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Dear Lord – it really is 1972 all over again May 6, 2015

Posted by Tantumblogo in Art and Architecture, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, huh?, pr stunts, scandals, secularism, the return, the struggle for the Church.
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Same explosion of secular modernism in the Church.  Same extreme confusion and error from the hierarchy.  Same chaos in the Church. Same freakishly dismal, nearly blasphemous art:

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So this is the official logo for the Year of Mercy.  I think it would be an act of mercy if they would choose a different logo.

What is this, two-headed Jesus carrying a decapitated body? It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Do you notice there are only 3 eyes on the two heads, and one of them is bizarrely placed?  Could you even recognize it as Jesus without the holes in His hands?  Do we really have to return to the terrible art of 40 years ago that nobody like then and looks even more ridiculous now?

Oh, I get it.  It’s modern art, and requires the artiste to explain his…..ahhh……..unusual……..choices (apparent lack of talent not explained).  This is the reason for the shared eye:

The image, created by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, also shows one of Jesus’ eyes merged with the man’s to show how “Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ.”

That really doesn’t make much sense, but seems evocative of a highly dysfunctional understanding of Christ and salvation.  Adam sees with the eyes of Christ?  Not after the Fall he didn’t.

I’m not going to try to apologize for the artist as the guy at the link did.  Look, the artist made what he made, but you know committee after committee had to approve this.  The blame really lies there.  Obviously, there are some highly influential people about in the Vatican now, including those involved in this ‘Year of Mercy,’ who really need a bass kicking want it to be 1972 all over again.  Back when they were young. Back when this kind of thing was fresh and hip. Wait…..no, it wasn’t.  It was never either.

If you want to be even more mortified, read the official press release that accompanied the unveiling of this artistic triumph from 1969.  Key quote:

The motto, “Merciful Like the Father,” he said, “serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure.”

I thought Our Blessed Lord also said we must repent and be converted.  That vital aspect – THE vital aspect – has been quite missing from all the rhetoric regarding mercy and never judging others.  But we constantly have to judge others.  This idea that the Father demands we never judge is a progressive whitewash of the Faith.  Of course we are called to judge, how on earth do we know who to emulate as holy and avoid as sinful and dangerous?

Ah, but if All Dogs Go To Heaven, then it is a sin to judge and this life is all about building a kumbayah one world hand-holding “keep the world company” fantasy land.

I am reliably informed this is the official theme for the Year of Mercy:

Coca-Cola Company is the official soft drink sponsor of the 2015-6 Year of Mercy.

No that’s not true, but it may as well be.

 

Comments

1. kevirish01 - May 6, 2015

Good grief.

This looks like the covers of OCP missals. Yuck.

Catechist Kev

TG - May 7, 2015

Lol

2. skeinster - May 6, 2015

Well, that’s just wrong.
So thrilled to get to experience this artistic style a second time.

On the good news front, I bought myself a good quality Douay-Rheims Bible today, to add to the stash.
And will be praying along with the vigil tonight.

3. Woody - May 6, 2015

Go to the anchoress web site at patheos, May 4th. Read that post regarding how “bishop Tony Palmer” and Pope Francis came to be friends. Very revealing of the Pope’s conversion to “charismatic catholicism.”

4. Baseballmom - May 6, 2015

Ya know…. One thing about ugly…. It remains ugly. What was ugly 40 years ago is still ugly today…. Funny how that works….

LaGallina - May 7, 2015

The same thing goes for beauty. What was beautiful 1000 years ago is still beautiful today.

Baseballmom - May 7, 2015

Amen.

5. J Rebecca - May 7, 2015

It looks like all the artwork from the religion class books we had in the seventies and early eighties.
Doesn’t the Vatican have a pretty neat art collection? Couldn’t they have used one of those images instead of this dreck?
I wonder if it will be made available in really big, felt banners.

6. Paulus - May 7, 2015

The mantra of conservative “Catholicism” these days is “all despair, all the time.” Get over yourselves.

James - May 7, 2015

There is no conservative catholicism, only Roman Catholicism…and Our Lord will prevail. I hope He will prevail in your heart as well as mine. No room for despair where the Master and His Gospel, Apostolic Tradition and the Magisterium are the core. You could always find a more comfortable spot to roost — they are plentiful.

Paulus - May 7, 2015

My Catholic Church is vibrant, young, joyful, and growing. In short, it looks nothing like the Church described in this blog. Thanks for trying.

Tantumblogo - May 7, 2015

So, you’re a big fan of the art, then? Not a single point on the merits, just an ad hominem attack.

Really, it’s “young, vibrant, joyful, and growing?” Where, per se’? Because average Mass attendance is still falling, average age of parishioners continues to rise, revenues are falling, and more and more dioceses are shutting parish after parish and school after school. The Church in this country is producing enough priests per year to have about 20,000 priests in 10 or 20 years – just over 40% of the number now. But well over half of the 49,000 priests in office now are 67 or older.

Oh, yes, let’s do look at the Church overseas. Countries like Honduras, over 90% Catholic 40 years ago, are no longer even majority Catholic. Or Brazil, where the percentage of Catholics has fallen from over 90% to just over 60% – in 25 years!

Please do tell me more about this fantasy church you’ve constructed. It sounds absolutely fascinating.

Actually, there are parts of the Church with plentiful vocations, strong Mass attendance, generous giving, large families……all the markers of a community growing in strength. These are the Traditional Latin Mass communities. These are also the places where the hard truths that make some people oh-so-uncomfortable are still taught. You might want to come check one out, if you are blessed enough to have one nearby.

James - May 8, 2015

Delusional. Are you doing a guest appearance on the Brady Bunch?

