When the website and blog, One Peter Five, published a priest named Fr Dollinger's claim that Cardinal Ratzinger told him that there was more to the third secret of Fatima than which was revealed the Vatican immediately responded with a press office denial, paraphrasing the Pope Emeritus's rejection of the claims as 'pure invention'.
However, when the Pope Emeritus's secretary Archbishop George Gangswein claimed that the Pope Emeritus's resignation was intended to enlarge or rather 'expand' the papacy, controversially implying that the Office had been changed to include an active occupant and a contemplative occupant, from the Vatican press office, a statement denying this claim there came none and neither was any response from the Pope Emeritus given,
Make of that what you will, but I can't help thinking the Year of Mercy logo has been given a whole new meaning by the hydra-headed papacy debate. Which Pope is carrying whom?
We see today a great deal of evidence for the diabolical disorientation of mankind and we should ask what this 'diabolical disorientation' really means. Does it just mean confusion over moral issues or more? We see it in as much as we see that just as Satan, who in all his narcissistic malice, tempted Christ to the point of seeking His worship and adoration, operates this same ancient, malicious strategy in the World and so too, in the Church. Satan is orientating man to himself, away from God.
We know, as faithful Catholics, that it is not enough for the Devil to simply seek todestroy God in his envy and hatred of man, as we see in the Crucifixion, nor would it suffice for him to simply erase Him from mankind's collective memory, as we see in the near global denial of His Glorious Resurrection in the body. To seek to destroy God and all trace of Him from men's hearts is not enough. What the Devil seeks to do, surely, is to take His place, to be enthroned, not simply in men's hearts and souls by causing their rebellion against God, but to pursue his ultimate ambition of mockery of the Divine by being worshipped and enthroned in the very Body that is his destroyer, the Catholic Church, She who has been given power over the demons, to cast out devils, to vanquish the enemy of God and mankind. Remember what he proposed to Jesus as he showed Him the kingdom's of the world...
'All this I will give you, if only you would fall down and worship me!'
It seems so ridiculous to us that this proposition should be given to the Son of God, for we wonder how it is that Satan could ever entertain that God, in His Sacred Humanity, even after weeks of bodily deprivation in the wilderness, would consider worshipping the Devil. We know that Christ's obedience to the Father was perfect and found its highest perfection in suffering. We know that in a moment of triumph and solemn victory, the Lord vanquished Satan in a manner that would prefigure the moment when the prince of this world was cast down, as Jesus was raised up on the Cross.
We know that for Jesus Christ, no good, not a single moral good, not even the good of solving world hunger by simply turning stones into bread, could ever be achieved by co-operation with the Evil One, the source of all the sin and disobedience in the whole world, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve.
Faithful Catholics know that there can be no 'co-mixture' of Christ and the Devil. There can, similarly for the Church which is His Spouse, be no good outcome to co-operation with Evil. This can be affirmed unequivocally, without the hint of embarrassment or shame on our behalf. If the good end was the healing of every sickness in the world but the price was worshipping the devil, we would have to reject the good end out of hatred for the evil means. We really are called by Christ to reject evil, even when, as evil, as it does most convincingly and persuasively of all, masquerades or masks itself as good.
Yet, and yet, we Catholics know that we, as soldiers of Christ, are easily deceived and, unless we are vigilant - vigilant in prayer - we cannot guarantee that we will do likewise as our Master and Lord. In fact, the time is coming - and is already here - when for even the Successors of the Apostles, the Successor of St Peter, the Church in Her Hierarchy, in Her ultimate moment of testing in the wilderness of the modern age, could very well fail the test and deny Her Lord.
We behold the mystery of Christ's temptation in the wilderness and our minds cannot conceive of the moment in which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was presented with those three subtly evil suggestions by the Prince of darkness. The Lord who answers the defeated Satan, conquers, saying:
'It is written, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and worship Him alone!'
The Lord is majestic in His victory as Satan falls like lightning from his lofty place at the pinnacle of Jerusalem, before leaning on the Angels who feed Him, their King, their Creator, yet true Man, like us in all things save for sin.
