Archbishop Sample Receives the Pallium

Archbishop Sample received the pallium from Pope Francis on June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. There were others receiving the pallium, too, of course, but so far Archbishop Sample is my favorite. For more posts about Archbishop Sample, click on the tab bearing his name at the top of the page.

Here are photos from the Catholic Sentinel Face Book page (go there to see more):

What's Wrong with "Religious Freedom": Vortex et al

We’re in the middle of the “Fortnight For Freedom”…but I’m having trouble – as I did last year – getting excited about this effort. I have some problems with the concept of “religious freedom”.

Michael Voris put words to my concerns very nicely in the June 2 Vortex episode, which is embedded below, with its full script. To whet your appetite, here’s MV’s opening statement (my emphases):

The topic of religious liberty is all the rage in some Catholic circles these days. And too many Catholics, we’re afraid, are using this legally annunciated principle and a defense for theological teachings. That’s a loser before you even get out of the gates.

Think about it. What is religious liberty when applied to a society? It is, at its core, the view that all religions have a right to be followed and not interfered with by the government. Pretty noble sounding until you break it down. There are certain assumptions hidden in this understanding – the first being that all religions are WORTHY of being followed and have a RIGHT to preach their beliefs in the public square – whether they are truthful or not.

This brings all religions onto more or less the same equal level in terms of the state’s relationship to them. But this approach is not being followed out to its logical conclusion. Religious liberty is a phony liberty because it will eventually imprison all moral views except the majority view.

I’ve written about religious freedom elsewhere on this blog. In January 2012 (“Freedom? Conscience? Truth!”), I wrote

Caesar wants his pinch of incense

When we make it all about freedom of religion, though, we open another can of worms…not that the can isn’t already open. We open the door to all kinds of “religions” whose adherents then demand certain rights and recognitions – like homosexual “marriage” and the “right” not to have to view a Nativity scene on public property during the Christmas season and the right to abortion and contraception. Again, Dignitatis Humanae does address this problem by calling for religious freedom “within due limits”, and “as long as the just requirements of public order are observed”. But it’s pretty clear that these limits have gone by the wayside in our society; they are not being observed.

I don’t think these things up all by myself…I’m not that smart. I read what other people write, and think about it, and try to put it all together so it makes some sense to my own little mind; then I share it with you. In another January 2012 post (“War on Conscience or War on Truth?”), I quoted Dr. Christian Brugger, who wrote in a Culture of Life Foundation article (my emphases):

“Yes, there is a lot of anger over Obama's radically illiberal policy. But that anger is only rightly felt if it concerns the violation, not of legal or even constitutional rights, but the violation of truth. We need to stand up and say confidently and resolutely to Kathleen Sebelius, her thugs at HHS and her puppet-master in the White House: Your view is false and untrue; it radically violates human good and is destructive of communal integrity.”

You see, when we hang onto this whole “religious freedom” notion, we stop preaching the Truth. We are only saying that we are entitled to believe what we believe, and act accordingly. But “religious freedom” means, essentially, that adherents of every other “religion” are entitled to believe what they believe…and act accordingly. Somewhere along the line, there will inevitably be conflicts about “acting accordingly”, because there are conflicts between religions.

There can be only one Truth, but the idea of religious freedom denies that fact.  As Michael Voris says in the Vortex episode below:

So if Catholics and Muslims and Hindus each have their own set of truths, which contradict each other – which they do – then the very concept of truth itself cannot be appealed to in any circumstance.

Precisely because of the foundational principles underlying the political dogma of religious liberty, then ultimately, objective truth MUST be denied. If all “truths” have a place at the table, then no one of them is superior.

Fighting for “religious freedom” then, is not going to help the Church. What is needed is a fight for the Truth. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI told the US bishops at their ad limina visit in 2012 (my emphases):

…[The Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth. Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning.

Benedict XVI went on to address the notion of “religious freedom”, but noted the concern about

… a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.

That’s right. And as MV notes with regard to the history of the Pantheon in Rome:

All the gods are just as acceptable as all the other gods… so multiple statutes to various gods stood in this temple. So come worship whatever god you wanted. And that’s exactly what people did. Ah, but there was some fine print. You could worship whatever god or gods you desired, so long as you ALSO bowed down before the god of Rome and offered a pinch of incense to Caesar.

And if we continue to fight for “religious freedom”, we’ll get “freedom of worship” instead; and if we settle for that, then we – the Church – ends up offering incense to Caesar.

What is the solution? Well, MV and the Pope Emeritus agree on this point! Benedict XVI, in that same ad limina address to the US bishops said:

Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society.

I really think that he was saying we need to stand up, not so much for “religious freedom” as for the Truth.

