Oops
This question [of priestly celibacy] is not currently on the agenda of church authorities, as recently restated after the last reunion of heads of dicasteries with the Holy Father.
From a statement by the new head of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Hummes, on his first day in office.
The progressive technique in a nutshell: raise a subject which should not have been raised in the first place, preferably by the way of an interview; then, deny what had been said, while the matter is discussed according to the first controversial declaration.
This technique, the "apparent about-face", is a "Progressive Classic". Congratulations to Cardinal Hummes for his successful first day as head of Clergy!
The progressive technique in a nutshell: raise a subject which should not have been raised in the first place, preferably by the way of an interview; then, deny what had been said, while the matter is discussed according to the first controversial declaration.
This technique, the "apparent about-face", is a "Progressive Classic". Congratulations to Cardinal Hummes for his successful first day as head of Clergy!
posted by New Catholic at 4:14 PM
43 Comments:
I had just read Humous - I mean Hummes' little climb-down in the VIS bulletin, and was enormously gratified to see him enjoying his hazing. "Thank you, Holiness, may I have another?! Thank you Holiness, may I have another?!" Next think you know they'll have him standing outside holding a censor with a trash-can over his head, while they whack it with the poles used to hold up the Sedia Gestatoria! Semper Fi, mac!!
There is something seriously wrong with Pope Benedict's judgement.
First He picked Levada, who is about as faithful or traditional Catholic as Martin Luther, and now picks Hummes...one of the most radical liberals in the College of Cardinals.
Nothing has been published regarding the Pope's instructions from LAST YEARS' Synod on the Holy Eucharist....Nothing has been forthcoming regarding the supposed and much anticipated "Moto Proprio" for the return of the Tridentine Latin Mass.
Don't hold your breath on either one.
This Pope apparently doesn't know how to pick orthodox, traditional and holy priests for high office, or even do the basics of His job.
Time to retire Benedict.
Kenjiro Shoda
You are certainly correct. There is a remarkable lack of discernment. However, we must remember that after the destructive ravages of 40 years of post-conciliarite fudge, relativisation and progressivist tyranny there probably are no longer many ",orthodox, traditional and holy priests for high office", if any at all.
Our Blessed Lord told us to judge (yes, judge) a tree by the fruit it bears. Rotten tree, rotten fruit. All those self-righteous, sanctimonious progressivists do not want us to "judge" and use the true compass of The Faith to discern the purposes of the wicked. The Christ and St Paul admonish us to beware of false prophets and false philosophies. Then, progressivists tell us that we are "protestant" for using The Sacred Scriptures to guide us along the right pathway alongside the consistent teachings of The Roman Catholic Church over 2,000 years. Levada, Hummes, Kasper and company are testimony to the resounding lack of proper Catholic discernment when selecting the right men for the job. Their curricula vitae indicate all that we need to know about them. To follow thier teachings would threaten the life of the soul.
Such people seek popularity and to be accepted by the world. St Luke and St Paul tell us that such a disposition entails enmity with God and is considered unwholesome in His eyes. Yes, The Sacred Scriptures give us these wise counsels. They have been supported by almost all holy fathers for 1965 years until recent modernising papacies.
"Rotten tree, rotten fruit."
Yep. That's why I'm not a Protestant any more, and why I didn't join the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and why I don't have anything to do with the SSPX -- in one way or another, they all have borne the rotten fruit of disobedience, schism, and presumption.
But getting back to Cardinal Hummes, his comments are, um, interesting, here:
"Yet it is also clear that the norm prescribing celibacy for priests in the Latin Church is very ancient and is founded upon consolidated tradition and upon strong motivations, both theological-spiritual and practical-pastoral, as reiterated also by Popes."
Well, the Roman Rite was very ancient and was founded upon strong motivations, etc., etc. But that didn't prevent the Church from approving an unprecedented, wholesale revision and recasting of the Latin liturgy. So, the question that occurs to me (just thinking, you know) is: what is Cardinal Hummes saying? Is the Church going to throw out priestly celibacy or not?
There is nothing wrong with B. XVI's judgment. And it surprises me, Kenjiro Shoda, that someone of your insight is surprised by his appointments. The Pope is a liberal, elected by liberals because he is a liberal.
