Airing grievances.
Not really - at least I don't read him that way. I happen to love his sober calls to conversion right before Christmas - for all of us - not just the Curia. Sadly, others think he's mean, I don't - but I'm a Seinfeld fan and my humor is a bit dark.
ROME — Pope Francis on Dec. 23 told members of the Vatican bureaucracy that their work should be guided by humility and service, not a "spiritual worldliness" masked by liturgy, doctrine and religious devotion.
In his annual pre-Christmas address to a room full of men often dubbed as "princes of the church," the pope told the cardinals and bishops who work in the Vatican that it was time to "discard the trappings of our roles, our social recognition and the glitter of this world" and to adopt humility.
In past years, Francis has not hesitated to use his annual speech to lash out at Vatican officials for blocking his reform efforts and to criticize the spiritual "diseases" that he believes hamper their work. In this year's address, however, the pope took on a more pastoral tone, offering a reflection on the Old Testament figure of Naaman, an accomplished military commander who had leprosy.
"His armor that had won him renown, in reality covered a frail, wounded and diseased humanity," said Francis. "Sometimes great gifts are the armor that covers great frailties. Naaman came to understand a fundamental truth: we cannot spend our lives hiding behind armor, a role we play, or social recognition."
Christmas, Francis said during the 45-minute address, is a time to "find the courage to take off our armor."
"Once we strip ourselves of our robes, prerogatives, positions and titles, all of us are lepers in need of healing," he said. - NCR
I love this Pope!
Resisting the Pope to his face?
Two issues caught my attention, as readers know: The reactions by some contemplative nuns to the document Cor Orans and the implementation of its guidelines. And, the reactions of Traditionalists devoted to the TLM and their outright rejection of Traditionis Custodes and the implementation of the disciplines proposed.
First let me say I do have sympathy for those attached to the TLM and the rubrics and sacramental rite involved therein. I respect their attachment to Latin and ceremony. I personally love the Mass celebrated so elegantly and mysteriously, especially on Christmas and Easter, yet I also love very much the OF and the vernacular - which is always well celebrated in the parishes I attend. Thus I don't see the problem between the two - it is the Mass. Up until now, it was understood as one rite under two forms. The only difference I felt was wanting is that the calendar was not updated for the TLM to include new saints and that the readings were not the same as in the OF.
That said, I came across an article at Crisis which helped me understand better the affliction felt by ordinary Catholics who love the TLM. The article by Sean McClinch, It's Time to Occupy the Churches is not something I would promote, but it helped me understand a bit better the passionate response traditionalists have. His citation of occupying the churches relates to the events in France and can be linked to the history of the SSPX, when Parisian traditionalists did just that. His position and proposals sound similar. Which is an unfortunate position, to be sure,
On April 12, 1977, Parisian traditionalists got sick of worshipping in the community hall the petty New Church bureaucrats relegated to them for the celebration of their banned Mass. So they did what any decent, God-fearing Catholics should – they processed into the church of St. Nicholas with priests, occupied it, and stayed there. Every living Trad should know by heart the exchange that occurred between the parish clergyman of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet and one of the occupying priests. - Sean McClinch
The SSPX influence, especially the doctrine of Archbishop Lefebvre can't be obfuscated. Many, perhaps most of the adherents to the TLM, be they SSPX or FSSP tend to believe what Lefebvre taught about VII and the NO:
"Now it was during the Council that the enemies of the Church infiltrated Her, and their first objective was to demolish and destroy the Mass insofar as they could." - 50th Jubilee sermon.Like I said, I have some sympathy for McClinch and those like him. I lived through wreckovations of churches and experimentation in liturgical forms, changing readings and responses at Mass, and so on. When JPII came along, the liturgical rubrics and orthodoxy was more or less restored. My Archdiocese is especially blessed with good priests and bishops - the younger ones more traditional than their seniors, but very good nonetheless. All the renovations after the Council were imposed - parishioners had no say in how the parish church was modernized. All I'm trying to say is that I understand how traditionalists feel, yet I, along with many faithful older people, went through it. We maybe had to ask a progressive priest to give us absolution in confession, and sometimes we could only be sure we were receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ because at least the Consecration, the words of institution were said properly. Yet we persevered, said our penance after confession and spent a long time in thanksgiving after Communion. That's all - I just want to acknowledge that I get it.
With few exceptions, it was never about the Liturgy.
