This is going to be rather long. It might be a good idea to pour yourself a cuppa, or open a beer. If you smoke, you may even want to light up and settle in. But please, I do ask you to read this. It's been weighing on my mind heavily for weeks, and I hope my pndering and distress can help at least one other angsty Catholic! Oh--it's Lent, so if you want, you can call reading this a penance.
In my last poll, the results came in like this: 41% of respondents are worried about what's going to happen at the Conclave and are praying about it. 33% are not worried, because they are praying about it. 12% are just worried, and 8% are not worried at all.
I'm more than worried.
Why? Because of the unforgivable sin--Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit. Men can ignore the Holy Spirit, act against His inspirations, and Cardinal Electors remain men. When John Paul I died, many Cardinals commented that they felt responsible for his death, that they had elected on political grounds and ignored the Holy Spirit. John Paul I said that the "The man across from me [John Paul II] was the one they should have elected". We also have examples of Popes who were just awful--mistakes with no concern for the Church only power and influence, or nepotism, or even the opportunity to indulge their own concupiscence. Free will means that we can act against the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the only guarantee we have is that the Pope will not actively teach heresy or immorality. We have no guarantee that he will not simply ignore the teaching of Truth, or be so lax in discipline that heresiarchs and the immoral feel free to do their thing. We need only to look at the collapse of discipline and catechesis in the 70s, 80s and early 90s to see that in action. Not to mention the possibility of a Pope becoming "captured" by the Curia--outflanked and politically out maneuvered by "careerist" power blocks within the various dicasteries, or crippled by bureaucratic turf wars in the Vatican.
Not to mention plain old personal corruption among functionaries, that the Pope may be unaware of or powerless against. It's not like we have a dearth of historical examples of such things.
I am not denying Scriptures! I am well aware of Matthew 16:18: And I will tell you, you are Peter [Cephas--Aramaic for 'Rock"] and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. But two things need to be born in mind here--if there is one validly ordained Bishop and one faithful Catholic who hew to the Deposit of the faith, the Church still exists, and there is no guarantee that the gates of hell shall not prevail against a certain Ignorant Redneck, and I am a man who needs clear and certain teaching and leadership!
I am very worried about factions and corruption. In fact, I am worried enough that I wonder if we will not be saddled, for a time, with an Anti-pope. It's happened before. Certainly, just reading the news shows the potential for that. I"m not speaking here of such dreck as Sally Quinn's rant about "child abuse" and how she wasn't allowed into the Vatican decades ago when her skirt was too short, I'm talking about other things.
We see already, with Benedict XVI being what in American political vernacular would be termed a "Lame Duck", things like the the German Bishops approving the "morning after pill" in certain circumstances. Not only is this the Camels Nose, it's also a contradiction of what has gone before, and the approval by a group of Prelates (without doctrinal authority) of an abortificient. When an expert in this pharmaceutical says it can cause abortion,.. .
The USCCB is also saying much the same thing.
It looks like a group of Modernists--and read up on Modernism, because far from being a Bug-a-Boo of 19th century reaction it is the single most dangerous enemy of the Church confronting us today--are trying to score a march against the Faith. But they are not alone.
Father Darius Oko prepared a report for the Church in Poland about the threat the homosexual lobby poses against the Church there, and what it's attempting to do in Poland. Likewise, we have the much discussed, denied, confirmed, disparaged and praised reports of Gay circles in the Vatican itself, among the Cardinals, and the idea that many Cardinals are being blackmailed. If true--and I believe it is, for I was warned about these folks, and their growing power in the mid-eighties by a priest who had been hounded by them in the Archdiocese of St. Louis--a conclave that gives a result desired by the Sodomites through blackmail would be invalid, and we would have an Anti-pope.
We have the spectacle of an Irish Cardinal Keith O'Brien who says, in contradiction of Tradition, and the usage of the Church, Western Rite, Eastern Rite and the Orthodox Churches that priests should be allowed to marry. At the same time, we have the spectacle of this same Cardinal suddenly being accused by priests of "inappropriate contact" and "relationships" by several priests, some of whom maintain this started when they were seminarians. What the truth of the matter is, I cannot say. But I can say that this is indicative of deep divisions within the Church, from the pew-sitters like me to the Cardinals, the Curia, through the priesthood and everywhere one looks.