Last year on 23 Dec. he sounded the theme of his pontificate. It was: Embrace the friendly face of the French Revolution, that is, Americanism. And this can only mean Catholics represent not Christ's Church but a Xtian denomination. All have the right to exercise their liberty and to practice the denomination of their choice as we learn in any civics class in an American school.
The chief code word of the French Revolution ideology is LIBERTY. It means that we are not God's bondsmen and handmaids. We effectively belong to ourselves. God's truth has no rights over us.
Catholics should not be taken in. Join in the Pope's liberal crusade if you will. But if you do, remember that he does not have long. And after he leaves, those whom he has appointed will be in charge, the likes of Levada, Hummes et al.
This tactic as to having an interview, offering a topic to stretch the Modernist discussion is an apt one.
Even the infamous Msgr. Annibale Bungnini utilized that exact tactic when asked if women still had to wear headcover in churches. His response was that the Bishops were considering "other issues," and that women's veils were not on the agenda. The next day, the international press announced throughout the world that women did not have to wear veils anymore. A few days later Bugnini told the press that he was misquoted and women still had to wear the veil. But the press did not retract the error... and the rest as they say, is history.
Hat tip to Jackie Freppon, author of "The Unveiled Woman" a book in progress.
Folks, have more faith. The Pope's judgment is sound. It is much better to keep the orthodox Cardinals/Bishops whom Benedict can trust out "in the field" and away from "adult supervision". Bring the more "challenging" individuals back to the Vatican where he can give them very direct orders to follow. Something about Peter being the Rock and gates of Hell shall not prevail seem applicable to me. Have faith.
Oremus pro pontifice nostro Benedicto.
God must save His Church; the Church can only be saved by a miracle; and the miracle (due to the Church's constitution) can only come by means of papal action. Remember the words of Blessed Duns Scotus on the Immaculate Conception: POTUIT, DECUIT, ERGO FECIT.
Nunc etiam: potest, decet, ergo faciet.
Stu is right. Benedict puts the orthodox in the field where they're needed and brings the problem children to the Vatican where he can watch them. Check it out: no one's heard from Levada since he went to Rome. Benedict XVI still runs the CDF, in effect. Kasper (whom I really despise) has gotten on board (at least officially) with Pope Benedict's view of the Church and ecumenism. Cardinal Castrillon will still supervise the negotiations with the SSPX and the universal indult. Cardinal Medina still has a lot of say at the Congregation for the Liturgy.
Proklos, you are hopeless. Pope Benedict did not embrace the enlightenment. He merely said that modernity is a fact and the Church has to understand it in order to evangelize. And, by the way, religious liberty is a fact. Benedict just spent the last few days asking for religious liberty for Christians in Turkey. The ship has sailed on the retro notion of cuius regio eius religio.
Liberals make the greatest popes.Remember Pius IX?
what is behind the dead-beaten donkey of the "married priesthood" liberal bla-bla-bla ?
Liberal and neo-modernists theologians/bishops/cardinals/priests/lay militants, a powerful clique, are promoting married priesthood in order to totally destroy the sacerdotal theology. They look at the traditional priesthood as an obstacle to 1) a "democratic Church" 2) a united neo-Catholic and Protestant mish-mash Community 3) a feminist "Church" 4) a modernized, secularized "christianism".
They play with the superficial argument of celibacy being merely a "discipline", as cardinal Hummes did.
This argument is strongly contradicted by ... Vatican II decree Presbyterorum ordinis (1965) - so for the "spirit of the Council" - and Paul VI encyclicle Sacerdotalis celibatus ; it has been rejected after the 1971 Synod of bishops by Paul VI, against a huge lobby of Western Europe bishops, among them the usual mitred misguided French Excellencies.
The argument is above all silly : Eastern Churches have accepted the married priesthood, as a tolerance due to the extreme weakness of the human nature. Moreover, until very recently, parish priests were considered as the lowest of the low among Eastern clergy. In the Eastern tradition, the vitality of the Church is NOT in the parish - as in the Latin Church - but in the monasteries so with CELIBATE brothers and priests.
Eastern and Western Churches are also both in agreement that the true full priesthood - set aside Christ Priesthood - lies in the episcopate. Both Western and Eastern Churches have only celibate bishops.
The Latin Church as a very long tradition of requiring celibacy from her priests, as an imitation of the full episcopal priesthood.
