It has been a while, perhaps, since we've heard those odious windbags of optimism yodeling those hopeful, ebullient exclamations about the "new springtime" and "new Pentecost" of the Church, although I think we should not be surprised to hear a return to such language in the soon-to-be-celebrated 50th anniversary of Vatican II.
What I sometimes feel is missing in the Catholic pew-sitter's experience is a sense of robust realism. No, scratch that. Replace with: "sense of any reality at all." Across the Atlantic, the Catholic Church is practically dead, except for a few fringe pockets here or there. Certainly it is no longer a culture-formative force, or perhaps even a notable "influence."
In the United States, the current administration has utterly no compunctions about ignoring statements by the Catholic hierarchy. The "Camelot" of the Kennedy and post-Kennedy years is long gone. And archdiocese after archdiocese is busy closing down churches and schools, because there are simply not enough Catholics any longer to support them. (Link: "Lean but not mean")
It's like Jesus said: "When I come back, will I find any Faith?" We are, hopefully, part of the remnant.
ReplyDeleteNot enough Catholics to support them? How about not enough Catholics who are Catholics enough to support them?
ReplyDeleteThat is the reality of the "new springtime."
I am haunted by the Polish churches of Buffalo, many of which have already been closed by the diocese. They are beautiful -- one can make a case for too much opulence and too much light, but one cannot but be impressed with the fact that these Churches were built by ordinary folks who gave heavily of their time and money, to say nothing of the sweat of their brows, to erect them. It seems like a different millenium. No one would do this today.
Now we have ineffectual suburban barns, populated sporadically by "faith communities" of ineffectual people doing their mincing "faith walks" by offering meaningless, halfhearted and often downright infantile gestures of "welcoming" to everyone and no one. These people, these diocese, are so lazy and uninspired that even their silly catch phrases of self-congratulation must be borrowed from protestant busybody Sunday morning social gatherings.
As "community" exists in the contemporary sense, it is a waste of a serious Catholic's time, and may even erosive of his faith.
Think about that while you're celebrating the 50th anniversary of Vatican II.
Those optimistic windbags to which you refer (and I share the sentiment) include several Vicars of Christ, two of whom are now beatified, which raises a question I asked in an earlier combox. What will be the long term effects of this bizarre and disheartening half century on the credibility of the papal office?
ReplyDeleteA thread on Limbo so old I forgot how depressing it was as an illustration that V2 trends must be approved at all costs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/03/a-doctrine-in-limbo/
The cognitive dissonance resulting from the usually otherwise commendable Al Kimmel and Michael LIccione taking Stephen O'Brien to the woodshed for simply wanting to take the Church at its plan speaking word over centuries, underscores the violent damage Vatican II did to the very idea of reliable truth. Everything is up for graphs, since even the meaning of the word "is" must be based on reformable presuppositions. If this is where Catholicism--even conservative Catholicism--is at in its backflips in defending all the sitting pope or latest council says/does, heaven help us. Ratzinger insists on NOT speaking magisterially, and the result is that to question him you are told you consider yourself more Catholic than the pope. What a crock. Likewise, over at NOR, Arthur Sippo waxes over the not-yet-realized fruits of V2 in a manner that out-preens even John Paul II and James Martin. Obama could not spin a better fiction. Preconciliar times may have been bad, but the attempted cure did not work, it only injected a new set of viruses. I have no desire to go the way of the SSPX, but man, these guys stretch the bounds of credibility. Fellay is the only "Catholic" cleric of the last few months whose speech is less opaque than tissue paper. I guess I should be euphoric Hilary will become a Doctor, right. That is a big deal. In the meantime, some realism along with a requisite dose of hope would do a lot more than umpteen nods to World Youth Days or a biblically-reinvigorated laity (outside of Scott Hahn's shadow, where?) But hey, it does keep the blood pumping.
Popes can be mistaken. Is that shocking? Infallible statements are rare. Pope John Paul II, when confronted with evidence of homosexuality and sexual abuse in the Church, did not believe it. To be fair, such accusations were used by the Communists to discredit their enemies, and he was certainly familiar with the pattern of trumped-up charges. He was also mistaken about Marcial Maciel, whom he continued to welcome at the Vatican long after red flags were first raised. Pope are human. They can be mistaken.
ReplyDeleteThe coddling of Queer Clergy has led to the destruction of the Faith of who-knows-how-many young adolescent males and has cost the Church over a Billion dollars and still the Catholic Church refuses to refuse sodomites admittance to its Seminaries guaranteeing a future filled with more sex crimes committed by Queer Clergy against young male souls whose lives will be ruined.
ReplyDeleteIf one wanted to destroy the Faith of young males, cultivating queer clergy would be among the most destructive of ways to do that.
The Church has been feminised and homosexualised to near extinction and yet the real problem is the SSPX.
Dear JFM. The V2 church does more than shock; it errs in what it promotes as orthodox teaching.
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Catechism gives scandal.
I have been writing about that ever since it was officially promulgated but I never get a serious rely when I send my objections to others. My objections are routinely gainsaid - if they are ever responded to at all.
Several months ago I sent an email to my Bishop and received no reply.
C'est la vie.
The V2 Catholic Catechism is the first in history to identify one person as one who gives scandal and the same Catechism teaches that one who gives scandal commits a grave fault.
And who is that person it has, for the first time in history, singled-out as one who gave scandal?
It is the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. He is singled-out, twice, for that grave fault.
I wrote about it on my crummy blog:
http://tinyurl.com/7flszxf
But, so what? So what if our Catholic Catechism singles-out Jesus as giving scandal - two times?
The real problem is The SSPX