Many religious and secular pundits, including most humble bloggers like me, have been touting Pope Leo as a breath of fresh air after the papal chaos of the last 12 years.
Nearly 100 days as the Supreme Pontiff, a term His Holiness does not askew, we pundits are trying to predict what Pope Leo’s papacy will be when he starts making real decisions about his Curia, encyclicals he will write and if pastoral theology will trump defined dogmas and doctrines by using the synodal way to deconstruct the Deposit of Faith and Morals or return the synod to true Catholicity and orthodoxy.
Pope Leo has visually brought back to the Church the proper look of the papacy, the formality that is needed for so great an office and unashamed of the papal protocols that Leo is recovering.
Yet, like Pope Francis, Leo maintains a common touch even though far more formal than Francis.
Faithful Catholics who love the papacy, are happy to see that Pope Leo XIV refers back to so many of his predecessors in his homilies and speeches. He has certainly quoted many popes of the pre-Vatican II period and constantly refers to St. Augustine.
But Pope Leo refers to Pope Francis often in his homilies and speeches. That is a good thing. We need popes to be in agreement with previous popes and not contradict them or overturn them. This will be a delicate task for Pope Leo in regard to Pope Francis who acted as though the Church began with him and often quoted himself in important written texts.
We know that Pope Francis contradicted so much of the two previous papacies before him. This was horrible as well as contradicting the look of the papacy and the formality of papal protocols.
Pope Leo is not a far right heterodox and he certainly isn’t a far left heterodox. He is orthodox and thus Catholic and accepts all the ecumenical councils of the Church, including Vatican II, as all orthodox Catholics do.
Right now Pope Leo has brought calm to the papacy and the Church.
But the honeymoon will soon be over. Pope Leo will have to make hard decisions and sometimes he will have to discipline bishops for their heterodoxy. The biggest headache that Pope Leo has isn’t from the heterodox right, but those on the heterodox left in Germany, which includes bishops, some cardinals, and large swaths of clergy, religious and laity. Even calling this part of the German Church heterodox left is weak. They have become post-Catholic, something neither Catholic nor Protestant, something pagan.
A calm pope doesn’t mean a strong pope. In the Church today, we need a strong pope, who can demand that the heterodox left and the heterodox right become orthodox and accept the Magisterium of the Church and her ancient Scripture and Tradition as well as the ancient Deposit of Faith and Morals.
The development of doctrine and dogma is always orthodox and never contradicts those doctrines and dogmas.
Pastoral theology that doesn’t call for repentance, conversion and unity with the Church, meaning the pope and bishops in union with him, even in a synodal way, is not orthodox, its heterodox. Pastoral theology that doesn’t warn the sinner of the consequences of loving their sins and sinful lifestyles more than God and His Church is heterodox.
Are we going to be heterodox or orthodox under Pope Leo’s pastoral care and theology? I’m placing my money on orthodoxy.
3 comments:
As an Eastern Catholic, I can only hope for orthodoxy.
Heterodoxy, to me, is a check that will only bounce. It's a black hole that ultimately collapses upon itself. It seems, however, we need to bifurcate between heterodoxy and innovation - each problematic in my view.
The Roman Church was at its most faithful and least faithful during the middle-ages to the Reformation. Yet, the period of innovation that began in the 1960’s seems to have led to the most significant abandonment by former believers in the Church's history. “More” seems to regularly lead to “more” until adherents simply stop seeing the need for the institution. Formerly solid Catholic families are often left with "a last man standing". This person, viewed as "weird" by relatives, is often asked "So, you're STILL going?" This lead-off question then leads toward questioning as to why, perceived shortcomings of remaining a believer, then questions regarding one's integrity for remaining loyal to a scandal ridden institution where "the priests can't keep their hands off the little boys" and so forth. Being Eastern, I really don't experience this. I'm more of an anomaly with perceptions being one of we have the beautiful churches and singing, or the spooky churches with long bearded priests swinging incense and waving things at the people.
