synodists live in a world of their own. Like all apparatchiks, party officials, they belong to a closed caste whose only purpose is the perpetuation of itself.

In the meantime, another book is coming  out with yet another interview with the pope. In the meantime, we are told that the synod prayed for migrants and refugees. In the meantime, they take care to let us know that, "some poor people at Santa Marta had lunch with the pope." Churches always need rituals and these are the exhausted rituals of the dying "Church of Francis."

WHY THE PROGRESSIVE AGENDA, READ HETERODOX, FOR THE CHURCH AND THE SYNODS ARE AND WILL BE A MISERABLE FAILURE

 Sean Michael Winters of the National Catholic Reporter has a commentary on the synod and how praiseworthy it is and why we should worship the progressive’s vision for it. 

In his whole commentary, there is no mention of God, obedience to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no mention of the salvation of souls and evangelizing the world to save souls, here and in the afterlife. 

There is no mention of worship of God.

What is to be worshiped in the synods? Synodality and Vatican II’s ecclesiology. Yes, you read that correctly. 

What is at the center of Winter’s commentary, which is the winter of the Church since Vatican II, isn’t really ecclesiology, but sociology and using the synod and Vatican II for a heterodox agenda, alien to God and the Holy Spirit. 

The only way to believe that anything the Chruch does is of the Holy Spirit is when the Church is faithful to Scripture, Tradition and the perennial magisterium of the Church. If that is lacking, if it is heterodox, it ain’t of the Holy Spirit! Sociology is not be be used to manipulate the Holy Spirit. That is an idol.

Pope Francis at his concluding homily for the synod spoke of idols. He also spoke of adoration of God and returning to adoration of God, not idols. Winters’ commentary fits the meme of the progressives, worship idols and forgot about God and His salvation! 

Read Winter’s commentary and you will see why the progressive agenda is doomed, not by us, but by the Holy Spirit!

Synod is a milestone in the reception of Vatican II

THE POPE’S CLOSING SYNDOD ON SYNDOALITY HOMILY, WHERE HE IS EXHAUSTED, FOR THE CLOSING OF THE SYNOD ON SYNODALITY, THAT ACCOMPLISHED A LOT, I MEAN A LOT, FOR THE PARTICIPANTS, AS EXPENSIVE AS IT WAS, THAT IS ITS LACK LUSTER AND DULL “SUCESS”…

While the pope preaches a message about putting God first, adoring Jesus and serving Him, although there is a bit of resignation about the expensive, dull, self-absorbed, self-referential, synod on synodality that taught nothing, except the participants held hands, sang kumbaya and enjoyed fraternity, the crucifix on the altar for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is shunted to the side as it was in the 1970’s, to which we have returned in the worst kind of backwardness:

(MY COMMENTS EMBEDDED IN TEXT IN RED)

CONCLUSION OF THE ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

St Peter's Basilica
XXX Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sunday, 29 October 2023

[Multimedia]

____________________________

 

A doctor of the Law comes to Jesus under a pretext, in order to test him. The question he asks, however, is an important and enduring one that, at times, arises in our own hearts and in the life of the Church: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22:36). We too, immersed in the living stream of Tradition, can ask: “What is the most important thing? What is the driving force?” What matters so much as to be the guiding principle of everything? Jesus’ answer is clear: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39).

Brother Cardinals, Bishops and priests, men and women Religious, dear brothers and sisters, at the conclusion of this stage of our journey, it is important to look at the “principle and foundation” from which everything begins ever anew: by loving. Loving God with our whole life and loving our neighbour as ourselves. Not our strategies, our human calculations, the ways of the world, but love of God and neighbour: that is the heart of everything. And how do we channel this momentum of love? I would propose two verbs, two movements of the heart, on which I would like to reflect: to adore and to serve. We love God through adoration and service. (Excellent beginning! Is His Holiness critiquing the chatting of the synod though. It seems so to me. As we know, the pope is always depressed after synods for what they do or fail to do.)

