Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Vortex: The Pope's Interview

Frankly, I’m a little weary of all the haranguing over “the Pope’s 12,000 Word Interview”, which seems to have taken on a life all its own. But in the September 24 Vortex episode, MV makes his usually good points – and it’s not about defending the Pope, or making sure we know what the Pope really said, either.

MV notes that

…there is a tension in living out of Catholic life.  Every Catholic who cares for and loves the faith knows this and has experienced it.

The tension is brought about by trying to hold two (or more) SEEMING contradictions in balance with one another.

No, he’s not talking about apparent contradictions between Church teaching and what the Pope is quoted as saying. He’s talking about the profound and sublime teachings of the Church:

Three Persons in One God; two natures in One person; the Immaculate Conception; Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine; victory through death and so forth. None of these is a contradiction – they just need deep, deep reflection because they are difficult to get our little finite minds around. They are paradoxes – not contradictions.

And then he comes to the heart of the issue that has arisen from the Pope’s Interview:

Today, the Church finds Herself in a state of paradox that many wrongfully claim is a contradiction. It is the tension between the DOCTRINAL approach and the PASTORAL approach.

They have been set in opposition to each other – almost as if one is right and the other is wrong.

Exactly!! And of course that’s the wrong way to look at it. Both “approaches” are necessary, and they are both inherent in Church teaching, which reflects, of course, the teaching and example of Her Founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ. MV explains:

[Setting them in opposition] is not only stupid, it’s also un-Christlike. Did the good shepherd not come to earth and impart sound teaching THAT MUST BE FOLLOWED for our salvation? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments (there’s the doctrinal part) and my Father and I will come to you and We will make Our home in you (there’s the pastoral part).

MV also touches on that unfortunate remark of the Pope’s that the Church is too focused on abortion, same-sex “marriage”, and contraception.  He says:

The one thing that is curious about some of the Pope’s impressions is that the Church is always going on about abortion and same-sex marriage and contraception. REALLY?

When is the last time a priest strode into the pulpit and gave a fire and brimstone about contraception that you can remember? When is the last time a bishop – or a bishops’ conference issued any statement about the depravity of an unmarried couple living together.

Yes. I must say, my jaw certainly dropped when I read that the Pope was saying that we talk about these things too much. I’ve seldom heard a homily touching on any of those issues. I have heard a little about abortion in the last few years, and I’ve heard one priest has vehemently denounced same-sex “marriage” from the pulpit. I have never, ever heard a homily that condemns artificial contraception.

Back to MV:

It is the MEDIA which has painted this picture of a Church constantly hammering these themes.

The vast majority of faithful Catholics know these things are seldom, if ever mentioned in any substantive way on the parish level – they aren’t even talked about and requests TO talk about the doctrines is usually swept away with an excuse that it wouldn’t be pastoral.

So one does wonder where His Holiness’ perception comes from of a Church emphasizing doctrinal over pastoral care – obsessing about them.

Here’s the Vortex:



The script:

Many words have been spoken and much ink has been spilled these past few days about the Pope’s recent interview that the media ran wild with.

But something to keep in mind is this – there is a tension in living out of Catholic life.  Every Catholic who cares for and loves the faith knows this and has experienced it.

The tension is brought about by trying to hold two (or more) SEEMING contradictions in balance with one another. The faith is rife with these things – Three Persons in One God; two natures in One person; the Immaculate Conception; Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine; victory through death and so forth.

None of these is a contradiction – they just need deep, deep reflection because they are difficult to get our little finite minds around. They are paradoxes – not contradictions.

Today, the Church finds Herself in a state of paradox that many wrongfully claim is a contradiction. It is the tension between the DOCTRINAL approach and the PASTORAL approach.

At the heart of all the heartache by faithful Catholics VERSUS the celebration and party atmosphere of unfaithful Catholics over the Pope’s interview is the failure to fully appreciate this tension between pastoral and doctrinal.

They have been set in opposition to each other – almost as if one is right and the other is wrong. That is not only stupid, it’s also un-Christlike. Did the good shepherd not come to earth and impart sound teaching THAT MUST BE FOLLOWED for our salvation? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments (there’s the doctrinal part) and my Father and I will come to you and We will make Our home in you (there’s the pastoral part).

