Wednesday 28 October 2015

The Pope and The Synod

The question of admitting divorcees who have entered a civil union was a hot-button topic at the Synod. According to the Wall Street journal (here):

“The focus now shifts to how the pope will respond, with both sides looking for him to settle the Communion issue for good. Conservatives want him to make a clear reaffirmation of traditional teaching. But raised expectations of liberals and the pope’s own preferences suggest the pontiff may opt for change.
“In the end, Pope Francis could leave the matter vague— affirming the indissolubility of marriage, but urging priests to be merciful with people in difficult marital situations—tacitly allowing bishops to act on their own. Today, many priests knowingly give Communion to divorced, remarried Catholics. [emphasis added]

The reality is that, despite Francis having apparently filled the important places in the Synod with men of his own persuasion and choosing, the liberal agenda was not sanctioned by the Synod. Vague language is all that was left to them. Such language is itself highly problematic, since it plays false to the Truth by failing to proclaim it: it fudges it; it is economical with it -and thus treacherous towards it. Make no mistake: to fudge the issue would be as treacherous as changing the doctrine or the rules.

One thing I think the WSJ has gotten wrong is that “the pontiff may opt for change”. He cannot, without abandoning his responsibility as defender of the Deposit of Faith, for the Pope is not master of the Truth but its servant (even Cardinal Marx admitted that one). If Francis goes ahead and fudges issues for ‘his own preferences’, he abandons his post and shows himself to be treacherous, for he is called by The Lord to guard the Sacred Deposit faithfully, not to compromise it; called to reform the world by the Sacred Deposit, not reform the Sacred Deposit by the contemporary world.  That said, Francis must know that if he uses papal Authority to overrule 2,000 years of teaching and discipline that he can be overruled by the very next Pontiff. So expect no change from Francis unless he is supremely stupid or supremely arrogant. We don’t want to see the man go down in history as either, or both, and one or other is unavoidable if he ‘opts for change’ or fudges the issue so that the ambiguity can be misused to further an agenda pursued by liberals, who misuse the term ‘development’ of doctrine to mean the changing of doctrine, rather than the organic, consistent growth of authentic development. For Traditionalists, doctrine grows in internal consistently with its nature, as a foal grows into a horse. For liberals a foal need not grow into a horse but can mutate into a dog, so as long as it has four legs and a tail they can say it resembles the foal, and they play on the resemblance while ignoring the internal inconsistency that it is no longer what it was or was meant to be.
PS Please don’t push the analogy too far; analogies are always imperfect.

24 comments:

  1. Well said Father, and God Bless and Protect you always.

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  2. Christologically and Ecclesiologically this Synod has been a disaster for the Catholic faith. It has not only failed the sacrament of marriage and family life, but thwarted the Church's all important mission to evangelise the world, the very reason for her existence.

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  3. I was in a parish with a divorced remarried couple who recieved holy communion. They were readers at Mass and active in the parish SVP etc. The injustice of it all was that the true wife was left to bring up four children on her own. She never went to Mass due I suppose with the Church taking sides with the new arrangement. Mercy for one means no mercy for the other. The Church should keep to the truth of marriage not try and accomodate evil.

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    1. I think the Synod forgot that mercy for one can mean no mercy for the other.
      God Bless.

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  4. I remain faithful to our abandoned marriage more than 25 years now. I ceased, except with our children, attending mass or participating in the sacraments, when my wife was given permission to receive communion at our son's wedding, which I then walked out on.

    I have asked a Canon lawyer if there is any way I can force my own formal excommunication by THE HERETIC JORGE, without joining another adulterous pretend Church, wihout desecrating a host and without incurring civil or criminal liabilities.

    When a sitting Pope knocks on my door, on his knees, repenting for the entire Catholic hierarchy and completely, without condition, yields the Catholic Church to my care and forgivness.....then healing might begin. The same conditions apply to my wife, relative to her life and will.

    Those are the only terms, unless God Himself comes to me, reveals Himself to me, beyond question or any doubt, and asks otherwise of me. For Him alone, will I yield. Him alone and in His personal presence, only.

    Otherwise, the Catholic Church MUST BE completely humbled and placed in the care of a struggling broken layman....or it can GO TO HELL.

    Karl

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    1. Hi Karl,

      You have remained faithful for 25 years now, which is heroic in today’s society. You seem to be in a situation which our commentator Paul (above) describes as ‘Mercy for one means no mercy for the other’. I think if anyone is wandering in the direction of hell it is those members of the Church that are unfaithful to the Truth and determine their own pastoral directives contrary to the Truth, whatever or however high their office. Christ’s words carry an authority which is such that even the highest authority in the Church cannot cast them aside.
      God Bless.