At the University of San Francisco, Vincent Puzzuto has just been promoted tot he Chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. (First, theology and religious studies are not the same thing...at all! Religious studies is a discipline that emerged from Sociology and Anthropology, and is by definintion unable to say a doctrine is true, or not--that's called a "normative judgment"--but only to describe religions and religious activities, and to struggle with the secular academic definition of "religion".) Puzzuto is a promoted of sodomitic and adulterous unions, elevating them to the same level as Matrimony, and has accepted "ordination" in the "Celtic Catholic Church", a Schismatic body. He is the pastor--excuse me, Presider--at the New Skellig Community Church, which describes itself as part of the "Emerging Catholic Tradition" and as a "canonicly independent catholic church". He's the chair of the Department in a "Catholic" university? Here's a copy of one of their permissible "creeds", taken from their Liturgy Page:
On top of this, Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, overruled the CDF, --in stripping the former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru of it's right to teach theology, call itself Pontifical or Catholic. It seems Cardinal Muller tried to sidestep procedure and Canon Law to protect one of his friends from censure, when his University was teaching Marxism, Pro-abortion and Pro-sodomite ideas as Catholic Doctrine. Ex Corde Ecclesia it seems, is honored more in the ignoring than the following, even by the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!
Archbishop Gomez is still allowing the Modernists, morally depraved and disobedient to use the Archdiocese of LA as a legitimating prop.
I see such potential for an invalid conclave, and anti-pope or a schism it's not funny. I think it not unlikely that if the College of Cardinals elects another reformer, we shall see schism in the global north, in parts of Latin America and among the majority of educational institutions. If the Sacred College elects a man who will spout platitudes, write the proper words, and do nothing, thousands--millions--will be lost to perdition by the depredations of wolves posing as shepherds. If we get an anti-pope, through blackmail and intimidation, it will be worse, and the faithful will be deprived of sacramental and liturgical care and sound teaching. This is a time of danger.
America has been on the verge of a schism within the Church in the United States since at least the 90s, led by the nuns, dissenting clergy, pro-abortion/contraception and homosexual factions. The potential is not only there, it's huge. I believe Cardinal Mahony would eagerly pick up a miter and proclaim he is only acting out of pastoral concern as he tries to become the primate of an "American Catholic Church". After all, he's already whining about being a "scapegoat" in the abuse scandal.
It looks scary from my pew.
But then came Sunday!
And the scripture readings from the Lectionary, Second Sunday of Lent, Year C.
From Genesis, 15: The Lord God took Abram outside and said "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so" He added "shall your descendents be." Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
An act of righteousness. Abram was old--he had no hope of offspring, his wife Sarai was barren, and his line would die with him. His position was a bleak as ours. Bleaker. But the Lord made good his promise! We are the spiritual Children of Abraham, in a line of grace and Revelation that begins with him, and are part of the descendents as numerous of the stars he was promised. Putting our faith in the Lord, in the face of adversity and uncertainty is the act of righteousness required of us, and no matter how bleak it looks, how uncertain things are, we will not be denied our special inheritance, our heritage in the Lord.
In Philippians 3:18-20 we hear For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is their destruction. Their God is their stomach; Their glory is their shame. Their minds are occupied with earthly things . But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not bound to this world, with it's transient troubles and horrible distortions. We are citizens not of a republic, but of heaven itself, where we have nothing to fear. Yes, "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". Yes we have prelates and Cardinals, Priests and Deacons, Laity and Religious who work against the gospel, who place their position, prerogatives and power above the Truth, above holiness, above morality and give in to their appetites for glory, perversion and gratification. But we do not have to be them. Rather, we are to imitate the saints, and wait for our Lord, who is surely returning, "tarry though he may".
And then, we have the Gospel!!!!!! Luke, 9:28b-30! It hit me hard.
Jesus took Peter, John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus, that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Whoa--the "Exodus" he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Tie that in. We are inheritors of the promise made to Abraham. We are the 'sheep of another flock" Jesus spoke of. We are watching the enemies of the Cross of Christ circle in a would be frenzy around the Chair of Peter, that the perceive as being up for grabs. And the Exodus is accomplished in Jerusalem, on the very Cross they hate.
Come pick up your cross and follow me. I'm a people watcher. I watch the immigrants from Africa and Asia in my parish. The people who have come to American from lands where hunger, poverty and persecution of the most violent sort stalk the land. They have a cross, a cross they have born and born well for generations, and a new cross--leaving all they have known, all those who stayed behind--that they bear as they make new lives in a new country. We First Worlders, we've had two or three generations of comparatively petty problems we whine about, that we refuse to pick up well, instead turning our backs on Christ and his Church. We may well be given a cross, a cross of confusion, anxiety, distress and fear for the fate of immortal souls. But it is not to fear. It is to be welcomed. For Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted and Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
I"ll quote John Allen here: Among many cardinals, it's become a fixed point of faith that the Vatican is long overdue for a serious housecleaning, and certainly the furor unleashed by the La Repubblica piece is likely to strengthen that conviction. Think for a moment. Benedict said that the Church would become smaller. ...like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble.
