Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Why are they silent?

Rorate Caeli prints an extract of a letter from Cardinal Pell to The Australian in which he stands up for the Pope. On the New Liturgical Movement there is a summary of a statement made by Van Thuân Observatory which affirms support for Benedict XVI. The Van Thuan Observatory monitors the persecution of Christians. The actual text of their statement says:
To the persecutions against many Christians, crucified in the literal sense in many parts of the world, to the many attempts to uproot Christianity in previously Christian societies with a devastating violence on the legislative and educational plane, and to customs that cannot be explained by good common sense, has been added for some time a fury against this Pope, whose providential greatness is before everyone's eyes.
These attacks are echoed sadly by those who do not listen to the Pope, also among ecclesiastics, professors of theology in seminaries, priests and laymen. ...
The lack of pro-active support for the Pope shown by so many ecclesiastics, professors of theology, priests and laymen is truly frightening.
With the Pope's visit coming up, why are so many silent?

15 comments:

Ttony said...

Because while "they" stay silent, all blame is focused on the Pope; that means that "they" will escape relatively unscathed as he will draw the fire.

Cowards, as well as lickspittles; wrong to think that this will appease the mob, and even wronger for not defending the Pope.

Dominic Mary said...

I think that, theologically speaking, it's called Human Respect, Father !

Mark said...

It appears those in authority in the Catholic church are afraid to speak out. Putting your head above the Christian parapit draws criticism & ridicule from the secular world & many fear this!! We should all be more assertive, proud of The Faith and militant in our support of the Pope and his church!

Paulinus said...

The Twelve ran away at Gethsemene. Even John & Peter stayed at a distance. '

Twas ever thus.

JARay said...

I read Cardinal Pell's letter in The Australian and said "Thank God!"
JARay

Malcolm said...

Silence, as I think you have said Father, indicates to the media "cover up".

shane said...

There are 32 active bishops in England and Wales and almost certainly some of them have skeletons in the closet which they’d rather forget about. If the Pope visits, it’s highly likely that the media will conveniently find ones to expose.

If I may ask : How conscious are 'ordinary' people in England of the abuse scandals? Is the church there fairly demoralized?

Every day the Irish newspapers run new stories on (historical) clerical abuse.

On the side of the angels said...

Father I'm sorry but the blame must spread out a bit - we've spent nearly half a century allowing this to happen - no matter what we had thrown at us we took it - we still attended, we still paid , when others walked away by the thoussand we stayed put out of a loyalty to the office rather than the individual; out of devotion to the sacrifice of the mass rather than the cacophonic caterwauling, the heretical sermons and the desacralising worse than anything the puritans could have conceived ; when our children were taught the gospels were just nice stories and morality is personal developmental choices we were outraged and whined but we still went with the flow... when schools and churches were sold-off al around us to pay for diocesan quangoes and administrative initiatives and Youth ministries which only buffered up the income of defunct heythrop graduates and ensured a few select teens [usually the children of the 'professional laity'] in the diocese had heavily subsidised trips across the world while pretending to be 'relevant voices for the future'.
our churches were desecrated; our schools secularised, our communities disenfranchised ; our priests so devoid of doctrinal, pastoral and spiritual training they locked themselves away six days a week apart from parish ministry steering committees...

...and we still remained silent !

We got the leaders we deserved !

But God has blessed us with the undeserved grace of His Holiness...

...and those few within our hierarchy who would support and defend him have lost any will to join the fight - and why ? what support would he garner ? from the people ? who can say ? most definitely not his fellow clerics or any among the professional laity who consider the word 'ratzinger' as deplorable and a worse enemy to their agenda than anything outside the Church....

You tell me father - what can we do now we've sunk so low - that even our natural allies have given up the ghost and don't want to know ?

Do we fight with every spiritual, moral, pastoral and physical weapon we have at hand to defend Holy Mother church and inspire those in office to take arms against this sea of troubles and support the successor to peter and the mystical body of christ in which they are consecrated sacrifical priests ?

Or do we persist in saying 'something must be done!' and wait for someone else to do something ?

You tell me?

Tom said...

Fr Finigan provided a link to the e-mail address for the Holy Father and encouraged people to send a message of prayer and support. Even if the Holy Father doesn't get to read it himself, hopefully someone is monitoring the e-mail address and can pass on to him the knowledge that people are supporting him. The address is:

benedictxvi@vatican.va

One might have hoped that our ecclesiastical leaders, in particular the successors of the apostles, would have publicly supported Peter, but unfortunately that hasn't happend and isn't likely to. They are leaving the pope to take the flack

One wonders sometimes which particular apostle some of them succeeded.

Meanwhile, a brief e-mail is at least something we leaderless lay-folk can do. God bless our courageous and loyal pope.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Shane, today is the first day it hasn't been part of a radio newsbroadcast.
There is balanced article Fr Tim reports.

Independent said...

Whatever one may think of the claims of the Papacy,and many Christians can not underwrite them in full, the Pope is the leader of Christendom and if he is such a man as the present one should be given all the support one can. A man of great learning, of intelligence, of obvious goodwill and good humour, it is shameful that he should lack support in his own communion. His recent treatment of the abuse issue has been a model of charity and compassion, and he cannot be faulted for his refusal to compromise with the religion of secularism. Long live the Pope!

Fr Ray Blake said...

Terry,
a bit strong, though you might be right.

Tom said...

OTSOTA - well put, couldn't agree more with your analysis.

In response to your question, we don't wait for something to be done. Rather we should do as you suggest: "...fight with every spiritual, moral, pastoral and physical weapon we have... "

But who will lead us? That's where priests like Fr Ray and Fr Tim come in. The rest of us need to mobilise to follow their lead.

Unknown said...

Father, yes sorry about that but it is something that I do feel upset about.

Sometimes, unpleasant though it may be, strong medicine is needed.

universal doctor said...

God Bless our Pope. We should pray for him in our parishes, every day, and in our schools. I certainly am.

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