The opaque influence of the Francis Effect descends on otherwise fairly common-sensical people, wherein they suddenly adopt Franciscan caricatures of faithful Cathollics that may be unrecognizable to others, limping them in with the evangelistic strategies of Fred Phelps versus Frank Sheed:
A quite conservative voice like Fr. L goes so far as to suggest that many of our conservative talking points are really just party prejudices, and we need to realize we are all essentially just the same in our wants, hopes, and dreams. A rather dramatic Big Tent recasting of the last 30+ years of ecclesicastical history, but in modern Catholicism we have to make sure we are all of one voice with Rome and Papa Whomever, even if Rome can't maintain one voice from a papacy to the next. Sorry if that's disrespectful, but so is a dizzying PR effort that asks us to stop thinking linearly. "...a curious mind and a child like spirit..." sound EXACTLY like a mushy Anglican mantra, or maybe a United Methodist one: 'Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors anyone? ... But if the Pope calls for it, we'll just photoshop previous decades, a la Stalin's preferred mode of message management.
Allen has referred to the “tribalism” in the American Catholic church, and “tribe” is the right term. The “liberals” and “conservatives” each have their own colleges, publishing houses, theologians, newspapers, bloggers etc. etc. and in through these tribalistic channels we bolster our own opinions not always by strength of argument or example, but by throwing stones over the parapet at our perceived enemies. We must somehow move forward not through some mushy Anglican type via media but by a genuine, heartfelt return to the gospel ... The more we draw closer to him and forget our prejudices and draw closer to him with a repentant heart, a curious mind and a child like spirit, the more we will move away from our own tribe and from any tribe and walk humbly with our God. Why is that so hard? Because to do so we have to admit that we perhaps don’t have all the answers and that we still have something to learn, and that we might just be able to learn from those we first thought were on the other side.
Fr Z typifies the position we are all forced into... Realizing "It’s not good news" and yet digressing into prolonged imaginings of all the possible good reasons we might have for watching a pope who -- the chief defender of Sacred Tradition -- kick a conservative cardinal to the curb, while in the meantime in the spotlight Kasperites do pirouettes to his happy applause. It reminds me of all the good motivations we are told Paul VI certainly had for diminishing the liturgy. Alice von Hilderbrad has written tellingly of that. The soul of Michael Davies must be shaking his head.
ReplyDeleteTo witness the extent to which people will jump the shark in interpreting this item:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2014/09/17/burkes-exile-to-malta-what-if-everyone-is-wrong/
The opaque influence of the Francis Effect descends on otherwise fairly common-sensical people, wherein they suddenly adopt Franciscan caricatures of faithful Cathollics that may be unrecognizable to others, limping them in with the evangelistic strategies of Fred Phelps versus Frank Sheed:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2014/09/19/why-dolan-and-francis-and-benedict-are-right/
A quite conservative voice like Fr. L goes so far as to suggest that many of our conservative talking points are really just party prejudices, and we need to realize we are all essentially just the same in our wants, hopes, and dreams. A rather dramatic Big Tent recasting of the last 30+ years of ecclesicastical history, but in modern Catholicism we have to make sure we are all of one voice with Rome and Papa Whomever, even if Rome can't maintain one voice from a papacy to the next. Sorry if that's disrespectful, but so is a dizzying PR effort that asks us to stop thinking linearly. "...a curious mind and a child like spirit..." sound EXACTLY like a mushy Anglican mantra, or maybe a United Methodist one: 'Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors anyone? ... But if the Pope calls for it, we'll just photoshop previous decades, a la Stalin's preferred mode of message management.
Allen has referred to the “tribalism” in the American Catholic church, and “tribe” is the right term. The “liberals” and “conservatives” each have their own colleges, publishing houses, theologians, newspapers, bloggers etc. etc. and in through these tribalistic channels we bolster our own opinions not always by strength of argument or example, but by throwing stones over the parapet at our perceived enemies. We must somehow move forward not through some mushy Anglican type via media but by a genuine, heartfelt return to the gospel ... The more we draw closer to him and forget our prejudices and draw closer to him with a repentant heart, a curious mind and a child like spirit, the more we will move away from our own tribe and from any tribe and walk humbly with our God. Why is that so hard? Because to do so we have to admit that we perhaps don’t have all the answers and that we still have something to learn, and that we might just be able to learn from those we first thought were on the other side.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2014/09/is-bishop-cupich-a-closet-anglican.html
I like Fr Z's take on this.
ReplyDeletehttp://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/09/the-possible-demotion-of-card-burke-wherein-fr-z-rants/
Fr Z typifies the position we are all forced into... Realizing "It’s not good news" and yet digressing into prolonged imaginings of all the possible good reasons we might have for watching a pope who -- the chief defender of Sacred Tradition -- kick a conservative cardinal to the curb, while in the meantime in the spotlight Kasperites do pirouettes to his happy applause. It reminds me of all the good motivations we are told Paul VI certainly had for diminishing the liturgy. Alice von Hilderbrad has written tellingly of that. The soul of Michael Davies must be shaking his head.
ReplyDelete