Think for a moment. If the things that I--and presumably others-- fear come to pass, they will not be without reason, they will not be without result. Rather, the convulsions and pain will be like a fever, that signifies the body cleansing itself of infection. In this case, the body is The Body of Christ, with Jesus as it's head, and we have the Lord's own promise of it's endurance. Yes we may suffer, just as ore suffers when crushed and smelted, but we shall emerge, purer, brighter and more precious than before. Yes, many will be lost, but they will be lost by their own choice, to fill their stomachs and glory in their shame rather than to follow what has been given to us. Thus purified, we shall indeed renew the face of the Earth, with the Fires of the Holy Spirit's love.
I no longer fear for the Church, just for myself, and my ability to make judgments that are in error. Deo Gratias.
I apologize for the paucity of links! Spent about a week and a half researching this, but in consideration of my life-time, prepaid membership in the Guild of north American Techno-peasantry, I lost them. On the other hand, it probably made this shorter.
In my last poll, the results came in like this: 41% of respondents are worried about what's going to happen at the Conclave and are praying about it. 33% are not worried, because they are praying about it. 12% are just worried, and 8% are not worried at all.
I'm more than worried.
Why? Because of the unforgivable sin--Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit. Men can ignore the Holy Spirit, act against His inspirations, and Cardinal Electors remain men. When John Paul I died, many Cardinals commented that they felt responsible for his death, that they had elected on political grounds and ignored the Holy Spirit. John Paul I said that the "The man across from me [John Paul II] was the one they should have elected". We also have examples of Popes who were just awful--mistakes with no concern for the Church only power and influence, or nepotism, or even the opportunity to indulge their own concupiscence. Free will means that we can act against the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the only guarantee we have is that the Pope will not actively teach heresy or immorality. We have no guarantee that he will not simply ignore the teaching of Truth, or be so lax in discipline that heresiarchs and the immoral feel free to do their thing. We need only to look at the collapse of discipline and catechesis in the 70s, 80s and early 90s to see that in action. Not to mention the possibility of a Pope becoming "captured" by the Curia--outflanked and politically out maneuvered by "careerist" power blocks within the various dicasteries, or crippled by bureaucratic turf wars in the Vatican.
Not to mention plain old personal corruption among functionaries, that the Pope may be unaware of or powerless against. It's not like we have a dearth of historical examples of such things.
I am not denying Scriptures! I am well aware of Matthew 16:18: And I will tell you, you are Peter [Cephas--Aramaic for 'Rock"] and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. But two things need to be born in mind here--if there is one validly ordained Bishop and one faithful Catholic who hew to the Deposit of the faith, the Church still exists, and there is no guarantee that the gates of hell shall not prevail against a certain Ignorant Redneck, and I am a man who needs clear and certain teaching and leadership!
I am very worried about factions and corruption. In fact, I am worried enough that I wonder if we will not be saddled, for a time, with an Anti-pope. It's happened before. Certainly, just reading the news shows the potential for that. I"m not speaking here of such dreck as Sally Quinn's rant about "child abuse" and how she wasn't allowed into the Vatican decades ago when her skirt was too short, I'm talking about other things.
We see already, with Benedict XVI being what in American political vernacular would be termed a "Lame Duck", things like the the German Bishops approving the "morning after pill" in certain circumstances. Not only is this the Camels Nose, it's also a contradiction of what has gone before, and the approval by a group of Prelates (without doctrinal authority) of an abortificient. When an expert in this pharmaceutical says it can cause abortion,.. .
The USCCB is also saying much the same thing.
It looks like a group of Modernists--and read up on Modernism, because far from being a Bug-a-Boo of 19th century reaction it is the single most dangerous enemy of the Church confronting us today--are trying to score a march against the Faith. But they are not alone.
Father Darius Oko prepared a report for the Church in Poland about the threat the homosexual lobby poses against the Church there, and what it's attempting to do in Poland. Likewise, we have the much discussed, denied, confirmed, disparaged and praised reports of Gay circles in the Vatican itself, among the Cardinals, and the idea that many Cardinals are being blackmailed. If true--and I believe it is, for I was warned about these folks, and their growing power in the mid-eighties by a priest who had been hounded by them in the Archdiocese of St. Louis--a conclave that gives a result desired by the Sodomites through blackmail would be invalid, and we would have an Anti-pope.
