Saturday, October 24, 2015

Leading from behind the people of God: Which people? Which God?

"In a keynote talk of the utmost importance delivered at the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the synod of bishops, Francis spoke about 'synodality in the church,' the synod’s place within this, the relation between the synod and the Successor of Peter, and reminded the synod fathers that he has the last word," reported Gerard O'Connell in America magazine recently.

Whatever the Holy Father's last word may be, even if it were the most stalwart defence of the historic Catholic magisterial teaching, the "damage has already been done," as some of my closest colleagues have been pointing out recently. At the very least, the egregious mishandling of the synodal process has permitted a Pandora's Box of confusion to be opened, aiding and abetting and empowering the revisionist faction within the Synod.

No less concerning is the fact that the Holy Father appears to endorse the "decentralization" of the Church and the authorizing of local bishops to work out their own "pastoral" solutions to the issues of Holy Communion for the divorced and re-married and -- apparently most important for them -- those involved in actively sexual gay relationships. Indeed, as Rorate notes, the Pope clearly endorsed the doctrinal "devolution" to the bishops' conferences as early as 2013 in Evangelii Gaudium.

But as Damian Thompson suggests, the Holy Father, in his recent keynote speech, delivered as the synod was entering its last week on October 17th, seemed to be signaling that the decentralisation will be imposed from above:
While deliberately referring to himself as ‘Bishop of Rome’, to underline his solidarity with local bishops everywhere (as opposed to the Roman Curia – i.e., ‘the Vatican’), he invoked the power of the Supreme Pontiff to overrule mere cardinals. ‘The synod journey culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, called to speak authoritatively as the Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,’ he said.
Thus, in the worst possible scenario, the Holy Father would invoke his Petrine authority, not to impose the perennial teaching of the Church on the matters at issue, but in order to impose a decentralized, democratized vision of ecclesiology in which dioceses occupied by revisionist ordinaries will be permitted to cobble together their own version of what constitutes Catholic faith and morals.

From the very first moment I beheld the newly elected Pope Francis appear on the balcony in the Vatican and bow toward the assembled people in St. Peter's Square and ask them for THEIR blessing upon HIM, I was reminded of similar scenes I had seen in my local parish after being received into the Church -- scenes in which the pastor put himself on the level of the people and asked them for their blessing, which they often made with upraised arms in a gesture reminiscent of the German Hitlergruß. What lay behind such impulses? Nothing less, it seemed to me, than a reluctance to wield the authority it was their right and responsibility to bear as the anointed shepherds of God's flock. Holy Father, please. Courage! Lead from the front!

2 comments:

  1. The One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church was established by Jesus as a Church with a Three-fold (Or, Trinitarian) aspect; It is a Church that is Legislative, Juridical, and Coercitive and it is now essentially invisibilium outside of the Traditional Orders who maintain union with the Pope.

    The Church refuses to judge – this began with the opening speech at Vatican Two which was written by Montini

    The Church refuses to Legislate effectively – The New Canon Law, for example, allows Communion for heretics without first requiring them to repudiate their heresies and that is a huge change from the 1917 Code.

    The Church acting corrective? Please…..

    ABS strictly follows the great advice in Commonitorium by Saint Vincent of Lerins but ABS also knows the Shadow Church, which refuses to actualise its Trinitarian aspects, is a sick joke that will be loved by the world, our ancient and permanent enemy

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  2. "Pray for me"

    Our Pope and Our Cross is an AntiChrist and his haughtiness is a malignancy on this Divinely Constituted Office. There are some excellent blogs deconstructing his malign claims and putrid praxis and this link completely eviscerates his praxis of asking Non-Catholis to pray for him while he refuses to bless them

    http://en.denzingerbergoglio.com/2015/10/24/are-all-prayers-agreeable-to-god/

    Catholic World Report has a piece up by a Professor trying to convince us that Franciscus is aught but reconnecting with Tradition with his push for a Synodal Church but that is a tear-out-your-hair claim completely disconnected from reality.

    The One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church never had a synodal process that included debating settled doctrine, a Synodal process where Bishops publicly promoted heresy BUT if it ever did - and it didn't - The Heretical bastids would have been excommunicated , not been allowed to continue active in their Sees to poison the minds and souls of the poor sheep.

    Isn't it interesting that it was Paul VI who instituted the Synod as a vehicle for the continuing revolution in that it is a perpetual committee process in which the dutiful willful revolutionary can be expected to persevere and "win," whereas we all know - admit it - that there will not be one, not one, revolutionary triumph allowed to be debated by a Synod.

    Paul knew what he was doing when, out of the blue, he commanded Cardinals 80 years of age to retire. O, and who was 80 at the time? Men like the great Cardinal Ottaviani whose pellucid intellect them was as sharp and clear as a spring day on Mount Washington, and Paul forced him to retire only a month or so after writing to him personally congratulating him on his work and his great intellect etc

    Paul got to replace those faithful Cardinals with his men and so preserve and perpetuate the revolution that had happened within the form of Catholicism.

    Do YOU think a Synod will be allowed to question the Lil' Licit Liturgy, Altar Girls, Communion in the hand, Disappeared Holy Days, New Sacramental Rites etc etc?

    No, only that which is commanded by Jesus is allowed to be considered open for discussion....

    There are men who are willfully blind to what is happening right before their eyes and they are neither virtuous or worthy of the name, man.

    The Church ABS was born into is invisibilium and within the prelature there is not one - not one - man with a puissant possession of Tradition such that it could be applied as a force against our Inertia Into Indifferentism.

    We are toast, left to our own crummy devices to seek Salvation and Sanctification virtually on our own because the Church really doesn't give a shit about us

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