Here’s the Vortex from June 28:

The script:

I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Rome – specifically in front of the Pantheon, a 1st century temple to all the gods of the Roman Empire. It’s a good place to examine the things of the present and the future – this temple from the past.

The topic of religious liberty is all the rage in some Catholic circles these days. And too many Catholics, we’re afraid, are using this legally annunciated principle and a defense

for theological teachings. That’s a loser before you even get out of the gates.

Think about it. What is religious liberty when applied to a society? It is, at its core, the view that all religions have a right to be followed and not interfered with by the government. Pretty noble sounding until you break it down. There are certain assumption hidden in this understanding – the first being that all religions are WORTHY of being followed and have a RIGHT to preach their beliefs in the public square – whether they are truthful or not.

This brings all religions onto more or less the same equal level in terms of the state’s relationship to them. But this approach is not being followed out to its logical conclusion.

Religious liberty is a phony liberty because it will eventually imprison all moral views except the majority view. Religion deals with the notion of truth. Yet various religions automatically admits of various truths.

Catholics and Muslims don’t accept the same truths – and the question of whether we worship the same God or not, from an objective viewpoint, is beside the point. We don’t ascribe the same truths to Him and that’s what’s important – and why it is extremely disingenuous and gilding the lily to just blurt out we worship the same God, and leave it at that. Talk about a confusing and misleading statement.

So if Catholics and Muslims and Hindus each have their own set of truths, which contradict each other – which they do – then the very concept of truth itself cannot be appealed to in any circumstance.

Precisely because of the foundational principles underlying the political dogma of religious liberty, then ultimately, objective truth MUST be denied. If all “truths” have a place at the table, then no one of them is superior. That was the whole point of this temple – The Pantheon.

All the gods are just as acceptable as all the other gods… so multiple statutes to various gods stood in this temple. So come worship whatever god you wanted. And that’s exactly what people did. Ah, but there was some fine print. You could worship whatever god or gods you desired, so long as you ALSO bowed down before the god of Rome and offered a pinch of incense to Caesar.

See, the state always has an interest in religion, and will set itself up as superior every chance it gets. The state – which ultimately means the majority – is the one, after all, that defines religious liberty: what it is, how far it can go, and so forth. No state will long make its appeal to reason, but to its own self-interests for its own self-preservation. This is why the current outcry about religious liberty is a foolish tactic. It is guaranteed to fail.

The state is the arbiter of religious liberty by virtue of religious liberty. Majority rules, and that’s that. The United States was erected on the Enlightenment principles of individual liberties – religious liberty among them.

But among those liberties is the right to self-determination. In the 1992 Supreme Court ruling Casey Vs. Planned Parenthood, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority

Opinion: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Where do you go with that? And when you apply it to religions, it’s lights out – in particular [for] Catholicism. That is a terribly anti-Catholic statement out of the mouth of a Catholic, no less.

At the heart of liberty is not the “right” to define your own concept of anything – but rather the “right” to freely embrace THE TRUTH.

The problem here is that there is no recognition of objective truth, so how can religious liberty be appealed to as though it were some moral absolute? It isn’t. Religious liberty is what at least five US Supreme Court justices say it is and nothing else. This is very much akin to the high court earlier this week paving the way for same-sex marriage by striking down key elements of DOMA. It is the logical conclusion of a view of self-determination.

And it is EXACTLY what we predicted would happen – not that it took a prophet to see the signs of THESE times…but it does take an idiot to ignore them.

Religious liberty is a canard because the moment Catholic teaching or sensibilities come into conflict with the larger society, the Church will lose, simply because it is viewed as just one religion among many.

And if it accepts the position of being just one of the statues in the pantheon of the gods, which it has done in America for quite some time in many cases, then its leaders will HAVE to offer some incense to the gods of Rome.

The American Patriotic Church will go the way of all religions in America because it has begged and pleaded for more than a century for a place at the table of religious pluralism, and soon, it will discover, it’s about to get its deserts.

Religious liberty – however noble it MAY sound – always devolves to the state crushing the true religion underfoot.

Coming to you from the temple of all the gods tolerated by the state, but where the gods of the state reigned supreme, this is Michael Voris for ChurchMilitant.TV.

Spiritual Prepping Continued

A great place to start - and there
are many more words than
pictures!

So, Michael Voris keeps saying it, and I keep saying it, and I know many agree: we – the laity – need to prepare ourselves to defend the Faith and stand by it, come what may.

The question is: what’s the best way to engage in this spiritual prepping?