Indeed, we cannot fathom the moment in historical time that Our Lord, physically weakened is 'put to the test' yet the Father would not have permitted this scene, were it not possible for Christ in His human nature, to be tempted. While the outcome is thankfully guaranteed by Christ's perfect obedience, we are faced with a certain knowledge that He Who is without sin died for sinners, established His Church on sinners upon whom He would grant the grace to become Saints, but only if they remained faithful unto Death.
For surely, it would not be a moment of true testing were it impossible for the Son of God to know temptation, even if that temptation was to be by Him, rejected outright. And so we rejoice with the Angels that Our Lord, full of grace and truth, thrice rejected the Father of lies for our Salvation. But the Church? The Church of St Peter? The Church of the Rock who denied Jesus Christ thrice, even if after repenting, strengthened the brethren and owned Him Lord three times in loving affection?
When we talk of the Church which is the Body of Christ which walks the Earth, mystically joined to the Church in Heaven and united with the Suffering Church in Purgatory, shall we not acknowledge that we have been shown that unless we are totally reliant and trust emphatically in Christ, loving the will of the Father, that what we see as the historical guarantee of Christ's own rejection of the Enemy, by virtue not merely of His Divinity, but by virtue of his perfect love and obedience for the Father and for mankind, namely His Perfect Faith, may not be imitated by the Church?
Quite simply, we are not God. The Bride is not the Bridegroom. And so we see now the great mystery of the Catholic Church called in all ways to be like Her Divine Spouse, yet capable of betrayal of Her Lord, capable of adultery, idolatry, even of consorting with demons. And instead of being captor and slayer of the infernal angels could the Catholic Church, in temptation, consider uniting with the fallen angels in a common purpose, feeding the world bread, yet giving the world stones upon which their souls will stumble and choke?
Would the contemporary Catholic Church abandon Jesus Christ to end world hunger, or, rather, compromise with evil under the binding but empty promise of the Devil's agents that this goal could be achieved by succumbing to apostasy? For world peace and unity would She do the same? Or for religious unity and fraternal union with pagans and those who deny Christ? Today I suggest that it is more likely today than any other time, for the modern Church, in her members, especially in authority, knows not what She is for but for a minority who are Faithful.
Every age blasphemously asks Jesus Christ to come down from the Cross but none in the manner as our own.
'If you are the Son of God, come down from your Cross!'
'He saved others but could not save Himself!'
Do we not hear, in these sentences sentence being pronounced on those who say them? Do we not also hear in these cries, the cries of the Devil a s if speaking through men...
'Come down, Jesus, come down, it is not fitting that the Godhead should suffer. You cannot be Lord, for what Lord, clothed in Majesty and light, terrible and mighty in deeds, majestic in holiness, would humiliate himself by permitting Himself to be crucified by His own creatures, His very own people? If you are the Lord, come down, show forth your might, rebuke the nails that hold you fastened in love! What good can this death achieve?'
Yes, it is the same voice.
'If you are the Son of God...'
Yet the same voice is heard today. It is growing louder and louder...
'If you are the Church, if you belong to God then obey the world, be like the world. Tolerate sin, ignore the moral law! These things, these doctrines belong to past times! Use our language and adopt our slogans. Imitate the world. Embrace equality. Embrace our conceptions of diversity. Accept every sexual union as natural, healthy and good. Accept the false beliefs and false religions that rival the One True Church! Bless that which is sinful! Come down from your Cross, since you are a living rebuke to the demons, to the world, to the flesh! We are all terrified of your Cross and what it means for us!
If you are the Church...If you are the Church...if you love mankind tear down your Crosses! Glory no longer in the Holy Cross but be ashamed of it, despise it, since it can bring you nothing but embarrassment and pain! Glorify the flesh, exalt the flesh! Worship us, the demons instead! For what use is a crucified God to mankind!? What good! What good is Heaven to man if on earth he must suffer pain, hunger, suffering, want, mental illness, physical sickness, war, environmental degradation, tyranny, malnutrition? Above all, mankind cannot be asked to do that which doesn't come naturally to him, to change, to repent and to embrace this Cross! Instead, ignore the spiritual crisis afflicting man and his inner turmoil and conflict and let the Church instead focus alone in man's temporal needs! I will give you fame, popularity, success, if only you would fall down, fall down and...'
