Friday, December 05, 2014

All we really want is cool, clear water ...


So why should we even be seeing headlines like the one below?

"Interview with Cardinal Scola on the Synod: - 'I believe the Pope won't take the position allowing communion for "remarried" divorced'" (Rorate Caeli, December 2, 2014).

"I believe"? Really?

The Catholic Faith is the deepest joy of my life. Holy Mother Church is HOME, and I couldn't possibly love Her more. But I have to admit: these headlines are becoming a wet blanket -- no offense to the one who posted this one: he's just doing his job, and we don't want to stick our heads in the sand; we want to be informed; but I'm sure that even he would admit that it's becoming tiresome.

There's an old song by the Sons of the Pioneers about the American West called "Cool Water," which depicts the thirst of the weary travelers for "cool, clear water." All we pew peasants want is the cool, clear water of clarity. We have great lakes of clear water in Catholic tradition; but contemporary sound-bite recensions of the Faith sometimes come out sounding more like shallow puddles of muddy water.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for echoing the thoughts of so many others.

Over at CT R.R. Reno has a long piece on Francis. It is capped with this sidebar item: "Westmont College president Gayle Beebe said, 'I find in him a remarkable capacity to recognize people who have put their faith in Christ differently.' He added, 'The focus is on Christ, not on the way churches construct that understanding. I hope that can be our focus as well.'"

Rather incredible statement there in a magazine that is supposed to be concerned with doctrinal truth. But what is truth, right? A commentator says this, which captures for me the obvious problem that belies all that Reno writes:

"Imagine a pope liked more by non-Catholics and Catholics that don’t practice the faith than devout Catholics that actually go to Mass and try to live according to the dictates of the Catholic Church. That my friend is this latest pope. Sad and depressing, but this too shall pass."

Right now I think Francis is as demoralizing a phenomenon in a different sense as the abusive priest scandal has been. The latter was a moral crisis, but this one is a doctrinal one. Now laymen can't count on the institutional Church for transparency or integrity on either score it appears.

New Catholic said...

You do realize Scola is kind of firing a warning shot, right? This is as harsh and ironic a criticism as a Ciellino would do in public...

Pertinacious Papist said...

I certainly got the irony, reading his words.

Thanks, NC

Johannes de Silentio said...

Observe: cool, clear water, for a change...

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/3554/pope_warns_against_glossing_over_the_differences_in_ecumenical_dialogue_at_the_expense_of_the_truth.aspx