Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 1:00pm

What-if-the-Pope-Game Becomes Horrible Reality

Pope Benedict Miss Me Yet

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

Most Catholics are familiar with the what if the Pope does x, y or z game.  That game is when a non-Catholic asks a Catholic, “So, the Pope is infallible?  What if the Pope does”, and names a  hypothetical which is against the teaching of the Church.  The usual reaction of a Catholic is to say that couldn’t happen.  Based upon the track record of the Church that was a safe, and reassuring, answer.  Only a handful of Popes have come close to heresy, and the Church has quickly corrected the situation.  Thus most Catholics have not been unduly disturbed by the what if the Pope game.  I certainly was not, until the current Pontificate brought that silly anti-Catholic game into terrible reality.

Bad enough that Pope Francis set up a rigged Synod to spit in the face of Christ regarding His teaching as to the indissolubility of marriage.  Now, in order to accomplish this by the back door, he has proposed a direct attack on the office of the Pope itself, by allowing various segments of the Church to adopt their own solution to “problems” they confront.  How this proposal will play out in practice has been elaborated upon by his boy in Chicago, Archbishop Blasé Cupich, who is eager to allow Catholics in adulterous marriages and unrepentant “partnered” homosexuals to receive the Eucharist, all in the name of the primacy of personal conscience, no matter how ill formed.  Under this procedure the concept of sin flies right out the window along with 2000 years of the Church preaching the Gospel of Christ.  Thus the Catholic Church becomes the modern Episcopal Church with worse music and less ceremony.

The Laity have a duty, not a right but a duty, to stand up for Catholic orthodoxy when the Clergy fail to do so.  Friends, it is time to stand.

Damian Thompson at The Spectator grasps the gravity of the situation and thinks Francis will fail in his effort to reshape the Church:

 

Here’s why I think Francis’s decentralisation won’t work:

1. This is the synod at which the African church flexed its muscles. And it’s very conservative. Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea declared that the gay lobby was as much a threat to Christianity as ISIS. Sarah is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and therefore a top-ranking curial cardinal. But in his ‘intervention’ he wanted us to understand that he was speaking on behalf of nearly 200 million African Catholics. Whether he really represents them is a matter of opinion, but I doubt that many of them would dissent from the cardinal’s (literal) demonisation of homosexuality. NB: Sarah and other African cardinals aren’t saying ‘We’ll never tolerate communion for the divorced and remarried etc – but so long as you leave us alone, western dioceses can do their own thing’. They are saying the existing prohibitions must apply to the entire Catholic Church. Sarah regards Cardinal Kasper’s proposal to allow local bishops (meaning, in practice, local priests and probably divorcees themselves) to decide whether they can receive the sacrament as heretical.

2. The more liberal Synod Fathers, sensing that Pope Francis will use the papal trump card on their behalf, have all but endorsed a version of the Kasper plan – and may soon allow priests to put it into practice. Archbishop Blaise Cupich of Chicago (a Francis appointee who will soon be a cardinal) gave a press conference on Friday in which he said the following about communion for the divorced and civilly remarried: ‘[People must] come to a decision in good conscience…Conscience is inviolable and we have to respect that when making decisions and I’ve always done that.’ If by that he means that divorced Catholics can make up their own minds ‘in good conscience’ about receiving the sacrament, that puts him at odds with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, one of the signatories of a letter also signed by senior Vatican cardinals warning the Pope that his synod could tear the church apart. Of all the routes to schism, squabbling in public about Holy Communion is the quickest.

3. Pope Francis is no longer trusted by many conservative Catholics, and the number who don’t trust him has grown enormously since the synod process – which I think he has gravely mismanaged – began last October. Priests and lay Catholics who originally liked the man if not his liturgical style, and thought he was fundamentally conservative despite his impromptu ‘who am I to judge?’-style comments, now believe he threatens the unity of the church. Some liberals agree that disunity is inevitable but reckon the Holy Spirit has already factored that in: eventually, Africans will come to share their own compassionate impulses towards Catholics who have been forced by the turmoil of modern life to bypass church teaching on sexual behaviour. They’re hoping for a miracle, in other words. In the meantime, they have become the new ultramontanists.