In the Vortex from June 25, Michael Voris said that the laity must

…become as educated in the faith as possible – change the way we live our lives so that immersing ourselves in the faith becomes the number one goal of our day – to preserve the integrity of the faith…

But how do we go about “immersing ourselves in the faith”? Well, I would suggest that one way is to attend daily Mass…in the extraordinary form.  However, the problem here is that for many of us, a daily EF Mass is simply not an option. So, will the Novus Ordo Mass do? Generally speaking, I would suggest that it will not do. A priest who has quite a bit of pastoral experience and who says both forms of the Mass on a regular basis has told me that he doesn’t believe that the Novus Ordo, in general, is capable of forming Catholic disciples of the Lord Jesus who are able to resist the lure of today's secular culture. In a way, that is quite an indictment!

This same priest also pointed out to me that the EF Mass is more “difficult” than the Novus Ordo Mass, and today often involves inconvenience: availability, travel, scorn from others, etc. However, he suggests that perhaps these difficulties and inconveniences contribute, even just at the human level, to a better formation of strong Catholics. Certainly those who want to attend the EF Mass often learn to make sacrifices!

Making a spiritual communion is a way to overcome the lack of an EF Mass, though. And I find it edifying to read through the prayers of the usus antiquor, just as if I’m at Mass. To me, it seems that those prayers contain much of our faith that has been jettisoned in the prayers of the Novus Ordo. The EF Mass is much more a part of Catholic tradition than the NO Mass is, and as such, it has much to offer us both intellectually and spiritually.

If you’ve never (or rarely) been to an EF Mass, I challenge you to make an effort to begin attending one, at least now and then, if at all possible.  I believe it will change you, change your perspective on the faith, even if you are a pretty solid (real) Catholic right now. (See my post “7 Reasons Why You Should NOT Go to the TLM” to see 7 reasons why you really should).

If you are not a regular EF Mass attendee, I suggest you actually study it a bit. By that I mean that you can buy the Latin-English booklet, and you can watch EF Masses on You Tube. The training videos that the FSSP (and others) have put out for priests and seminarians is also a good way for the laity to learn about the Mass. (Go here to see a long list of training videos available on You Tube.)

What else can we do to begin to immerse ourselves in the faith? Well, the Mass is the “source and summit” of our Christian life, so daily Mass attendance is important. The Mass is the greatest public prayer of the Church; but let’s not forget the second most important public prayer of the Church – the Divine Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours.

Priests and deacons are required to say the Office daily. There’s a good reason for that. It immerses one in the prayer life of the Church! A major point, historically, of the Divine Office was to keep the scriptural prescription to “pray without ceasing”.  The hours of the day are sanctified by the Divine Office; it keeps us focused on our Catholic pilgrimage, and redirects our steps continually toward our heavenly homeland.  You can buy the books, or you can find the Office online. Go here for the “old” Divine Office, in Latin and English (actually, there are several “old” versions on that site to choose from). If you aren’t praying the Divine Office now, you might start by praying Vespers after (or before) your evening meal, and Compline before you retire for the night. Add in Lauds (morning prayer) after a bit. Pray Sext (noon prayer) on your lunch break. Fit it in as you can. It’s worth it.

Of course, there are other means of immersing ourselves in the faith. A good starting point would be to orient one’s reading and studying toward getting back to the basics…because so many of us were never taught the basics in the first place.  A commenter on this blog suggested:

Aside from the Traditional Mass (if you're so lucky), the Rosary and daily prayer, the trusty Baltimore Catechism read daily can't be too highly recommended for those Catholics like myself that either were woefully formed and/or are subjected to having to worship on Sundays at a Novus Ordo Mass.

She is so right!  But I think we’ll delve into the possibilities there in another post.

And let me remind you that ChurchMilitant.TV has great programming that will edify and enlighten you as you begin (or continue) your spiritual prepping.

Vortex Breaking News and Special Report: Rome Gay Clergy

I just got word of this "breaking news" report as of 10:20am. 

Update: This story says the Vatican is denying the allegations.



Here's the updated Special Report from ChurchMilitant.TV:

Update: There’s an insightful article on this Rorate Caeli – follow the link to read the whole thing. Here are a couple of paragraphs which I find interesting, especially in light of the news I’ve seen that the Vatican is denying the charges. All emphases are mine.

…Why is pedophilia a crime and homosexuality a right? The answer is simple. For the pseudo-relativist culture, that which renders pedophilia a crime is not its moral disorder, but the fact that the acts against nature are done harming minors.  

The reference is not to the moral law, but to the unlimited self-determination of the individual.

Pedophilia violates the rights of minors, while homosexuality affirms those of adults. Pedophile priests and homosexual priests in reality, appear to form the same “lobby” that is why they drink from the same libertarian, pansexual ideology, which has also penetrated inside the Church over the last fifty years.

