My general sentiments are: Some things in this life require outrage. The problem we have in Rome is one of them.
But, I am in agreement with many of bear's most recent observations about the response Pope Francis pontificate has elicited on Catholic blogs.
I'm not a person with a propensity toward despair or letting negative emotions find a home in my heart and intellect. The sacraments and intimacy with Christ are my oxygen - so synthesizing the Holies of Holies and the angelic mystical world as associated with the broken and corrupt, thereby weakening my own faith, is impossible for me. I'm truly baffled how anyone would or could make an intellectual association between the reception of Divinity and Christ in one's soul and all its gifts and effects with the products of sin, and reach a conclusion they need to stay away from Christ's Intimacy and Divinity in His Sacraments. (IMHO, this is also an intellectual product of some kind of deadly sin that requires the Sacraments.)
But, people do leave comments on the blog and reach out to me personally to discuss their despair. Not very often, but it does happen and I see its effects on Facebook and other public media sources. I understand why the bear made a personal decision to stop writing about the big problem and return to evangelism.
I started this blog in the late 90's to chronicle various catechetical, liturgical, problems in the Chancery in the Archdiocese of Boston. As I've written about before, Thousands of faithful Catholics tried to resolve misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance of teaching and sanctification of their loved ones internally for decades. We went all the way up to dicasteries in Rome on many occasions. Those efforts were a complete waste of time. Most of us have boxes of patronizing communications expressing gratitude for bringing the problem to their attention, but the spiritual abusers were actually coddled and emboldened.
Similar to the effects of episcopal enabling and coddling of ephobophiles, the enabling and coddling of spiritual abuse made problems worse.
Similar to the public exposition of coddling ephobophiles, blogging about heresy and liturgical nonsense in parishes (and the Chancery) is THE ONLY response that will bring a screeching halt to spiritual malpractice.
I couldn't count the number of priests who have told me that they stopped something or refused to do something because they "didn't want to read about it on your blog". Priests friendly to practicing Catholics have said it with a grin, priests no so friendly through gritted teeth. Faithful bishops telling war stories of catechetical problems told me they wished I lived in their diocese, that it was 'too bad' when bishops don't know how to 'use you' to defect criticism and blame when he explains why some half-baked idea can't be implemented.
We have many years of experience in how bishops license spiritual abuse.
With respect to the Holy Father - et al - we've tried internal charitable dialogue to explain the effects upon the family and Church and ask him to stop it. The response has been enabling, coddling, promoting praise and defense of abusers and ridicule, slander, removals and vindictive punishments directed towards people asking him to stop it. Sadly, this is all very familiar to us.
I do not know who or what he is or why and frankly, after experiencing the damages in my own network of poorly catechized Catholics, and his response to our disclosures, I do not give a damn. I pray fervently for him and I'm doing my best to continue to say what needs to be said in charity and love. It certainly is not the behavior of any prelate I've ever met whose desires were for children to have access to the tools to live every day in a state of Sanctifying Grace. As a mother and grandmother, that is all I need to know.
It's been my experience that public exposition has an immediate effect upon episcopal leaders who operate this way. As bad as things are, I believe the public exposition has effectuated an inability to fully roll out ideas and plans. We will never know in this life whether a desired letter written to German Bishops about reception of the Blessed Sacrament would have instructed them to give it out like bubble gum. Or whether the Holy Father is dealing the cards to faithful Catholic Bishops. Or a little of both.
The non-answer paved the way to deflect criticism from the Holy Father. Which ever way it turns out. This is how the game is played. It will be left to the minority of German Bishops to what we refer to in Boston as "gum it up".
This minority needs the back up of faithful Catholics in the public square. More than ever. This back up is also essential to the handful of Romans (working with Cardinal Burke) to our local priests and bishops.
The problem for Catholic bloggers is, things have reached a point where something screwy is happening every day. If you haven't ramped up your apostolate to several writers who can focus on different things, your stuck making choices about what is more important service to Christ's Mystical Body on a particular day.
For me, writing about this stuff is the complete opposite of what I say and do in my real life. The zeal for the teachings of the House of the Lord, love, joy, compassion, laughter is on the backburner on the blog. As the hauntings from the Romans ramp up, I do struggled with what to do about the blog.
Lately, I've been choosing my battles, writing about my zeal for Christ's teachings or writing less often. I'm feeling a change down the road, but I'm not sure what it will mean. I may recruit a few others and create a new blog that can focus on zeal while still producing back up, I may cut back to writing once a week. I'm praying about it. You'll be the first to know when I come to a decision.
