Musings of a Pertinacious Papist

Saturday, April 09, 2016

Echeverria: Three significant problems in Amoris Laetitia

Eduardo Echeverria, "Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia and St. John Paul II" (CWR, April 9, 2016):

I think that Chapter 8, "Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness", is the most problematic section of Amoris Laetitia (AL) for three reasons:

1) Pope Francis seems almost (not quite, but almost) incapable of acknowledging that an individual is sinfully responsible for rejecting the truth of marriage and family. Yes, he upholds the objectivity of God’s “primordial loving plan” (9), of the deepest reality of marriage (AL 10), grounded in the order of creation. Indeed, Pope Francis’s reflections on marriage and family life in AL 8-30 are beautiful, insightful, and, yes, deeply biblical. Furthermore, his reflections on the tradition of magisterial teaching regarding marriage and family life in light of creation, fall into sin, and redemption in AL 61-88, provide a catechesis that is foundational to our thinking as Christians. Yet he almost never holds a person totally accountable for resisting the evidence of creation about marriage (see Rom 1:18ff.). It’s almost as if everyone is invincibly ignorant.

2) In light of 1), furthermore, he puts a heavy emphasis on the distinction between subjective and objective morality, that is, questions regarding moral culpability, on the one hand, and the objective standards of right and wrong on the other, and hence he seeks to find mitigating circumstances that absolve a person of full responsibility for his actions (AL 302).

3) He distinguishes (following John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio) between the different concepts of the “law of gradualness” (which he affirms, AL 295), which is a step-by-step moral advance, and the “gradualness of the law,” meaning thereby that there are “different degrees or forms of precept in God's law for different individuals and situations” (FC 34), which he says that he rejects. With respect to the law of gradualness, Francis urges us, in view of the undeniable challenges of our time, “to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden” (AL 37). He adds, “This is not a ‘gradualness of law’ but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law” (AL 295).

And yet in AL 303 and 305, he suggests that a person not only may be doing the best that he can, but also that such acts therefore are not sinful and hence are right for that person, because the person, in his mitigating circumstances, fulfills the ideal as applied by that individual in those limiting circumstances. This way of thinking was unavoidable because throughout AL Francis apparently emphasizes the “ideal” nature of the normative order of marriage and family life.

But how can God be asking one to do X when X is contrary to his will? The pope must think that X is not contrary to the will of God in that specific circumstance, but only contrary to God's ideal will which the person is inculpable for not attaining.

So, with all due respect to Francis, I think that he does imply support for the “gradualness of the law” and hence by implication opens the door to a “situation ethics.” He says, “Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal” (AL 303). It is hard to see why a person needs the grace of the sacrament of confession, and hence the Lord’s mercy, if, as Francis suggests here, that person is doing the will of God.

Friday, April 08, 2016

St Thomas Aquinas House: A traditional Catholic religious community of men in the Archd. of Detroit

Fr. Z reports this on his blog, commenting:

From a priest friend who passed this along to me:
Would you please ask Fr. Z if he might be willing to feature our new experimental, extraordinary form community on his web blog? We have Archbishop Vigneron’s endorsement for now, but need to grow. I think something like this happening in Detroit will be big news for a lot of people.

Our website is as follows:

www.traditionalcanons.org
Brick by brick, friends.

One of our former seminarians is a member of this community and once invited me to Vespers and dinner at their center in metro Detroit. I must say that I was as impressed with their culinary expertise as much as I was with their Vespers in chanted Latin. Beautiful!

O tempora ...

Our only hope

Prepare yourselves. Satan's time is coming to an end. Christ's time lies ahead. In the meantime, a collapse is coming and things are going to get a little bit crazy. Guard your hearts.

Thursday, April 07, 2016

"Don't judge the Muslims that you know by Islam and don't judge Islam by the Muslims that you know"

This terrific, well-organized and highly informative site on Islam just came to my attention at TheReligionofPeace.com. The banner across the masthead reads: "What makes Islam so different?" Good question.