…

The behavior of certain ecclesiastical authorities confronted with scandals of this sort is astounding. When they learn of the existence of an immoral situation in a parish, in a college, in a seminary, they do not proceed to verify the truth, remove the guilty party and eliminate the filth, but manifest annoyance, if not reprobation towards those that have denounced the evil, and, in the best of cases, they limit themselves by taking into consideration that which may interest civil justice, for fear of being involved in judicial matters. They are silent about that which has purely a moral and canonical significance. The slogan could be “zero tolerance” for the pedophiles, “maximum tolerance” for homosexuals. The latter continue unperturbedly to occupy their places as parish priests, bishops, rectors of Colleges, forming that “homo-mafia” which Pope Francis defines as the “gay lobby.”

This is evident in the case of Fr. Matthew Despard’s book alleging the existence of a homosexual lobby amongst the Scottish clergy. The “gay lobby” in the Church – just like the “gay lobby” in the secular politics – is far from tolerant, and will take extreme measures to avoid exposure of the corruption.

I think it’s good that this is coming into the light of day. The emperor has no clothes, and there’s and elephant in the living room, and it’s time to deal with those issue.

Spiritual Prepping: Vortex

Things are getting bad in this country, politically speaking (duh). Some of us are “prepping” for…well, for the worst, basically. Who knows what calamity might befall us? I am definitely one who tries to put all my trust in God, but I also am not blind to the signs of the times. I have never been a “prepper” before, but I am now.  

Interestingly enough, I even know of a monastery that is prepping, to some extent. I also know of a priest who is encouraging his parishioners to stock up on unconsecrated hosts and wine, because these are uncertain times. I think many are reading the “signs” now, and are thinking that it is a matter of prudence to do at least a minimal amount of prepping.

Of course, not everyone can prep to the same degree, at least on the physical plain. Not everyone has the financial resources to stockpile food and other supplies. My thought is this: those who can, probably should do some prepping, with an eye to helping out those in need down the road.

Still, we can all do some spiritual prepping, and Michael Voris and ChurchMilitant.TV have been encouraging us to do that for some time now. As religious freedom ebbs, especially for Catholics, we must know exactly what we stand for…if we are to actually stand.

Hold that thought for a moment, and consider what Michael Voris had to say in yesterday’s (June 25) Vortex. What he says here is disturbing (my emphases throughout):

…[T]o put it plainly, they are many people here in Rome deeply concerned.

They are troubled that there are many in the Church – many leaders – who, to put it plainly, appear to have lost the faith. Our discussions were quite frank and open – as they are in all parts of the world we go – but here in Rome, they take on the sense of more urgency.

And here seems to be the root issue: there are many leaders in the Church today who seem to have simply traded out the authentic gospel for a fake gospel, and in so doing have erected a kind of false Church – one that many trappings of the Church of Rome… but only a shadow of Her teachings.

Yes, disturbing…and yet, as I said yesterday, I find it encouraging as well. For too long, it seems, few among the hierarchy of the Church were willing to admit there was a problem. How do you deal with the elephant in the living room if you will not even acknowledge its presence? How do you go about procuring some clothes for the emperor if you won’t admit that he’s running around stark naked?

So I see this is as a hopeful sign: if some highly positioned men in Rome are seriously concerned about the state of the Church, perhaps some changes are in the offing.

Voris goes on to enumerate some of the ways the apparent loss of faith of some of our shepherds has been manifested – such as a seeming denial of the reality of Hell, and the notion that everyone goes to Heaven; and he points out that this has led to

..major abuses in the Mass, in catechesis, in the devotional life, and so forth.  The entire Catholic life is dissolving, and when you hear discussions like that here in Rome, you’d better believe it’s troublesome.

…Another glaring point that was freely expressed is that there are so many leaders who have given way and thrown their lot in with the worldly view of the Church, that the only solution at this point will be a visit from the angel of death.

 The more I’ve thought about this “generational solution” – the idea that the bishops and priests causing the most upheaval will eventually die – the more I wonder if it’s really the answer. After all, many young priests and seminarians today have been formed at the hands of some corrupt and faithless bishops. Will they follow in the paths of their mentors, or will they return to the One True Faith? I do know that there are many seminarians who are of a traditional mindset, and they are smart enough to stay “under the radar” until they can be ordained. So, of course, there is always hope.

At any rate, after Voris reminds us that many “prelates and clergy all over the West have come to resent, despise, and even loathe certain aspects or qualities of Catholic life”, he exhorts us (as he often does!) to fortify ourselves with knowledge of the Truth.