Yes, behind the debates at the Synod, behind the subtleties, ambiguities and scandals perpetuated by and promoted in Amoris Laetitia, behind the spin and the desperate PR machine at work within the Vatican, we are at this very time witnesses to the great battle between the Church and it's enemy, between Christ and His foe. It rages on and we are all in it. We must choose sides and side firmly with Christ and beg, implore and plead for those who have authority in the Church to choose, as Cardinal Sarah says, God, or Nothing, for in truth Satan can promise nothing that is worthy of any consideration.
They who say that as we worship so do we believe are right. As we believe, so shall we worship. Why should the Church not in every age undergo that same testing with very similar temptations undergone by Her Lord? But the Church now stands in a precarious position. Satan must be refused decisively, he cannot be refused half-heartedly. The Successors of the Apostles have been given spiritual power, along with the Pope to bind and loose men, but not to bind men alone. They have been given power by Christ to bind men for Heaven and the demons for Hell, for as they cried out to Our Lord, 'even the demons were subject to us in your name'. The Church must refuse to compromise with evil, even when it is cleverly and subtly presented as good. Let us worship Christ who has conquered and invoke His Blessed Mother's aid for the Church. May she be strengthened in unity, faith, charity, hope and love for the Truth of Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Charismatic movement will prove to be a corrosive force in the Catholic Church
Rorate Caeli today documents an important trend in the Church on their blog - the sad sight of young 'Benedict XVI era' habit-wearing nuns 'liturgically' dancing at a Mass in a Brazillian parish. Did they miss the Benedictine memo? Why should this kind of distraction from the organic beauty of the Mass happen?
As we approach the great Feast of Pentecost in which the Church makes the great Novena to the Holy Spirit, it is worth spending a little time examining the phenomenom of what has become known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal otherwise known as the hybrid movement of 'Catholic Pentecostalism'. We should do this because the Novus Ordo clearly lends itself to abuses that are closed 'doors' within the Sacred Liturgy presented to the Faithful by the Extraordinary Form.
Firstly, it needs to be remembered that the variable success and penetration of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal into the Church owes its entire being - and its very origins - to the Church's cultural and liturgical revolution borne out of the Second Vatican Council. If the Second Vatican Council's ambiguity had not been so enthusiastically exploited, nor its 'Spirit' blown wherever it was blown by whoever was blowing it, then the 'renewal' (note well that due to its novelty within the Catholic Church it could never be called, as it is in Pentecostal circles, 'revival') would not have touched a single parish in the entire world. Without the removal of the fortress of the Latin Mass (fortresses are there to protect the city from an enemy btw) this would never have happened.
Yet the 'floodgates', with the 'windows', were opened and a liturgy that can be abused with great ease is now the norm. The apparent and sudden announcements from Church authorities and its media that the glorious Mass of Ages had been 'dispensed with' must at the time have been hard enough for many Catholics during this time of unprecedented upheaval, but most could never have entertained that what would eventually come to replace it in many parts could be so in complete conflict with the perennial Catholic 'sense' of worship and liturgy as a variety of Evangelical Protestantism that attached itself to the Mass, attached itself to the Bride of Christ. Thus it is important when we examine the Charismatic contribution to the Catholic Church to recall that it did not emerge so much as from a vacuum, as establish its own sense of order in various regions out of liturgical chaos, confusion and ambiguity in the post-Vatican II years.
Secondly, it should be noted that what is seen now at events, such as, Flame 2, which was held in London at the SSE Wembley Arena in 2015 would horrify most, if not every single canonized Saint recognised by the Catholic Church, with perhaps the modern exception of St John Paul II, who suggested that the fruits of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal may represent a manifestation of the New Pentecost for our time. On the issue of the Sacred Liturgy, however, I hope readers will not mind me saying that St John Paul II was not as intellectually well-equipped as his Successor. His strengths lay in other vital areas.
There are good reasons why the Church has preserved this liturgy for hundreds of years
I have heard it said that in regions of the World - especially in Europe, a small number of Bishops are friendly both to the Traditional Latin Mass - and promote it - and also to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal - and promote that too - but for the reasons given below I really wonder how intellectually coherent or logical, or sustainable that position really is. Those places, it is said, are producing vocations, notably in France. Not that this 'dual' promotion is a huge probem, mind, because it is very unusual for Bishops to promote the Mass of Ages anywhere.