In their "About Us" page, the site owners say the following:

TheReligionofPeace.com is a pluralistic, non-partisan site concerned with Islam's true political and religious teachings according to its own texts. The purpose is to underscore the threat that Islam poses to human dignity and freedom, part of which includes documenting the violence and dysfunction that ensues as a direct consequence of this religion's supremacist teachings.

TROP is not associated with any organization. The site does not promote any religion, but it is not hostile to religion. We generally support the rights of atheists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, homosexuals, women, Muslims and anyone else on the planet to live as they wish without violating the rights of others.

TheReligionofPeace.com strongly condemns any attempt to harm or harass any Muslim anywhere in the world because of their religion. Every human being is entitled to be treated as an individual and judged only by his or her own words and deeds

Yet the site doesn't pull any punches when it comes to reporting what Islam teaches in its own texts (Qur'an, Hadith, Sira, Sunnah, etc.). For example, on a page entitled What Does Islam Teach About Violence?, one reads learns that there are at least 109 verses in the Qur'an that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic. One also learns that "unlike nearly all the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Qur'an are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by historical context contained in the surrounding text....

Furthermore, the site maintains a frequently updated page listing Islamic acts of terror committed during the last 30 days, as well as terrorist acts committed back to the year 2001. The list is startling. For example, during the last 30 days, it reports 105 Islamic attacks in 21 countries, in which 787 people were killed and 2748 injured! Even then it cautions that the site does not catch all attacks and that not all are immediately reported.

There is a lot of material here -- on the life of Muhammad (including comparisons to Jesus), on the Qur'an (including 10 reasons Why the Qur'an is Not from Allah), Islam (and "Ten Obvious Reasons Why Islam is Not a Religion of Peace"), and a comparison, "Jesus and Muhammad, Islam and Christianity: A Side-by-Side Comparison" - and much, much more.

Spend some time here and you'll learn something.

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Retired Corpus Christi Bishop Rene Gracida: A virus invaded the Catholic Church in the wake of Vatican II

An especially interesting interview because of his remarks comparing the old and new forms of the liturgy:

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Tridentine Masses coming this week to metro Detroit and east Michigan

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Sunday

Sun. 04/03 7:30 AM and 10:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 45 minutes before and after Masses) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Please note that the St. Joseph's SSPX parish that is listed in Richmond has moved to it's new building in Ray Township, at 57575 Romeo Plank Rd., Ray Twp., MI 48096) (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)
Sun. 04/03 8:00 and 10:30AM Low Mass (Confessions 1/2 hour before Mass: call beforehand) at St. Ann's Church, Livonia [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)
Sun. 04/03 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)
Sun. 04/03 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)
Sun. 04/03 9:45 AM: High Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)
Sun. 04/03 3:00 PM: High Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Canada (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class) -- Note special time. The Divine Mercy Chaplet will be prayed at 3:00 PM, followed by Holy Mass. Confessions will be heard before Mass.
Sun. 04/03 3:00 PM High Mass St. Matthew Catholic Church, Flint (Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday - 1st class)

Monday
Mon. 04/04 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred) - 1st class)
Mon. 04/04 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred) - 1st class)
Mon. 04/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred) - 1st class)
Mon. 04/04 7:00 PM: High Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred) - 1st class)

Tuesday
Tue. 04/05 7:00 AM High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Vincent Ferrer - 3rd class)
Tue. 04/05 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (St. Vincent Ferrer - 3rd class)
Tue. 04/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Canada (St. Vincent Ferrer - 3rd class)
Tue. 04/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Vincent Ferrer - 3rd class)

Wednesday
Wed. 04/06 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class)
Wed. 04/06 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Feria - 4th class)
Wed. 04/06 7:00 PM: High Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class)