I implied that in another post, writing: "The rejection of the NO is directly linked to the rejection of the Council, and it leads to rejection of Papal/Magisterial authority and threatens the unity of the Church, which is in virtual schism at the moment because the propagandists have rejected Peter – like it or not, Pope Francis." That is what this is all about. I've already made too long of a post so I will just post a couple excerpts from articles I feel help me make my point. The first from Larry Chap. I admire him very much, I don't take as critical a stance of Pope Francis as does he, but I respect his POV and appreciate his gallantry in expressing his position so respectfully.
I am reminded of an excellent essay by Shaun Blanchard in Catholic Life Journal wherein he says something that I think is entirely correct: Traditionis Custodes was never about liturgy at all. What we are witnessing with regard to the recent “clarification” is not about the so-called “liturgy wars” but is instead about Vatican II and its interpretation. You can access Blanchard’s marvelous essay here. It is all worth reading, but for me here is the most salient thing he says:
“No single English word encapsulates the concept I am trying to convey, but thankfully the Germans have a word for everything. I believe Pope Francis’ motu proprio is the latest in a long series of papal assertions of Deutungshoheit over the legacy of Vatican II. Literally “interpretation-sovereignty,” to have Deutungshoheit means to have sovereignty over a narrative, which is the power to control meaning. Pope Francis’s many and virulent critics (my fellow Americans are especially numerous and sometimes vicious in this regard) typically see dangerous innovation and glaring discontinuities littered throughout his pontificate.”
In other words, Traditionis Custodes is about whose interpretation of the post-conciliar reforms will be ascendent in the Church going forward, and the Pope making it clear that he wants it to be his vision of the Council and not that of the traditionalists. - Read the rest here.
Pope Francis is not the destroyer.
There is a false prophecy attributed to Francis of Assisi that Pope Francis is the destroyer Pope. I'm convinced many traditionalists and even contemplative monastics believe this. Especially as it concerns "Cor Orans" IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTIONOF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION “VULTUM DEI QUAERERE” ON WOMEN’S CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE.
From Archbishop Vigano, to former members of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and some Discalced Carmelite nuns, rumor and fears are promulgated that the Holy See - Pope Francis himself is out to destroy contemplative life in the Church. The notion defies reason and is based upon rumor, lies, conspiracy theories concerning infiltration as well as apocalyptic paranoia. There is so much misinformation circulating regarding contemplative communities of nuns. I can't help connect this to the recent outcry against the discipline imposed upon the TLM, which so many claim is spiritually abusive. That said, I will link to a couple excerpts from Where Peter Is and the fifth article in a series defending contemplative life, Welcome the Light, by Sr. Gabriella Hicks, OCD.
Sr. Gabriella's series is surprisingly candid and direct, unusual in my experience for a Carmelite, but very welcome to better understand what has been going on and clearing away so much of the misinformation circulating on the subject. I don't have a direct quote but even H.M. St. Teresa of Avila remarked that outsiders, lay people and even clerics do not understand the inner workings of religious communities - which may explain why clergy like Vigano have such a deranged view of things.
"Spiritual abuse is especially rampant in communities with sectarian aberrations. As Dom Dysmas de Lassus wrote, “in the Culture of Lies, we are touching on an element that is omnipresent in communities with sectarian aberrations.”
I posted the Open Letter to Archbishop Vigano on our website on October 4, and on the same day LifeSiteNews posted an article about the chaplain at the Fairfield Carmel, Fr. Maximilian Mary Dean. The article presented an interview with Fr. Dean which had been made over a month before. As I read the article and watched the interview, I was shocked to read Fr. Dean’s report of the meeting we Carmelite Nuns had with our former Father General and members of the Definitory (the governing body) in St. Louis in April 2017. In the interview, Fr. Dean claimed that the Father General said “that the times have changed and that they, contemplative, cloistered nuns, need to adapt to the times… that they can’t live the way they were living before.”
This was totally incorrect. Immediately, some of us who were present went online to say so. Although Fr. Dean said, “I heard some reports from what took place at the meeting, he didn’t say where he got his information. Since both Mother Stella-Marie, the Prioress of Fairfield Carmel, and Mother Therese, the Sub-Prioress, were present at the meeting[i], as well as Mother Agnes, the Sub-Prioress of Valparaiso, they could have told him directly what was said. The full address of Father General is available online (you can read it here). In his address he did not say anything about needing to “adapt to the times,” but that we need to respond to “the challenges that the times we live in present to contemplative life.” Furthermore, he affirmed and upheld “the truth of our vocation, the truth of Carmel, of its message, of its extraordinary pertinence for modern times.” Moreover, all the conferences and question-and-answer periods were recorded on video, so it is easy to establish the truth. - Read more here.