We have the spectacle of an Irish Cardinal Keith O'Brien who says, in contradiction of Tradition, and the usage of the Church, Western Rite, Eastern Rite and the Orthodox Churches that priests should be allowed to marry. At the same time, we have the spectacle of this same Cardinal suddenly being accused by priests of "inappropriate contact" and "relationships" by several priests, some of whom maintain this started when they were seminarians. What the truth of the matter is, I cannot say. But I can say that this is indicative of deep divisions within the Church, from the pew-sitters like me to the Cardinals, the Curia, through the priesthood and everywhere one looks.
At the University of San Francisco, Vincent Puzzuto has just been promoted tot he Chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. (First, theology and religious studies are not the same thing...at all! Religious studies is a discipline that emerged from Sociology and Anthropology, and is by definintion unable to say a doctrine is true, or not--that's called a "normative judgment"--but only to describe religions and religious activities, and to struggle with the secular academic definition of "religion".) Puzzuto is a promoted of sodomitic and adulterous unions, elevating them to the same level as Matrimony, and has accepted "ordination" in the "Celtic Catholic Church", a Schismatic body. He is the pastor--excuse me, Presider--at the New Skellig Community Church, which describes itself as part of the "Emerging Catholic Tradition" and as a "canonicly independent catholic church". He's the chair of the Department in a "Catholic" university? Here's a copy of one of their permissible "creeds", taken from their Liturgy Page:
Our God is the God of all humans,
The God of heaven and earth,
The God of the sea and rivers,
The God of the sun and moon,
The God of all the heavenly bodies,
The God of the lofty mountains,
The God of the lowly valleys.
God is above the heavens;
And beneath the heavens.
Heaven and earth and sea,
And everything that is in them,
Such he has as his abode.
God inspires all things,
gives life to all things,
stands above all things,
And stands beneath all things.
God enlightens the light of the sun,
strengthens the light of the night and the stars,
makes wells in the arid land and dry islands in the sea,
And places the stars in the service of the greater lights.
God has a Son who is co-eternal with himself;
And similar in all respects to himself;
And neither is the Son younger than the Father,
Nor is the Father older than the Son;
And the Holy Spirit breathes in them.
And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
are inseparable.On top of this, Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, overruled the CDF, --in stripping the former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru of it's right to teach theology, call itself Pontifical or Catholic. It seems Cardinal Muller tried to sidestep procedure and Canon Law to protect one of his friends from censure, when his University was teaching Marxism, Pro-abortion and Pro-sodomite ideas as Catholic Doctrine. Ex Corde Ecclesia it seems, is honored more in the ignoring than the following, even by the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!
Archbishop Gomez is still allowing the Modernists, morally depraved and disobedient to use the Archdiocese of LA as a legitimating prop.
I see such potential for an invalid conclave, and anti-pope or a schism it's not funny. I think it not unlikely that if the College of Cardinals elects another reformer, we shall see schism in the global north, in parts of Latin America and among the majority of educational institutions. If the Sacred College elects a man who will spout platitudes, write the proper words, and do nothing, thousands--millions--will be lost to perdition by the depredations of wolves posing as shepherds. If we get an anti-pope, through blackmail and intimidation, it will be worse, and the faithful will be deprived of sacramental and liturgical care and sound teaching. This is a time of danger.
America has been on the verge of a schism within the Church in the United States since at least the 90s, led by the nuns, dissenting clergy, pro-abortion/contraception and homosexual factions. The potential is not only there, it's huge. I believe Cardinal Mahony would eagerly pick up a miter and proclaim he is only acting out of pastoral concern as he tries to become the primate of an "American Catholic Church". After all, he's already whining about being a "scapegoat" in the abuse scandal.
It looks scary from my pew.
But then came Sunday!
And the scripture readings from the Lectionary, Second Sunday of Lent, Year C.
From Genesis, 15: The Lord God took Abram outside and said "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so" He added "shall your descendents be." Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
An act of righteousness. Abram was old--he had no hope of offspring, his wife Sarai was barren, and his line would die with him. His position was a bleak as ours. Bleaker. But the Lord made good his promise! We are the spiritual Children of Abraham, in a line of grace and Revelation that begins with him, and are part of the descendents as numerous of the stars he was promised. Putting our faith in the Lord, in the face of adversity and uncertainty is the act of righteousness required of us, and no matter how bleak it looks, how uncertain things are, we will not be denied our special inheritance, our heritage in the Lord.
