There are, however, millions upon millions of people who would much rather entrust the election of the next Pope, not to the will of God nor the eminent power of the Holy Spirit but, they would rather the next Pope be selected based on worldly whim and "progressive" attitudes. Unfortunately, these are two attributes that not only go against the truth that is revealed in Christ but, are blatantly and shamelessly at odds with who God - in His eternal majesty - is; there is no profane caprice in God's nature and there is most certainly no "changing of the mind" for God either, for if the latter were even possible then each and every shred of evidence working in favor of the Christian faith would candidly be up for debate and would totally undermine any conviction in God.
But, perhaps, that is exactly what anti-Catholics are attempting to do and there is no better example than this recent article I stumbled upon whilst perusing the intertubez. Entitled, "Wanted: A pope who looks ahead, not backward" the author of this opinion piece, Marney Rich Keenan, makes a desperate plea (to the cardinals? to dissenting "c"atholics?) that what the Catholic Church needs is a "forward thinking" Pope that will undo all of the old and stuffy traditions of the Church and usher her into a new era. Again, if the Catholic Church is in fact Christ's one and only Church, then by her divine origin IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HER TO CHANGE for God never changes (see Hebrews 13:8).
As such, it therefore behooves me to tear apart this straw-man argument in order to demonstrate that this author has no idea of a) basic Catholic beliefs, b) basic Catholic dogma, c) Church history d) has never read any major Papal encyclicals and e) should do some simple research before expressing her opinion; that last point also applies to all "c"atholics who share in her wrongfully conceived conclusion. NOTE: I will not reproduce all of the article here, I will only address major errors, please read the article first.
"Most likely, the lack of discussion on what we'd like to see in a new pope is a reflection of our powerlessness over the process. Indeed, the choosing of the new pope is a centuries-old ritual, cloaked in secrecy during which the College of Cardinals, a group of about 120 cassock-wearing, accomplished church politicians burn ballots and send smoke signals..."
Time and time again, we always hear the same thing from the schismatics: "If only we had some input as to who gets to be pastor!" This is not only a repudiation of the Holy Spirit working at the local parish level but it is also an explicit statement in favor of a "Christ-my-way" protestanized form of Christianity! The "c"atholics who advocate that the laity should have part as to who the shepherd should be are usually the ones who have huge disagreements with basic Catholic theology, therefore, Ms. Rich Keenan, to suggest that we are "powerless" over this process is to state that we are somehow better suited to understand the fullness of our faith better than the men who were called by Christ to do so. See Universi Dominici Gregis for more info on why the College of Cardinals is of importance in selecting a Pope.
Additionally, you are in error in stating that we are "powerless" in this process. As the faithful laity, we are to unite our prayers with the will of God and ask that a new and faithful servant may serve as the Bishop of Rome. To say that we are powerless when we have God on our side, is to refuse Christ's sacrifice and denounce the only Church that He established but, then again, isn't that exactly what you are intent on doing?
Moreover, to state that the College of Cardinals are a group of "church politicians" is wholly absurd because the Roman Catholic Church IS NOT nor will it ever be a democracy, period. Either you believe that the Church is guided by God or not, it's really just that simple. Again, this is the drivel of an angry heretic who wishes to undo Holy Mother Church's teachings for contemporary indulgences.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the new pope could strike a balance between tradition and modernism?...rather than advocate a smaller church with more ardent believers, opened the church to more people by being relevant. What about a pope who loosened all those Thou Shalt Nots (like reversing its position on contraception) and broadened the church's appeal?.
Let's first talk about modernism, this is what modernism really does:
Had Ms. Rich Keenan have gone back about 100 years, she would've easily have come upon Pope Saint Pius X's encyclical Pascendi Domini Gregis. In this encyclical Pope Pius X teaches us the following about the modernists in paragraph 13:
Blind that they are, and leaders of the blind, inflated with a boastful science, they have reached that pitch of folly where they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true nature of the religious sentiment; with that new system of theirs they are seen to be under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the holy and apostolic traditions, they embrace other vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, condemned by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity they think they can rest and maintain truth itself.
Indeed, Pope St. Pius X argues, quite masterfully, that MODERNISM IS A HERESY! It is a heresy because it does away with an all important source of authority, that is, tradition, and, in doing so, it also strikes at Divine Revelation by rejecting the Deposit of Faith instilled by Christ. Had Ms. Rich Keenan have done any form of critical research she would've noted that just 2 months before Pascendi Domini Gregis was issued, Pope Saint Pius X published a syllabus that contained 65 errors of mondernism called Lamentabili Sane. If Ms. Rich had wanted to form a rational opinion, she could've also have looked to St. Pius X's predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, who wrote at length in his encyclical Providentissimus Deus about the errors of modernist thought when interpreting Holy Scripture. If Ms. Rich Keenan had wanted to, she could've also have studied an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII's predecessor, Blessed Pope Pius IX, entitled Syllabus of Errors, which also detailed 80 different errors, including modernism. Indeed, had the author of this hit piece have done ANY investigative analysis, she would've come to the fact that, by advocating for a modernist Pope, she is in fact advocating for a heretical Papacy. Let it be thoroughly clear: Modernism is a heresy; as Pope St. Pius X put it in Pascendi paragraph 39 (my emphasis):
We have had to give this exposition a somewhat didactic form and not to shrink from employing certain uncouth terms in use among the Modernists. And now, can anybody who takes a survey of the whole system be surprised that We should define it as the synthesis of all heresies?