The first verb, adore. To love is to adore. Adoration is the first response we can offer to God’s gratuitous and astonishing love. The amazement of adoration, the wonder of worship, is something essential in the life of the Church, especially in our own day in which we have abandoned the practice of adoration. To adore God means to acknowledge in faith that he alone is Lord and that our individual lives, the Church’s pilgrim way and the ultimate outcome of history all depend on the tenderness of his love. He gives meaning to our lives. (Nothing wrong here, in fact, quite praise worthy.)

In worshiping God, we rediscover that we are free. That is why the Scriptures frequently associate love of the Lord with the fight against every form of idolatry. Those who worship God reject idols because whereas God liberates, idols enslave. Idols deceive us and never bring to pass what they promise, because they are “the work of men’s hands” (Ps 115:4). Scripture is unbending with regard to idolatry, because idols are made and manipulated by men, while God, the Living God, is present and transcendent; he is the one “who is not what I imagine him to be, who does not depend on what I expect from him and who can thus upset my expectations, precisely because he is alive. The proof that we do not always have the right idea about God is that at times we are disappointed: We think: ‘I expected one thing, I imagined that God would behave like this, and instead I was wrong’. But in this way, we turn back to the path of idolatry, wanting the Lord to act according to the image we have of him” (C.M. Martini, I grandi della Bibbia. Esercizi spirituali con l’Antico Testamento, Florence, 2022, 826-827). We are always at risk of thinking that we can “control God”, that we can confine his love to our own agenda. Instead, the way he acts is always unpredictable, it transcends our thinking, and God’s way of acting consequently demands amazement and adoration. Amazement is very important! (Here I think the pope knows that the synod on synodality has not met with his, especially his, expectations and the expectations of others, completely overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit inserting the Rupnick scandal into it, and that worshipping idols like pachamama as symbolized by using God and idols to get what I want, and certainly, I would suggest, that to say that the Holy Spirit is at work in this, that and the other is a manipulation of not only God, a form of idolatry, but also of God’s holy people!)

We must constantly struggle against all types of idolatry; not only the worldly kinds, which often stem from vainglory, such as lust for success, self-centredness, greed for money – let us not forget that the devil enters “through the pockets”, the enticements of careerism; but also those forms of idolatry disguised as spirituality – my own spirituality: my own religious ideas, my own pastoral skills... Let us be vigilant, lest we find that we are putting ourselves at the centre rather than him. And let us return to worship. May worship be central for those of us who are pastors: let us devote time every day to intimacy with Jesus the Good Shepherd, adoring him in the tabernacle. May the Church adore: in every diocese, in every parish, in every community, let us adore the Lord! Only in this way will we turn to Jesus and not to ourselves. For only through silent adoration will the Word of God live in our words; only in his presence will we be purified, transformed and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus! (The pope does not disappoint in his negativity, does he! He is always negative, criticizing and turning people off through his constant critique. But he does offer a nugget or two about adoration, turning to the Lord, even as his MC places the Crucifix to the side of the altar!)

The second verb is to serve. To love is to serve. In the great commandment, Christ binds God and neighbour together so that they will never be disconnected. There can be no true religious experience that is deaf to the cry of the world. There is no love of God without care and concern for our neighbour; otherwise, we risk becoming pharisaic. We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform. To be a worshiping Church and a Church of service, washing the feet of wounded humanity, accompanying those who are frail, weak and cast aside, going out lovingly to encounter the poor. We heard in the first reading how God commanded this.

Brothers and sisters, I think of the victims of the atrocities of war; the sufferings of migrants, the hidden pain of those who are living alone and in poverty; those who are crushed by the burdens of life; those who have no more tears to shed, those who have no voice. And I think too of how often, behind fine words and attractive promises, people are exploited or nothing is done to prevent that from happening (here the pope has to be speaking about himself and his enablement of sex abusers, like Barros, Zanchetta and Rupnick, Rupnick in particular!) It is a grave sin to exploit the vulnerable, a grave sin that corrodes fraternity and devastates society. As disciples of Jesus, we desire to bring to the world a different type of leaven, that of the Gospel. To put God in first place and, together with him, those whom he especially loves: the poor and the weak.