Thursday
Thu. 04/07 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class, or Jesus Christ the High Priest - 3rd class)
Thu. 04/07 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Feria - 4th class, or Jesus Christ the High Priest - 3rd class)
Thu. 04/07 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class, or Jesus Christ the High Priest - 3rd class)

Friday
Fri. 04/08 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class)
Fri. 04/08 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Feria - 4th class)
Fri. 04/08 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (Feria - 4th class)
Fri. 04/08 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria - 4th class)

Saturday

Sat. 04/09 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 1/2 hour before Mass: call beforehand) at St. Ann's Church, Livonia [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Our Lady on Saturday - 4th class)
Sat. 04/09 8:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (Our Lady on Saturday - 4th class)
Sat. 04/09 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Our Lady on Saturday - 4th class)
Sat. 04/09 6:00 PM Tridentine Mass at SS. Cyril & Methodius Slovak Catholic Church, Sterling Heights (Our Lady on Saturday - 4th class)

Sunday
Sun. 04/10 7:30 AM and 10:00 AM: Low Mass (Confessions 45 minutes before and after Masses) at St. Joseph's Church, Richmond [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 8:00 and 10:30AM Low Mass (Confessions 1/2 hour before Mass: call beforehand) at St. Ann's Church, Livonia [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 9:45 AM: High Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class) - Celebrant: Fr. Paul de Soza, MC. REception and talk after Mass: "Ways to Deepen Your Spiritual Life"
Sun. 04/10 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Alphonsus Church, Windsor, Canada (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 12:30 PM: Old St. Patrick's, Ann Arbor (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 3:00 PM: Low Mass (call ahead for Confession times, 989-892-5936) at Infant of Prague, Bay City [NB: See note at bottom of this post about SSPX sites.]* (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)
Sun. 04/10 3:00 PM High Mass St. Matthew Catholic Church, Flint (2nd Sunday after Easter - 2nd class)

* NB: The SSPX chapels among those Mass sites listed above are posted here because the Holy Father has announced that "those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins." These chapels are not listed among the approved parishes and worship sites on archdiocesan websites.

Tridentine Community News - Mother Angelica; EWTN Live rescheduled; Jackson TLM billboard; Sacra Liturgía Conference; Véterum Sapiéntia Conference; Miles Christi TLM next Sunday; Mass schedule

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (April 3, 2016):

April 3, 2016 – Low Sunday / Divine Mercy Sunday

Mother Angelica’s Legacy

Last Sunday’s passing of EWTN foundress Mother Angelica has prompted many recollections of her countless accomplishments. One that hasn’t received much mention deserves commendation here: her bold and unique-for-the-times use of Latin in EWTN’s televised Masses. Arguably this precedent made it easier for many parishes to reintroduce Latin for at least the Sanctus and Agnus Dei of their own Masses. In pre-EWTN days, it was almost unheard-of to encounter Latin in an Ordinary Form Mass unless the entire Mass was celebrated in that language.

Mother Angelica unapologetically supported traditional Catholic practices before the Internet provided the sense of community that encourages the faithful nowadays. May God reward her abundantly.

EWTN Live to be Rescheduled

Understandably in light of Mother Angelica’s passing, the episode of EWTN Live featuring Extraordinary Faith had to be postponed. Originally intended to air this past Wednesday, March 30, it will be rescheduled for a date several weeks in the future. Once the date has been set, it will be reported here.

Jackson Tridentine Mass Billboard

Leave it to the overachievers in Jackson, Michigan to try something bold to promote their Extraordinary Form Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church. A billboard was recently put up along I-94 near Jackson, with a photo of the recent Pontifical Mass with Bishop Earl Boyea. Visiting altar servers James Murphy and this writer are in the photo. Savvy readers of this column will recall this advertising technique paying big dividends for the Pittsburgh Tridentine Mass in the 1990s, helping it to become the largest Latin Mass community in North America. [Photo above by Jeff Mausolf]

Sacra Liturgía 2016 Conference

In just a few years of existence, Sacra Liturgía has grown to become the largest and most frequently-held liturgical conference in the world. The 2016 event will be held Tuesday-Friday, July 5-8 in London, England. Talks will be held at Imperial College, and liturgies will be held at the London Oratory and the Anglican Ordinariate’s Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory. The focus is on the Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form celebrated in Latin.