This pastoral vs. doctrinal false dichotomy that first arose in the seminaries near the end of the 19th century has rained down mass confusion on the Church by being exploited by many clergy.

Down here, on the street level where the ground troops are, it has resulted in the falsely expressed notion that God is so loving that he would never throw anyone in Hell forever – and of course, the quite logical extension of that premise is therefore, leading an immoral life, while regrettable isn’t THAT big a problem.

The Pastoral VERSUS Doctrinal battle has created the further erroneous perception that there is opposition between God’s Mercy and His Justice. Again, a massively absurd and ill-conceived proposition.

It is the tension between Pastoral and Doctrinal dimensions of the Church that we find so very present in the Pope’s interview. Living with life’s tensions is part of life. Parents are most familiar with this in the case of raising their children.

When a child desperately wants something which MAY be harmful to him – MAY be – and a parent’s first reaction is to say no because of the POSSIBLE harm, then the protests or arguments of the child tend to have the effect of perhaps softening the parents initial sense. They consider, for example, if perhaps their firmness might have the effect of alienating their son – which could be an even worse harm than the initial possible harm.

This is one of life’s millions of tensions, so we shouldn’t be surprised in seeing this exhibited in the Pope’s own thoughts – none of which by the way here are infallible – they are his considered opinions born of his life experience and circumstances expressed in an off-the-cuff kind of way.

For the media and many unfaithful Catholic and enemies of the Faith – they get great glee from these words and play them up incessantly because in many, many cases, they live lives of gross depravity and sexual immorality and DON’T WANT TO CHANGE. So to them, this feels like a triumph – “see, even the Pope agrees,” they claim. “Stop telling me I can’t live with my same sex partner or my live in girlfriend.”

For the faithful beleaguered Catholic who is down in the trenches doing everything to fight the good fight and hold back the flood, the spin on the pope’s words is massively deflating.

It IS pastoral to tell someone they need to live a moral life. Is there a way to say it that such a person might respond to it better than another way it would be presented – sure, but that depends on the hearer. Some people need to hear things bluntly. Others don’t like hearing things directly because they get their feelings hurt to easily and so forth.

The one thing that is curious about some of the Pope’s impressions is that the Church is always going on about abortion and same-sex marriage and contraception. REALLY?

When is the last time a priest strode into the pulpit and gave a fire and brimstone about contraception that you can remember? When is the last time a bishop – or a bishops’ conference issued any statement about the depravity of an unmarried couple living together.

It is the MEDIA which has painted this picture of a Church constantly hammering these themes.

The vast majority of faithful Catholics know these things are seldom, if ever mentioned in any substantive way on the parish level – they aren’t even talked about and requests TO talk about the doctrines is usually swept away with an excuse that it wouldn’t be pastoral.

So one does wonder where His Holiness’ perception comes from of a Church emphasizing doctrinal over pastoral care – obsessing about them.

Nonetheless, it is this false dichotomy between pastoral and doctrinal - set up by the media and by many in the Church who want to undo Her moral teachings – that is to blame for much of the deep concern over the Pope’s interviews.

For example, for the intrepid souls of the 40 Days for Life Campaign, are they being too “doctrinal” “too obsessed” by standing outside abortion chambers – highlighting the sanctity of life AND the evil of child murder?

Or are they motivated by pastoral love and concern for the child and the mother – and the abortionist for that fact?

And what about the parents pleading with their homosexual son to not go down that path of giving into his passions – wherever they come from? Are they being doctrinal by warning him of Hell or are they being pastoral in wanting to help him choose the path to heaven. Again – a false dichotomy. They are being both!

For the past 50-60 years, there has been an effort on the part of many in the Church to play up pastoral care to such a degree that essentially ignore doctrine.

Many times, this is to make them feel good about their own moral failings – which often times are sexual and frequent. Sometimes, it is owing to a worshipping at the altar of feelings and emotions – where they place too much emphasis on these things to the detriment of truth.

But these things cannot be separated any more than you can separate the heads from the tails of a coin.

A perfect example of this is the very next day after the Pope’s interview was released and his words created headlines about abortion not being that big a deal,His Holiness blasted abortion at a meeting with gynecologists who he told, that every child that is killed, that child bears the face of Our Blessed Lord and that every child aborted has been unjustly condemned.