This requirement is going very far, in the early centuries of the Middle Ages. It has always be poorly respected according to the various periods and geographical zones : not so chaste priests are a well known plague in Latin America, in Africa and this is nothing new. Priests with children and so on were not a rarity before the Tridentine Reform.
Allowing the crime is the liberal way of "fighting against" murders ... we are not forced to agree with what liberal loonies are saying whatever the colour of their hats could be.
I agree that the capacity of the present pope to choose Catholic collaborators has still to be proven : for 2 or 3 excellent choices, we see 100 of incredible liberals promoted to the hierarchy. The new Secretary of State is not changing the course of the ultra-liberal trend in appointing bishops.
Some "Benedictine" bishops would have never been chosen even by a severely ill John-Paul II. Is this what Joseph cardinal Ratzinger was asking for in 1998 : a new generation of bishops ?
I already hear the screams of the popists : "wait", "wait" "he takes his time", the "good guys are coming", "be patient", "the pope knows better", "die-hard liberals are maybe secretly, very secretly, Catholic", "the pope is going to do all the work" (poor man if he has to supervise dioceses and Roman congregations personnally), "he calls neo-modernists and liberals but he is keeping them on their toes" (apparently not the Brazilian redhat), "deep breath, take a nap during 20 years and wake up to admire a shining Catholic Church" (has this pope 30 years old ? oops sorry I should not mention this little detail) etc.
oh about the "motu proprio" : we were reading "informations" it was "signed" say ... a month ago... and we still have n-o-t-h-i-n-g. A good sign certainly for our pink-glasses friends.
I remember John-Paul II told once new cardinals about the doctrinal meaning of their purple robe : they were supposed to accept to die as martyrs for the faith.
Huum our modern admirers of the Early Christianity are less admiring the bravery of the first Christians ... confronting liberalism and heresy seems already to paralyse everybody. What did Our Lord Jesus say about the tepids ?
Good comment, Alsaticus.
A reader who asked me to remain anonymous e-mailed me this comment and asked me to publish it. So here it is:
[QUOTE]
Several comments to comments:
“there probably are no longer many orthodox, traditional and holy priests for high office, if any at all.” (MacK)
WRONG. There are plenty! We can ALL name them. Give Benedict time. He’ll be naming them soon.
“The Pope is a liberal, elected by liberals because he is a liberal” (Prolkos)
WRONG. Get real. This is Ratzinger, now pope. LIBERAL? HA!
“Bring the more "challenging" individuals back to the Vatican where he can give them very direct orders to follow” (stu)
RIGHT ON. Benedict is a brilliant man. He’s got a plan and a method!
Give the tree time before you judge its fruit! Yes, alsaticus … a TRUE CATHOLIC will scream all the things you predict. Because I’m NOT the Holy Spirit, and believe HE (God with the pope) is in charge.
I SCREAM:
WAIT
HE IS TAKING HIS TIME
THE GOOD GUYS ARE COMING
BE PATIENT
HE POPE KNOWS BETTER
GOD IS IN CHARGE!
[UNQUOTE]
New Catholic says:
"THE GOOD GUYS ARE COMING"
The "Good Guys" came ("a prophet is never recognized in his own land")and are here ...our Church Hierarchy is at best, mediocre.
THE
GOOD
NEWS
The Good News is…
In fear and joy,
That apprentices are
Still altar boys,
And Tabernacles on
Sacrificial altar,
Rebound the sounds
Of David’s Psalter.
The entire year,
Our missals hold,
Celebrating cerebrally
The new and the old.
Sarcophagus seasons
Of abstinence and fast,
Absolves the flesh,
Buries sins past,
And liturgy’s vernacular,
Constantly feigned,
Pales ‘fore Precambrian,
Death’s Latin had reigned.
For truth nails eternal
In Catholicity
Through minutes of centuries’
Mediocrity.