4. It’s not entirely clear what the Pope means when he talks about ‘synodality’, but it certainly doesn’t involve empowering the curia. By brushing aside a letter from the prefects of the Congregations of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Secretariat for the Economy, Francis was distancing himself from the Vatican. He may not have decamped to Avignon, but his refusal to live in the papal apartments is looking more significant by the day. He has picked a fight with the Vatican – and that is something popes do at their peril. Cardinals Müller, Sarah and Pell (and other important cardinals too nervous to sign the letter) see the curia as the guardian of the Magisterium, the deposit of faith. It was to preserve that deposit that St John Paul II centralised the church. Conservatives interpret Francis’s speech on Saturday as a manifesto for reversing that process – and, at a deeper level, marginalising the legacy of John Paul, which contains teachings hard to reconcile with the current pope’s agenda. So, in their eyes, Francis is taking on the greatest pope in modern history – who, now that he has been canonised, is officially recognised as a supernatural presence in the life of the church. He may even be trying to change the nature of the papacy itself – and during the lifetime of his predecessor, who must be wondering whether God really intended him to resign.

Go here to read the rest.  May Christ come to our aid now that His Vicar has apparently lost his senses.

 

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Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 4:46am

I am not certain that the current Roman Pontiff had many senses to lose.
The Church hierarchy from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland and much of Latin America who have made their voices heard over the years have led us to this. Shame on them and on the clergy from the rest of the world who want to go along with them.
Wuerl’s fingerprints are all over Cupich’s appointment
Wuerl wants to give Communion to abortion supporters. He did when Kerry ran for President.

Ken
Ken
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 5:49am

It doesn’t really matter what comes out of the synod at this point every sodomite/div-re”married” saw Blase’s wink and lined up for communion. But I’m sure they have been doing that for a while with complete indifference from unfaithful EEMs or priests.

Paul W Primavera
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 5:50am

Eventually, sooner or later, this Argentinian Peronist Marxist will fail, whether now in this life or in the life to come.

Regular Guy Paul
Regular Guy Paul
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 7:27am

“The Laity have a duty, not a right but a duty, to stand up for Catholic orthodoxy when the Clergy fail to do so. Friends, it is time to stand.”

OK, I really don’t know what this looks like. What does this actually entail, down at the parish level where I live?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 8:12am

Yes we have a duty to respond. It is a little scary. Many of us have relatives and friends divorced remarried, living gay etc who look at this synod with gratitude. In our do do my duty I will require much much supernatural grace. My own tongue can be formidable but I don’t want my words and my attempts at “new” or re-evangelization to be from my own fear anger etc. but to be guided by God Himself. Sounds like a stretch. But
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
\

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 8:17am

OK, I really don’t know what this looks like. What does this actually entail, down at the parish level where I live?

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf would say that it entails making the Extraordinary Form ordinary again.

Maybe he’s right.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 8:45am

Pope Francis is merely trying to bring broad recognition that the Catholic Church largely became effectively Protestant following Vatican II. Vatican II was the death knell of this long term trend of devolution of Catholic doctrine beginning in the late 19th century with Modernism. In terms his presumed plan, I think, he would like to consolidate all Christian religions into a single entity similar to our Federal Government and the States. The sexual moral doctrine in this new arrangement would be based on an individual’s conscience which will be most pleasing to practically everyone. Peace and social justice will be the main goals of this new Christian configuration. God and Jesus will have a minimal a supporting role. The Bible and the Catechism will be rewritten to reflect consensus moral understanding. Everyone will be destined for heaven. Most will love it. Well, maybe not everyone, i.e, God and Jesus. But, so what, who cares about Them anymore? Lord have mercy.

Philip
Philip
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 9:17am

Ernst!
He is right!
Step back to proceed on the correct path.
Holy hours of adoration, a practice that is priceless.

ANNE
ANNE
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 11:57am

In this time of scandal, confusion and sin, stick to reading a Catholic Bible,
and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition” of 1997
(aka CCC; dark green cover in the USA) for accuracy and completeness regarding our Faith.
.
For baptized Catholics, “Outside the Church there is no Salvation” CCC # 846 – 848.
Popes come; Popes go; Church stays; We stick.
.
No matter what any Clergy of any Rank says – Adultery, Fornication, Homosexual Acts, Pornography are all Mortal Sins. Un-repented Mortal Sins send Souls to Hell for eternity.
.
CCC: ” 1415 Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace.
Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.”