Helmed once again by world-renowned liturgical expert Dom Alcuin Reid, Sacra Liturgía promises world-class liturgical and musical experiences, along with an impressive array of speakers including Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone; and U.K. Anglican Ordinariate Ordinary Msgr. Keith Newton. Conferences such as this are inspiring and recommended to anyone with an interest in reverent liturgy.

Further information and registration details are at: www.sacraliturgiauk.org.

Véterum Sapiéntia Conference

Another interesting conference is coming up at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, Sunday-Saturday, July 31-August 6. Named Véterum Sapiéntia after the 1962 Apostolic Constitution promoting the study of Latin by seminarians, the symposium is an immersion in conversational and liturgical Latin. All talks are conducted entirely in Latin. The conference is intended solely for priests, seminarians, and men and women religious with an intermediate to advance level of familiarity with Latin.

More information is available at: www.veterumsapientia.com.

Reminder: Miles Christi Mass at OCLMA Next Sunday

A reminder that next Sunday, April 10, the 9:45 AM Oakland County Latin Mass Association Mass at the Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Bloomfield Hills will be celebrated by Miles Christi priest Fr. Paul de Soza. To our knowledge this will be the first public Tridentine High Mass to be celebrated by a member of the Miles Christi religious order. After Mass, everyone is invited to a reception at which Fr. Paul will speak on “Ways to Deepen Your Spiritual Life”.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 04/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary [transferred])
Tue. 04/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (St. Vincent Ferrer, Confessor)
Sun. 04/10 9:45 AM: High Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart (Second Sunday After Easter) - Celebrant: Fr. Paul de Soza, MC. Reception and talk after Mass: “Ways to Deepen Your Spiritual Life”

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for April 3, 2016. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Friday, April 01, 2016

Benedict's Compendium, the CCC, and YouCat compared

An erudite reader sent me this yesterday:

In my usual scavenging I came up with a copy of YouCat. It is truly awful. When I compared it with Benedict's 2006 Compendium of the Catechism, I immediately recognized how good Benedict's work is. It is theological throughout and hangs together as an integrated text. Its language is clearer than YouCat. When you compare "transubstantiation" or "passions" Benedict wins.

Recently Robert Hickson released a damning indictment of the CCC which Fr. John Hardon did not want published while he was still alive. Hardon claimed that the final text was not Catholic. The French firebrand Abbe Georges de Nantes published a book damning the 1992 catechism listing 12 heresies he found therein. When Benedict's Compendium appeared in 2006, his newsletter the Catholic Counter Reform declared that Benedict's work corrected all of the errors in the 1992 catechism.

There is an excellent doctrinal critique of YouCat at Faithful Answers website. It is regrettabble that the Compendium was published by the USCCB as an official document and has never received the circulation it deserves. Ignatius Press should publish it in a more popular format and remove YouCat from circulation. YouCat panders to youth trying to be hip and dumbs down its theology. It is a true horror.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

Two Easter Vigils, two popes, two visions of Europe, one rooted in Christianity, the other deracinated by multiculturalism and obsequity toward Isalm

Monsieur l'Abbé, "Guest Op-Ed: Fighting for the soul of Europe" (Rorate Caeli, March 29, 2016 [Advisory: Rules 7-9]). Excerpts:

[In 2008] I had the good fortune ... to attend all of the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum and I was in Saint Peter’s Basilica on the evening of the Easter Vigil when Pope Benedict XVI baptized Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian journalist. Allam was raised a Muslim but from an early age was educated in Catholic schools. At the age of twenty he moved to Italy and became increasingly critical of Islam.