Alsaticus is dead on right. There is NO evidence that in terms of appointments this Pope is doing any good; in fact, placing such dubious creatures as Levada and Hummes in Dicasterial positions gives them great footing in the next conclave (which, let's face it, will come in the next ten to fifteen years...tops) to be papabile or pope-makers. Left in SF, Levada would have had far less potential impact on a papal election. Same with Hummes. The Pope seems to be moving the most pernicious vipers into line for the next conclave. You can coo all day long that it's to "keep an eye on them," but who will keep that eye on them when Benedict becomes feeble with sickness or age and when he finally goes to meet his Judge? (Ah, yes, facile answer...the Holy Ghost.) Ask your pink-eyed glasses wearing self a few questions: Why hasn't Burke been made a Cardinal? Wouldn't you rather see him or Bruskewitz at CDF or Clergy than our wily (as in Odysseus?)pope's choices? Where oh where is that elusive indult? Why does the pope allow himself to be seen to face Mecca in a Mosque if he's so keen on avoiding indifferentism? The actions of the pope do not square with the claims we so hopefully make for him. My prediction, and I would gladly be shown wrong and dine on crow, is: this papacy will do no more to restory the faith than did the "Great" previous one. The free-fall will continue until night falls, and then persecutions will begin. After five pontificates of "renewal" and "new springtime" there will be few left to face martyrdom, indeed.
I am bitterly amused by the posters here and on AQ who are doing as I did as a young man under JPII: nurturing impossible hopes contrary to all outward indications. I hope that another decade or two of that will not leave them as cynical regarding church matters as my experience has left me, for it is no comforting state in which to find oneself. The saddest and most vexing quandary of all is what to tell my students who express an interest in the Catholic Church. Where can they be sent that is totally Catholic and not tainted with even the (false?) suggestion of irregularity/schism? Please tell me that, ye wearers of the pink glasses? Where should these honest, sincere, God-thirsty youths be sent? RCIA? NOT!
"I am bitterly amused by the posters here and on AQ who are doing as I did as a young man under JPII: nurturing impossible hopes contrary to all outward indications. I hope that another decade or two of that will not leave them as cynical regarding church matters as my experience has left me, for it is no comforting state in which to find oneself."
QMR,
I am saddened for you. Whether true or not you seem to not only have lost faith but hope as well. Truly the Church has seen much darker times. This too shall pass. Have faith. One does not turn an aircraft carrier around on a dime. The same is true for the Church. Have faith.
-Stu
Stu said:
"One does not turn an aircraft carrier around on a dime. The same is true for the Church. Have faith."
"Faith without works is dead"
As the mother of 10 children and with an informed Catholic conscience I was forced to find the true Catholic Priests preserving the True Faith and just like in the times of St. Athanasius (also excommunicated by a Pope) in faith and hope I prayed and WORKED to find them. I did, in the Order of the SSPX Society. And when our Lord asks what you did during the destruction of the Faith will you just say, "I had faith."?? He will ask what you did with your talents. The Pope's men, Lavada, Hummes, etc. are happy that your content to just have faith because THEY have your children!
PAPA'S
BIRDS
Fool me once,
Shame on you,
Your red birds
Strut with bravada.
Like birds of a feather
Flocking together -
As if the Barque...just -
A regatta.
Fool me twice,
Shame on me,
Your pink bird
Does a twirl...
Our pearls before swine -
Plucked grapes off the vine -
And what do you do?
Nada!
Stu wrote:
"Truly the Church has seen much darker times. This too shall pass. Have faith."
Sorry, but these platitudes roused me to hope twenty years ago when my fellow Slav was elected Pope. Those trying to justify the actions and inactions of the popes have used the same or similar as a club to beat me and others into submission for too long. I am numb and no longer cowable by them. I feel like the dwarfs in "The Last Battle" who, having been deceived by the fake Aslan cannot accept the real one when he, rather latterly, appears.
And he wrote:
"One does not turn an aircraft carrier around on a dime. The same is true for the Church. Have faith."
One does not turn an aircraft carrier at all when it's taking on water below the water line, listing dangeorusly to starboard, and powered by a reactor core containing nearly spent fuel rods, whilst the crew has defected to the enemy, and the captain continues to appoint mutineers to positions of command upon her decks, all the while seeking solidarity with the captains of other, lesser ships that have already foundered to the loss of every man. Hunanly speaking, it is hopeless.
