The negative, venomous attacks against the Holy Father - by faithful Catholics... is now Breaking News!
Francis' decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls - a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic - during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict's papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church.
One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, "Rorate Caeli," reacted to the foot-washing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict's eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council's modernizing reforms.
"The official end of the reform of the reform - by example," "Rorate Caeli" lamented in its report on Francis' Holy Thursday ritual.
A like-minded commentator in Francis' native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis' election with this phrase: "The Horror." Gonzalez's beef? While serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to Benedict and traditionalists were "non-existent." - AP
Just when Catholic Defense League members have been watching and waiting for secular media to do damage to the Sacred Season - faithful Catholics step in. (BTW - the Catholic League also missed Jimmy Kimmel.)
The constant criticism, the questioning and suspicion-mongering rumor mill, along with all the speculation on what may happen next, foments doubt and fear in the minds of simple souls. It implants skepticism in the hearts of fellow Catholics. It betrays the negative culture deeply embedded within extreme traditionalist/fundamentalist circles.
The scandal lies not with Pope Francis, but solely with so-called "faithful" who have bitched loudly and long enough to attract the attention of the mainstream media.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, guys, on making this Triduum all about you.
..Thank you for using the word "foments".
ReplyDeleteThe Traddies are shooting themselves.
ReplyDeleteMany of the comments about Pope Francis are disgraceful and frankly, incredible. It is as if some of them had totally lost their reason and are filled with black bile.
ReplyDeleteYour first paragraph of breaking news was literally read verbatim on Bloomberg news just ten minutes ago....a stock market station in the NY harbor here listened to by many market buffs. Fr.Z's essay applies...the Pope must stem the outflow of people leaving the Church in the millions in the Americas and that outflow are not the Latin mass people. A pope must think of the wide picture not of a group that is maybe 5% of 1% of the Church...if that. The past two Popes were concerned with the sspx because valid but illicit sacraments were out there beyond the Church's border. But the actual number of people in rad trad groups is minuscule compared to 1.2 billion Catholics. Past Popes diplomatically tried to assuage the trads...I think that papal attention is now over.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like the two schools of thought when a priest takes over a parish. Some say not to change anything in the first couple of months, others that it's best to set the tone immediately. I see the former work better most times.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is blogs, tweeting, facebook, etc. All of a sudden these people with too much time on their hands and an axe to grind have a platform and an audience. This is why I stopped blogging two years ago - because as Belinda says - God know's everything we "google" and he reads everything we write. I will stick with your blog though - you are always fair and balanced and willing to wait and see how things take shape.
ReplyDeleteThanks Angela - I'm still a jerk at heart though.
ReplyDeleteTerry,
ReplyDeleteHere is a little Aquinas on the virtue of epikeia which virtue is about skipping positive man made law not natural law:
Summa Theologica, Pt.II of Pt.II, question 120, art.1:
" Reply to Objection 2. It would be passing judgment on a law to say that it was not well made; but to say that the letter of the law is not to be observed in some particular case is passing judgment not on the law, but on some particular contingency.
Terry...just consider yourself a work in progress.... :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent Bill - thanks.
ReplyDeleteAngela - you are too kind - but thanks!
I agree with Bill 100%.
ReplyDeleteTraditionalists only make up 4/10th of 1% of the body Catholic but traditionalists and those influenced by them produce roughly 40% of the Catholic blogosphere comments. As Peter Vere, one of the first champion of the Traditional Mass and a canon lawyer put it:
ReplyDelete"Well, the bulk of "urine and vinegar" traditionalists hang out on the Internet and engage in angry activism because they are not particularly wanted at their local traditionalist parish, where the pastor and other parishioners roll their eyes at their approach. In short, they have more serious matters to attend to like organizing the parish pilgrimage, finding volunteers for the pancake breakfast after High Mass, Knights of Columbus meetings, raising funds for the parochial school, repainting the high altar, fixing the communion rail, coaching the parish soccer team for homeschooling families, choir practice, etc... "
In other words, because of the Internet, the fringe of the fringe is now dominating the conversation and the MSM, which loves conflict and drama, has been co-opted.
Sherry! Where have you been all my blogging life! What you say is true I think - no - it is true- thanks much for the comment.
ReplyDelete