The baptism of Allam was a reminder of the expectations that Europe should have for those who are privileged to call Europe their home. Living in Europe means an acceptance and respect for her Christian origins and history. Living in Europe means throwing off the backward cultural thinking of a religious sect forged in a seventh-century desert. To be European is to accept that which is ever ancient and ever new. All of these considerations were implicit that Easter when Allam publically rejected his former beliefs and recognized Christ and His Church as the true and only vehicle for salvation.

The New Mandatum

Contrast the Triduum in 2008 with the one that took place just last week. This year, the Holy Thursday foot washing ceremony (known also as the Mandatum) consisted of Pope Francis washing the feet of a group of Catholic and non-Catholic refugees. In fact, with impeccable timing, the pope washed the feet of three Muslim refugees only two days after more than thirty people were killed and three hundred were injured in suicide bombings in Brussels, a municipal region whose most popular name for newborn boys is Mohammed.[1]

Before Lent this year, the pope issued a decree changing the Holy Thursday practice which had previously only admitted men for the Mandatum. Now, the decree explained that pastors may “choose a small group of persons who are representative of the entire people of God.”[2] ...

While this new decree concerning the Mandatum allows the pope, in good conscience, to continue washing the feet of women, he still manages to disobey his own decree by washing the feet of those who do not even believe in Christ....

For Francis however, these considerations are no more than semantics. “All of us together: Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelical. But [we are] brothers, children of the same God” he said on Holy Thursday.[4] ...

A Radical Juxtaposition

At the heart of the juxtaposition of the Easter Vigil of 2008 and this year’s Holy Thursday is the radical difference between the two possible approaches to the problem of Islam in Europe. In 2008, Benedict XVI personified a Church that was confident in her identity. For him, the Church is the only force that can offer transcendence to a secular Europe: “[The Church] must first do decisively what is her very own, she must fulfill the task in which her identity is based: to make God known and to proclaim his Kingdom.”[7] She is also the only force strong and confident enough to enlighten the irrationality of Islam ....

In order for her to survive, Ratzinger has argued, Europe must acknowledge and appreciate her Christian origins. It is only in Christ and His Church that Europe can find her identity, and if this identity is lost, Europe remains vulnerable to the onslaught of any number of extremist ideologies. Europe can only be Europe when she embraces the history of her art, history, music, and culture: “The banishment of Christian roots does not reveal itself as the expression of a higher tolerance . . . but rather as the absolutizing of a pattern of thought and of life that are radically opposed, among other things, to the other historical cultures of humanity.”[9] ...

By contrast ... [s]ince his election in 2013, [Pope Francis'] preference for ministry to the “peripheries” and the marginalized has left Europe as an undefended afterthought....

Each time that Francis ventures out to the peripheries he leaves the door to the Western world open and vulnerable to attack....

Less than a week after the Inauguration of Pope Francis on March 19, 2013, Magdi Allam announced that he was leaving the Church in order “to protest its soft stance against Islam.”[11] It was not by chance that this act coincided with the election of Francis. “The ‘papolatry’ that has inflamed the euphoria for Francis I and has quickly archived [not 'achieved', but 'ARCHIVed'] Benedict XVI was the last straw in an overall framework of uncertainty and doubts about the Church,” he wrote.[12] .... Read more >>

[1] http://www.yenisafak.com/en/life/mohammad-most-popular-name-for-babies-in-london-for-fourth-time-2229871
[2]http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20160106_commento-decreto-lavanda-piedi_en.html
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/24/world/europe/ap-eu-rel-vatican-holy-thursday.html?_r=0
[7] Ratzinger, Joseph. A Turning Point for Europe?: The Church in the Modern World: Assessment and Forecast. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2010), 178.
[9] http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/cardinal-ratzinger-on-europe-s-crisis-of-culture.html
[11] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/magdi-allam-muslim-convert-leaves-catholic-church_n_2950937.html
[12] Ibid.