Sorry for the long post - I just wanted to document these thoughts for my own reference and share them with you. Beware 'sectarian aberrations'. Avoid lies and concocted myths meant to destabilize the Church, parishes, religious communities and families. Do not follow false apparitions and prophecies - remember, as with Fatima, it is the Church which is responsible for the interpretation and approval of all alleged prophecies, locutions, apparitions and heavenly messages.
The truth behind the fear mongering.
Archbishop Vigano has famously called contemplative nuns to resist 'Cor Orans' and the 'Bergoglian' assualt against traditional contemplative life.
"Behind this purging operation, like everything that distinguishes the work of the Bergoglian Church, there is a hatred and an iconoclastic fury towards the communities of contemplative life, and in a particular way against those tied to Tradition and the ancient rite. This hatred has become commonplace with the infamous instruction Cor Orans and its cruel and merciless application. What also stands out is an insane interest in the finances and donations that these communities receive, which the Vatican tries to grab for itself using any pretext it can." - Vigano Letter
The Archbishop and his supporters and followers, in their campaign against the Franciscan Papacy, fuel the fires of controversy with their lies, infiltrating even into the cloister. One such influencer appears to be the Fairfield Carmel chaplain, Fr. Maximilian Mary Dean, a former Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate. His congregation was the subject of a Visitation and reform by the Holy See. Many traditionalists claimed persecution as a result. I will reprint an excerpt from another excellent article from WPI by Sr. Gabriela Hicks, OCD which clears up much of the disinformation disseminated by LifeSite News, Fr. Dean and Archbishop Vigano. (Be sure and follow the link and read the entire essay.)
I posted the Open Letter to Archbishop Vigano on our website on October 4, and on the same day LifeSiteNews posted an article about the chaplain at the Fairfield Carmel, Fr. Maximilian Mary Dean. The article presented an interview with Fr. Dean which had been made over a month before. As I read the article and watched the interview, I was shocked to read Fr. Dean’s report of the meeting we Carmelite Nuns had with our former Father General and members of the Definitory (the governing body) in St. Louis in April 2017. In the interview, Fr. Dean claimed that the Father General said “that the times have changed and that they, contemplative, cloistered nuns, need to adapt to the times… that they can’t live the way they were living before.”
This was totally incorrect. Immediately, some of us who were present went online to say so. Although Fr. Dean said, “I heard some reports from what took place at the meeting, he didn’t say where he got his information. Since both Mother Stella-Marie, the Prioress of Fairfield Carmel, and Mother Therese, the Sub-Prioress, were present at the meeting[i], as well as Mother Agnes, the Sub-Prioress of Valparaiso, they could have told him directly what was said. The full address of Father General is available online (you can read it here). In his address he did not say anything about needing to “adapt to the times,” but that we need to respond to “the challenges that the times we live in present to contemplative life.” Furthermore, he affirmed and upheld “the truth of our vocation, the truth of Carmel, of its message, of its extraordinary pertinence for modern times.” Moreover, all the conferences and question-and-answer periods were recorded on video, so it is easy to establish the truth.
Since Fr. Dean’s statements concerning the Carmelites were so far from reality, I had questions about the veracity of his other statements. Fr. Dean was previously a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate, and he was obviously negatively affected by the Apostolic Visitation of that Institute. He seemed to imply that any apostolic visitation led directly to the suppression of an institute. He mentioned the Hanceville Poor Clares, and I looked into the matter and found that they were doing well and had recently elected a new Abbess.
For the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, I looked into reports of the Visitation, and even such conservative websites as Catholic Culture and Catholic World Report agreed that the apostolic visitation was justified. There was also a long and detailed report in La Stampa. These gave a very different view of an apostolic visitation from what one gets in watching Fr. Dean’s interview. In the end, far from being suppressed, the Hanceville Poor Clares and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate seem to have come through their apostolic visitations diminished in numbers but invigorated and strengthened in spirit. - SISTER GABRIELA HICKS
Recent paintings after Fra Angelico.