But for this reason it was also clear that, while not trying to usurp the authority of those in charge, in many instances the responsibility of passing on the true faith and protecting it unstained has now fallen to the faithful laity – and we need to tell you…stress, in fact… that these comments were coming from – to a man – ordained ministers of the Church, either situated here in Rome itself, or with close ties to Rome.

Did you get that? Michael Voris says it’s not just him; he says that some high-ranking priests and prelates in Rome are saying that the faithful laity must take responsibility for protecting the faith.

It is time for the laity to rise up – to become as educated in the faith as possible – change the way we live our lives so that immersing ourselves in the faith becomes the number one goal of our day – to preserve the integrity of the faith while it is being battered so severely from many members of the Church from INSIDE the Church.

We have to prep, and the most important prepping we can do is spiritual. Our spiritual life is what will sustain us through the worst of times. And we have to be able to pass on our Catholic faith to those who are to come.

Here’s the Vortex, with the full script below.

Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed.  I’m Michael Voris coming to you from the Eternal City.

It’s very good that we Catholics have the perspective of the Eternal City with which to view our faith and our Church, because to be quite frank, from an earthly perspective, things aren’t going to well.

We’re in Rome for a conference on the liturgy that begins later this week, and in the meantime, we’ve had some other meetings and dinners before the conferences – and to put it plainly, they are many people here in Rome deeply concerned.

They are troubled that there are many in the Church – many leaders – who, to put it plainly, appear to have lost the faith. Our discussions were quite frank and open – as they are in all parts of the world we go – but here in Rome, they take on the sense of more urgency.

And here seems to be the root issue: there are many leaders in the Church today who seem to have simply traded out the authentic gospel for a fake gospel, and in so doing have erected a kind of false Church – one that many trappings of the Church of Rome… but only a shadow of Her teachings.

There has been a substitution of the One True Faith for a more comfortable all-embracing faith – the focus of which is more tied to the things of earth than the things of heaven. 

This pseudo-Catholic Church has some hallmarks which distinguish it greatly from the authentic faith.

First, the reality of sin and Hell are rarely mentioned. As a corollary, the idea of saving souls is kind of ignored…taken more or less as a given.

Second, this leads to the acceptance of a kind universalism: the belief that nearly everyone goes to heaven, if not, in fact, everyone.

This neglect leads to a total ignoring of the Eschaton – what is also known as the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell – the very things that the saints for nearly 2,000 years have implored us to meditate on.

Third: All of this belief – or better said, LACK of belief – has led to major abuses in the Mass, in catechesis, in the devotional life, and so forth.  The entire Catholic life is dissolving, and when you hear discussions like that here in Rome, you’d better believe it’s troublesome.

All of this has resulted in something greater than a crisis; this may in fact be the most turbulent time the Church has ever experienced on a near global level.

One Cardinal in fact was so concerned and disturbed recently that he went back to his home country and told some confidantes that there was no faith left even in Rome – a slight exaggeration to be sure, but an exaggeration pointing to a fearful reality.

Another glaring point that was freely expressed is that there are so many leaders who have given way and thrown their lot in with the worldly view of the Church, that the only solution at this point will be a visit from the angel of death.

And let’s be clear: these discussions had nothing to do with clerical homosexual sex abuse or financial corruption or anything of the kind.

They totally centered around spiritual failings in the arena of the loss of faith on an almost wholesale level on the part of numerous – numerous – bishops and priests.  The issue at hand is, put simply, a RE-DEFINING of what the Church is: Her Mission, Her Activity, Her Identity.

It was this stark awareness that prompted a foreign cardinal mentioned earlier to say there is no faith left even in Rome.

As certain leaders in the Church seek to re-define the Church, they have developed an almost knee-jerk reaction to anything that even smacks of a traditional Catholic notion or attitude.

In many cases, prelates and clergy all over the West have come to resent, despise, and even loathe certain aspects or qualities of Catholic life – such as awe-inspiring liturgies and music, Latin, Gregorian Chant, the preaching of hard truths, the regalia of office, dignified churches, splendid artistic expressions of the faith, even something as innocent as priests in cassocks and nuns in habits.

Nothing that even speaks of classical Catholicism has escaped their scornful eyes. This is why in one meeting, the topic of the generational solution came up quite freely – meaning, so entrenched in this attitude among so many of the senior churchmen and their allies and staff – that only the angel of death can solve it.

But for this reason it was also clear that, while not trying to usurp the authority of those in charge, in many instances the responsibility of passing on the true faith and protecting it unstained has now fallen to the faithful laity – and we need to tell you…stress, in fact… that these comments were coming from – to a man – ordained ministers of the Church, either situated here in Rome itself, or with close ties to Rome.