What needs to be addressed in the Church today is this false notion that doctrine and pastoral care are opposed to each other and one is right, the other wrong.


If anything beyond headlines and excuses for peddling more immorality by the media comes from all uproar, hopefully it will be this: The tension between doctrinal and pastoral has been abused and lived out in an unbalanced manner in the Church for two generations now – it’s time to right the ship and correct course.

5 comments:

  1. Finally I see with clarity where a bit of confusion has stuck to me. It boils down to simply this: the perception of "emphasizing doctrinal over pastoral care – obsessing about them." From my LOCAL pulpits, we never ever hear about abortion or unmarried couples living together. Never. Ever. Ever. Ever. Not exactly obsession.

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  2. Were only the assertion that we obsess over abortion, same sex marriage etc true. It isn't, at least not in any Church in the USA I have been in over the past 50 years. Frankly I doubt the Church anywhere in the world obsesses over those matters. Seemingly the clerics in the Church have done their best to avoid such discussions. Frankly I think this Pope's orientation is the "feel good" social justice stuff and like a certain president we are stuck with makes assertions that he thinks sound good......whether they are true or not is another story.

    Jerry

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  3. I am preparing documentation that will demonstrate that this Pope has changed nothing, and that they easily could have been the words of Pope Benedict. One problem is that people do not know who Francis is: we must also consider that he is the first non-European pope, and carries with him a life experience from a country of monstrous dichotomies: wealth vs. poverty, grotesque forms of clerical corruption vs. personal sanctity. I am also studying a Polish language reflection that Francis wishes to emphasize the culture of solidarity versus the culture of the individual. This is a normal outgrowth of his life in Argentina. It is not opposed,but augments the life teachings of John Paul and Benedict. Many thought they knew Benedict - in fact, they did not.

    Given there is no difference in teaching between the popes, the question remains that there is a vast and growing movement of extremist liberals who are - in essence - hijacking this pope - for an evil agenda. I recommend readers examine carefully the twitter feed of Fr. Thomas Rosica. Why all this propaganda...

    ...something is up.... more on this in the coming days from Toronto Catholic Witness after much thought. And I mean, much thought - as I posted: we have had an outburst of vile hatred and ignorance over the web that boggles the mind. Liberals, dissenters must be chuckling... Michael Voris has been one of the few who did not fall into the trap of rushing out and commenting without giving time for the dust to settle.... indeed, it is still settling, and dynamics are evolving very quickly in the Church.

    A far deeper question vis-a-vis the doctrinal versus pastoral approach comes down to Vatican II: is it a gift of the Holy Spirit, as Pope John Paul II thought.... time will tell...

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  4. Michael, though a fine and courageous man, has much, much to learn about the history of the Popes.

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  5. Well, I wrote this on my blog last week sort of...we finally have a Pope who has come out of the decay of the seminary system, which he admitted himself referring to the stulified Thomism he received. He is just that much younger than the last two popes, and did not get the classical education of that generation. In other words, we have a pope formed in our own times. He would have been in the seminary in the 1950s. when the rot set in NOT after Vat II as many believe wrongly.

    Many of my close friends who are priests were or are his age and they admitted they entered the clergy to change the Church in certain ways: one, emphasizing pastoral over dogmatic theology, (and by the way pastoral theology is a newish term as in the long past, doctrinal theology was merely applied to situtions). Second, ecumenism was emphasized as a result of the two wars and the new tyrannies of communism and fascism, when many priests and bishops believed that only a unified Church of all Christians could stand against the Soviets, for example. I have been told directly that the priests in the seminaries in the 1950s wanted to make both the Mass and the Church more acceptable to the Protestants, years before the calling of Vat II.

    Lastly, the pope was formed in the New World not the Old and when I brought this up on the blog within days of his election as a possible problem for us, I was heavily criticized. A pope who does not understand Europe is a problem for us because of the power of the European cardinals and the curia. This pope is an outsider.

    The Holy Spirit allowed this pope to be elected and I believe he is a good man, but either he learns what it means to be pope, like moving into the papal apartments and being more circumspect, or he will have and cause difficulties.

    To be naive is not a virtue.

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