Your solicitous remarks as to my loss of faith and hope are kind but unnecessary. By a thread I hang on to the Faith, but I place no trust in men. It must be God's will that the Church be nearly totally eclipsed, that we return to the days of Diocletian or Nero with the connivance of our shepherds. I cannot fathom it. I cannot be pleased with it. But, I must accept it from God. I will not, however, allow my emotions to be further played with by all the pollyannas saying, "See, He is there" or "He is out in the dessert." I will wait and continue to wonder what I should do with the not insignificant number of students who ask me about the Faith. How can I explain to a young man or woman that he/she can't go to his local Catholic priest for instruction because that officer of the indefectible Church, with the tacit approval of the bishop, the successor of the apostles, in juridical communion with the Vicar of Christ, is a modernist heretic, dangerous for the young person's faith? How CAN I tell him that? How do I explain that he has to seek a Catholic priest, not among the dozens or even hundreds of his local diocese, but must go to another city, even another state, to find a Catholic priest formally in union with Rome who can give him the unadulterated Faith and Sacraments? Please, unravel this riddle for me.
Quar.... said:
"...How do I explain that he has to seek a Catholic priest, not among the dozens or even hundreds of his local diocese, but must go to another city"
That's exactly what the Three Wise Men did over 2000 years ago.
All your frustrations are correct and it's up to you to follow that Star God has in the heavens for all of us.
Don't you find it strange that after 30 something years since Archbishop Lefebvre started his Order the Church Hierarchy hasn't been able to dig up one grave SCANDAL on him. Any other man the "heretics" (unfortunately our own Bishops) want to besmirch they get it in the papers, or on T.V., etc. the very next day.
He came over thirty...
And they still can't find him dirty!
PIUS X PATCH
Brer bishops, brer priests,
And brer people of gods,
Changed the Mass with their winks,
Lost the Faith with their nods.
Brer mother of ten sighed,
”Do I speak, cause a feud?”
Brer people of god's laughed,
"Chill out...Take a lude."
Brer priest, said, "Ms. Brer, have a coke,
Serve with me
And together we'll create
A worldwide harmony."
With these words brer mother got sick
And threw-up.
Brer priest urged her,
"Go...if you won't drink our cup."
"So you're urgin' I go?"
And her head she did scratch,
"Jus' please don't throw me
In no Pius the 10th Patch!"
But brer priest flung brer mother
Out the door, threw the latch,
And forced her to land
In a Pius the 10th Patch.
And now, at Assemblies,
All dressed in Izods,
Are brer bishops, brer priests
And brer people of gods,
Who can hear, but ignore,
Brer mother of ten
Singin' and dancin’
Alone, once again.
"I was born and raised
In a Pius the 10th Patch,
Known as CATHOLIC CHURCH...
And there still ain't no match!"
QMR,
I wish I could unravel the "riddle" but once again it comes back to faith. At least you aren't wandering in the desert for 40 years. Have faith.
In all seriousness, I will say a Rosary for you.
Vivat Iesus,
Stu
There are certainly some outstanding priests at the grass roots level of The Church. They are the ones who have to persevere in the face of all this un-Catholic nonsense. But, for high office, no wonder new catholic's source wants to remain anonymous. More rumours for the rumour mill, to keep it grinding. Pope number two in the mosque and after a trip to the synagogue etc., etc., etc., has told many of us much of what we needed to witness with our own eyes. The Holy Father was absolutely correct on the day of his "installation" - he is going to follow the papacy of his predecessor.
The next thing we are going to discover is that the hierarchs in Rome have been covering up on Fatima all the time.
I have faith and hope in abundance Deo Gratias but let us be realistic in the event of the objective evidence over 45 years - Sister Lucy in tune with Pope Paul VI several years later, was right to admonish us about apostasy at the highest levels of The Church. How much time does this Holy Father have left to pick his pathway among the city half in ruins?
new catholic
The head words of your site are now very seasonal.
This is such a beautiful chant preparing us daily for The Nativity.
"'Rorate Caeli' desuper et nubes pluant justum."
A wonderful choice for such a web-site.
There is nowhere else to write this message.
Thank you.
Kenjiro Shoda said: "Time to retire, Benedict"
What kind of satanic proud can make a faithful catholic to say something like that?
Stu wrote:
QMR,
I wish I could unravel the "riddle" but once again it comes back to faith. At least you aren't wandering in the desert for 40 years. Have faith.
In all seriousness, I will say a Rosary for you.