This, brothers and sisters, is the Church we are called to “dream”: a Church that is the servant of all, the servant of the least of our brothers and sisters. A Church that never demands an attestation of “good behaviour,” but welcomes, serves, loves and forgives. A Church with open doors that is a haven of mercy. “The merciful man”, said John Chrysostom, “is as a harbour to those who are in need; and the harbour receives all who are escaping shipwreck, and frees them from danger, whether they be evil or good; whatsoever kind of men they be that are in peril, it receives them into its shelter. You also, when you see a man suffering shipwreck on land through poverty, do not sit in judgment on him, nor require explanations, but relieve his distress.” (In pauperem Lazarum, II, 5). (Where do I begin with this paragraph and its main inconsistency. The pope has already called Catholics to attest to “good behavior” by not closing themselves to the needs of the poor, abused and marginalized, to be welcoming but then he says don’t demand attestations of good behavior! You can’t make this stuff up! Of course, good behavior must be requested, preached and demanded, because that is what Jesus does—he calls us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect!)

Brothers and sisters, the General Assembly of the Synod has now concluded. In this “conversation of the Spirit,” we have experienced the loving presence of the Lord and discovered the beauty of fraternity. We have listened to one another and above all, in the rich variety of our backgrounds and concerns, we have listened to the Holy Spirit. Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with farsightedness we look to the horizon opening up before us. The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and missionary Church, a Church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel. (Here we go, the Holy Father speaks as though the entire people of God have experienced the loving presence of the Lord in his synod. But they haven’t. Not even the participants, tired by the incessant talking and manipulation feel this way, although they put a kindergarten teacher’s happy face sticker on it or at least the pope is! Make no mistake, this synod is a closed circle of self-referential and self-absorbed incessant talking and and listening as though talking and listening are an idol in itself! The synod is an idol too for this pope. He warns us not to worship the past or doctrine, but he makes idols out of Vatican II and synodality!)

Brothers and sisters, I thank you for all that you have done during the Synod and for all you continue to do. Thank you for the journey we have made together, for your listening and your dialogue. In expressing my gratitude, I would also like to offer a prayer for all of us: may we grow in our worship of God and in our service to our neighbour. To adore and to serve. May the Lord accompany us. Let us go forward with joy!

JOHN ALLEN, MARKO RUPNICK AND POPE FRANCIS, AND YES, THE EXPENSIVE, DULL AND NEEDLESS SYNOD ON SYNODALITY

The synod is described as a dull and tiresome experiment in promoting Church self-absorption and self-referentiality while trying to reinvent the wheel by erasing the essentials of what is needed for the wheel. And on top of that, Pope Francis’ desire for a poor Church for the poor saw a very, very, very expensive synod that was dull and accomplished very little that caused even more disinterest in it. It is kind of like those scandalous young priests going into expensive Roman shops to buy lace and frilly vestments!

John Allen has an interesting commentary in Crux following the Synod on Synodality. You can read the whole thing here, a bit convoluted, with a needed reading between the lines. 

This paragraph stood out:

The synod’s final act (came) today with the closing Mass, which means reporters and pundits have been preparing their wrap-up pieces all week – and, frankly, prior to Friday (with the pope being pressured to finally do something about Rupnick) the odds were good that the word “flop” would have figured prominently in many. Despite panegyrics from hand-picked participants during Vatican briefings about an internal climate of listening and communion, no one seemed capable of pointing to anything concrete that might have justified the time and expense.

The final report released Saturday night, technically styled a “synthesis,” mostly soft-pedaled difficult questions by calling for further discussion and study. One media outlet captured the bland result by referring to this as a “decaffeinated” synod.

Allen says that the Rupnick explosion on Wednesday showed again how slow Pope Francis acts when his friends are in trouble in terms of sexual abuse and that he defends them until he is pressured from outside forces to act. And thus on Friday, saying he (the pope) listened to the synod, removed the statutes of limitation on Rupnick so his case can be canonically litigated. 

This is what Allen wrote:

In light of the move on Rupnik, however, there’s at least one outcome to which anyone seeking to defend the synod can point, beginning with Francis himself: “The Pope is firmly convinced that if there is one thing the Church must learn from the Synod, it is to listen attentively and compassionately to those who are suffering, especially those who feel marginalized from the Church,” a Vatican statement said.