It is time for the laity to rise up – to become as educated in the faith as possible – change the way we live our lives so that immersing ourselves in the faith becomes the number one goal of our day – to preserve the integrity of the faith while it is being battered so severely from many members of the Church from INSIDE the Church.

We are in a great transition now.  What was once exciting and new and fresh back in the 1960s and 1970s has now become largely old and stale and supported by aging clerics who don’t want to let go of what they pledged their lives to in their youths.

God can be their judge as to their sincerity, but we must judge the damage and respond; and that means holding on tightly – very tightly – for the next 10 to 15 years until the angel of death has simply removed these problems in the way in which only he can.

So hunker down and realize the reality… and fight like you’ve never fought before. And most importantly, KEEP THE FAITH. In the end, God wins; and given the enormity of the challenge, think how GREAT the victory will be.

Coming to you from Rome .. reporting on the condition of the Church ..

GOD Love you.

I’m Michael Voris

Vortex: A Realistic Look at the Present

I think it’s a good time to really pay attention to the Vortex – starting with last Friday’s episode. I’m told that this week’s episodes reflect some important information from top sources in Rome. Things are bad, but that can be a good thing.

Last Friday’s episode (6/21/13) was entitled “The Whole Rotten Mess”. The script is available here; I’ll summarize with excerpts.

Michael Voris was reporting from the Acton Institute conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended by close to 1000 people who “gathered to discuss the affairs of the world from a Christian perspective”. Voris notes that

…when a society cuts itself off from God and changes course on close to two thousand years of understanding of man and his inter-relationships that bad things follow. First principles – their importance cannot be overstated.  If you get it wrong in the beginning, the whole project is doomed to failure; sooner or later, the whole thing will come crashing down.

This is the prospect for the so-called western democracies, both in the US and Europe.  The clock has already run out.  The West is merely running on fumes right now. It IS taking some time for it to all to burn out because it was so big to begin with but we are writing checks our morality can no longer cash.

There are some brave noble souls fighting the good fight, hoping against hope that the current situation can be salvaged, but it cannot.

Gee, thanks, Mike. Always the bluebird of happiness, eh?!  Yes, I know, it’s not a pretty picture, but the thing is, this is reality. For too long, we have been going along, whistling in the dark, telling ourselves that things will get better after the next election, that we’ll elect more pro-life politicians, that people will see the light as Planned Parenthood and the Gosnells of the world are exposed.

It’s a nice thought, but as Voris says:

It is unreasonable and naïve to conclude that the West is all of a sudden going to become pro-life, anti-same-sex marriage, anti-contraception... in short, anti-selfish… after multiple generations have been fed a non-stop diet of self-satisfaction as the highest ideal. Read it: AIN’T. GONNA. HAPPEN.

Voris has spoken before about the “third rail” issue of contraception. Until the pro-life movement as a whole begins to see that contraception is at the heart of the abortion problem, things will not change. And the population at large is not likely to come to an understanding of the grave moral dangers and the demographic side effects of contraception any time soon. The information is out there, and it’s getting some press, but people are, as Voris notes, selfish. There has been little catechesis even (especially?) in the Church about the salvific value of suffering, about the necessity of sacrifice. Instead, modernist and personalist philosophies have infiltrated Church teaching and turned our minds toward the individual’s perception of his own private experience – and that has made “forming my own conscience” the watchword.

And just like the culture, says Voris

The Catholic Church in the West – the Establishment – no longer operates with the same set of first principles that She once did.  Her entire self-understanding, Her own self-conception, has been jettisoned and been replaced by an entirely new and rotten sense – rotten to the proverbial core.

Leaders have traded away the notion of truth and goodness and beauty in exchange for accommodation, and indifferentism and political correctness. Truth Beauty and Goodness inspire zeal and apostolic fervor. There is almost none of that left because those core constituents; those first principles are gone.

What is left is Church within a Church – a small remnant of those who still cling tenaciously to those first principles and ALL that they necessarily admit of… ALL of it…

…If you want to know about the condition of the Church, all you have to do is look at the culture. When the culture is in calamitous straits which it is, it means the Church has failed to convert the culture.

When the Church is in such a calamitous state, it means the culture has converted the Church.  This reality simply cannot continue.  A large portion of the Church will either repent, or it will be pruned away. And the culture, deprived by Church leaders of the truth of Christ, will be the instrument used for the pruning.