However, where the traditional liturgy is not promoted - but the Charismatic renewal is promoted, we should by now be able to make some kind of assessment of whether the Charismatic movement incorporated into the Catholic Church has produced the kind of fruit hoped for by even its most conservative of admirers and it should be noted that while St John Paul II made statements that publicly lauded the movement in its various forms, primarily for the enthusiasm which the movement has generated, his Successor Benedict XVI withheld such statements of praise. I expect - though I do not know - that those small parts of the World in which traditional liturgy and 'contemporary' charismatic liturgy are promoted and in which vocations arise, this may well be despite of, not because of the contribution of the Charismatic movement.
We might ask ourselves why this may be the case. I would suggest that there are inherent problems within the Charismatic movement not because of the individual personalities involved in the movement - nor, let me stress this - their obvious good will towards the Church - but because the movement itself is borne out of a theology of rupture and severance with the traditional understanding of Catholic worship which has survived two millennia. This can be seen quite clearly on the CCR website which lamentably fails to communicate 'Catholic' because traditional sign and symbol have been erased. All is 'new'.
That doesn't mean that the Catholic Charismatic movement in its variety of manifestations cannot and does not display great faith and belief in the Church's teachings, the supernatural, or that its enthusiasts would disregard the Catechism and throw it on the pyre, nor that there is no Eucharistic Faith within the movement, nor that devotion to Our Lady is obviously lacking within it, though some will argue that these are all possibly problems within the movement in parts. No, the obvious problem with the movement is that at a time when events like 'Flame 2' are aimed well and truly at the 'youth' of today and as its liturgical celebrations celebrate 'youth' and 'young, vibrant Catholicism' the Archdiocese of Westminster that collaborates in such mega-events for youth is unable send a single man to the seminary this year. Read that again. Not a single man. That speaks of a huge crisis. Why cannot young men be inspired to lay down their lives to become for God, for men, Alter Christus in the Mass? At some point, if it wants priests, every Diocese in the UK and beyond is going to have to ask serious questions as to why we aren't producing them.
The crisis of faith and the crisis of the priesthood has emerged because there is such little authentic love for the Most August Sacrifice of the Mass
That's only my opinion but its not only my own. A widely circulated quote of Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger is as follows...
'What happened after the Council was something else entirely: in the place of the liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries and replaced it, as in a manufacturing process, with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.'
My take on the Charismatic Renewal is that its endemic weakness is precisely in its attempt to generate faith. It fails because, in my understanding the Charismatic Renewal within the Church represents fabricated liturgy on steroids. Fabricated liturgy and fabricated worship cannot bring us closer to Christ but to a fabricated Christ even if the liturgy works directly on feelings because liturgy is not fabricated or invented by man for man. It has been handed down, preserved intact for the Glory of God and the Salvation of mankind. The only concession to man that the Latin Mass grants is the Gift Himself, the Priest, the Offering, the Sacrifice. It is God-centric. For feelings, after all, like inspiration, come and go. Love for Christ and His Church comes through devotion and reverence in particular for the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the source and summit of the Church's life and prayer. With the Charismatic movement, no matter how 'in touch with the Holy Spirit' its enthusiasts claim the movement is, fabricated liturgy is given a new prominence within the Church, because we're no longer talking about a quiet 'Low Mass' for the Novus Ordo, but instead a 'Charismatic Service' in the Novus Ordo which may or may not involve Mass. The 'Charismatic Catholic Mass' has, in fact, become, in various parts of the World, what a Sung High Mass is for the traditionalist.
Unfortunately, the 'Charismatic Mass', while perfectly able to generate lay enthusiasm and to support Faith in those who attend, cannot possibly give adequate glory to God in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and is therefore deprived on essential ingredients that bring man closer to Christ. This is because the work of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is entirely the work of God condescending to us and making that extraordinary condescension, the sublime Gift of the Sacrifice visible and tangible through the Priest, not through the laity, through action, sign and symbol. During the Mass, the Priest himself is not in the Mass an ordinary man even 'beckoning God down' but rather the Priest is acting totally in Persona Christi, standing in Christ's place, obediently allowing himself to be united to Christ's self-offering at Calvary to the Eternal Father.