St. John Bosco on the diabolical impostiture of Mohammedanism

St. John Bosco, [the section on Islam from] "Il Cattolico, Istruito nella sua Religione, Trattenimenti di un Padre di Famiglia co' suoi Figliuoli, secondo I bisogni del tempo," Epilogati dal Sac. Bosco Giovanni (Torrino 1853), translated by Francesca Romana as "The Catholic educated in his religion. Conversations with the Father of a Family and his beloved sons, in relation to the needs of the present day. Summarized by Giovanni Bosco, priest (Turin, 1953). Via Adfero, "St. John Bosco on Mohammedanism" (Rorate Caeli, March 31, 2016):

Conversation XIII [Pages 50 to 56]

Father: Before talking to you about the religions separated at a certain point from the Roman Catholic Church, I want to draw your attention to the religions that do not have the characteristics of the divinity in them and which we call false religions. They range from Judaism to Idolatry, to Mohammedanism to the Christian sects professed by the Schismatic Greeks, Valdese, Anglicans and Protestants.

Regarding Idolatry, I think there is no need to discuss this with you, since nowadays it does not exist, with the exception of very few countries where the light of the Gospel has still not penetrated.

Regarding Judaism, I think I have already spoken sufficiently in the first part of these conversations.

If you like, I’ll now tell you about the others, starting with Mohammedanism.

Son: Yes, yes, first of all, tell us what Mohammedanism means?

F. Mohammedanism is a collection of maxims extracted from various religions, which, if practiced, bring about the destruction of every moral principle.

S. In which countries is this Mohammedanism professed?

F. It is professed in a large part of Asia as well as part of Africa.

S. Who started Mohammedanism?

F. Mohammedanism was started by Mohamed.

S. Oh! We’d really like to hear about this Mohamed. Tell us everything you know about him.

F. It would take too long to tell you all the stories about this famous impostor. But I’ll tell you who he was and how he came to establish his Religion.

In the year 570, Mohamed was born into a poor family, of a Jewish mother and gentile father, in Mecca an Arabian city not far from the Red Sea. In search of glory and desirous of bettering his conditions, he wandered around several countries and managed in Damascus to become the agent of a merchant’s widow who afterwards married him. He was cunning enough to take advantage of his infirmities as well as her ignorance, to establish a religion. Suffering from epilepsy, male caduco, he claimed his frequent falls were ecstasies wherein he had conversations with the Angel Gabriel.

S. What an imposter to deceive people like that! Did he also try to work miracles to support his predication?

F. Mohamed couldn’t work any miracles to support his religion, as he was not sent by God. God is the sole author of miracles. However, as he claimed himself greater than Jesus Christ, he was asked to work miracles in the same way [as Jesus]. He arrogantly replied that the miracles had [already] been worked by Jesus Christ and that he [himself] had been called by God to reestablish the religion by force.

Another George: Read my lips, no change in doctrine

Back to carrier pigeons again from Guy Noir - Private Eye, who sent us the link to George Weigel's piece, "Things That Can't Change" (First Things, March 29, 2016) with these words:

George Weigel. Both very good and very, very limited in his sight when it comes to Vatican II.

Noir singles out the following excerpts:

"When the Second Vatican Council was putting the finishing touches on one of its key documents, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), Pope Paul VI proposed that it include a statement that the pope is “accountable to the Lord alone.”

The suggestion was referred to the Council’s Theological Commission, which, perhaps to Pope Paul’s surprise, flatly rejected it: the Roman Pontiff, the Theological Commission noted, “is . . . bound to revelation itself, to the fundamental structure of the Church, to the sacraments, to the definitions of earlier Councils, and other obligations too numerous to mention.”