That can’t be denied, can it? The culture – which has forsaken Christian values, let alone Catholic ones – is currently the set of pruning shears that will reduce the Church – the true Church – to a remnant. The HHS contraception mandate will separate those who will cling to the faith from those who will throw in the towel. The homosexual agenda is another pruning point. How long before Catholic churches are required to allow “gay weddings” to take place in their very sanctuaries? Etc.

I admit that this Vortex episode made me wonder about myself a little. I was so pleased to have Voris say there's no hope for the West, and no hope for the "establishment" Church! I often think about the parallels between where society is going (has gone) and where the Church is going (has gone).

Am I just a closet pessimist and harbinger of doom? Is that I liked hearing the bad news? No, not really; I actually am the eternal optimist, once you get to know me!

But what I like is hearing the truth. And I have found that more and more I'm not paying that much attention to the pro-life "victories", because they are largely meaningless. Blogger Tantamergo read my mind when he asked in a recent post why people are so excited about the House passing that 20-week abortion ban. Big deal! The Senate won't pass it, and Obama would veto it anyway! People want to kill babies, and the tide has turned to such an extent that they are going to kill babies. Again, there will be no real victory for the pro-life movement until the movement itself as a whole sees the evil of contraception. Even then, it's probably too late now. I think we have to hit bottom for real before we can rebuild.

This note of “Doom and Gloom” continued on Monday’s (6/24/13) Vortex (script here):


Here’s the bottom line, though: seeing it all as “doom and gloom” is a worldly perspective.  As MV says:

There is a lot – a hell of a lot… emphasis on Hell – wrong in the world today. So much so that it’s easy to look around and despair. And that despair is understandable if we view things from a strictly earthly perspective. In fact, it is the NATURAL response to the current situation of so much madness in the world AND in the Church.

But if we take a supernatural perspective, we see that

Great saints are forged in these circumstances. The chance given us by Heaven to rise to the occasion and lay hold to the kingdom prepared for us from the foundations of the world.

We are called and baptized to battle evil – in ourselves as well as the culture – and by doing battle, merit Heaven. Heaven is not the gift of grace so much as the opportunity to lay claim to it is. No one earns heaven strictly speaking; no one has a claim on God by their natural right. But He Himself has bound Himself to us under oath to give us out heavenly inheritance according to our deeds, and in His infinite inscrutable ways, He has allowed the current crisis to unfold whereby we can seize our inheritance.

So we must fight. We must fight until we die. We must die fighting.

If that little excerpt doesn’t inspire you, be sure to watch the whole Vortex (I recommend it regardless!).

To be continued…

True Beauty Wounds Us: Fr. Andersen

A homily by Fr. Eric M. Andersen, Sacred Heart-St. Louis in Gervais, Oregon

June 23rd, 2013

Dominica XII Per Annum, Anno C.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, 

he must deny himself

and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Friday was the feast day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. This young saint died at the age of 23. His confessor, St. Robert Bellarmine, testified that young Aloysius had never mortally offended God. At lunchtime on Friday, I was eating lunch with another priest and two young men who are discerning their possible vocations to the priesthood. We got in a conversation about St. Aloysius. The mere mention of this young saint’s name called to mind the beauty of his pure soul. St. Aloysius is the patron saint of youth, which applies to teenagers and also to young adults who are single. He is especially appointed to these because of his purity. 

Can you imagine what it would be like to glimpse the soul of a saint? What would his soul look like? I would dare to say that if God allowed us to see the beauty of St. Aloysius’ pure soul, we would weep.

Why do I say that? Because true beauty wounds us. The beauty of which I speak is what we call the transcendental beauty of God. In other words, the beauty of God transcends all earthly beauty. Beauty is one of the transcendental qualities of God. For instance, we say that God is the fullness of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These are called the transcendental qualities of God because they transcend earthly truth, earthly goodness, and earthly beauty. All created things that are beautiful pale in comparison with the fullness of beauty which we find in God. We call these created things beautiful by analogy only. Nothing can be truly beautiful that is not God Himself. But we see glimpses of God’s beauty in created reality…and the nearer things are to God, the more beautiful they are. So when we consider the beauty of a pure soul; the soul of a saint like that of St. Aloysius sanctified in heaven; of course his soul would pale in comparison with the beauty of God, but it would still be so beautiful by analogy that we would weep at the mere sight of it.

Perhaps that is one aspect of the Cross about which our Blessed Lord speaks in the Gospel. He says “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Can we say then that beauty is a cross, or even a burden? I propose that we can. To discover beauty brings with it an obligation to guard and protect that beauty because it is precious. Truth, goodness, and beauty all necessitate that we guard and protect them because they are precious. This is a cross.