“It is one and the same victim; the same person now offers it by the ministry of His priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner of offering alone being different.” The priest is the same, Jesus Christ, whose sacred Person His minister represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is made like to the High Priest and possesses the power of performing actions in virtue of Christ's very person.
The Catholic Charismatic movement misses the essential ingredient that the traditional liturgy is able to supply in abundance and that is, quite simply, the sublime glory of the Priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI saw that the new liturgy and the fabricated, banal liturgy that so often comes with it, is a corrosive element within the Church for the priesthood -- not just for those who may be attracted to it, but to those who are already priests and who celebrate liturgy that is unable to communicate the ineffable Mystery of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And, quite frankly, he should know, since he saw the collapse in faith in the clergy, was witness to it all with his own eyes, as well as to the deformation of sound theology, the clericalisation of the laity and its attending secularisation of the clergy. In terms of communicating what the Church really believes, even if the Catholic Charismatic movements have Eucharistic Faith, devotion to Our Lady and the Saints and a great deal else that is Catholic, without the Latin Mass handed down to us, the reason to become a Priest is entirely lacking and a malformed Faith is - though you're of course free to disagree - entirely likely.
Presenting a Catholicism fit for 'your personal taste'
Now it so happens that from your average parish priest to the Pope, the Catholic Charismatic Movement is very much promoted while it is obvious that the small number of Bishops who promote the Traditional Latin Mass are regarded as maverick. So therefore, it is not likely that the 10,000 young people exposed to Flame 2 last year will be exposed to the Traditional Latin Mass. Nor will they be encouraged to be. The reason is of course that with the Traditional Latin Mass comes Traditional Catholicism. With traditional Catholicism comes an inevitable rejection of 'modern Catholicism' when it is embraced because it is discovered that we cannot invent new truth and we cannot invent worship, that God is always the first mover, that we discover God in silence, that holy prayer requires reverence, that we cannot innovate God into Being, He simply is. In time, we shall have to see whether Catholic Bishops begin to see sense and to look at the Fraternity of St Peter and the success in gaining vocations to the Priesthood and religious life that traditional orders are having, including within the SSPX and think of literally 'turning around'.
However, mark this. There are those within the Catholic Church who know very well that the Traditional Latin Mass is greatly loved and know too that this liturgy is entirely inflexible. They know it doesn't bend to your age, or your country, or your region, or your status. God stoops down from His Throne in Heaven to you. Even if they know it attracts men to the priests, they would rather have no men than those men as priests simply because they think differently to them.The Traditional Latin Mass teaches and forms men and women in the Faith. It schools them in prayer. It cannot be blended with other beliefs or other religions or other contemporary issues. It cannot be 'ecumenical'. It cannot act as a unifying force among those of other belief systems. It is not 'open to interpretation'.
The same cannot be said of the Charismatic movement, which could be brought to blend so very easily with other denominations in the spirit of ecumenism and brotherly love. It is my personal opinion that a great many 'reformers' in the Catholic Church like the Charismatic movement because it would make a useful vehicle for the transformation of the Catholic Church. Not because it produces fruit. Largely it is undoctrinal, it is stimulated and sustained by fabricated liturgy, the Priesthood is undermined by it and it cannot - of itself - produce vocations to either the contemplative life or the secular priesthood. For these same reasons the Traditional Latin Mass is feared by reformers and for these same reasons, are those devoted to the Sacred Liturgy - be they lay or clergy, are similarly feared.
Finally, there are a lot of very good people often with great faith and with love for Christ in the Charismatic movement in the Church. This blogpost is not aimed at denigrating their Faith, or their Hope, or their Love. This blogpost is concerned with the Glory of God made visible and tangible in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, how the Church can begin to address the crisis in the priesthood (and the laity) and asks serious questions as to whether the fruits of the Charismatic movement are as positive as they have often been presented to the Faithful. I do not think that the 'Charismatic' Mass and the Traditional Liturgy can exist side-by-side, or enrich each other or present to the Faithful authentic, cohesive Catholicism with integrity because quite simply the Charismatic movement, even when it contains Catholic elements is not Catholic in a traditional understanding of the term. It is today what it in essense has always been - Protestant in root, and unCatholic therefore in flower - and as yet I have not even mentioned the movement's distorted understanding of the holy influence of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in Christian worship.
