At Lifesite, Hilary White reports on Cardinal Burke’s latest round of guidance and encouragement for a Church in deep crisis, while also noting the stark difference between his thinking and that of Philippine Cardinal Luis Tagle.  They both spoke in the UK last week.

Tagle is one to watch.  He seems to share much of the Pope’s sheer audacity.  He’s oh so joyous and cheerful while he says the most insidious things; things that seem to pivot on the changing world, the advances in psychology, and that terrible institution that was the Church up until now.

It seems like they are trying to build enough ‘righteous’ indignation against withholding Communion from adulterers, that the few remaining Catholic faithful and Synod hold-outs will be swamped with contempt from all sides.

Cd. Tagle is squarely in the sinful Communion crowd.

“Every situation for those who are divorced and remarried is quite unique. To have a general rule might be counterproductive in the end. My position at the moment is to ask, ‘Can we take every case seriously and is there, in the tradition of the Church, paths towards addressing each case individually?’ This is one issue that I hope people will appreciate is not easy to say ‘no’ or to say ‘yes’ to. We cannot give one formula for all.”

It’s interesting that this is so important to them.  It has a purely spiritual effect.  You would think men with such worldly focus would not think it worth doing, but they do.  It’s not that they hope it will bring people back to Mass. I don’t believe the people pushing the Church really want full Masses.  I think they want exactly what they’re getting: sold-off Churches and government funding.

Instead I think somewhere the people behind these ideas want the sacrilege.  It’s not the faithful that they need out of the way for their brave new world.  It’s the Grace of God.

 

 

The LA Times Reports:

Benedict famously made it easier for priests around the world to celebrate the “extraordinary form” of the Mass — that is, the Latin liturgy celebrated throughout the Catholic world before the changes set in motion by the Second Vatican Council. Francis long has been viewed with suspicion by devotees of the old Mass — and for good reason.

Take the comments attributed to him by Archbishop Jan Graubner of the Czech Republic. According to Graubner, Francis described affection for the old Latin Mass as a “fashion.”

“It is just necessary to show some patience and kindness to people who are addicted to a certain fashion,” the pope reportedly said. “But I consider greatly important to go deep into things, because if we do not go deep, no liturgical form, this or that one, can save us.”

The Pope is so cruel, and has such contempt for faithful Catholics.  Also, it’s infuriating how ‘deep’ liberals always are.  What in the world is down there so deep?

Last week, Francis seemed to double down on his dismissal of Latin Mass traditionalists. On March 7, he celebrated Mass at the Roman church where Pope Paul VI exactly 50 years before had celebrated Mass in Italian for the first time.

On leaving the church, according to the Catholic News Service, Francis said: “Let us give thanks to the Lord for what he has done in his church in these 50 years of liturgical reform. It was really a courageous move by the church to get closer to the people of God so that they could understand well what it does, and this is important for us: to follow Mass like this.”

For many Catholic traditionalists — not all of them elderly — these were shocking words. It’s not just that they find the old Latin Mass more aesthetically edifying than vernacular versions. The old Mass is a proxy for a cluster of theological precepts that have been eroded since Vatican II, notably the ideas that the Mass is primarily a repetition of Christ’s death on the cross (rather than a communal meal) and that the Mass is primarily the action of the priest rather than of the congregation.

The Roman Catholic Church is now experiencing the sort of polarization in public worship that long has been common in Anglican churches, in which some “high church” parishes feature elaborate ceremony while “low church” congregations favor a stripped-down, simpler rite.

This is true.  It’s like someone put a hipster Anglican at the helm.

Separate vocabularies also have grown up: Traditionalist Catholics will say that a priest “offers Mass”; liberal Catholics call the priest the “presider” at what they are more likely to call the “Eucharist.” The implication of the latter terminology is that the priest is the chairman of an essentially corporate act of worship. (Traditionalist Catholics see this as creeping Protestantism.)

Pope Benedict, who grew up in the Baroque Catholicism of Bavaria, left little doubt about which side he was on. Francis, although he embraces some aspects of pre-Vatican II Catholicism (such as veneration of the Virgin Mary), is pretty clearly a modernizer when it comes to liturgical reform. No wonder some traditionalist Catholics still consider Benedict the real pope.

Despite this last slur at ‘traditionalists’, it’s amazing what a clear-eyed secular writer can see when they look at our Church. Vatican II is everything new. The Virgin Mary didn’t quite carry over.  Catholics with a true and consistent faith have little in common with FrancisChurch.

 

 

Why does this kind of thing just keep happening and happening?

A childhood friend of Pope Francis has claimed that he intends to overturn the centuries-old ban on Catholic priests from getting married and that he told a divorcee ‘living in sin’ that she could receive Holy Communion.

The Pope considers the law on priestly celibacy ‘archaic’ and ‘not part of the doctrine of the Church’, according to the confidante.

The friend also claimed the Argentinian-born pope also vowed to reform another Catholic rule which bars divorced people in new relationships from taking the Holy Communion, MailOnline can reveal.

According to Oscar Crespo, Pope Francis said that changing the Catholic law which bars civil divorcees from taking a full part in church life is the ‘number one priority’ of his papacy.

Do you think Pope Francis will get on the phone with old friend Oscar now and ask him not to tell such lies about him?  I don’t.

Mr Crespo said that the Pope, 78, also sent a message to a divorced woman ‘living in sin’ with a new partner assuring her that she was free to confess and receive the Eucharist.

The Catholic church doesn’t recognise divorce, considering that anyone who remarries or starts a sexual relationship with another person other than the one they first married is committing adultery.

Taking Holy Communion while in a state of sin is considered an even graver sin.

Can you believe a secular paper just got something right about Catholicism?

Argentinian teacher Claudia Garcia Larumbe had sent a message to the Pope via Mr Crespo asking if she really was excluded from confessing or taking communion after moving in with her new partner.

After Mr Crespo reminded the Pope that church law ‘forbids’ divorcees in new relationships from partaking in the holy sacraments, Francis said: ‘Just tell her the Pope said that she can’.

Eh! Is the Pope Catholic? Eh!  What planet is this?

Ms Larumbe, 39, told MailOnline she was ‘speechless and emotional’ after receiving the Holy Father’s personal dispensation to partake in the key Catholic sacraments.

I get all emotional too now that I know the Pope, like God himself, can change any Church doctrine he wants.  How wonderful, she must think, to have a pope today that can help people like me go to Heaven!

The revelations will bring fresh hope to millions of civilly divorced churchgoers, as well as thousands of clergymen who are increasingly uncomfortable about their lifetime celibacy vows.

Increasingly uncomfortable?  That’s a stretch.  Can you think of a better time in history NOT to get married?

If unmarried people who live together cared about going to Holy Communion they would separate.  The only reason some might care about Communion would be if they believed they could go to Heaven now when before they couldn’t; but very few couples must be like that.  If it was wrong before it can’t be right now.  Do they really think Pope Francis can change right and wrong?  If they were right all along, what do they care what the Church says?

Remarried people really assume they can go to Heaven regardless.  They are just happy the Church may agree now with what they already thought.  It’s a hope, a false hope, and it’s being spread one way or another by Pope Francis himself.