Granted, critics will say this decision should have come much earlier, and that if the pope is genuinely interested in listening, he already should have met Rupnik’s accusers and not just one of his principal apologists. If he really needed a month-long summit to reach those conclusions, cynics might say, things are even worse than we suspected.

Nonetheless, for those inclined to find a silver lining in the synodal experience, the belated concession on Rupnik is at least something.

Second, the move on Rupnik boosts the credibility of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which had pressed Francis to act, but also creates a new set of expectations.

Allen then points out the reason why so many are cynical about the synod on synodality and the pope himself:

The Rupnik affair now seems reminiscent of what happened in 2018, when Francis initially rejected criticism of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros over his role in a high-profile clerical abuse scandal in Chile, then pivoted after a contentious trip to the country and dispatched investigators, culminating not only in the resignation of Barros but an offer en masse by all the country’s bishops to step down.

Once again, Francis appears to have changed course after experiencing backlash. Now, however, explanations offered back then that the pontiff is on a learning curve likely will ring hollow, because he’s already played that card.

People are going to want an explanation of his conduct, including Francis’s still-mysterious role in the lifting of Rupnik’s 2020 excommunication, and the other vicissitudes in the story. The pope has said he wants to listen to the suffering, but what survivors are demanding isn’t simply a canonical process, however grateful they may be for that development.

To quote the movie “Tombstone,” make no mistake: What survivors are after isn’t revenge, it’s a reckoning. Francis will face growing pressure to deliver, and probably not just on Rupnik but on other problematic aspects of his record, such as the still-enigmatic case of Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta and matters beyond.

In a nutshell, that’s the problem with an October surprise. It changes everything, and even the guy who pulled the rabbit out of the hat can’t always control where it ends up.

In Sunday’s homily for the closing of the synod, wisely held in St. Peter’s, due to the lack of people coming to papal Masses these days, the pope pointed out his own Achilles Tendon:

Pope Francis voiced his dream for a Church that is a servant of all, one that “never demands an attestation of ‘good behavior,’ but welcomes, serves and loves. A Church with open doors that is a haven of mercy.”  

So often with Pope Francis, he speaks in terms of either/or rather than both/and as he does in the quote above. 

Of course he is wrong here through omission. Of course the Church should be the servant of all, but he is wrong in saying that being welcoming, serving and loving and Churh with open doors and a haven of mercy, that we never demand good behavior, ortho-praxis. That is simply ridiculous. 

Could you imagine a hospital that treats obesity telling people, we’ll treat you because we love love, but enjoy your food addiction, eat, drink and be merry and when you have a heart attack we will offer you CPR in a loving, soft and compassionate way.

Or the addiction clinic which says, we love you and we will help you when you are at the brink of death, but if your drug or alcohol addiction helps you otherwise, don’t worry about it, don’t change, just let us love you and help us show you compassion. 

That’s called enablement and it is not moral to do it. The same for the Church of welcome and mercy, if she doesn’t call for repentance and a change of life conformed to Christ’s, that is immoral enablement and the Church should be sued by God for malpractice!

FIRECRACKER: WOMEN AND HOMOSEXUALS WILL BE DISAPPOINTED…FOR NOW…

IS THIS HUMANAE VITAE ALL OVER AGAIN AND POPE FRANCIS' 1968?

 For now not as bad as it could be and the document ditches the terms “gat” and “LGBTQ++++” terms:

Pope's major Vatican summit ends without action on women deacons, mention of LGBTQ Catholics

And Vatican News summary HERE!

And crux here

THE GOD OF SURPRISES AT THE SYNOD ON SYNODALITY BUT NOT IN THE WAY THE SYNOD ORGANIZERS TO INCLUDE THE POPE HAD INTENDED IT!

I, as a Catholic, with all Catholics, by the way, believe in the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. We also believe in the two other Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son. 

Thus, we know that the Holy Spirit can produce surprises when He corrects the Church on her walk toward eternity in heaven. 

Most of us hoped the pope, through the synod proceedings would draw the Church closer to the perfection of heaven to which we all should aspire by correcting heterodox beliefs of some Catholics as well as heteropraxis (wrong living) of some Catholics. 