A House divided will fall. It does not assist the Church to have a 'traditional' theology and liturgy and a 'charismatic' theology and liturgy. Nor can the Church with integrity present 'a choice' of liturgical styles that are 'diverse' and radically different. These two understandings cannot hold together because they are divergent and the well-supported 'charismatic' movement and the less well-supported traditional movement together will always give the impression that we can choose a form of Catholicism that is in harmony with our 'personal taste'. In the end, one of them will be chosen. Which one will it be? The one that produces fruit, or the one that produces 'the desired effect'?
Greetings readers and welcome a slightly new look blog. Indeed, welcome back to the 'twilight zone' that was well and truly entered by the Catholic Church on 13/3/13. In the vortex of diabolical mayhem known simply as the 'post-Benedict XVI era', Catholic bloggers are tasked with the mission of encouraging Catholics to stay faithful to the Faith passed down to us while it is further polluted, corrupted and overthrown centrally by men who have overseen its decline locally for the past 30-40 years, while lauding the wisdom of the 'new direction'. Yes, vocations can plummet, Churches can empty and close and the souls of millions can - through deliberate, wilful ambiguity on the part of prelates - be placed in graver jeopardy that ever before, but the esotericist can still claim the 'new direction' to be a success even when objective statistics suggest anything but success. I guess that's just part of what makes the new Catholic gnosticism so much fun.
Pope Francis spots a modern gnostic?
Thankfully, there are now quite a number of Catholic bloggers very much alive to to the grave threats posed by the Dictatorship of Relativism (TM) that Benedict XVI warned the Church of through his writings, homilies and interviews and we can see this dictatorship emerge in his conspicuous absence from the Chair of Peter. We should be more grateful that the Lord has provided Shepherds who are willing to warn the Faithful of the dangers posed by an elite band within the Sacred Hierarchy who seem intent to do all they can to dismantle the Church's most fundamental tenets through separating Church doctrine (which they do not wish to speak of) and 'pastoral care' (which they do want to speak of). We should note, too, that these figures do not wish to hold a 'debate' on fundamental issues to do with life, marriage and the family. No, no 'dialogue' is this, but the 'new guard' which in fact represents rather the 'old guard' wish to 'monologue' the Faithful into spiritual death with their deceitful mantras and overly simplistic 'new language'.
Shall we not, rather, bless?
Catholic bloggers and websites such as the erstwhile One Peter Five have been covering the fallout from the nuclear reactor leak that is Amoris Laetitia, otherwise known as 'the single most embarrassing and spiritually dangerous papal document in Church history'. While Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have been doing their level best to make their fidelity to Christ and His Teachings palpably clear at the 'Rome Life Forum', Archbishop Bruno Forte has been doing his level best to put distance between faithful Prelates such as these and the Pope, whose principal duties include the mission of encouraging Catholics to stay faithful to the Faith passed down to us. Unfortunately, the Pope has other priorities and so the Church needs Prelates who think that is rather important. It is helpful to their mission of teaching that Catholic commentators, journalists, writers, bloggers and communicators who can support them in that mission dedicate themselves to doing so.
But back to Archbishop Bruno Forte. It has been noted by several blogs that the Archbishop has related publicly a private conversation he held with Pope Francis concerning the Pope's desire to exploit in the manner of an opportunistic and cunning politician, ambiguities in text or speech during official Church discussions and through official texts. Personally, I have reached that stage in observing this pontificate that I simply don't take at face value (or even believe) that what prelates such as Archbishop Forte say of the Pope is even true, because part of being in the twilight zone is the realisation that we are led by members of the Sacred Hierarchy for whom truth or even honesty means very little. Simply put, it doesn't matter whether the Pope said it or not, for one simple reason which is as follows.
If the Pope said the following to Archbishop Forte...
“If we speak explicitly of Communion for the Divorced-and-Remarried, we don’t know what a mess will result. So let’s not mention it directly. Make sure the premises are there, and I will draw the conclusions”!
...then yes, that's a terrible thing. It means that deception (which is always diabolical) is at the very heart of the workings of this Papacy.
If the Pope didn't say...
