There is post in Googlese translation on Eponymous Flower reporting that the loyal German Network of Catholics Priests has severely criticised the German bishops over "Church tax" asking what the public perception of the Church should be, "[t]wo years ago it was the abuse [theme], then the "Affaire Williamson", and now it's money -- it's never the Faith. ... It is tasteless, to give so much attention to money".
It would good in the Year of Faith, if every hierarchy in the world tried to put Faith front and centre.
A friend of mine says what marks Liberalism is an obsession with talking about Church, rather than about Christ, this he says has been the main problem of the Church over the last 50 years. It is not the Vatican Council itself but the direct result of it. The Church has become obsessed with itself rather than with Christ.
There is truth in this the Church has become somewhat masturbatory, impotently looking ad intra rather ad extra, moving dekchairs about on the Titanic whilst she crashes into icebergs.
5 comments:
"The Church has become obsessed with itself rather than with Christ."
Nowhere was this more apparent than outside St John's Cathedral on Monday, 24 September 2012. Even when a prolife bishop is centre - stage, The Church feels free to ignore a simple prolife message, the "best" Catholic newspaper can completely airbrush the words from the pavement, the highest churchman in the land can look a person holding a 40DFL leaflet in the eye for a second and just walk past, priests of the church can refuse to find out anything about it, "devout" Catholics can go out of their way to get to hear inspirational speakers like Marino Restrepo but they're all too busy with their lives to give up 1 HOUR in 40 days to stand in humble prayer in a public place for an end to abortion, and we can all go on pretending the Catholic Church in the UK is prolife!
"It is not the Vatican Council itself but the direct result of it. .. There is truth in this the Church has become somewhat masturbatory, impotently looking ad intra rather ad extra,"
THE
BEES
SACRED PURPOSE
For centuries beeswax
In the sanctuary reigned
Our sacred purpose
From the first ordained.
Producing honeycombs
All that we handle --
Though our sacred purpose -
The Holy Mass candle.
But at the last council
Of the great Church bee
Man turned to man
Birthed sterility.
Graces for fruits
Crops and offspring
Schools, churches shut -
Can’t pollinate a thing
Until man again
On His altars lets towers -
Candles of beeswax
Sacred purpose -
…all ours!
Nice post. I must say it's been painful to watch the German bishops gather in a circular firing squad.
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do it.
If Christ and the Eucharist is not the center which motivates, what good is the Church?
"A friend of mine says what marks Liberalism is an obsession with talking about Church, rather than about Christ, this he says has been the main problem of the Church over the last 50 years."
This is spot-on. I suppose it was inevitable that after Vatican II, with the huge changes it brought, the Church would be self-obsessed for a while. But for the younger generation the post-VII debates now seem rather stale; people want to reach out to the world while accepting a basic orthodoxy.
This is the crux: it is only if we accept orthodoxy that we can stop bickering and look to the wider world, and to Christ. If everything is up for grabs doctrinally, all there will be is endless squabbling.
There are so many competing voices and actions coming from the Church. What is the Church - can one be in it but act counter to it? In nz the diocese of Dunedin have sold and old catholic school to Muslims to become a koranic school. What will Iscariot do with his dosh in this year of evangilization? Clearly not bring the mercy of Christ to poor souls born under that most satanic of all religions, Islam. What sort of message is this sending to the lay - Islam is evil, therefore we should, loving what is good - Christ and his Church - hate Islam and seek with christian love to save Muslims from it's endless ugly errors - but no we'll take their dosh.
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