Noir writes: "This is heartening. But then this":

"By declining Paul VI’s suggestion about a papacy “accountable to the Lord alone,” Vatican II made clear that there are limits to what popes can do. On the bottom-line matters at issue in the two recent Synods, for example, no pope can change the settled teaching of the Church on the indissolubility of marriage, or on the grave danger of receiving holy communion unworthily, because these are matters of what the Council’s Theological Commission called “revelation itself:” to be specific, Matthew 19.6 and 1 Corinthians 11.27-29. Nor has Pope Francis indicated in any public statement that he intends any deviation from what is written by revelation into the constitution of the Church." [emphasis added]

Then Noir comments:

No. He hasn't. In fact he has tartly reminded hearers he can recite the Nicene Creed in good faith. That would be reassuring. Only as John O'Malley has long argued, Vatican II was a "language event." The teachings don't need to be "changed," if they are verbally compromised by language games and pastoral gamesmanship. They can remain chiseled in stone for all to see, but if the people reading and affirming them apply different meanings, what does it all matter.

With communions for a moment, and witness the longstanding argument about whether Mormons are Christians: "Whatever do you mean. Just listen to their orthodox affirmations! And of course they no longer practice polygamy!" When they mean very different things by shared vocabularies, and they in fact do teach polygamy...

This may sound like a huge leap, but I don't think it is quite that huge. We already have a Catholic like Stephen Webb holding up Moron Christology as helpful! If mortal sin and worthy reception are remotely apprehensible concepts, the proposed pastoral changes are the same sort of linguistic slight-of-hands. Enabling people to receive communion unworthily is not merely unhelpful but unscriptural.

As is, ironically, much of the current theological verbalese on Scripture. For the umpteenth time I suggest anyone interested read the last couple of chapters of George Kelly's The New Biblical Theorists to witness in what short time the "orthodox" ideas about Scripture, based on 1960s conciliar rhetoric, have fundamentally shifted to allow familiar phrases to mean unorthodox things.

The concern of conservatives for the last fifty years has been about officially maintaining doctrine, yes, but also about the teaching and reception of gospel truth. The problem of the last fifty years is that ever since Vatican II those two categories can be talked about as two separate things. And that is why all the reassurances of George Weigel sound very much like the reassurances of another George saying 'Read My Lips: No New Taxes.'

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Mother Angelica? Read Raymond Arroyo's book

Raymond Arroyo, Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles (Image Reprint ed., 2007). And don't forget to pray for her; I'm sure we can count on hers.

And here she is on a roll against liberalism in the Church:

J.I. Packer: "Without the Resurrection, the Bottom Drops Out of Christianity"

The grotto of Gethsemane, where it is believed that Jesus was arrested
following Judas' betrayal. Photo by Gary Hardman
Posted by Aaron Armstron HERE:

Suppose that Jesus, having died on the cross, had stayed dead. Suppose that, like Socrates or Confucius, he was now no more than a beautiful memory. Would it matter? We should still have his example and teaching; wouldn’t that be enough?

Enough for what?

Not for Christianity.

Had Jesus not risen, but stayed dead, the bottom would drop out of Christianity, for four things would then be true.

First, to quote Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:17: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

Second, there is then no hope for our rising either; we must expect to stay dead too.

Third, if Jesus Christ is not risen, then he is not reigning and will not return and every single item in the [Apostles’] Creed after “suffered and was buried” will have to be struck out.

Fourth, Christianity cannot be what the first Christians thought it was—fellowship with a living Lord who is identical with the Jesus of the Gospels. The Jesus of the Gospels can still be your hero, but he cannot be your Savior. . . .

[Jesus’ resurrection] marked Jesus out as Son of God (Romans 1:4); it vindicated his righteousness (John 16:10); it demonstrated victory over death (Acts 2:24); it guaranteed the believer’s forgiveness and justification (1 Corinthians 15:17; Romans 4:25), and it brings him into the reality of resurrection life now (Romans 6:4).

Marvelous!

You could speak of Jesus’ rising as the most hopeful—hope-full—thing that has ever happened—and you would be right!

Monday, March 28, 2016