Saturday 5 September 2015

Opening the Windows of the Church

Pope John XXIII asked that we throw open the windows of the Church to the world. Doing so has turned out to be disastrous since the world does not want to engage with the Church unless we follow the world’s ways and abandon the ways of Christ. The world is not interested in dialogue; it has a monologue to which we are expected to give assent. It is not for nothing that Christ said He had taken us out of the world: “you do not belong to the world, I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (Jn.15v19). Sadly, many members of the hierarchy seem so taken with dialogue that they have forgotten Our Lord’s words to Saint Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn.14v6).
There is only one Way to heaven: Christ and His Gospel. The Church seems reluctant to preach that truth, while the world seems determined to criminalise it with devout Christian’s being persecuted for living by The Gospel, such as those who have refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex pairing; those who refused to let hotel rooms to a same-sex pairing, and the lady who refused to sign marriage certificates for same sex pairings. The world with which many in the hierarchy want us to dialogue is a world that persecutes us and wants us to approve of the killing of babies in the womb and of the dying.
The Church has, it seems, forgotten that death will not dialogue with life -it seeks to overcome it, and that darkness will not dialogue with the light because light by its very nature light dispels darkness. How blind can some in our hierarchy be? Do they not realise that they are trying to engage with a world that seeks only the destruction of the Gospel so that the worldly can have things their way (and at the root of all the attacks against religion is nothing other than the pull of the flesh: the worldly want to be able to indulge in sex whichever way they want it, with whichever person they want it, and at whatever time they want it -with no responsibilities whatsoever. It is not to end persecution or inequality that causes the world to attack the Church; they attack the Church because she proclaims the natural law, contrary to their desire to have legal support and protection for indiscriminate sexual experience and an unbridled sexual appetite.
The world will only be happy when religious people take their moral norms from what is legal, and they are only going to be happy to let us worship as we need to as we do not preach the Gospel during that act of worship, which the over-sensitive and misconstruing mind might describe as ‘hate speech’ (though we preach only against acts, and never people).
I tire of but will not stop saying that we need [1] put the catechism back into schools; [2] offer liturgy that thanks and adores God; one which offers propitiation for sin and petitions God for grace, rather than what we have now which too often celebrates and entertains man; and [3] impose canonical sanctions where they apply (to errant theologians and politicians who vote for anti-life legislation). The salvation of souls is at stake. No one doubts the good heart and intention of those who seek to “lift the burdens from men’s shoulders”, but if it is lifted by falsehoods; by telling folk they are not in sin when they are, no good can from it. Souls will be lost by those who deliberately choose lifestyles which contravene the law of God, and with them will go the souls of the hierarchy who condone and affirm those lifestyles. Pray, and fast for the Church and for souls –and give united public witness from the whole Church to the world of today.

The new evangelisation is the re-evangelisation of the Catholic people according to Pope John Paul II, who said we need a “new evangelisation of those peoples who have already heard Christ proclaimed” –but it would never have been necessary had we kept the Catechism in our schools and drawn out its message in later school years as all the best teachers did, while worshipping with God at the centre instead of us.

14 comments:

  1. I recall a few years ago in Washington DC a peiest preaching that outside of the Church there was no salvation. I questioned him after Mass & he confirmed that PROVIDING WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to hear the truth of our Catholic Faith then what he said was fact. Was he right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you David.
      A complex question. Can I refer you to what Pope St John Paul II said here:

      http://www.catechism.cc/articles/All-Salvation-Comes-through-Christ.htm

      I may do a post on this in the future.
      God Bless

      Delete
  2. The law recently passed that overturns marriage and perverts it to include two men or two women should have been condemned by our Church leaders with the same force as St Thomas More in the film A man for all seasons. And I quote . .

    "The indictment is grounded in an act of Parliament which is directly repugnant to the law of God, and his Holy Church, the Supreme Government of which no temporal person may by any law presume to take upon him. This was granted by the mouth of our Savior, Christ himself, to Saint Peter and the Bishops of Rome whilst He lived and was personally present here on earth. It is, therefore, insufficient in law to charge any Christian to obey it. And more to this, the immunity of the Church is promised both in Magna Carta and in the king's own coronation oath"

    Would to God that our bishops and priests would have spoken like this then when this mad law was passed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are obliged to follow the law when it does not conflict with our conscience...more difficult these days, no?
      God Bless.

      Delete
    2. That's okay if one's conscience is properly formed in line with the unchanging truth of the Natural Moral Law. What is intrinsically evil is always and everywhere intrinsically evil and must be opposed, even and perhaps, especially, when posing as a valid law (which, of course, it cannot be). We have a duty to reject and refuse to comply with intrinsically evil, invalid "laws".

      Delete
    3. Yes, Indeed. The law cannot make an evil act good, only legal. And as I say, the world will only be happy when religious people take their moral norms from what is legal. Sadly, many religious people now do so. Natural law has gone out of the window opened by Vatican II.

      Delete
  3. Some of the hierarchy, sadly, seem to know less than I did when my parents prepared me for first Holy Communion 70 years ago

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps they know more but believe less?
      I have you and your health in my prayers.
      God Bless.

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Father. Prayers definitely needed.

      Delete
  4. While we are unsure of the secret of fatima, the messages of our lady of la salette and our lady of good sucess ring ever more loud and clear in my heart. The protectors of our faith have disobayed heaven when our lady called for the 3rd secret of fatima be made public in the 60s, of course our lady knew they would but in so doing they exposed themselves to be disobedient and vatican ii exposed the infiltration of the powers of darkness the fruits of which are now coming to bare upon the church and mankind itself. I agree profoundly with everything you state father... i am 36 yrs old and when i go to mass i see so few in my age group... the catholic faith is crippled because it has never been taught neither its doctrines nor its importance for both individuals and humanity itself. We can not continue to go down this road for as sure as night follows day it will only lead to the destruction of not only the church but humanity itself as evidenced in eugenics and genetic manipulation. The fire of the faith is virtually extingushed and an aging generation that when gone to the father will leave only a tiny few who i believe will experience a most violent persecution when the powers of darkness seeing the faith so low as to be virtually non existant will seek to erradicate from the face of the earth all that remains trying to destroy not only Christ but all memory of him for future generations.

    Father i feel so blessed to have a priest such as yourself so near to where i live...Get well soon Father the church needs you back in action and I can not wait to hear your homilies

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, David.
      The Catechism and good liturgy are the vital building blocks needed. Modern catechises has failed, and failed miserably (95% laspsation rate).
      God Bless

      Delete
  5. Modern catechises? Its failed so much i never knew it existed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The centre of Catholic life is the liturgy. Get that right then the Church can start to move forward. The bishops have the key. But miser like they keep the huge treasure chest of tradition firmly under lockdown. By their mean spiritedness they suppress and persecute any priest who shows any sign of leaning back to tradition and the 'old' Church.. But the modern catholic church is but a poor shadow of its former self. Only a return to tradition in liturgy and teaching will society and the world start the long road to recovery. Bishops you have the key. Use it . Open up the vast treasure of tradition and let us poor laity return to the Church "that gave joy to my youth" . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Church if anything Father, is currently Secularising, leaning towards the World, more than ever.

    Catholicism, is the Cross and Resurrection.

    If Catholic schools do not teach this and the Apologetics to enable their pupils to understand and defend this, then they the "Catholic" schools are a waste of space and money.

    ReplyDelete

Please comment using a pseudonym, not as 'anonymous'.
If you challenge the Magisterium, please do so respectfully.
We reserve the right to delete from comments any inflammatory remarks.
If we do not reply to your comment it is through lack of time rather than interest.