Who would have thought that the disgraced and perverted (disordered) heterosexual priest, Fr. Marko Rupnick would be the source of the Holy Spirit’s mess making to correct wrong doing and disordered affections and lifestyles! Stunning to say the least.

Why does this pope have such an aversion to calling human behavior of whatever kind, be it heterosexual, homosexual or whatever, disordered? All of us are disordered because of original and actual sins. Naming the disorder, calling it for what it is, is the way the Holy Spirit’s grace softens us to receive that Grace for our forgiveness first and ultimately our healing, but only completely in heaven through a life of repentance and penance while we are on earth. And the earth, by the way, is also disordered and finite just as we are. I hope the pope knows that. 

And all of this Holy Spirit shaming and judging of the Holy See happening the last week of the Synod on Synodality with the world’s press focused on its proceedings and the Holy Spirit revealing the corruption of the Holy See and its highest leadership in enabling the sex abuse scandal. Heads will roll and the Holy Spirit will see to it.

This is Father Raymond de Souza’s great commentary which puts many things into perspective:

Aftershocks of the Latest Father Rupnik Earthquake

COMMENTARY: The whole stomach-churning affair has constituted another major stain on Pope Francis’ record on sex abuse cases.

This is de Souza’s quite telling money byte:

…the speedy response in Rome, after dragging out the case and declining to act for years. Within 36 hours of the news breaking about the decision in Koper, the Holy See announced that Pope Francis was going to act against Father Rupnik. The urgency of the scandal was compounded by the ambiance of the Synod on Synodality; hundreds of cardinals and bishops were present, each of whom knew that they would be liable to lose their office over a debacle as grave as that of the Father Rupnik case. 

It is likely that someone will have to go, and the Slovenian nuncio is a likely candidate. He will be faulted for giving the go ahead to Koper, even if he was accurately reflecting desires at the highest levels in Rome.

NOW THAT THE SYNOD ON SYNODALSEXUALS IS OVER, THE GLOVES WILL COME OFF AND ALREADY HAVE!

 I wonder who is the most chatty, the emeritus or the current Prefect for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith?

Cardinal Mueller has more to say about the Synod on Synodalsexuals in an interview with Edward Pentin:

Cardinal Müller Says Synod on Synodality Is Being Used by Some to Prepare the Church to Accept False Teaching

I WISH CARDINAL MUELLER WOULD POINT OUT THE WRITTEN DICTRINE ABOUT A POPE TESCHING HERESEY

 

One of the best things I have ever heard a pope teach came from St. John Paul II. He placed a limit on the pope’s supreme authority.

Thankfully, he said that he had no authority to change Catholics teaching in the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church! That was GREAT!

Cardinal Müller: Pope would ‘automatically’ lose his office by teaching heresy

---

‘The pope is the perennial principle and foundation of the unity of the Church,’ Cardinal Müller writes in a new essay for First Things. ‘But the Church is not centralized in him, as if he were the supreme leader of a totalitarian party.’

JOHN BARROS REDUX: POPE FRANCIS, BECAUSE OF PRESSURE PLACED UPON HIM, HAS CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT RUPNICK!

There has been general outrage at the tone deafness of Pope Francis as it concerns clergy sex abuse by his friends. First there was John Barros, whom he had named a bishop in Chile, which then provoked outrage, protests and a loss of faith there, but the pope arrogantly defended him and I mean arrogantly. Then the pope went to Chile, no one came to see him and riots broke out with churches being burned. 

The pope changed his mind, especially after Cardinal O’Malley complained that the Vatican couldn’t get it right with a sexual abuse policy. 

Then there was the first bishop that Pope Francis elevated when he became pope, a good friend from Argentina, Bishop Zanchetta a serial sex abuser of young men in the seminary. The pope took Zanchetta under his wing, promoted him to a manufactured job in the Vatican. Then he was arrested and placed in prison in Argentina. I don’t think the pope has acted to laicize his friend, but I could be wrong.

And now there is Rupnick. Pope Francis has defended him, protected him and allowed him to be rehabilitated and allowed to be incardinated in a diocese in Slovenia. 