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    2. Thank you. It is a worse position than mine to be a good priest among such reprobates.



      Karl

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    3. It is difficult for us all, Karl, priests or laymen.
      If you aren't doing so, I would encourage you to continue receiving the sacraments. You may have walked out of the wedding, but don't walk out on the sacraments; don't give up on the sources of grace because others -clergy or laity- misuse them. You have been faithful to your marriage for 25 long years; continue to be faithful to the Lord by receiving His Sacraments.
      God Bless.

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  5. Well we do not know what kind of mental state the bishop of rome is in due to his brain tumour so to try to guess what his response to the synod will be is made even harder. I think his response will be quick as i have heard rumours on the grapevine he plans to resign when he visits argentina next year.

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    1. I'm not sure he will resign until he has achieved what he set out to achieve, unless feels that the sheep have turned on the wolves in sufficient number and power to see them off!
      God Bless.

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  6. For those of us concerned with preserving the Church, we are living in worrying times and this Synod has added to those worries.

    Vague language is a problem. It can be used as a tool or perhaps a weapon. It is always the opposite of integrity. We appear at this stage anyway, to be faced with it.

    Our present Holy Father, by no means the first in the history of the Church, is an enigma. It will be some time, perhaps generations before an objective assessment of him can be made.

    All that can be said at present is that the Catholic Church is sorely afflicted and his approach to this does not appear to be doing anything that will ease that affliction. Rather he is playing with ideas which are settled and can in no way be changed. The reason for this irrational behaviour is unclear.

    For my generation, even to say this is most uncomfortable. In my youth I would never have dreamt that I would ever have to even hint at it. (sorry for that complex sentence).

    However straight talking has been called for and there it is.

    Right. Now for other really important matters. A bit of tidying up in the garden before the rain moves in.

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  7. Well, if men can now mutate into women, and vice versa, I don't see why a foal can't turn into a dog. If that's what the foal feels like, who am I to judge?

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    1. Indeed. If castration can now be regarded as a change in sex (which it isn't), its not surprising that liberals will twist a doctrine so as to claim what is really one thing is actually another. We must ignore this canard of 'who am I to judge and keep on judging acts/situations. Truth demands it -as does sanity.
      God bless.

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    2. Men cannot mutate into women. They can have bits chopped off or whatever but they retain their God-given nature. If that is a Cross, well we all have crosses.

      Now the essay we did at school about the man who dreamed of all the people in the world with afflictions. They all wanted to swop theirs for someone else's.

      Was it by Bunyon ?????

      Come on DJR, Fr Dickson.

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    3. Indeed! God forbid, but should a 'transsexual' get caught in a fire an be identifiable only by their DNA they would be identified as their birth sex, not their plastic surgery sex.

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    4. Yes but who wrote the essay. Surely my Senior Secondary Selective Catholic School, wasn't the only school in the UK who studied it?

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    5. I'm sorry but I have no idea. can anyone out there help?

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  8. That is not mercy. Mercy is dependent on truth and justice and working for the objective good of the one to whom mercy is given.
    Karl, You must return to the practice of the One True Faith and repent of abandoning it. That does not mean following popes, priests or bishops that oppose God's Laws. A valid marriage can never become invalid and null - those that maintain otherwise are liars and wolves (may they repent and convert).

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    1. Thank you, Lynda.
      There seems to be an idea in many at the Synod that formlaising one's adultery by a civil union dissolves the first and sacramental marriage -or how could they even consider Holy Communion for those in such a life situation? They are wrong, and leading souls astray. As you say. 'A valid marriage can never become invalid and null.
      God Bless you are yours.

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    2. This mercy as a substitute for conversion and repentance is an abuse of the sacrament of penance. For how can a 'period of penance' while continuing the adultery be a true firm purpose of amendment?
      The whole concept is rubbish. These bishops should read their penny catechism again.

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  9. You will notice the common thread of this pseudo mercy is the omission of mentioning repentance thus giving the impression that all one needs to be is sorry. Judas was sorry but did not repent.

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    1. Indeed. Although today, even being sorry is omitted, never mind repentance and amendment of life. Rather, aberrations or deviations (whichever is less offensive to the over-sensitive) from the norm is wrongly seen as something to be celebrated. We do not celebrate cancer, which is an aberration of cell division; why celebrate any other form of aberration/deviation?
      God Bless

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