In Philippians 3:18-20 we hear For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is their destruction. Their God is their stomach; Their glory is their shame. Their minds are occupied with earthly things . But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not bound to this world, with it's transient troubles and horrible distortions. We are citizens not of a republic, but of heaven itself, where we have nothing to fear. Yes, "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". Yes we have prelates and Cardinals, Priests and Deacons, Laity and Religious who work against the gospel, who place their position, prerogatives and power above the Truth, above holiness, above morality and give in to their appetites for glory, perversion and gratification. But we do not have to be them. Rather, we are to imitate the saints, and wait for our Lord, who is surely returning, "tarry though he may".
And then, we have the Gospel!!!!!! Luke, 9:28b-30! It hit me hard.
Jesus took Peter, John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus, that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Whoa--the "Exodus" he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Tie that in. We are inheritors of the promise made to Abraham. We are the 'sheep of another flock" Jesus spoke of. We are watching the enemies of the Cross of Christ circle in a would be frenzy around the Chair of Peter, that the perceive as being up for grabs. And the Exodus is accomplished in Jerusalem, on the very Cross they hate.
Come pick up your cross and follow me. I'm a people watcher. I watch the immigrants from Africa and Asia in my parish. The people who have come to American from lands where hunger, poverty and persecution of the most violent sort stalk the land. They have a cross, a cross they have born and born well for generations, and a new cross--leaving all they have known, all those who stayed behind--that they bear as they make new lives in a new country. We First Worlders, we've had two or three generations of comparatively petty problems we whine about, that we refuse to pick up well, instead turning our backs on Christ and his Church. We may well be given a cross, a cross of confusion, anxiety, distress and fear for the fate of immortal souls. But it is not to fear. It is to be welcomed. For Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted and Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
I"ll quote John Allen here: Among many cardinals, it's become a fixed point of faith that the Vatican is long overdue for a serious housecleaning, and certainly the furor unleashed by the La Repubblica piece is likely to strengthen that conviction. Think for a moment. Benedict said that the Church would become smaller. ...like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble.
Think for a moment. If the things that I--and presumably others-- fear come to pass, they will not be without reason, they will not be without result. Rather, the convulsions and pain will be like a fever, that signifies the body cleansing itself of infection. In this case, the body is The Body of Christ, with Jesus as it's head, and we have the Lord's own promise of it's endurance. Yes we may suffer, just as ore suffers when crushed and smelted, but we shall emerge, purer, brighter and more precious than before. Yes, many will be lost, but they will be lost by their own choice, to fill their stomachs and glory in their shame rather than to follow what has been given to us. Thus purified, we shall indeed renew the face of the Earth, with the Fires of the Holy Spirit's love.
I no longer fear for the Church, just for myself, and my ability to make judgments that are in error. Deo Gratias.
I apologize for the paucity of links! Spent about a week and a half researching this, but in consideration of my life-time, prepaid membership in the Guild of north American Techno-peasantry, I lost them. On the other hand, it probably made this shorter.
5 comments:
IR - one of your better ponderings. Thank you...
I have purposely distanced myself from all the angst in the Catholic blogoshpere. Indeed - there are very few "Catholic" blogs I read anymore. I find many of them to be downright dangerous.
You cannot have 40 years of bad teaching without huge problems. People are willfully turning their backs on things that are going on in the Church. You can't fix something if you don't acknowledge it first.
I've spent the past few months trying to not spend so much time looking at the trees instead of the forest. When you start looking at the forest and connecting dots, things don't look too good.
Thanks Mr. Redneck, This is a thoughtful piece. So many have been and becoming victims of angst including me.Much of things spoken of here have happened,others could happen. You have helped remind me for one to trust Jesus.To be in the Remnant is to be of those who may be chosen. The gate is narrow but the Gate is open. God Bless you and family.
The Church ultimately will destroy hell. Which definition of church?All of them.
Remember gates are used to keep danger out. If the gates of hell shall not prevail it means that the church will ultimately succeed in attacking and defeating hell. We have Christ's word on that.
Puff the Magic Dragon - brilliant! I had never thought of it that way round, but am sure you are right.
Thank you, and God bless!
I.R. - you write, "I no longer fear for the Church, just for myself, and my ability to make judgments that are in error. Deo Gratias."
My own feeling of fear exactly, and thank you for expressing it so well. God bless!
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