Even before yesterday, even the pope’s commission on sex abuse were outraged and even a highly place Jesuit, a sex abuse expert, quit the board over the pope’s arrogance. 

Today, in reaction to all the bad press and the fact that the pope in a speech yesterday to the synod complained about the scandal of young priests shopping for liturgical niceties but nothing about the scandals the pope has caused with his lack luster sex abuse policies, he relented and reversed course.

All of this 1970’s thinking and arrogance is what caused the sex abuse scandal in the USA, coddling abusers and neglecting the abused and enabling future abuse. Pope Francis is the poster boy for the root cause of what the Church has experienced since about 2001 in terms of horrible revelations. 

Pope lifts staute of limitations to allow Rupnik prosecution
By Crux Staff
Oct 27, 2023
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Author

IT’S NOT JUST USA BLOGS AND PUBLICATIONS DERIDING THE CURRENT MAGISTERIUM AS A CARICATURE OF THE 1960’S AND ‘70’S BUT A BLOG IN THE HEART OF ROME

SYNOD: POPE FRANCIS AND SOUNDING LIKE A BROKEN RECORD ON PRIESTS AND MONEY

 Silere non possum is an Italian blog. And like the reporter Sandro Magister, also Roman, it calls a spade a spade as it concerns the catastrophe of the current pontificate, as the now deceased Australian Cardinal, George Pell declared. 

Here is a Google Translation (with some rough spots) of the Italian post from today, October 26:

“A nice silence was never written,” someone would have said. In the final phase of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod, Pope Francis does not miss an opportunity to speak and return to some of his favorite mantras: protection money and money. Yes, the Pontiff is the standard-bearer of the ecclesiastical boomers who lash out against the new generations and claims the word despite history having shown how "this school" has shamefully failed.

In the eighteenth general congregation Bergoglio takes the floor and speaks, in Spanish, in order to attack, without any hesitation, those who he considers clerical. In the Vatican City State a synod is being celebrated in which we talk about everything except Jesus Christ and the bishop of Rome chooses to throw into the cauldron a few statements which are taken up by the press with the same emphasis that journalists lose when the Pope talks about euthanasia and abortion.

Disconnected from reality

“It is painful – states the Pope in front of the participants of the synod – to find in some parish offices the “price list” of sacramental services in the manner of a supermarket. Either the Church is the faithful people of God on the move, saint and sinner, or it ends up being a company providing various services. And when pastoral workers take this second path, the Church becomes the supermarket of salvation and the priests simple employees of a multinational. This is the great defeat to which clericalism leads us. And this is very sad and scandalous (just go to the ecclesiastical tailoring shops of Rome to see the scandal of young priests trying on cassocks and hats or lace books and dresses)".

The Pope's words are, once again, completely disconnected from reality and serve him to demonize everyone and make himself beautiful in the eyes of those journalistic entities who then love to relaunch him with emphasis. He had already addressed the same words to the Sicilian priests. It would be useful if Bergoglio named the parishes that have a price list in the sacristy. Statements of this type only serve to target parishes, all and indiscriminately, and to put them in a bad light. Anyone who does not experience these realities, listening to the Pope's words, will be led to demonize them and make "all the same things". The saddest thing is that there is no trace of these episodes. As is known, in fact, the sacraments are offered by the various parishes completely free of charge and the offerings are regulated by the individual Episcopal Conferences in order to support the costs of the individual parish.

What the Pope does not do, because he has evidently never lived in a parish, is tell people how many expenses a parish has. The Church does not live on air and individual parishes do not enjoy the various Bill Clintons, Bill Gates and George Soros who bring briefcases full of cash to Santa Marta. At the end of the month, therefore, the parish priests also receive the letter with the electricity, water and gas bills. Added to these are countless expenses that serve to keep the buildings alive but also the services that the faithful (the Holy People of God, as some like to call them) enjoy and make use of.