It is a cross because once one discovers truth, then one feels the burden of spreading that truth. But it is not a burden to speak truth and defend it. It is an absolute joy to know truth, to speak truth, and to defend truth. The burden, or cross, of Truth is the grief that one experiences when others reject Truth. One grieves for the souls of those who reject truth. Those souls will never know true joy because they are deprived of that which causes true joy. That which causes true joy is Truth Himself, who is God. Jesus Christ declares this. He says “I AM the Truth.” To embrace the absolute Truth incarnate, Jesus Christ, is a cross. But it is a necessary cross that we must pick up daily and carry.

Goodness too is a cross for the same reason. There will be those who reject goodness. And there are those who reject beauty. And so beauty too is a burden, a cross. Beauty is a cross in a different way. Let me clarify that when I refer to beauty, I am not referring to that which is pretty or attractive. Beauty is much greater than that because it is a reflection of God.  

When one experiences true beauty, then that person’s life changes. That person must carry the cross of grief knowing that others chase after created things which are not beautiful…nor true…nor good.

And yet the Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of God would surely change the lives of all men if only they could come to discover these and embrace them. St. Peter was given the truth of who Jesus is: the Christ, the Son of God. Flesh and blood did not reveal this to him, but our Heavenly Father revealed it by means of the Holy Spirit of Truth. It brought St. Peter great joy throughout his life when hearts were converted to Jesus Christ, who IS Truth incarnate. But it surely brought him great sorrow when people he spoke to, preached to, and cared about rejected Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

In our day and age, there is a rejection of truth, goodness and beauty. People are willing and even wanting to settle for less. It is as though they are repelled by beauty and therefore by goodness and truth.

Beauty is looked upon with distrust and even disdain by many in the artistic community, as though “beauty is a bad thing” (Wolfe). In a (lecture given at the CL School of Community in Portland a few years ago), (Professor) Gregory Wolfe asked: “What is the impetus for the in-your-face ugliness of modern art?” He answered this rhetorical question by citing Plato’s Republic. According to Plato, poets were dangerous because they employed beauty in order to seduce. Wolfe continued: “Pleasure scares us because it is powerful.” Puritans and Marxists judged beauty to be dangerous to justice and truth in the order of society. The result of this attitude has been the separation of beauty from art. Art has become subjective, while beauty has been tamed “by making it pretty” (Wolfe). (Andersen. Hymnody in the Roman Breviary. p. 44).

Can we see the same thing happening with marriage? Ever since society accepted the separation of procreation from marriage, the institution of marriage has become subjective. But marriage is not subjective. It has nothing to do with whether one thinks one is married. It is an objective, binding, and legal fact. One is either married–objectively and legally–or not.

 

Marriage is a reflection of the love of God. St. Paul calls the love of Christ for His Church a spousal love which is reflected in the love of a man for a woman in marriage. He calls marriage a great sacrament that applies to Christ and His Church. Marriage therefore participates in the True, Good and Beautiful because it is a reflection of God. Marriage transcends the earthly relationship because it participates in a heavenly reality. When one fully realizes the Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of marriage, then one is obliged to defend and guard it. Therein lies the Cross, especially today when marriage is under attack. We hear again the words of the Lord: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

We as Catholics are in a position to defend many things which are true, good, and beautiful. Marriage seems to be at the forefront today. The current political situation calls for the Church to stand up and vigorously defend marriage. Not only must we defend marriage, but we must defend our freedom to defend marriage. This Fortnight for Freedom which the Church has proclaimed in our great country, seeks to make you the Catholic faithful aware that our religious freedom is threatened. Truth is being obscured. Goodness is being mocked. Beauty is being degraded.

We are made for beauty, for goodness, and for truth. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and since God is the fullness of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, we participate in these qualities and are to imitate Him and reflect Him in these qualities. In this is the cross of Christ that we are to carry. We have been given so much. We cannot keep it to ourselves. We must guard and protect all that is truly good, truly beautiful. We must guard and protect the institution of marriage. That will be our cross. It is a joyful Cross, a light burden, a sweet yoke.

Like the pure soul of a saint like St. Aloysius, if we were to see the beauty of holy matrimony as God sees it, it would make us weep. It would wound us in such a holy way that our lives would be changed. We would take up that cross and proclaim it to the world. We must live, however, by faith and not by sight. Perhaps we have not been given the gift to see that transcendent beauty. But many of us have wept at the sight of something holy and beautiful. That is a gift from God and a cross that we must embrace. We are given this beautiful cross to carry: to guard and defend the truth, goodness, and beauty of holy matrimony between one man and one woman, as a lifelong union for the procreation and raising of children and the good of the spouses. What a beautiful cross. Let us carry this cross daily and follow Jesus wherever He leads us.