Vivat Iesus,
Stu
I'm always grateful for a rosary. Thanks. From my point of view, the tale of forty years wandering in a spiritual desert presided over by wolves in sheep's clothing is nearly full.
Quaremerepulisti, Alsaticus...
I wish so much I could disagree with both of you...
As the mother of 10 children and with an informed Catholic conscience I was forced to find the true Catholic Priests preserving the True Faith and just like in the times of St. Athanasius (also excommunicated by a Pope) in faith and hope I prayed and WORKED to find them. I did, in the Order of the SSPX Society. And when our Lord asks what you did during the destruction of the Faith will you just say, "I had faith."?? He will ask what you did with your talents. The Pope's men, Lavada, Hummes, etc. are happy that your content to just have faith because THEY have your children!
Rubbish. Luther thought he had the true faith as well. You have no basis to judge me, my faith nor the teaching that goes on in my family from the vantage point of your keyboard. Nor, may I say, do you have the ability to guess at what the Lord will say to me when I face Him. Instead your time would be better spent worrying about what the Lord is going to say to you. And incidentally, in that statement I don't suppose to make any judgments. That's between you and Him.
Good day madam.
Please, everyone, let us remain charitable in our comments.
Give him time...he'll get there...the church thinks in centuries...the Cavalry are coming...
Like others on this thread I am hanging on by my fingertips. I have only one life in which to save my soul and I'm well over half-way through it on any reasonable reckoning. I have only one chance to pass on my faith to my children and they're growing up very fast. I can't maintain indefinitely a posture that requires me to remind them (and myself) daily why what sleeps between the covers of the Catechism bears very little relation to anything actually existing.
Pope Benedict has been Pope for almost half the lifetime of my youngest. So far, he's prayed in a mosque. That's it.
MR. POO-POO PIOUS
At LaSalette
Our Lady said,
"Fight, for all that's true."
"Oh, it will pass"
Said Mr. Pious.
And all that passed was poo!
Moretben
You forgot the synagogue.
Janice
I pray for him every day and teach my children to do the same.
Please explain to me how your contribution here helps me to help them stay Catholic.
quaremerepulisti,
The ICKSP is doing great work, and are as orthodox as can be. I don't know as much about the FSSP, but you can get all the sacraments there and I believe that they are by and large very solid, too.
Send them there.
If you are not fortunate enough to be in an area where they operate, I encourage you to seriously consider moving.
If all of the above is not possible, I would not make that private judgement for anyone.
Janice said:
Most of you people, with a couple of notable exceptions, are as bad as the "dissidents" of the left. All you do is bitch and moan. I really don't understand it. We are blessed beyond measure to have Benedict XVI as our Pope (in my opinion, the best Pope since Pius XI). He is negotiating a world that even Pius XI would not have dreamed. And instead of praying for him, all you do is work against him.
And long-skirts, enough of the dumbass poetry."
Would that temperate, charitable Janice could show to us poor "Protestant" Catholics the same diffidence and latitude her Pope-hero shows to false religion.
Could we be spared the "you people", the "bitch", and the "dumb ass"? If profanity and ad hominem are going to be permitted here, I think I can give old Janice a run for his/her/its money. Of course, it would be better not to.
BTW: Key difference between Traditionalist bitch-moaner dissidents and those of the Left: You can convict us of denying no dogma of the Faith, nor of giving public approval to vices contrary to both natural and divine law. Can't say that for the Left, can you?
P.S. The "world" he is "negotiating" scares the pants off me and, I suspect, others on this list. We don't want a "negotiator" we want a Confessor of Christ Crucified and Reigning.
For the Timman:
Thanks for your post. I am well aware of the good work done by the societies you mention. I am even aquainted with an ICR priest, a great guy. Nevertheless, while I can take care of my own spiritual needs with SSPX and Indult here, I have nowhere to send non-Catholic would-be converts for instruction. The SSPX labors under the cloud of the false accusation of schism, and I wouldn't send anyone to the available Indult priest, except in danger of death. How do you explain to a Protestant begining the road to conversion because he suspects the Church's claims to be true that the Church is in a total free-fall mess, dominated by prelates who don't have the integral faith? It is not a confidence builder, let me tell you. I'm left, at the last, with prayer. Not a bad thing with which to be left, I guess.
