Pressing Forward Into the Void

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marc bishop

Laurence England at “That These Bones You’ve Crushed May Thrill” has a response to the Pope’s frightening denunciation of the Ancient Mass this past weekend.  Pope Francis told the Catholic world we must ‘go forward,’ accept even more advances, and  ‘to go back is wrong.’

Jesus Christ does not simply call us to ‘go forward’, marching on blindly. He ceaselessly calls us back to Him. Repentance means turning around. We can go forward quite happily and unhappily leave Jesus Christ behind. There is no merit in simply going forward, for we could be going forward into the abyss. If I am in mortal sin, simply going ‘forward’ is not going to help me to save my soul. I could be marching merrily into Hell. I have to go back, turn around, preferably to a priest, to confess, to acknowledge my guilt and seek absolution to return to a state of Grace. Simply ‘going forward’ for the sake of going forward is the language of the ideological progressive who refuses to state where we are going forward to, neglecting to tell us for what purpose, for what reason or whether that movement forward has anything at all to do with Salvation.

Numerous statistics have been made available over time, not least by the Latin Mass Society that show a certain trend that does not lend greater credibility to the post-Concilliar Church as a resounding success. Of course, success is not necessarily what the Church is about, but faithfulness to Christ means reflecting on exactly what is going on and whether what we are doing is working for the salvation of souls and sanctification of the people of God. An ideological commitment to going ‘forward’ at any cost, not examining the evidence given by those of goodwill is, frankly, lunacy.

And why, exactly, should Catholics, Popes, Bishops and Cardinals, or priests, have an irrational fear of the past, of the tradition of the Church? Why such fear and loathing of our heritage? Why is commitment to the Novus Ordo so rigid and inflexible that it cannot bring itself to acknowledge any – dare I say it – weaknesses or deficiencies at all in comparison to the glorious Mass of Ages?

Why is it that the spectre of the traditional Latin Mass is one that haunts so many prelates and brings them out in a sweat? What, exactly, is so offensive about the Latin tongue in the liturgy? What is so terrifying about Mass being celebrated Ad Orientem? No reasons are given, just a kind of psychological ‘we mustn’t go there’ response that any psychotherapist could tell you means you have deep-rooted problems with accepting your past, as if the Latin Mass was some kind of horrendous ecclesiastical inflicted trauma visited upon the Church’s children by brutalising, callous parents.

The wholesale rejection of the past is a break with the Faith.

Merciful Cardinal Tagle And The New Springtime Of Self-Esteem

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tagle and francis

In America recently, and now speaking from London, “Philippine Francis” Cardinal Luis Tagle is traveling the world and making a name for himself.

The London Telegraph reports:

The “harsh” and “severe” stance adopted by the Catholic clerics towards gay people, divorcees and single mothers has done lasting harm, one of the most prominent members of the Church’s new generation of Cardinals has acknowledged.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila in the Philippines, said the Church had to learn lessons from changing social attitudes and a greater understanding of psychology and recognise the “wounds” its judgmental approach had caused in the past.

He was speaking after addressing thousands of young British Catholics at the “Flame II” rally in Wembley Arena in London where he gave an impassioned call for Christians to learn again the meaning of the word “mercy”.

Do sinners wound the Church or does the Church wound sinners?  Why is Cardinal Tagle making an apology tour?

The 57-year-old cleric who is widely considered to be a possible future Pope, was given an ecstatic reception from the crowd as he told them that “only mercy can save humanity”.

Does that mean anything?   Did they stand up for that?

Speaking afterwards, he said it was clear that the tone taken towards gay people, divorcees who remarried against Catholic teaching and unmarried mothers had left many feeling “branded” and socially ostracised.

We’ve been harsh, we’ve wounded, we’ve had a tone, we’ve branded, we’ve burned. We even made a social sin. We’ve been an awful bad Church all these years, especially if you have a gay sex habit or a second husband.  We were extra mean to you!

Then there’s that psychological damage just uncovered through research.

He added that improved understanding of child psychology had exposed the scale of harm done to children by the disciplinarian stance taken in schools.

The word “mercy” has been the central theme of Pope Francis’s pontificate but has exposed sharp divisions over possible moves to relax the ban on remarried divorcees receiving communion.

Cardinal Tagle told The Telegraph: “We have to admit that this whole spirituality, this growth in mercy and the implementation of the virtue of mercy is something that we need to learn over and over again.

He said that the past approach in Catholic schools and other institutions had often been to dictate rules and tell people that they were “for your own good”.

“Now with our growing sensibilities, growth in psychology, we realise that some of them were not as merciful,” he said.

“Now with the growth of insights in child psychology we see some of the wounds inflicted with that – and so we learn.”

Withholding Holy Communion is causing irreparable mental damage. Change course, apply inclusive mercy liberally, and a new springtime of self-esteem will surely blossom.

If anyone needs ‘mercy’ it’s Holy Mother Church.  God save us from these oppressors.

Pontifical Council For Culture: What They Don’t Know About Women is A lot

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venus tied

The Catholic faith has nothing whatsoever to do with feminism and Our Lady was no women’s libber. The Pontifical Council for Culture’s new outreach to women is awkward to say that least.   What they produce is telling since it’s decidedly un-manly, appealing neither to men nor women.

The Vatican has removed the controversial Venus Restored (1936) by Surrealist artist Man Ray from the website of its Pontifical Council for Culture. The image, a plaster cast of a nude torso – with no head or face, no arms and no legs – tightly bound with rope, was intended to draw attention to its annual plenary assembly on Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference. It succeeded more than expected.

The assembly took place last month, between February 4th and 7th.

The image provoked international outrage from Catholic women’s groups in particular, who saw it as reflecting what Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests says is “the Vatican’s patriarchal, dysfunctional view that holds women in spiritual bondage”.

This response is the true essence of our Church in the age of FrancisMercy.  Moving ‘Forward’ as Pope Francis famously counseled on the anniversary of the Paul VI Vernacular Mass, is simply capitulation and submission.  In the end it brings neither respect nor mercy from the enemies of the Faith.