The reason I began painting icons years ago was because I always want a real icon, or one I had seen in a museum. So I decided to try and make my own, to copy the masters - which is how I learned to paint. Icons were religiously fashionable in the early 1970's, considered more theologically correct, not to mention the preferred form of sacred art to the romantic art of the West - especially the Baroque style. As time went on and the incredible snobbism associated with iconography left me discouraged, I turned my attention to Spanish Colonial and the Italian-Greco style of sacred art, perfected by Giotto and Fra Angelico, as well as the Sienese School - namely Duccio. Having been self taught in iconography, I graduated to painting in the other styles - by imitating the other techniques. Now, in my old age, I paint what I want. Most recently, I've collected very antique frames and filled them with my reproductions, or original works painted in the style of the masters I admire.
Friar Camillus Delude
✞ 2014
American. Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) in 1993 and given only a few years to live, Brother Camillus defied the odds and went on to live with this cross for more than two decades. He was always prayerful and never a complaint was heard, even as he slowly began to lose the ability to move. He was a dedicated member of the Militia Immaculata as a ‘Knight at the Foot of the Cross’, offering up his suffering and praying for the intentions of the MI, the Order, and the Church.
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I was fortunate to meet him and live with him while I stayed at Marytown in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Such a humble, simple friar, always joyful and kind.
I discovered his story while searching for a priest I knew. Br. Camillus did a lot of the menial work around the friary, but he was also active in the publishing of The Immaculata and books published by the Militia. He was well treated, but considered rather simple by some of the friars and others who encountered him.
I think he is a saint.
The Fall
My lifelong existential crisis continues. Kind of. I'm simply perplexed these days. It seems everything is in a state of collapse, or else threatened by it. Some days I feel like the last Catholic who loves and supports the Holy Father - when I may not understand what he says or does sometimes, I usually don't try to either. However, I do try to understand why so many dislike him or don't trust him.
To be honest, I think it is often because individuals and groups have formed themselves into 'clans' if you will - borrowing from Michael Matt's call to 'unite the clans'. Maybe that's what I have done as well, yet I see the Pope as a sign of hope, pretty much a prophet, albeit his ways can be as abrasive as a Jeremiah. Yet I try to maintain a 'supernatural' attitude regarding his authority and pastoral care - that is, recognizing that he is the one God has placed over our heads. To dispute that he is Pope by God's will is to mistrust Divine Providence - even if one thinks his papacy was arranged by the St. Gallen Mafia - he's the Pope.
And that's where people get tripped up. That's where the resistance originates.
I can be as confused as the next person - in fact I'm often confused. Remember that prayer, "Jesus I surrender myself to you, take care of everything." I pray that a lot - along with 'Jesus, I trust in you.' It helps. Especially when I worry that some institutions, apostolates, religious communities and so on, may change or disappear. All of us have seen it going on for decades, yet today, it appears to be accelerating, which entails not a little bit of suffering.
"My church will be different; my people will be different; difficulties and trials will come upon you."
Fr. Z has an update on Fr. James Jackson.
I reprint it here:
UPDATE 4 November 2021:
From what I have heard, Fr. Jackson is now being held on federal charges. This is not a good development, as it implies that there is something more complicated than simple possession of illegal material.
A GoFundMe campaign had been set up for him and it raised a significant amount, but the campaign was axed by GoFundMe.
While we continue in a presumption of innocence, there is little to see that is positive in this case. While I believe it is good to harbor a sober, eyes-open optimism, at the same time – in my considered opinion – it is also a good idea to begin to steel ourselves for very bad news.
Please continue to offer prayers for Fr. Jax as well as for all those involved in the investigation of this case. It is important that the truth be the goal of everything that is done. We all know that that isn’t always the motive of some in either law enforcement or the legal profession… or the Church. - Fr. Z
Just a couple of comments.
The investigation leading to an arrest is so thorough and exhaustive, there is no way it can be a 'setup'. For the arrest to take place there has to be probable cause and evidence. The fact the priest is held on federal charges is even more serious. If the feds have evidence, there has to be digital evidence. And there is.
PROVIDENCE — During their investigation of a Providence priest, police investigators found videos that showed young girls, including infants and toddlers, engaged in sex acts, according to a filing in U.S. District Court, Providence.
Investigators were told the video, which was on a storage device, belonged to Father James W. Jackson, of St. Mary's Church, say federal prosecutors.
The investigation led members of a special police task force to the rectory of St. Mary's Church on Saturday. - The Providence Journal
That is Satanic. This isn't ordinary sin. Sins against infants and toddlers?! Such pure, innocent beings. It is similar to the gross abuse of the Blessed Sacrament - yet so much worse.