Tim - May 8, 2015

You belong on a “Church of Nice” site. We all live in “realville” here.

Baseballmom - May 9, 2015

Wow! Can I have some of whatever you are smokin’? I could use a little time away from realville….

Tantumblogo - May 7, 2015

Nah than you miss many of my happy uplifting posts. But we are not called to bury our heads in the sand.

Tantumblogo - May 7, 2015

I see the Patheos crowd has dropped by, with their usual level of discourse.

7. James - May 7, 2015

I honestly thought you were joking…but you aren’t…then you pulled that stunt about the song…and I was convinced you were not joking, but you were. We need to laugh — though it is very difficult. Look, the one good thing about this is that it is the penultimate symptom that Pope Bergoglio and his home-boys are literally stuck in the sixties. This adventure in geriatric lunacy will come to an end. Their biological time bombs will soon take their course and maybe, just maybe, we will be released from these empty want-a-bes and entrusted to pastors who have achieved some degree of emotional and spiritual maturity. Maybe.

8. richardmalcolm1564 - May 7, 2015

Yet another of these faux Eastern icon knockoff styles, complete with dreary pastels. At some point it gets old, doesn’t? The Pope says we can’t go backward…but it does seem like some people in leadership haven’t been able to go forward from the 1967-1985 timeframe.

The bigger question is why we need a logo for something like this at all.

9. Mally El - May 7, 2015

It is right that we are called ‘not to judge or condemn but to forgive’. Though we should not judge or condemn people, we should not refrain from talking about sin and sinful ways. Yes, it is true that we should always be forgiving but it only becomes meaningful if the wrongdoer is repentant. This is what the Prodigal Son teaches us.

10. Marietta - May 7, 2015

It’s the soft core version of Eric Gill’s hard core porn.

11. Marguerite - May 7, 2015

So that explains the priest’s homily yesterday at Mass exhorting us not to judge behavior as exemplified by Pope Francis’s remarks. He recounted the story of two HIV guys coming to him to get burial for the one who was dying of aids. The priest did not refuse him. Okay, fine, but then the priest goes into a tirade about how we don’t know much about transgendered or homosexual people and that the Church is neither black nor white on this. The Church is all about mercy and that’s what’s most important. How is it merciful to let the man die in sin? How is it merciful not to speak the truth? How is it merciful to turn the other way and just allow a burial out of pity? The Church is black and white on every moral issue but misplaced mercy is now trumping truth. What is black in the Church is our sinfulness; what is white is the Lord’s mercy. Therefore, why ask for mercy if you don’t need it? Even these two men understood this deep in their hearts. Pope Benedict said that the truth should be spoken in charity; that is true mercy.

MA Nolan - May 7, 2015

Spot on

12. Frank - May 7, 2015

St. Augustine said to hate the sin but love the sinner. So how is this judging someone? Should we now love the sin and love the sinner? Is this the way not to judge today?

Tantumblogo - May 7, 2015

That was my point. We have to make distinctions. Look, we’ve all known people who just cannot be reached, who are really lost and who have a propensity to bring others down. For many people who are not rock solid in the Faith, the best move is to avoid such folks as much as possible, because the lure of the bad in these times is often much stronger than the good. It is too great a risk to fall into their destructive behaviors. If you know someone who is violently anti-Catholic, constantly blasphemes, and makes your blood boil, losing your peace for hours or days, it is wrong to judge that you shouldn’t be around that person? That doesn’t mean that we hate them, we continue to pray for them, but we simply have to realize they are bad for us. The situation becomes exponentially more dangerous when children or barely formed Catholics are involved.

IN reality, however, my major beef is that almost invariably this “don’t judge” is just a cover for rank indifference and a desire on the part of the claimant to dally in their own preferred sins quite freely, as well. It’s just an excuse for license, by and large. Maybe that’s a harsh assessment, but I’ve seen too many examples to be convinced otherwise.

13. Ignatius Of Antioch - May 7, 2015

Why is it that those who are stuck in the ’70’s are always telling everyone else that they are stuck in the past?

Tantumblogo - May 7, 2015

Hmmm……..could be read two ways. A bit more?

14. Edison Frisbee - May 7, 2015

My Church seems to get dumber and gayer with each passing day….

TG - May 7, 2015

Another Lol. Agree especially stupidity over the climate change thing.

15. JTLiuzza - May 7, 2015

Will the official logo be made out of felt?

J Rebecca - May 7, 2015

Well, there is also the really seventies option, which would be a burlap banner with felt pieces glued to it. If you buy a copy of this banner, you get a free book of Rod McKuen poetry.

16. Binky - May 7, 2015

It must be felt.. and done not in a child-like but childish manner, with clunky letters. Any and all artistic excellence, beauty, or even font kerning must be avoided, in the pursuit of fake ‘authenticity’. With sparkles.

Anybody who wrinkles their noses at this are to be anathema, as if a publican and a sinner.

17. Margaret Costello - May 7, 2015

What IS that thing? It took me some time to figure out that it was a man draping himself over Our Lord’s shoulders ala the lamb over the Good Shepherd. I hope people realize that when shepherd’s did this to lambs it was A) b/c they were not obeying/out of control/straying B) BROKE ALL THE LEGS of the lamb in order to place it over his shoulders. Is that what the Holy Father is prepping us for? A year of leg breaking if we don’t obey? And that eye thing screams Masonic. God bless~

18. James - May 8, 2015

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The Roman Catholic religious aesthetic has been nonexistent for a good number of decades now (remember Corita Kent?) and mirrors accurately the shallow nonsence that presently poses as theology. We have gone from the heights to the depths.


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