https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/correction-francis-reveals-critics-who-dont-come-good-faith
This reminds me of Hillary Clinton calling Justice Watch part of a vast right-wing conspiracy. It turns out that she was right. Let us not ignore the fact that many of these Traditionalists say that if Francis has committed heresy, he has removed himself as pope. In other words, they are beyond flirting with Sedevacantism to suggesting it. They regard Vatican II as non-dogmatic but they don't understand that Dogma reflects Credal issues, like the nature of the Trinity or the Resurrection.
In light of how the Evolutionary Paradigm has trashed their view of the Eden story (they think it literal, which is bad proof texting), perhaps we need another Council to redefine original sin and to move away from St. Anselm's transactional theory of salvation, and to put Dei Fidelus and the various condemnations against modernism to bed, the latest shot being Vetitatis Splendor.
There is a need for much reform in the Church. The Hierarchists have advanced a belief that God is an Ogre that must be placated so that people can go to Heaven, that keeping out of mortal sin is all important (no time for charity and no room for letting the government do it either, else we would be coddling the poor in their challenges in overcoming sin - it is almost Brahminism).
In their Church, Jesus is not knocking so much to get out of the box as escape it. This is a Jesus that has mercy on women who cannot get pregnant lest it kill them but still want sex, the cancer patient who sees no life in front of him to mother carrying a child with no hope of a live birth. This crowd cannot bear the thought of flexibility. They also like controlling the Church's money and property hierarchically, who make the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday an empty ritual. They insist that all of this is irreformable, that Jesus will not allow change and if the pope makes it, the pope is a .heretic.
The truth of the Church is shown that there are still those who would join it, and not just those from Anglican Ordinates who are fleeing female and gay bishops. Still, the Church is visibly changing around the Trads. They are dying off and Francis is replacing the John Paul bishops with spirit of Vatican II bishops which the Holy Spirit seems to have been hiding from the hierarchy (we were the altar boys in the 70s). The Holy Spirit is changing the Church, but she is moving with Francis, not against him. Indeed, She will move beyond him to renew the Church so that everyone will seek Christian unity, where the people have their just say over its operations and where none will be afraid of the Church taking over social services and education entirely from the government. The latter is impossible now, given the box Jesus has been put in. Slice the Magna Cappa it is wrapped in and let him out..
Advocates of the Extraordinary Form like it for its own merits and don't see it as an act of rebellion against the triumphs of modernism. That may be the case, but do they love the EF enough to stop trying to hold back the hands of time and silence the Spirit? I very much doubt it. Yet they wonder why there are some on the left who want to suppress the E.F. because it has become their rallying point. Seeing reality is not their strong suit.
They associate with a bishop of the Pius X Society, which is borderline sedevacantist. They are hardly eminent. They are farther to the right than Church Militant. Better to associate with historians such as Garry Wills and Diarmund McCulluch than this crowd. They are hanging their hats on traditionalist proof texting that does not hold up if you read it without trying to prove what was essentially Catholic branding on divorce and receiving Communion. If that traditional misinterpretation falls their objections fall, as they should. One does not need a Roman collar to read and interpret scripture, indeed, lay theologians do a better job because they can be objective and are not necessarily bound to uphold the brand. That branding is about separatism, not truth and certainly not about either God or love. Love should be our brand identity, not obey or God the Ogre will get you.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am left wing, the end of my fifth paragraph as all about the Church replacing government in health, education and social services. That looks pretty libertarian to me, but to do that, it can no longer be the High Church of Damnation, agents of the Pope (even this one) or the personal property (or personal trusteeship) of the bishops. Christian or Catholic Humanism is also more libertarian than liberal. Morals are for our sakes, not God's. In politics, that is Social Libertarianism, keeping the state out of moral matters and leaving them with the individual (not using the Church as a substitute for government). This is much better than being an economic libertarian and a social authoritarian, especially if the Church is to be trusted to replace the state rather than making the state its enforcer of morals and capitalist values. I can't see Jesus of Nazareth endorsing either of those propositions.