Fr. Z noted that a Go Fund Me was set up and then removed. People can do what they want with their money, but a legal defense fund may not always be a good idea. Reading the charges is so repulsive, I can't even imagine donating. I think Fr. Altman profited from the fund set up for him, but his case was a canonical case, not a civil or criminal case. Fr. Jackson's Society should be responsible for his defense.
Church Militant is asking for money to pay legal costs for their lawsuit to stage a rally in Baltimore. The request is on FB and goes like this:
"Please help defray our legal costs and empower Church Militant to fight valiantly in defense of the First Amendment and against these crooked bishops." - Michael Voris
Don't contribute to anti-Catholic causes. If you are not with the bishop you are not with the Church. If CM would like to sue the USCCB they can do that - but don't give them money. There may be corruption within the USCCB, but CM lacks irrefutable evidence of it. If they had it, they would be in court.
That's all.
ABC News posted this:
I left the following comment:
LifeSiteNews interviewed Dr. Gerard van den Aardweg, an expert on Opus Dei and homosexuality, to discuss Bishop Bonnemain, Father Jesusmary, Opus Dei and the homosexual problem. Dr. Van den Aardweg described how the recognition of homosexual relationships 'erodes and coarsens the natural perception of the unique ideal of marriage and of the intimate link between sexuality and procreation.' - Continue reading here.
Social Giant Wiped From Web
Big headlines on Drudge - and all the chatter on Twitter. It's pretty amazing.
We are all online and dependent upon the Web. What will happen when the powers in space are averted? Wiped out? When you can't even make a phone call, receive an email or access your bank account because of an internet glitch or the Domain Name Server collapsed? Or a massive solar event?
Anyway - FB is back after approx. 6 hours down. Just a test.
Transgender men unknowingly admitted to seminary and religious life?
To be honest, I had always been suspicious of one of the novices in my novitiate. He bore a striking resemblance to Romy Schneider. What?
Trans men... unknowingly...
A leader of the U.S. bishops' conference has written to Catholic prelates throughout the country, alleging that an unspecified number of transgender men have been "unknowingly admitted" to diocesan seminaries and houses of formation for religious orders.
Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who serves as the chairman of the bishops' Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, told the nation's bishops in a Sept. 22 memo that they might consider "various options" to ensure that only people assigned male at birth are ordained to the Catholic priesthood.
Among the recommendations are DNA testing and certification from a medical expert of the bishop's choosing.
Rocco Palmo, who writes the blog Whispers in the Loggia, first reported the memo, titled "Transgenderism and Seminary Formation," via Twitter on Sept. 23. Palmo's initial tweet sparked a range of incredulous replies, with some people comparing the memo to medieval practices that involved physically checking priesthood candidates. - NCR
Asking pardon and praying for his intentions. May Our Lady Undoer of Knots undo every problem and difficulty. May Our Lord Jesus take care of everything, repairing every slander, calumny and detraction.
The miseries of the Church.
As a sort of follow up to my post yesterday, and as a kind of contradiction to those online opposed to exposing the latest priest and bishop using social media to hook up for sex, I want to share a 2010 Christmas address by Pope Benedict to the Roman Curia. In his extensive greeting, the Holy Father laments that amongst the great tribulations of that year, the worst seems to have been how the priestly sexual abuse scandal went global - right in the middle of the Year of the Priest. (I wonder what he thinks today?)
The torn garment..
The Holy Father likens the Church to a vision of St. Hildegarde, wherein she saw the garment of the Church torn and her feet all muddied by the crimes of her ministers. Pope Benedict asks where these sins came from, and what must be done to avoid them. He cites the decadence of culture saying:
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We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again.
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"In the vision of Saint Hildegard, the face of the Church is stained with dust, and this is how we have seen it. Her garment is torn – by the sins of priests. The way she saw and expressed it is the way we have experienced it this year. We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again.
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... trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities...
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We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society. The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times. From Bishops of developing countries I hear again and again how sexual tourism threatens an entire generation and damages its freedom and its human dignity.
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The Book of Revelation includes among the great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities (cf. Rev 18:13). In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world – an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough, and the excess of deceiving intoxication becomes a violence that tears whole regions apart – and all this in the name of a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.
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Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist.
