Cardinal Burke: “I will resist.” February 9, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, episcopate, error, family, foolishness, General Catholic, Papa, persecution, scandals, secularism, self-serving, Society, SOD, the struggle for the Church.Tags: the struggle for the Church
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I was wondering if Cardinal Burke’s audience with Pope Francis would have resulted in a demand that he cease speaking out publicly. Apparently not. Cardinal Burke has given an interview on French TV in which he is asked what he plans to do if Pope Francis continues with so-called pastoral approaches that have the effect of undermining, if not obliterating, the sacred deposit of the Faith on marriage, the family……heck, the entire moral edifice of the Faith is under attack.
The interview has already received broad coverage, but keeping with my typical day late and dollar short mode of operation, I thought I’d glom on and add a few piffling comments.
The comment that has received the most attention came after the interviewer asked Cardinal Burke what he would do if Pope Francis insisted on a promoting changes that cannot be reconciled with the timeless belief and practice of the Church, Burke responded:
I will resist. I cannot do anything else. There is no doubt that this is a difficult time, this is clear, this is clear.
Cardinal Burke also described the situation that Pope Francis is forcing as painful and worrisome. Further, he made clear that the “pastoral approaches” being proposed have the effect – however they are described or implemented – of destroying Doctrine:
I cannot accept that communion be given to a person who is living in an irregular union, because it is adultery. On the matter of persons of the same sex, this has nothing to do with matrimony. This is a suffering that some persons have, of being attracted – against nature, sexually – to persons of the same sex. Those people, we must help them to live chastely. But there is no relation to marriage and family, it is a separate issue.
And yet by dragging the matter of sodomy into a Synod on the family, the progressives have already scored an enormous victory, getting wide areas of the Church discussing grave perversion on the same level as the rightly-ordered (by God) family.
Cardinal Burke also discussed the limits of a Pope’s power, and how even he cannot change solemn Doctrine. Not that there is not a grave temptation to try.
This gets me back to one of my old warhorses, Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. If there is a Doctrine in the Church that has, for all practical effect, been “changed,” that is it. I say that, because if 80+% of self-described Catholics fail to accept the Real Presence, and 90+% reject the intrinsic evil of contraception, I would hazard that 98 to 99 percent of the Church no longer accepts Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, even when rather liberally interpreted. Yes, officially, that Doctrine – as well attested to and defined as any in the Church’s long history – remains “on the books,” but even very conservative priests and prelates so water it down that entry to Heaven is open to essentially anyone, when, in the past, the mass belief of the Church was the diametric opposite.
That is one major reason why I don’t feel tremendously reassured when I see people say “well, this Pope may do this or that, but we know he can’t change Doctrine, so don’t worry.” Perhaps……but we have seen an absolutely key Doctrine (what could be more key than the conditions surrounding salvation, and the degree under which it can be obtained?) so radically minimized and ignored that the effect is essentially the same. I guess a fig leaf remains, but not much more.
Discuss. I am running very late. I am a convert whose entire family remains outside the Church. I pray for their conversion, as I pray daily for their salvation, but I am very concerned at the prospects of people I love very much. This matter is most intimate to my concerns. It would be so very easy for me to pretend that being outside the Church poses little or essentially no barrier to salvation, but I know that is not the case. My sensus fidei – which I pray is well formed – tells me to pray and fast ever more for their conversion, that if I don’t………well, I hate to contemplate the eventualities.
I guess I’m just looking for that “doctrinal certainty” that self-seeking neo-pelagian disciplinarian legalist restorationists are always craving to calm our nervous tempers and chase away our insecurities. Validation……that’s it.
Do you ever get the impression someone doesn’t like us very much?
Catholic groups urge Pope Francis to clarify views February 9, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Papa, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, SOD, the return.comments closed
And it appears the petition in filial love has gotten over 71000 signatures now.
The report below condenses some recent developments regarding the petition and other recent efforts to defend the Church’s perennial belief on matters related to marriage and the family. Cardinal Burke has given strong support to the petition and all efforts to defend the Faith:
Disquiet among the faithful was raised a notch last month when Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the chief administrator of the synod, told a conference that “dogma has its own evolution.”
One of the latest interventions has come from Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw, Poland, who has said the church has “betrayed” Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching through pastoral practice proposals presented at last year’s synod.
He told the Polish news agency KAI it is a “false assumption” to consider such topics as the positive aspects of same-sex unions, cohabitation, or opening Communion for remarried divorcees because they assume “God’s mercy without justice.” Hoser urged a re-reading of John Paul II’s teachings on the family.