Ms. Rich Keenan also states a preposterous notion that the next Pope should open up the church by making it "more relevant" as well as doing away with the Church's teachings against the evils of contraception as a way to "broaden the appeal" of the Church to more people. No other passage of Scripture best summarizes just how wrong she is than the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. In it, the rich man and Lazarus both die and the poor man, Lazarus, makes it to Abraham's Bosom while the rich man - who had everything - is sentenced into eternal torment. From the depths of hell, the rich man cries out to Abraham and the following exchange occurs in Luke 16:27-31:
..."Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment." Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them."
"No, father Abraham," he said, "but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." Abraham said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
To Ms. Rich Keenan, I say the following: if people, by their own free will, choose to ignore the truth then, as clearly stated in Scripture, not even Jesus Christ being risen from the dead will change their mind! Their hearts are so closed to the truth that the only way they can accept it is on their own terms and not God's. A more utterly selfish way of ostracizing God from your life, there is not.
What if we had a pope who struggled to pay his own bills, who understood that most couples live together before marriage, a pope whose son was bullied because he was gay or whose teenage daughter got pregnant?...
"A pope who struggles to pays his own bills?" Ms. Rich Keenan, do you happen to know what the average median income for a priest is? By all accounts the national average is the same as or lower than the average U.S. citizen's household income and, with American households having issues paying bills, suffice it to say, that the same occurs with priests. Personally, the pastor at my parish revealed to my wife and I at dinner that he makes much less than $30,000 per year and he's been a priest for over 10 years! As for a pope understanding what a young gay man or a teenage girl has to go through, I can assure you that many faithful priests have helped young adults in these types of situations through the power of the confessional.
A pregnant teenage girl will encounter a community of hope and charity if she simply submits to the grace of God in the Sacraments and to Church teaching or, she could go to a cold and sterile operating room and have the life within her body rip out of her. Is it any wonder why the Catholic Church is so hated for it's pro-life stance?
Is it any wonder why the Catholic Church is so hated for it's apt treatment of homosexuality? The Church has always taught that homosexual acts - not the homosexual person - are grave offenses to God. The Church asks all people with homosexual tendencies to bind themselves to chastity and Christ's cross which is exactly the same thing it asks of all heterosexual people! The issue here is that homosexuality IS NOT EQUAL to heterosexuality, the Church makes that clear but, the Church also makes it clear that homosexuals are to be treated with dignity and respect because they too are children of God. In light of this truth, a priest can easily reassure a young gay man that he is loved by God and that God doesn't want him to sin and that he must take up his cross of homosexuality and bear it all for His love.
As for cohabitation, CCC #2931, states it to be a nothing more than a "trial marriage" that not only corrupts what marriage is supposed to be but, it doesn't guarantee that a marriage will come from it, a fact that every secularist can attest to. As the last line in that paragraph so correctly puts it:
Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.
One only need to look at other writings to see just why cohabitation is a waste of time and love, Humane Vitae explains just what evils await those who choose to cohabitate and contracept. Blessed Pope John Paul II addressed in 1981 the act of cohabitation in his work Familiaris Consortio (see paragraphs 81-84). Additionally when one reads Familiaris in light of Blessed Pope John Paul II Theology of the Body, cohabitation and pre-marital sex are strictly at odds with God's divine plan.
What if we had a pope who stopped marginalizing women, especially nuns...the nuns were accused of promoting "radical feminist themes" and engaging in corporate dissent against church teachings on contraception, homosexuality and the ordination of women.
The Vatican speaking out against incredulist nuns does not mean that they are being marginalized. While the LCWR does represent close to 80% of all women religious, not all nuns fall into the heresy that some of the LCWR leadership has chosen to be a part of. The fact of the matter is that several of these nuns have chosen to go against Church teachings, and in doing so, have incurred the wrath of Rome...what a surprise. Let me ask you Ms. Rich Keenan, if you went against say, work policy at your job to the point of undermining your employer, would you think that when your boss found out he/she wouldn't have some choice words for you, even though you're doing a good job? This is exactly what these dissident nuns have put themselves in, they have abandoned the teachings and are in need of reprimand, plain and simple.
I've done several posts on these dissident nuns, see here, here, here, here and here.
I realize I'm suggesting that the pope, the human being Catholics consider to be the closest thing to God - Jesus' understudy - is wholly out of touch with Western culture...the pews continue to empty and priests are few and far between...
We Catholics think that the Pope is "the closest thing to God?" That is such an imbecilic and theologically incompetent statement, that words escape me:
 |
| Words may escape me, but Ms. Rich Keenan's ignorance doesn't. Who let this woman opine on something she knows nothing about? |
Please see CCC #880-887 lest someone else besides me think of you as a fool, thanks. As for a stagnant membership growth, in 2011, the Catholic Church in the U.S. grew by .57%, while U.S. seminaries are continuing to show growth for the religious vocation as well as worldwide.
To be sure, the pope is not chosen by a majority of Catholics but by a hierarchy, locked in tradition and infinitely slow to change. But the faithful's idea of a suitable earthly leader shouldn't be a dream.
"To be sure, the pope is not chosen by a majority of Catholics but by a hierarchy who have been given the honor and grace bestowed by the Holy Spirit, locked in tradition, a tradition that is not only the oldest in all of Western civilization but also important since it is a source of Divine authority and infinitely slow to change in the same way that all powerful God is infinite and never changes. But the
There, I fixed it!
No comments:
Post a Comment