1968 carelessness

It is incredible that a Pope who speaks of "shepherds with the smell of sheep" does not realize that today, especially in the suburban parishes that he talked about so much, there are thousands of families who come to bring their children to "do communion” or to “confirm” and dictate their conditions. “You have to have a florist, the best in Rome. You need to have a photographer, especially in the neighborhood. Aren't you going to the restaurant? That's better too." Families with 3 or 4 children who have all, rightly, designer clothing and an iPhone always in hand.

When the parish priest points out that it is right that these contribute to the good running of the parish, people now parrot the Pope's words. So, Your Holiness, what do we want to do? Do we send all the bills to 00120 Vatican City? Do we also send the Iban like Michele Di Tolve? Are we talking to his cousin? It is emblematic that the Pope speaks about these things during a synod in which he says that the laity must collaborate and be taken into greater consideration. As if we weren't already at the mercy of the sudden changes in mood of the various hags who inhabit our sacristies.

This sloppiness has created countless problems in the last ten years. In the Vatican the results are evident and the figures of Peter's Pence speak clearly. After all, how can you blame people? A simple believer may ask himself: "But if the Pope also speaks badly of priests, what are we helping to do?". In fact, if someone did not dip into the coffers of the various powerful people who pay to see two idiotic things written about the environment, they would be less bold in front of the media because the money would run out and the lavish lunches in Santa Marta would not be possible.

The reality is that most priests live on a measly salary that would not even allow them to make ends meet if it weren't for the rectory. The reality is that numerous parish priests and assistant parish priests spend their days among people and do not worry about how many offerings are made because they trust in divine providence. They are men who have given their lives to the service of Christ and the Church and are aware that "the Holy People of God" recognizes this generosity and also makes themselves present with economic support in addition to active collaboration.

The reality is that many priests work hard every day to obtain contributions that serve to pay for a series of tasks that serve to offer a family environment to people. Let's think about the reality of the oratory. The expenses are many and there are no tax breaks whatsoever as some newsagent claims. Yet these realities are also fundamental for the family who is happy to bring their children to grow up in healthy environments that can pass on the faith to them. Yes, some parishes work so well that they may seem like companies but the term "company" is not something horrible, on the contrary. These are realities that allow the growth of young people, the sharing of faith and also, why not, offer work to people in difficulty. If "the company" moves with the premise of offering a testimony of faith, it is a good "company".

It is clear that Francis has never experienced these realities because he has always been busy being photographed on buses in Buenos Aires rather than visiting his parish priests and asking them if they needed anything.

The fetish for lace

After ten years the clergy are tired of always hearing the same old things. Silere non possum has repeatedly highlighted how this term "clericalism" is an easy way to silence everyone. No one has given an objective explanation for it and we find ourselves using it as an accusation, as a label, to be attached to anyone who "is in our soul".

Today Francis says: “This is the great defeat to which clericalism leads us. And this is very sad and scandalous (just go to the ecclesiastical tailoring shops of Rome to see the scandal of young priests trying on cassocks and hats or lace robes and robes)”. Therefore, if a parish offers services it is the result of clericalism. Most of these entities such as oratories are completely in the hands of lay people, but it is still clericalism. Then, if a priest goes to a tailor's shop to have a suit made, is it clericalism? Your Holiness, everyone who has a tailor who goes to Santa Marta can't be like you. Priests are humble people who have to go to tailors to cut costs.

Then it is clear that it is a choice of style. There are those who are decorous and have their measurements taken and there are those who are sloppy and prefer their black trousers to be seen under their white cassock which is 5 cm shorter. We wouldn't call it clericalism but decorum. It's not that poverty and simplicity can be translated as sloppiness and unkemptness.

Here, however, some fetishes of the Pope re-emerge as he loves to focus on these things. After all, it is the Sixty-eight mold, a real soul that emerges when these people speak off the cuff and spit out all their hatred. The problem of the Church, according to them, would be the fact that a cleric wears a spool with lace. They are the ones who look at whether that spool is 10 or 20 cm. They are the ones who focus on these things, not the young priests. People don't even care. On the contrary! People are used to praising decorum and beauty. And it is simple to understand that if a priest puts a lace he does not do it for himself but he does it for the celebration, for the Lord that he is representing and serving.