Heterodoxy. It seems it has reared its head in various forms since the Great Schism. Look at the emergence of protestantism (small "p" on purpose). I could be wrong, but, the heterodoxy of the last 60 years, intensifying within the last 5+ and particularly in Germany, seems unprecedented. I have to wonder if innovation spring-boards heterodoxy. Again, “more” seems to mostly lead to “more”. Nothing is ever good enough, all must be challenged perhaps being rethought relative to the current narrative and norms. I suppose the Deposit of Faith, the Apostles and Church Fathers were only “right” to a point. We know better.
The HF has his work cut out for him. I hope he has the fortitude to address the challenges. I hope the wolves are kept at bay, or simply die off. Time will tell. Perhaps heterodox appetites will be too strong to quell. It’s comforting to know that such adherents, both hierarchy and laity, are temporary stewards locked in a moment of time. Apparently, they ignore the last four things in their quest for ideological advancement oftentimes masked as “relevance” and “what the people need now.” One guaranteed, Christ's Church will never fall.
Greetings Father! I was determined to figure out how leave a comment using my device- this blog entry was the perfect one to provide the final bit of motivation I needed! I finally see a glimmer of the previous Father Mc Donald who unflinchingly “called balls and strikes” as he saw them! For the most part since Pope Leo XlV’s election, I have seen a major blind spot! I have seen an overwhelming number of photos of how wonderfully Pope Leo looks and how beautiful his Liturgies are! Of course I am ecstatic about all that too! I am so relieved to see someone dressed in traditional Papal garments, who is not irascible, who does not use crude language, demean and take revenge on clergy who are the most faithful to the perennial Teachings of the church…. Several people on this blog have in a clear-eyed, logical manner been warning that in effect , “ the clothes ( though important) do not make the man ”! And even though increasingly as he began to make appointments and utter statements more consonant with Pope Francis’ policies, this seems more and more applicable, I have noticed mostly reframes- that these actions/ statements confirm how different Pope Leo is from Pope Francis! Unlike Pope Francis, he is not reversing what his predecessor did as that nasty, mean, Pope Francis (RIP) did; that he is unifying the Church etc. etc. But the fact of the matter is that ambiguities, errors in teaching need to be corrected swiftly! That is not the same as cancelling, disrespecting a previous Pope (Popes)! Pope Francis has sometimes cancelled orthodoxy and replaced it with heterodoxy! Pope Leo needs to repair this damage swiftly- that in fact is exactly how the Church is unified! The fallacy here is to focus on the person of the Pope involved rather than what he proclaimed/ is proclaiming! It is not the job of any Pope to be loyal to the memory of any predecessor regardless of the harm he has done to Christ’s Church, it is to uphold and transmit the perennial Teaching- Scripture and Tradition - of the Church established by Christ on Peter ( the rock)! It is to get the faithful safely to Heaven with as little confusion, chaos as possible! The longer the hole in a boat remains unsealed the more danger to the passengers!
My hope that Pope Leo will be more like the orthodox Popes ahead of him rather than his immediate predecessor rests firmly on the truth that each Pope is given the abundance of Graces he needs to execute the incredibly challenging job assigned to him- just as every Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Priest, Religious and layperson is given the amount of Graces they need to faithfully fulfill their vocation! So I continue to pray- and to urge everyone to pray, that he will respond positively to these Graces!!!
All you Holy Popes in Heaven pray for Holy Mother church and her newest Chief Shepherd, Pope Leo XlV!
Father McDonald said..."But the honeymoon will soon be over."
The "honeymoon" between Pope Leo XIV and Catholics who grant "unconditional reverence and obedience" to His Holiness will not end.
Said "honeymoon" will end among folks who cast Pope Leo XIV as this, or that, type of Pope. Said folks will turn against His Holiness when our holy Pope does not march in lockstep with their agendas.
Conversely, the "honeymoon" in question will prove never-ending among folks who embrace the Pope's God-given authority to teach, govern, and sanctify the Holy People of God.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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