Friday, April 20, 2012

Pope of Disunity



So the SSPX are likely to be in soon.
Already the Ordinariate is beginning to thrive in the States, and once they are given a church or two here that might happen in England and Wales - though they are doing pretty well using Spanish Place as their "Cathedral".
Those with a Catholic "sense" are given courage to live out their faith.
The liberation Summorum Pontificum gave the Traditional usage is slowly making an in road into the Church and parish life.
Seminaries are gradually becoming more Catholic, even if they are not, they are turning out young priests who want authentic Catholicism.
and yet,
Those American nuns who have "moved beyond Jesus" are likely to be out, at least as an organisation but there very presence shows how deep the rot goes.
Dissident Irish priests have been silenced but in Ireland dissidence seems to be the new orthodoxy.
In Austria there  is open disobedience and rather dubious decisions made by some of the hierarchy.
In the US the Bishops are fighting off the government and perhaps wondering whether they have much backing from the ordinary Catholic in the pew.

The US is interesting the Bishops are battling against the Liberal establishment and actually raising the old dusty banner, so carefully put away by their predecessors, of Catholic teaching on reproduction and sexuality. In Europe "gay marriage" is increasingly becoming an issue and the "equality" thing in general  seems likely to drive the Church out of the establishment niche that it has enjoyed for the last forty years. We are being forced to talk about sex and marriage for example by secular society, when we had perhaps forgotten how radical our own message is. Secular society does seem to understand.

Seven years ago many were expecting a "rottweiler" Pope, who would clear up doctrinal error, boot out heretical bishops, cleanse the Curia, clamp-down on liturgical abuses and theological errors and those peddling them. Instead we have had a Pope who teaches. His teaching however is constantly radical, a continual call out of the confused disunity of darkness into the light of Christ. Yet he is criticised for not using his authority to clean up the Church. How often does one hear amongst Roman dicastery officials the criticism, "he reigns but does not rule"?

What we have in the Church is increased division, and it is the Pope himself who is the source of division. There is an increased seperation between those who gather with Peter and those who don't. In many ways little by little there seems to be "sifting" of the Church, we boast over a billion members but most are almost pagan, on the edge of the Church.

Cardinal Koch recently said:
"A widespread criticism holds that the pope is not concerned" about the church as a whole but is focused on a small portion of his flock and "is content with that."
"The only thing that is true in this criticism is that, in reality, the pope is convinced that the true renewal of the church cannot begin with the masses, but only with small movements" inspired by the Holy Spirit and acting as leaven for the rest of the church, the cardinal said.
The idea of a smaller leaner Church is not exactly at the heart of Benedict XVI's writing but the idea of a small seed, a group that is leavening the lump, a candle flame that illuminates the darkness is, so too the Saint who has a profound effect an society around him is. More importantly is the triumph of Truth over error, of God over the un-Godly; rather than mass excommunications Benedict is more optimistic, he expects conversions because through the Resurrection God has triumphed!

Pope Benedict seems content to leave much up to Divine Providence because an over meddling Pope is likely to do more damage to the Church than one who directs attention again and again to Jesus Christ.
It is like the orientation of liturgy, it is about directing attention, not to "the poor servant of God labouring in the vineyard" but to God himself.

14 comments:

Lynda said...

Things are slowly heading in the right direction. The "disunity" you talk of is necessary for the Truth must be adhered to and there must be no acceptance of the lies and damnation that has been continually spread by the dissidents "within" the Church. In Ireland the Marxist form of Catholicism (!!) has been allowed to erode and attack the Faith with impunity for 40 years. We await a Bishop who will do his duty and lead the people back to God and His One Holy Church.

pelerin said...

Fr Ray talks about 'directing attention' and in today's world people's attention span seems very limited.

The orientation of the liturgy 'ad Deum' will be a great help to many but how can it be encouraged in other parishes where Masses can be all about celebrating themselves without directives from higher authorities?

I have just been reading 'Linen on the Hedgerow' blog and was horrified to see Richard's mention of a Priest who halfway through the elevation during a Mass for children, asked 'Does anyone know the Test score?'

Now it is well know that a child's concentration span is much shorter than that of an adult so this dreadful intrusion during the most Holy part of the Mass must have completely removed any concentration any of the children might have had at this point.

Now if that Mass had been 'ad orientem' this would not have happened - ad libbing by some Priests facing the congregation seems to be a very serious problem. I can see why in the EF the Priest is instructed not look up at the people so that he can concentrate fully on the Mass. Yes he prays for all those present but he does not have to look at them.

Sixupman said...

There are no magic wands to be waved and a miracle of mega mega proportions would be required to rectify the position.

BXVI is so greatly imbued with Charity and compassion that he is seen as being benevolent even to the likes of Kung.