Meanwhile, large numbers of faithful have signed a “filial appeal” asking Pope Francis to address a current state of confusion regarding church doctrine on these matters. The appeal asks the pontiff to reaffirm “categorically the Catholic teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics cannot receive Holy Communion and that homosexual unions are contrary to divine and natural law.”
The petition, organized by Filiale Supplica, a group of “concerned lay Catholic leaders and pro-family organisations,” had received over 71,000 signatures by Feb. 5 and been signed by prominent Catholic figures such as Cardinals Raymond Leo Burke, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, and the head of the Center for Family and Human Rights, Austin Ruse………
………Asked why he put his name to the petition, Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute, said the confusion “that is starting to grow” about church teaching on marriage and all things sexual “cannot be ignored.” He added these questions are just “too crucial” to everyday human life, let alone holiness……..
The report then reveals what Fr. Federico Lombardi, official Vatican spokesman, had to say about all these extraordinary interventions on the part of the laity with regard to the threats many perceive to the integrity of the Deposit of Faith. As usual, it is a model of clarity and soulful inspiration:
Asked how the Vatican is responding to these concerns and whether they will be heeded, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said any requests should be addressed to the synod secretariat “which certainly reports to the Pope and acts on his behalf” and is obligated to “integrate” ongoing suggestions.
————End Quote————-
Well I would say the constant rebuttals of Cardinal Burke (among many others, like Cardinal Hoser above) and the increasingly desperate actions on the part of the laity to get the attention of the Holy See indicate “those with concerns” are not finding sufficient comfort or clarity in Pope Francis’ vision of the “correct spiritual attitudes.” Or, at least, that vision which he is permitting to go abroad in his name.
It is a most difficult time. Interregnums in midst of a revolution like this are never very comforting. I do think there is a sort of opposition coalescing, but as to whether that will be too little, too late (or something else entirely) I really don’t know. I just keep offering more prayers and a paltry amount of sacrifice, trying to do my part. Pray God the Church will not have to slip even further into oblivion before a true restoration may begin in earnest. Right now, my weak faith tells me things will have to get worse before they get better.
More reasons why Obama’s comparison of islam to medieval Christianity was ludicrous February 9, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, catachesis, error, foolishness, General Catholic, history, persecution, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, Society.comments closed
When I briefly rebutted the muslim in chief’s conflation of Christianity with islam last week, I knew I was leaving out some important points. The Crusades have been vilified as part of a deliberate strategy going back to the endarkenment, part of a broader process of painting the entire Middle Ages – and thus the Church – as a period of benighted ignorance, violence, and Catholic-fueled superstition. To a very great degree, that vilification has succeeded: the Crusades are generally presented, and accepted, as being a very dark time when evil Christians attacked peaceful muslims for no other reason than to spread the Faith by the sword. But as I pointed out last week, and as Professor Thomas Madden elaborates below, the Crusades were always a defensive reaction against a grave threat to the Faith, and were only called after decades (in the case of Albigensianism) or even centuries of attacks and provocations.
Very good points below, something handy to learn and be able to respond with:
……..people commit terrible deeds in the name of everything. The question isn’t whether humans can be evil, but whether those acts are consistent with their religious beliefs.…..[This is the crucial point. There were many reasons for the Crusades, some of which we will see below, but the point of fact is that Christianity has never been a religion spread by the sword. But as Christians have lamented for centuries, and as Pope Benedict pointed out in his Regensburg address, islam has always been unique among the major world religions in being spread primarily by military conquest. Even more, when Catholicism has been long established in an area, peace and the development of all the intellectual and artistic virtues almost invariably increase dramatically, whereas the muslim “ummah” has been, and remains, a vast locality where slavery, subjugation, the darkening of the intellect, and all manner of violence predominate. This is painting with an enormous brush, there are many exceptions, but I don’t think the description off in those broad terms]
In any case, the Crusades and the Inquisition were in no way a distortion of medieval Christianity. Indeed, they were mainstream ideas with virtually no detractors. Both were initiated by popes, the unquestioned leaders of Western Christianity. Both were supported by generations of religious scholars and a complex infrastructure of canon law. The greatest kings of the Middle Ages, men like Richard the Lionheart of England and St. Louis IX of France, were ardent Crusaders and as a result were hailed as heroes.