These sixty-eighters, here there is also the aggravating circumstance of being a Jesuit let alone, spend their day discussing these things. This is a real generational struggle within the clergy. By now, most young priests are very clear that the problems of life are very different. Soon, thanks to this pontificate, we will have to think about how to make it to the end of the month. These '68 priests, however, were used to having food ready every day, clearly served by the housekeeper, and therefore they always had a lot of time to chat about these things. Consider that in some seminars the entire training course is based on these criteria. We focus on whether the cleric has his hands clasped or not, whether he reads Philothea or not, whether he has lace at the altar or not. Entire training programs based on the ideologies of the various rectors on duty. This is the drama that is being experienced and that someone has chosen to divinely represent.

While the people of God, but not only, are losing their faith and the Church and the Pope are no longer certain points of reference, Francis chooses to dedicate a speech in which he brings forward all his worries within a Synod that nothing deals with these topics. What can we say, are we surprised that Rupnik and Zanchetta are covered up? Well, they don't wear lace. Rupnik doesn't even have a price list for the sacraments, he doesn't administer them either. For mosaics, however, millions circulate.

THERE MUST BE A PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS FOR SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO CREATE TENSION AND POLARIZATION AND MAKE CATHOLICS ANGRIER THAN THEY ALREADY ARE…

With the winds of war, a World War III, blowing around and people dying in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and other places, the Catholic Church is yacking about this, that and the other, with most of the yacking on certain controversial topics settled by previous papal magisteriums, like all of them!

The Vatican’s tea and crumpets and conversation-fest while Rome and the world burns all around them!

And then there is yet another insane person in the USA perusing mass murder with all the guns and ammunition he could hoard and store. As I write this, 22 people were massacred, and about 60 others wounded in one way or another. 

People don’t make enough money to buy food and live from pay check to pay check.

And the Vatican? A month long yacking fest is going on and all the blabbing in a kind of unrelenting wearing down of the participants with with hours and hours of conversation, what some call a brainwashing technique, the whole thing is tiresome. 

Let us thank God for one thing, the secrecy imposed by the pope, another kind of brainwashing, that we don’t have to read too much about what is happening, but some of it is trickling out. More will come.

This is from the National Catholic Reporter, disobeying Pope Francis pontifical secrecy about the Synod. Not nice on many levels.

Press the title for the full article:

Bishops walking out, 'tiresome' listening: Inside tensions at the 

It was less than two weeks into Pope Francis' high-stakes Vatican summit on the future of the Catholic Church when multiple reports emerged about participating delegates storming out of the room. 

And then Pope Francis intervened at the synod and banged his old drum again about young priests shopping for cassocks, albs and lace along with hats, as though that is the greatest crisis facing the priesthood today! Much of the pope’s rhetoric, as usual, is what I heard over and over again in my very Pope Francis seminary in the 1970’s:

Listen to, trust the lay faithful, pope tells synod members

Francis described as "a scandal" the scene of young priests going in to ecclesiastical tailor shops in Rome "trying on cassocks and hats or albs with lace."

And then Catholic News Service reports this on October 25th as well, giving an interview, hardly a high level papal teaching on such an important subject already settled by the Magisterium of the Church to include Vatican II’s documents:

Pope Francis on women deacons: ‘Holy orders is reserved for men’

And then we have this little ditty. I am sure that Pope Francis would have laicized Fr. Rupnick if he committed the sin and scandal of going into a fancy clergy shop and tried on or bought a lace alb, a cassock with a frilly surplice and a beretta/biretta to wear. The ultimate clericalism and scandal of seducing and sexually abusing women religious, well, let’s just embrace him along with the LGBTQ++ Community and bless his orientation. God forbid that the Church would uphold its teaching on Original Sin and all the disorders, sexual and otherwise, it has wrought to include the much more dreaded climate change and extinction of the planet and all of us on it. Let’s just celebrate Fr. Rupnick’s disordered sexual life and all disorders as the will of God and thus to be blessed! None of that is equal to the scandal of young priests wearing liturgical finery, which as we all know, is the true scandal of clericalism. You can’t make this stuff up. Rod Serling would scratch is head!

Fr Marko Rupnik incardinated in Slovenian diocese