“If we speak explicitly of Communion for the Divorced-and-Remarried, we don’t know what a mess will result. So let’s not mention it directly. Make sure the premises are there, and I will draw the conclusions”!
...to Archbishop Forte, then Archbishop Forte has said a terrible thing, but more, it is objectively still a terrible thing because Pope Francis will (most likely) not publicly correct him on the matter or rebuke him for maligning his character and misleading the Faithful.
The strength of the 'dictatorship of relativism' is that it doesn't matter anymore whether it was actually said because, you know, you could always say you said it, or get someone else to say you said it, or by not correcting the offending Archbishop who has said you said it even without telling him he could say it, give the impression you said it, even if you didn't actually say it. Quite simply, the Chief Shepherd, the Chief, the Supreme Teacher and defender of Faith and Morals has gone AWOL and has another agenda entirely. Truth isn't a part - much less the bedrock - of that agenda. So why should we be surprised if even members of the Hierarchy working closely with him to deceive the Faithful in a cunning 'five year plan' to unashamedly install the official Microsoft update for the Catholic Church for the next 100 years, basically suggest openly that Pope Francis is a manipulative imposter bordering on evil genius who plots to 'draw the conclusions' from 'official' ambiguity to do those things which his Sacred Office forbids him from doing?
Of course, most of us have told lies and deceived at some point in our lives, but the Catholic Church demands - at least educates us that such deception is wrong. Do these members of the Hierarchy think such brazen clericalism and dishonesty about your true intentions is in any way from God? Is deception through ambiguity what the 'God of surprises' is for? Is the Holy Spirit behind a papacy which dispenses with integrity?
Of course, it can also be said that the strength of the dictatorship of relativism is also its greatest weakness. At some point, people will work out that even if you are giving people what they think they want in terms of ambiguous teachings concerning Faith and Morals, people still believe that - generally - lying, dishonesty, deception and fraud are moral evils, even if the Chief Shepherd has stopped teaching about objective moral evils that endanger the souls of those in the Church's care.
At some point in the future, people will realise that even if the 'new direction' promises an easier Christian life - or even a life that is no longer Christian - that it is essentially built on sand, a house of cards that will come crumbling down because truth is not part of the building, that Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone, the Rock Himself upon whom the Church is built, has been rejected. While many people like or would like the opportunity to commit adultery, nobody actually likes adultery being committed against them. Lying, fraud and deception are the essential ingredients in any act of adultery and all spouses, innocent or guilty of it, know that.
No wonder, then, small surprise it is, that this pontificate is so very concerned with defending adultery and covering up for those who commit it, wilfully attempting to convince the Church and the world that perpetual adultery can be healed simply through false appeals to 'mercy'. The other essential ingredient of adultery - as well as the immediate loss of integrity and honesty, is betrayal. This pontificate is good for one thing. It teaches all Catholics faithful to Christ and His Teachings just how terrible it feels to be a victim of adultery and infidelity and to know that a sizable percentage of those who commit it - yes, on a serial, prolific basis - are not sorry and are not repentant about any of it at all. That's why it was strange all those months ago when Pope Francis apologised in public for certain scandals that had recently taken place, conveniently neglecting to mention for which of the near weekly scandals emanating from his pontificate he was apologising.
The sad and depressing truth is that those now in key positions of power and authority in the Bride of Christ will use whatever strategic moves are at their disposal - be they good or evil - to implement the reforms they wish to take hold of the Catholic Church. If the Pope said what Archbishop Forte says he said, that's a terrible indictment on this pontificate. If he didn't say it, its a terrible indictment of this pontificate because the Pope (though I hope I am proved wrong) does not love Christ's Flock enough to correct, rebuke, or contradict what Archbishop Forte has said. Welcome to the twilight zone...
Do consider going to the Latin Mass Society's excellent looking One-Day Conference on the Family, to be held at Regent Hall in London on Saturday 14h May. You can fill in a register form for the conference here.
The speakers will, I am sure, be very inspirational and interesting to hear, especially in the wake of Amoris Laetitia, the new document from Pope Francis that is so controversial that a different Catholic lay organisation wish to organise a conference to condemn it.
UPDATE: The LMS One Day Conference has unfortunately been cancelled.
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