Vortex: Part II of Cardinal Burke Interview

Part II of yesterday's Vortex on The Wanderer's interview with Cardinal Burke:



The script:

Yesterday’s Vortex focused on a stunningly clear interview given by His Eminence Cardinal Burke a short while ago.

It’s stunning NOT in its clarity as related to Cardinal Burke, who is as clear as crystal – but for the presence of ANY clearly uttered statement in this epoch of vagueness and ambiguity. Thank you Your Eminence. If you haven’t seen the episode .. we highly recommend you do. [See it here.]

And – to today’s episode – well, it’s a part two because it was impossible to get everything His Eminence said in to ONE vortex episode. So to continue…

When questioned about the scandal of pro-abortion/same-sex marriage Catholic politicians being treated as though they are in good standing, and how the average Catholic can reconcile this he said:

You cannot reconcile it — it is a contradiction, it is wrong, it is a scandal, and it must stop! We live in a culture with a false sense of dialogue — which has also crept into the Church — where we pretend to dialogue about open and egregious violations of the moral law. … For Catholic institutions or individuals to give recognition to such persons, to honor them in any way, is a source of grave scandal for which they are responsible.

Now, there’s quite the mouthful there. First, he points out the contradiction, calls it wrong and then thunders that it must stop. It’s hard to imagine that that comment is aimed as much at the laity as it is his fellow bishops.

The laity has no power or authority to enforce this practice – that is solely on the bishops. When the head of Church’s Court says something is wrong and must stop – you wonder why he is so ignored by his brother bishops.

And then he brings the lumber – he drops the blame for this squarely at the feet of official Catholicdom. He calls them out – THEY are responsible for the scandal. And why? Because they – and they alone – have the power to prevent it and they will not and do not. These establishment Catholic leaders and institutions are leading people into grave sin – and as Our Lord said – better they have a millstone tied around their neck and plunged into the depths of the sea than to cause scandal.

And when the subject of the erosion of the faith turned to the liturgy, Cardinal Burke just re-loaded.

Sadly, in the time after the Second Vatican Council, there was a reform of the sacred liturgy which made it man-centered and banal. In some cases it actually became hard for people to bear because of illicit insertions, foreign agendas, and imposition of the personalities of priests and congregations into the liturgy to the point that people began to think that the Mass was some sort of social activity.

Wow. One hardly knows where to begin. “Man-centered”. “Banal”. If that doesn’t fly squarely in the face of practically everything that the average Catholic has been incorrectly taught, then nothing does.

From the priest facing the people, to holding hands, to icky-mushy music, to pabulum homilies, to legions of so-called Eucharistic ministers – there is hardly one thing that happened at Mass in the average parish today that is NOT man-centered.

And so much of this is supported, again, by leaders in the Church. There is never a seeming end to the mindless feel good Protestantized antics of the Masses of the Church of Nice.

And whatever they do, it is a stretch of enormous proportions to think of these things in any meaningful way as authentically Catholic. They are cultural and Protestant accretions – which while not impacting on the validity of the Mass, certainly have a huge impact on its Catholicity.

In some places, even where people do attend Mass, they are not being instructed as they should be. The bishops first, and then the priests with them, must be clear and consistent in presenting the truth

Notice the tip of the hat by His Eminence to the ACTUAL real life situation on the ground: “even where people DO attend Mass”, which is to say, by emphasis that, in most places, they don’t.

And those who do – aren’t getting the clarity of the truth. Hence the call for the bishops and priests to be CLEAR. Clear about what? The truth, which they have not received. This lack of leadership among the clergy has created a situation whereby:

…we simply must recognize, lay people giving witness to fellow lay people is the only solution. More and more sincere and informed Catholics must be ready to give an account of their Faith to others even if they are not the most eloquent and articulate.

If that isn’t a flat out condemnation of so many in the clerical ranks having shirked their duties as members of the ordained class – what else could be?

Now, in fairness, these last couple of quotes from the Cardinal came in the context of the Obamacare contraception mandate; but, they apply, by extension across the whole spectrum of failed and weak leadership so prevalent in today’s Church. It would hardly be the case that His Eminence is of the belief that everything has been preached well and taught with blinding clarity EXCEPT the truth about the HHS mandate in Obamacare.

No, it is plain from the context of the entire interview that Cardinal Burke sees these issues as having long legs and far reaching tentacles.

And where does His Eminence look to for hope on the current scene. Unsurprisingly, the same place we have identified along with many others who are fighting for the restoration of the Faith.

The greatest sign of hope for me is the young people I meet who believe more than my generation and recognize how bankrupt our culture is and want the truth. But these young people need the encouragement of those of us who are older. They need to have the wisdom from those of the older generation who have valiantly fought the battle for the truth, for what is truly charitable because it is true and in accord with God’s law. Those of us who are older should take great encouragement; at the same time, we must invest ourselves in communicating with the younger generation and helping them to build a better future.

As is His Eminence, we are quite captivated by the enthusiasm and dedication of the young people we meet – indeed who work here and have internships here and drop in for visits. They get “it”. They understand the crisis and are dedicated to addressing it. This has been our experience in various places we here at ChurchMilitant.TV have traveled all over the world.

In country after country and heaps of cities (as our Australian friends would say) we have found pockets of young people who even now are forming a Catholic Resistance movement, even if they don’t yet realize it themselves. They meet for dinners, get together for conferences, hang out in neighborhood pubs, chill in each other’s flat or houses and, an always present topic of conversation is the current sorry state of the Church.

It is the beginnings of a Catholic Resistance Movement, that doesn’t place a whole lot of hope in engaging the culture through politics. These young people have intuited, correctly, that the culture will only be changed through confrontation – a call of conscience that sodomy and child murder and killing of old people is wrong.

They don’t know exactly WHAT future they are stepping into, but they do know that it won’t be pretty. So as His Eminence said .. we Catholics of earlier generations must encourage them and support them as they move into that uncertain future.

Contemporary man is living on the fumes of the previous civilization – a Catholic civilization. When those fumes have finally evaporated – and they are nearly spent – a new barbarian civilization will have arisen in its place.

Today’s young Catholics will be the leaders of a vastly outnumbered but faithful Catholic Underground who will be the only resistance to a world gone mad. Stay strong and faithful you young men and women.

And God bless you and keep you for your loyalty and fidelity to Him – virtues that many in the Church today, including many of her leaders – have long ago abandoned. Heaven and heaven alone is your goal. Fight hard and fight well.