CCC: ” 1451 Among the penitent’s acts contrition occupies first place.
Contrition is “sorrow of the soul
and detestation for the sin committed,
together with the resolution not to sin again.”
_________________________________________________

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 12:20pm

Thank you Anne. Clarity.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 12:21pm

Clearly, the lot of you are bad Catholics who lack faith and suffer from Francis Derangement Syndrome.

/Sarcasm off.

Well, that’s what people tell me, at least. Shrug.

Phillip
Phillip
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 12:28pm

“Well, that’s what people tell me, at least. Shrug.”

What are our betters in the Catholic Media saying?

Philip
Philip
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 12:43pm

Mark Shea is saying; “..my preciooouusss.”

Phillip
Phillip
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 12:53pm

After this is all over, it would be an interesting study to look at what Catholic Media (print, TV, radio, blogs etc.) said leading up to and during the Synod. I have heard over and over in the past that there is no effort to change doctrine, no movement from the Truth, shut up, pay, pray and obey.

I am hearing less and less of that now. I think more of our betters are catching up with us.

Steve D.
Steve D.
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 2:25pm

Dale Price,
I’ve noticed its often Catholic converts that make those types of accusations. My theory is that its taken them a lifetime to finally accept papal authority, and they have probably given up much in the process including alienating their still protestant friends and family. So that the very idea we have a stinker of a pope is repulsive and unfathomable to them (not to mention embarrassing). Hence, we are the ones who must be deranged.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 4:13pm

I remember when Rotate Caeli still had a combox. It exploded when Francis was elected. At first, I thought some of them went off the deep end. I stopped thinking that long ago.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 4:21pm

Steve D.:

I’m not so sure. I am a convert myself (1999). And I know of more than a few converts who are quite displeased with the Church’s trajectory since March ’13.

Patricia
Patricia
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 4:23pm

EWTN website has a section where the sermons are available.
Music to my ears were yesterday’s from Fr. Mark and today’s from Fr. Miguel.
Daily Mass is morning, noon, and twice at night.

Ken
Ken
Tuesday, October 20, AD 2015 4:39pm

A silver lining?

I’m off to Vegas to lay a proposition bet that Francis will be out as Pope within two years. He went up for what he thought was an easy layup and was stuffed by the truth. This synod has crippled him. My everlasting hope is that Cupich is sent to Antarctica. The rest of the liberal old wineskins will die soon enough.

DonL
DonL
Wednesday, October 21, AD 2015 5:06am

What we know:
The pope’s job is to be guardian of the faith, intact and uncorrupted, as handed down by the Apostles. He does not, and can not, create new truths. He may not alter, work around, or ignore known truths. He may (on occasion,) merely illuminate what is and has been since the beginning (doctrine).
He is not God, but has flaws and is capable of mortal sin–evidenced by the fact that he is obliged like you and me to go to confession. As Benedict XVI told us, his every wish and desire is not law.
Again, the first pope was confronted by a man who never walked the Earth with Christ, nor saw His transfiguration on the mount, His many miracles, was never called Satan by Christ, but stood in direct opposition to that pope about allowing Gentiles and the uncircumcised into the faith. His opposition got most of us where we are–as Catholics.
We need to continue what St Paul directed us to do–discern and admonish with love. The struggle we face now is our cross. Our job is “to fight the good fight.” Did we think He came to bring peace?

Patricia
Patricia
Wednesday, October 21, AD 2015 9:56am

Next step for this grave concern is what will appear in the ‘final’ document, the writers of which and some details, appear in today’s report from Robert Royal:
http://www.thecatholicthing.org/2015/10/21/damage-limited-outcome-unknown/
.
The Fathers see it tomorrow night, then have only Friday to decide – it is named Progreto.
Seems next comes a Commission to erode – strike that – discuss pockets of geographical practice.
.
Family ??
Spoiled kids wanting their own way will have fine examples from whom should come catechesis.

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