The disease, within Mother Church, will take a couple of generations to burn itself out from the system.BXVI is creating a base for restoration, therefore, it is the next incumbent of the Papacy which will be crucial to the long term health of The Church.

Physiocrat said...

Better a limited unity around the truth of the Catholic faith than a broad accommodating unity of "anything goes".

Pablo the Mexican said...

A Padre in the United States has this post:

http://www.overheardinthesacristy.net/?p=13029

One extreme poised against another.

Do not think someone is Traditional because they wear the clothes and ‘act’ traditional.

For your consideration:

http://vimeo.com/13506783

Our Divine Master has placed them in His New Zealand garden perhaps to keep them far away from the contagion of Americanism.

My money and prayers are with these good Madres.

Que Dios les bendiga.

The Holy Father needs our prayers.

*

jean said...

Padre, do you realise these nuns are part of SPPX?

Fr Ray Blake said...

Mark, telephone me!

Pablo the Mexican said...

"Padre, do you realise these nuns are part of SPPX?"

Someone said

"The day will come when good is called evil, and evil good"

Is that a Catholic statement?

*

Pablo the Mexican said...

Here is a lot more disunity from the Curia:

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/04/on-whose-side-are-you-on-bishop.html

The Bishop that laid the groundwork for this has been known of for years.

*

Jorge Carrillo said...

Podemos decir que este problema de desunidad de una parte del clero es debido a que algunos se están alejando de Pedro y no a que Pedro esté dejando a la deriva las ovejas.

creo que en parte el sumo pontífice puede renovar la Iglesia desde su propio alcance, dado que él es quien nombra a los obispos, pues el tienen que solicitar que los obispos muestren su ortodoxia a la Iglesia, mediante ensayos y exposiciones sobre el pensamiento de cada uno de los candidatos respecto a temas relevantes.

Cerrar la malla para colar lo más fino.

Physiocrat said...

Ni som vill skriva på andra språk: var snäll och skriv texten på engelska också - tack.

Anita Moore said...

What we have in the Church is increased division, and it is the Pope himself who is the source of division. There is an increased seperation between those who gather with Peter and those who don't. In many ways little by little there seems to be "sifting" of the Church, we boast over a billion members but most are almost pagan, on the edge of the Church.

The last sentence would seem to cancel out the first. The Pope cannot be the source of disunity that was already there when he came along. Is it that the separation is greater, or that it is just emerging from below the surface?

Catholic Mission said...

Cardinal Koch needs to accept the traditional interpretation of Vatican Council II: the SSPX rejects the version of the Council of Christian Unity,Vatican
Vatican Council II like Cantate Domino, Council of Florence 1441 says heretics and schismatics need to convert for salvation (AG 7).

Cardinal Kurt Koch assumes that his interpretation of Vatican Council II is the only one and all of us should accept it.


When the SSPX says they reject Vatican Council II they mean they reject the Koch-liberal version. When they say that they affirm ecumenism and inter religious dialogue according to Tradition, they mean they affirm in reality the traditional intepretation of Vatican Council II.


There can be no known cases of Orthodox Christians or Protestants saved in imperfect communion, the seeds of the Word or a good conscience etc as the liberal version claims.


In a a press conference on Tuesday in Vienna Cardinal Koch, the President of the Vatican Council for ecumenism said the Society of St.Pius X (SSPX) needs to accept Vatican Council II, as if, implying that he and his Vatican office for ecumenism does so.They do not accept the traditional interpretation of Vatican Council II.


The cardinal cannot provide references from Vatican Council II to support his liberal interpretation with reference to ecumenism.


I can provide citations from Vatican Council II for my traditional intepretation of the Council. So could SSPX and the other traditonalists if they wanted to.


The liberals in Vienna are unable to cite any reference since Lumen Gentium 16 (invincible ignorance/good conscience) is not an exception to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.


Vatican Council II does not mention a single explicit reference to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. So there can only be one interpretation of the Council- the traditional one. It is supported by AG 7 and LG 16 does not contradict it.


So it is important ,honesty demands it, that Cardinal Kurt Koch and the Council for Christian Unity,Vatican accept Vatican Council II according to Tradition and the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.


It’s time to say clearly that Vatican Council II says all Protestants and Orthodox Christians do not have Catholic Faith and and so they are oriented to Hell (AG 7).They all on earth are oriented to Hell and if there are any exceptions, I say if, since there may be none,then it would be known to God only .
-Lionel Andrades

Magdalene said...

I love our Holy Father; he is giving all opportunities for hearts to truly turn to Jesus Christ who is our Source and Summit after all.

BUT if all opportunities and teachings and coaxings are ignored there is a line in the sand.

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