Part of the problem here is that the president knows little, perhaps nothing, about the Crusades or the Inquisition. He is not alone in that, of course. Medieval historians have long lamented the gulf between fact and popular perceptions when it comes to these events. The Crusades were not brutal wars of colonial oppression or zealous attempts to spread Christianity by the sword. The First Crusade was called in 1095 by Pope Urban II in response to desperate appeals from the Christians of the Middle East, who had lately been conquered and continued to be persecuted by the Turks. And these were only the latest in more than four centuries of attacks on Christian peoples by Muslim powers. At some point Christianity as a faith and as a culture had to defend itself or else be subsumed by Islam. The work of the Crusader, who put his life at risk and underwent enormous expense, was to save Christian people and restore Christian lands. This was no perversion of Christianity. Christ had commanded his followers to be like the Good Samaritan, hurrying to bind up the wounds of their brother who had been robbed and beaten. This was the same Christ who said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” That is how Crusaders honestly saw themselves following their Christian faith. [Because that is how they were]
……..Of course, many Christians, like the president, may still consider the Crusades and the Inquisition to be a distortion of their faith. Yet they should at least accept that others can honestly disagree. Protestants and Catholics follow different versions of Christianity, but we would strongly reject a president who tried to tell us which was right. By the same token, the president has even less authority to discern true from distorted Islam. ISIS is barbaric, but there is no denying that its adherents believe they are true followers of Islam. And they can point to medieval Muslim rulers who were just as bloody. The Egyptian leader Baybars, for example, captured the Christian city of Antioch in 1268 and massacred its entire population. Even Saladin, who is generally well regarded today, estimated that he had killed or executed 40,000 European Christians after the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Were these men, who were universally hailed as champions of Islam, perverters of the faith? And, if so, is it the president’s job to decide that?
———End Quote———
That’s just a couple of examples. Others include the constant pirate raids along the entire Mediterranean coast, which resulted in the deaths of thousands and the carting away of thousands more to spend their lives in slavery. Why did the great orders of the Mercidarians and others have to come into being? To find a way, some way, to buy back – whether with money or the lives of the religious – the millions of Christians taken into islamic slavery over centuries. Note, the muslims did not have to have a similar order to bring back muslim slaves from Christian conquest. Did you know that muslim pirate raids were attacking as far north as the British Isles well into the 1600s? Bristol and other western ports were sacked by muslims in the 1630s! And the second siege of Vienna was fought in 1683. The Christian nations – heretical or not – then began a rapid ascendancy as the Ottoman Empire just as quickly decayed, but all through its rise, from Malta to Rhodes to Constantinople, islam did not advance by making converts, but by military conquest.
And of course this tendency continues to our very day. ISIS daily commits atrocities that would shock Atilla the Hun, Boko Haram just recently killed tens of thousands in very well coordinated attacks on Christians in Nigeria, Christians in South Sudan continue to be attacked, islamists wage a guerrilla war in the Catholic (nominally) Philippines…….it never seems to end.
Madden also refutes the notion of the Inquisition as some barbaric form of enforcing doctrinal uniformity by the Church. He points out that, in reality, the Inquisition was instituted to insure the accused had some rights against STATE authority, and that the worst excesses of witch-hunting and heretic-burning were in the protestant-dominated areas of 16th and 17th century Europe, where there was no Inquisition. Not that there were not errors made – perhaps – nor that the Inquisition could not be infiltrated by worldly men seeking to gain riches and influence through placating the secular power, which may have occurred to some degree in Spain, but even there, the Inquisition was incredibly gentle and benign in comparison to the nightmare faced by English “recusant” Catholics not just under Queen Elizabeth, but for three hundred years. And yet that vile persecution, possibly the longest and most sustained in the Church’s history, is utterly forgotten, while the Inquisition is made out to be like the Schutzstaffel of early modern Spain.
Yet that is the incredible power of the false narrative of the “englightenment” and the liberal-progressive party it spawned. They have literally rewritten history to such an extent that only a few academics and a handful of others are even remotely able to see through the mighty fabrications they have weaved.
It was a great First Friday at the new location February 9, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Dallas Diocese, Eucharist, family, fun, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Latin Mass, sanctity, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
I was very edified to see so many people turn out for the first “official” First Friday at Mater Dei in Irving after its termination of its 5+ year run at the Carmelite convent in Dallas. There were over 100 people at Mass Friday night (a good attendance for a daily Mass at any parish, and this was the third Mass of the day) and most stayed for an appreciable time in Adoration afterwards. The woman staying in our extra room stayed the entire night! She didn’t leave until after Mass Saturday morning. That’s an impressive achievement. Though I did not stay, apparently, there was a goodly number of people present throughout the night. That is such a great work of devotion!
I snapped a few photos. I don’t have much to report other than that I was very glad to see that it appears support for the First Friday Adoration will continue unabated with the transfer of location.
Some people have requested photos of my family. I don’t like to make it too much about me, but a strange thing happened at a party on Saturday, girls kept popping up out of a swing: