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."
24 comments:
The Catholics who would be most inclined to support the Papacy are the TLM Catholics who are personae non gratae to the current Pope. But he is a nasty and dictatorial and says a lot of stupid and contradictory stuff. Holy, holy, holy
Even a failed Pontificate, which this one certainly is, still has long term consequences. I'm sharing a warning: Do not be fooled by the seeming lack of substance coming out of the October "Sillynod". We the faithful, like the low information voters out there, may be tempted to think "nothing to see here". Ah, but that is exactly what the Germans, the posers like McElroy and Cupich, Jimmy Martin and the Holy Father himself want. Make no mistake, we are being slowly and inexorably "converted" to believe that the Holy Spirit is leading the church into a more modern, refreshing, welcoming time where same sex is ok and even able to be blessed, that we the church need to "sit at the feet of women" rather than the foot of the cross as Mary did and we must ordain women because, after all, their time has come. Step aside magisterium. Get behind me revealed teaching. The institutional church knows better now and Francis is just the guy to bring it on. Mark my words!
TJM,
And humble, humble, humble.
Nick
We often forget that one of the hallmarks of "modernized" Catholic practice and belief is that it is UTTERLY, PAINFULLY, MURDEROUSLY B-O-R-I-N-G.
That New Evangelism and its "success" continues to evoke a well-deserved yawn. We're just waiting for the geriatric hippies to go on to their reward.
Jerome Merwick,
Agreed. The typical Novus Bogus is painfully boring and non substantive. Valid but ineffective in my opinion
Tom Makin,
You may be right but the result would be Schism. However, no young priest I know is into the nonsense of this pontificate so it might prove to be a short term problem. I know not even one young priest whom you could term “liberal.”
Aldo Maria Valli said..."In the meantime, the synod participants, gathered around their tables, talk, talk, and talk. The problem is that the participants seem to be moving on another planet than that of actual reality...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."
Here is another among the long line of participants who are in monumental disagreement with Aldo Valli:
https://www.ncregister.com/interview/cameroon-archbishop-on-synod-on-synodality-views-from-africa-were-taken-very-seriously
National Catholic Register
by Edward Pentin.
-- Cameroon Archbishop on Synod on Synodality: Views From Africa Were Taken ‘Very Seriously’
"Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bemenda, one of 16 prelates who make up the synod’s ordinary council that oversees the running of the process, said the assembly went “much better” than he expected and that the “conversation in the spirit,” an innovation to tone down polemics, was helpful as it “calmed down tempers.”
"I would sincerely say that it went very well, much better than I expected. The synod atmosphere was completely different. Coming to the round tables, changing tables all of the time, gave the impression we’re working as a group."
"I think it was good. All the other canonical theological arguments notwithstanding, as a gathering of the Church, it was good. This conversation in the spirit method really calmed down tempers and give us time to know that we’re not doing our work, we’re doing God’s work."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas,
Sorry, no cigar. Nothing in your excessively lengthy quotation refutes the content of Father's post. On the contrary, the Archbishop's words reinforce the notion of a self-referential, self-reassured "closed caste" that's convinced that what they're doing is of the utmost importance to the Church when 99% of Catholics couldn't be bothered.
If we go with the synodalist understanding of "sensus fidelium," the sensus fidelium is apparently that the synod is a crock not worth their time.
Nick
Frankly, if one of the head honchos running a big conference didn't at least try to portray it as a success, I'd be surprised. And unsurprisingly, that spin will likely not be matched by those who are looking from outside in at the meeting of Very Important Persons and scratching their heads wondering what on earth they're going on about today.
Nick
The anti-Synod folks are determined to portray the Synod as a failure. It does not matter to said folks that one Synod participant after another has spoken well of the Synod. But it is not surprising that the anti-Synod crowd has said otherwise.
One such participant, Father Ivan Montelongo, J.C.L., is a young priest of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. He has praised the Synod. But the anti-Synod folks will spin the Synod as a flop. Said folks will inform Father Montelongo J.C.L. that he is wrong.
Nevertheless, one Synod participant after participant has rejected the discredited claim that via the Synod, the "hostile takeover" of the Church is underway.
To those who have held fast to the above discredited claim in question: Sorry, no cigar.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Nick,
Popes keep saying Vatican II was a success, when all metrics declare it was a disastrous flop of the highest magnitude.
TJM, true, but the primary proponents of Vatican II, who were there and have much to gain from its success (i.e., have conflicts of interest), always claim it's a great success. And they must be right, because they were there!
Nick
N:
Perhaps you are new here, but you are attempting to debate a troll. The rest of us ignore its presence. I suggest you do the same.
"I think it's safe to say the the Edsel has been one of our great successes and we are enthusiastic about keeping this model in production. All of these rumors about low sales and lack of public demand are merely contrived rumors from our competitors, who are eager to make our company look backwards, since they have no model than can compete with it. The Edsel is a success that speaks for itself.
-PR Department, Ford Motor Company, 1960
"I think it's safe to say the the Edsel has been one of our great successes and we are enthusiastic about keeping this model in production. All of these rumors about low sales and lack of public demand are merely contrived rumors from our competitors, who are eager to make our company look backwards, since they have no model than can compete with it. The Edsel is a success that speaks for itself.
-PR Department, Ford Motor Company, 1960
Jerome,
I look at it less as debating him (how does one debate one-sided issues?) and more as providing helpful elucidation of some of the more obvious problems with his posts in hopes of preventing others from being hoodwinked. Plus, I enjoy shooting fish in a barrel.
Nick
Jerome Merwick,
I too have compared the Novus Bogus to the Edsel. If our bishops were directors of a for profit business they would have been fired long ago for their many abject failures. For profit businesses have to self-correct or go out of business. The Church of Rome has not learned that lesson.
I think the overwhelming success of "New Coke" is an even more apt analogy.
TJM,
I've often had that thought (without the Edsel comparison--before my time). Like the bishop in Germany with 0, nada, zip, zilch seminarians in formation, or the bishops in America who shut down 2/3 of parishes because so many people have synodally voted with their feet to synod their way together out of the Church. If any corporate executive shut down 2/3 of the corporation's business with no signs of a turnaround, or failed to bring in any new talent at the VP level at all, the board of directors would have grounds for removing the executive without the golden parachute treatment. As it stands now, the bishops who are abject failures in carrying on the apostolic mission are not even pink-slipped with cushy benefits; they are held up as examples of what the rest of the Church should be doing.
For my part, I can't decide whether it's total incompetence, apathy (pastoral acedia, perhaps), lack of belief, or outright enmity for the Faith. But it is one of those options, and any of them calls for a spiritual butt-kicking to the hierarchy to live the graces of their state of life or give it up and let someone else give it a shot. They're successors to the Apostle's, for St. Peter's sake.
Nick
Jerome Merwick,
True! And then there is Einstein's famous quip: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!
Nick,
Ably said!
I just read this statement from Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas:
“The synod has gathered cowards in Rome, those who not only refuse to die for Our Lord and His Church, but indeed demand that His eternal truths be changed, and if you play nicely with these, then you mock the martyrs.”
Jerome Merwick,
Very true statement but they are also unhinged from reality. If they think they will pack the churches again by catering to perverts they are sadly mistaken.
Jerome Merwick,
Very true statement but they are also unhinged from reality. If they think they will pack the churches again by catering to perverts they are sadly mistaken.
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