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In order to resist these forces, we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations. In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a "better than" and a "worse than". Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today." - Source
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What is happening cannot be dismissed as homophobia just because vocal elements on Catholic social media are engaged in creating a sort of moral panic over every revelation of sexual activity or misconduct. It is much deeper than all of that. I've been so perplexed by how otherwise holy men and religious personages could engage in habitual sinful behavior, as well as somehow justify the behavior, while living what we've all considered an exemplary life. I'm thinking of Jean Vanier, his spiritual directors, and even McCarrick and others. What kind of spirituality admits sexual affections within a celibate, chaste life?
It may be too simple, yet it seems to me, a key to understanding it may be Pope Benedict's conclusion: "Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today."
It seems to me that Job's friends are among the commentators and critics of Traditiones custodes, as well as those who support Pope Francis' initiative. There is so much one could say for and against - for many, the big focus has been upon the Traditionalists who voiced the initial outcry, condemning the 'mean ol' pope' as hating the Latin Mass and being a modernist, heretical, anti-pope. Pretty much everything they thought of him since his election. Likewise, so-called liberals cite the trad hostile reactions as proof against them, that they brought it upon themselves. I tend to agree with that - but after several posts on FB, my opinion doesn't matter on any of it, despite the fact I've witnessed traditionalist hostilities since the early '70's and did my best to navigate through that narrow channel which divided the 'Spirit of VII' crowd and the 'Trad-Remnant-CUFF' zealots.
As I always say, I love Pope Francis and have no problem with what he says or does - even if I don't quite understand how it is reported some of the time. I trust God. Jesus I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.
Son, when thou comest to the service of God... prepare thy soul for temptation.That said, I can't help ponder how all of this is permitted by God. I trust in Divine Providence, I trust in the Divine Mercy. These intense reactions, from all sides, certainly remind me of the Prophet Job and the testing he went through, the sufferings he endured, the shame before his friends, who afflicted him even more. St. Therese understood it well, when she applied the Prophet's words to her own suffering, proclaiming, 'even if he should kill me I will trust him.' Therese at the time, was going through her trial of faith sharing the lot of unbelievers who have no faith, no life, as it were - and certainly no light. Pious platitudes did nothing to help - the only thing she could do is make acts of faith - unfelt. Her senses and faculties darkened, accusing her, mocking her, blaming her - like Job's friends.
So the commentary flying around online regarding the Pope's provisions for the TLM is only natural, the criticisms - more accurately, condemnations and calumnies against the Holy Father - are another matter. God cannot be pleased by them. Just as God was not pleased with Job's friends. So that is what I'm thinking about now, along with the scandal of Msgr. Burrill of the USCCB and all the debate that has aroused, along with attacks against Fr. James Martin and those who object to the buying of datamined information used to out him. I commented on that as well - but it doesn't matter what I think, and I'm better off imitating Job's silence.
That said, I'd like to share a short excerpt on Job from Garrigou-Lagrange, Providence:
The trials of the just serve a higher purposechap. 42) Job makes his humble confession: "I know that Thou canst do all things.... I have spoken unwisely, and things that above measure exceed my knowledge." He thus acknowledges that his complaining was excessive and his words sometimes unconsidered. Nevertheless the Lord tells Eliphaz: "My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, because you have not spoken the thing that is right before Me, as My servant Job hath.... Offer for yourselves a holocaust. And My servant Job shall pray for you. His face I will accept, that folly may not be imputed to you." And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job with even greater blessings than before, and he died in peace very advanced in years.
The clue to the whole book is to be found in the first chapter, where we are told how the Lord permitted the devil to try His servant Job. The conclusion, then, is obvious: If men are visited by God with tribulation, He does so not exclusively as a chastisement for their sins, but to prove them as gold is proved in the furnace and make them advance in virtue. It is the purification of love, as the great Christian mystics call it. In the prologue Satan asked (1:9) : "Doth Job fear God in vain?... His possessions have increased on the earth." Now we see how even in the greatest adversity Job still remained faithful to God. That this is the meaning of the trials sent upon the just is shown in many other passages of the Old Testament. - Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
Let’s play the mind exercise out a little more and hack through some of the issues which I have heard raised by, for example, Ann Barnhardt, who is without question of the mind that Benedict is still Pope and Francis is a usurper antipope. Along with Ann is a smart fellow with well-articulated arguments, Edward Mazza.
I’ll try to spin out what they have been discussing. I hope I don’t put my foot wrong and mischaracterize their positions. I’m happy to be corrected. - Fr. Z
Corrected by whom?