El Sacristan said:
Kenjiro Shoda said: "Time to retire, Benedict"
What kind of satanic proud can make a faithful catholic to say something like that?
Is it Satanic to take offense at religious indifferentism, scandal, and syncretism? Kenjiro's remarks may be a bit intemperate, but they are not an overreaction to the situation at hand. I submit that religious indifferentism (the inevitable child of the current false ecumenism), scandal, and syncretism proceed directly from the Prince of this World, ya know, the world Vatican II and the popes of its wake were so hot and bothered to cosy up to.
Janice, I had to remove your comment due to some inappropriate words.
QUARE...
"Where can they be sent that is totally Catholic and not tainted with even the (false?) suggestion of irregularity/schism?"
Latin is still the official language of the Church;
Gregorian chant remains as the preferred form of sacred music;
the Tridentine Mass is lawful;
respect is to be shown everywhere for those attached to the Latin liturgical tradition;
priests of the SSPX celebrate Mass validly;
Rome has not pronounced excommunications against SSPX followers;
participation in non-Catholic rites continues to be forbidden by canon 1365.
Indeed, the above points - as blatantly disregarded by many in the New Church - constitute some of the reasons why faithful Catholics continue to attend our Masses, receive our Sacraments, and support our work. And in so doing they show their fidelity to Tradition, to the Church and to Rome, whose perennial Teaching against false ecumenism, religious indifference, and liturgical innovation they follow as loyal Catholics in a spirit of true obedience.
However, the article does not actually tackle the real question which is this: what has happened to place the SSPX in an allegedly irregular situation to-day when 40 years ago it would have been regarded as any other Congregation? The answer is quite simply that Rome has changed, and is making a new religion, synchretic in nature, with a new Mass, a new theology, a new Catechism, a new Canon Law, a new ecclesiology... Here lies the predicament and here too lies the solution - the return of Rome to Catholic teaching and practice. Until such time the charges of schism lie not with those who uphold Tradition but rather with those who depart from it!
Yours faithfully,
Father Paul Morgan, G.B. Superior of SSPX
Long-Skirts:
I agree with you and with Fr. Morgan entirely; however, it is a difficult see to someone turning to the Catholic Church for surety and authority after a life of Protestant confusion. The claims we make for the Church's indefectibility can seem silly to an outsider who, on looking in the door, is told he must go to group X or Y because the main body of the Church is going to hell in a hand basket.
Forgive me: should read, "it is a hard SELL, not SEE."
QUARE...
"... The claims we make for the Church's indefectibility can seem silly to an outsider who, on looking in the door, is told he must go to group X or Y because the main body of the Church is going to hell in a hand basket."
The Church's indefectibility means that she now is and will always remain the institution of salvation, founded by Christ. This affirms that the Church is essentially unchangeable in her teaching, her constitution, and her liturgy. The First Vatican Council declared that the Church possesses "an unconquered stability" and that, "built on a rock, she will continue to stand until the end of time".
The Arian Heresy lasted 400 years. Pope Liberius excommunicated St. Athanasius. Pope Liberius was a bad Pope. A bad Pope's actions can be judged and that's why St. Athanasius preserved the Catholic Faith, during the Arian Heresy, by saying Mass in the deserts.
The first Pope denied Christ and Judas denied Him. Our Lord prepared us from the very startfor bad priests and bad Popes so we would never be surprised.
Even while St. Peter and the other Bishops ran away from Our Lord, denying Him, St. John and the Blessed Mother stood at the foot of the cross and preserved the Faith until THOSE Bishops and Pope became faithful again.
As St. John Fisher said, "They have abandoned the Fort, those who should have defended her."
We must always pray for the Pope by as St. Ignatius Loyola said, "Know thine enemy."
I can say something about Benedict XVI. Since he was elected pope, Benedict XVI has been appliying a governance method of schock and crisis management. I am dissapointed althought I am not surprised. I think he is not a straightforward person, and now that he has no one above him, his real face is showing. I don't believe he is a holy person, just a good bureacraut who has rided on the Catholic Church like a good German. Still he is the pope and I revere his office. I am dissapointed and sadnened to see the real face of the Vatican: not a place of holiness. AMDG.
Unfortunately Benedict XVI and Cardinal Hummes are still from the german generation of the "Deutschalnd über alles". AMDG.
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