TRUE OR FALSE?

Lifesite News reports that outspoken Dutch Bishop Robert Mutsaerts has criticized the Catholic hierarchy for focusing on “climate change” and social justice issues instead of the salvation of souls. He said that young people are attracted by traditional liturgy and not by Pope Francis’ “synodality.”

Thus, I take certain quotes from Bishop Mutsaerts highlighted by Lifesite News and ask  "true or false?"

 “How did it get to the point where we see what we see today in church circles? Rainbow flags, LGBT activists dancing around the altar, second-rate bands playing pop music, sermons that are an expression of political correctness rather than anything else?” he pointedly asked. (TRUE OR FALSE?)

“How is it that beauty and truth have given way to ugliness and opinions? Ugly buildings, whitewashed walls, iconoclasm, and poorly acted performances that pass for liturgy. Kneelers and communion rails have been removed. The mystery, the sacred, the supernatural had to give way to horizontal flatness.” (TRUE OF FALSE?)

The bishop said that he sees a hunger for tradition and transcendence in young Catholics.“But this has not yet caught on in Rome,” he mused. “There, they are preoccupied with the new buzzword synodality.” (TRUE OR FALSE?)

“’Yes,’ says the church, ‘we are committed to the environment, to climate change, to diversity, to the poor and issues like that.’ More emphasis is placed on this than on a dignified liturgy, on sacrality, on the call to conversion, and on prioritizing the salvation of souls. People forget that this is precisely what gives people the nourishment they need to truly perform works of mercy.”

“Since the 1960s, the Church has portrayed the faith as ridiculous, no longer naming its core,” the bishop said. “Look at the liturgical abuse that is the order of the day. I am regularly terrorized at Confirmation Masses by choirs singing only Top 2000 songs. I once experienced the choir, accompanied by a deafening band, singing exclusively songs by Bruce Springsteen. ‘Because the Night’ was the offertory hymn. At the end of the Mass, it was clear to me: we will never see these confirmands in church again.” (TRUE OR FALSE?)

In today’s Church, at least in Western Europe, the mainstream view says “it should be about social justice, about soup kitchens, about action,” he continued.“Yes, mainly action. We stand up against discrimination and racism and take part in the social debate on climate change. We are naturally inclusive and diverse and fly the rainbow flag. Of course, we don’t talk about abortion, euthanasia, and mutilation of [so-called] transgender people. The distinction between the sacred and the profane has completely disappeared.”“Young people, in particular, have sensed this very well and have voted with their feet,” the bishop said. “If the liturgy is an incoherent mess, if you are not asked to reorganize your life, if forgiveness and sin are forbidden words, then what are you doing there?”“Good liturgy, clarity, and warmth make all the difference. Young people are looking for answers to questions.”“No wonder young people hungry for meaning, forgiveness, and truth are not at all interested in Laudato Si’, Fiducia Supplicans, and synodality,” the bishop added. “Parishes and dioceses that think they are focusing on this do not attract young people. Where do you find them: in parishes where things are simply traditional, where the Holy Mass is still Holy Mass, where the sacred is in the forefront, where the liturgy is clearly separated from the secular. You discover things there that you didn’t know before. It is a movement towards beauty, truth, holiness, towards devotion, towards places where the sacrament of Confession is offered and the Rosary is prayed. That’s where I see families, that’s where I see young people, that’s where I see the future of the Church.” (TRUE OR FALSE?)

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My astute comments:

The good bishop from Holland is speaking about what is happening in Europe and how Pope Francis has brought them back to the 1960's and 70's controversies and silliness after a period of purification (not completely) by Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict and their way of going forward instead of Pope Francis' backwards going. 

In my Diocese of Savannah, there are no radically liberal parishes as it concerns progressive issues and practices highlight in the article. I would say that liturgically, most of our parishes are mediocre, especially as it concerns music and casualness in the Mass and a folksy, talkative, secular way of imposing the priest's personality and gift of gab onto the congregation.

The various post-Vatican II ministries of the liturgy are sloppily carried out without attention to detail and good taste when it comes to secular dress for liturgical ministries and a continued askewing of liturgical dress for the laity functioning as readers and Communion Ministers at Mass. 

The south is conservative and Catholicism in the south is still conservative as are our politics, for the most part. 

In other parts of the USA, since I don't travel as I once did, but certainly see videos of outrages at Mass, I don't have a good grasp of what is happening in the majority of parishes.

I do believe that Pope Francis' and His Holiness' henchmen opposed to traditional approaches to the Post Vatican II Mass and a liberal allowance of the TLM are completely out of touch with today's young people who have remained in the Church, don't one to be "nones" and value tradition, be it in the modern Mass and when exposed to the TLM desire it too. 

God willing there are more bishops and those who are cardinals who see what this Dutch Bishop sees and calls it out and that this will impact the soon-to-be papal conclave!

As an aside, I am not opposed to social justice, soup kitchens and upholding the dignity and sacredness of life, even though tainted by sin and evil. It isn't either/or but both/and. But when doing both/and, orthodoxy and promoting holiness of life as the Church teaches is what must be proclaimed and lived and when not lived, called sin that needs the person to repent and be forgiven, especially through the Sacrament of Penance.