One thing I do know: I'm not going to stop writing about the buffoonery.
The Tenth Crusade
Our Blessed Lord himself was outraged when He saw what was going on in the Temple.
ReplyDeleteI would opine that we have every right to be outraged by the shenanigans going on in Rome!
We should all be more civil and simply pray for the souls that are increasingly being destroyed.
ReplyDeleteLike mine.
A lack of intervention by God, is what is killing my faith more than anything.
Karl
We should all be more civil and simply pray for the souls that are increasingly being destroyed.
ReplyDeleteLike mine.
A lack of intervention by God, is what is killing my faith more than anything.
Karl, when you place your ultimate faith in institutions, you will always be disappointed, if not disgusted. God's character, however, is flawless. He neither sleeps nor slumbers. He knows your pain, far better than you or anybody else realizes. He is just as angry as you are, if not angrier, with the nonsense coming from Rome and the chanceries. And He will act...perhaps not on the timetable that either of us want, but God's timing remains impeccable.
The OT prophet Habakkuk felt just like you did. Study his book. Also, study the Book of Revelation thoroughly. While you're at it, go to a Youtube site, "Blessed Hope 2018." You might not agree with everything but it certainly provides food for thought.
Finally, remember that the authors of the epistles prophesied mass apostasy in the "last days." We're in that time, now.
Karl, I agree with you-compassion and prayers are needed.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you mean by lack of intervention is killing your faith. I'm assuming you aren't talking about the Church, but your personal life when things go haywire and God did not intervene to stop the destruction. All of us have experienced tragedies and asked for God's intervention for sometimes years or decades and to our frustration, our prayers and requests didn't change the situation. We've all asked for miracles that didn't happen, been disappointed, frustrated and even angry with God. God never fails to open another door or window and make His Presence and miracles known to us in other situations. And many of them. It takes a lot of humility to admit when we need help outside of ourselves to make our way beyond a death. Books, writings of saints, examination of conscience, sacrament of penance and frequent reception of the Sacraments will never fail. Take the steps!
It takes a tremendous amount of energy, effort and trust in God to pick up the pieces of our lives and hear His guidance through the death of something or somebody to the resurrections of our lives.
Good column Carol. You need to keep doing what you are doing which is laying the truth on the table despite it's rancid subject matter. The Catholic Church has lost it's much of it's Catholicity and, under Pope Francis, seems most eager to finish the Protestantization process formally begun following Vatican II. As members of the Church Militant we must fight for the truth and expose the heresies and ineffectiveness of Pope Francis, his henchmen, and the many Bishops who support his secularization program.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a keep job. Please keep it up.
PS: Bear is right about many Catholic blogs as a cottage industry for outrage. And it is marvelous to behold in it's revelations of the outrageous conduct of Pope Francis as he tries to destroy the Church.
If the bear is going to make accusations like this he needs to name names or otherwise shut up. If he wants to go hide in his cave pretending to be a bear, nobody’s stopping him, but enough already w attacking other bloggers. what is going on in Rome is a damn outrage. Did we not learn anything from the priest sex abuse scandal? Keep exposing the bums !!
DeleteCan’t wait until that one blasted lung finally gives out.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks. I am happy someone else recognizes it is at least worth discussing at this point. What was useful back when we were all figuring out just what the heck we had on our hands and what is healthy at this remove may be two different things.
ReplyDeleteThe Bear, too, gets private messages that have made him think about what he is doing. And, honestly, he had way too much fun with it than was good for his own soul.
Tim, I’ve actually confessed it when I received messages where people are despairing. Received different responses. All of which advised to be careful that what I say isn’t leading people to jump off cliff. I totally get it. Very worth discussion. Thanks for bringing up
ReplyDeleteI’ll have to add that to my list.
DeleteScripture says in Rom. 16:17 regarding false teachers: "avoid them." Thus it is contrary to Scripture to associate with false teachers in the Church, including the "pope." Sedevacantism is the only answer which is faithful to Scripture: "Come out from among them...," (2 Cor. 6:17.)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, (Bears love irony) it's ridiculous to demand the Bear get into a fight with personalities when the fact of outrage is not in dispute. Or, if you don't like "outrage," call it "devotion to criticism" or "zealous insistence on the truth which is no longer to be found in the Catholic Church as recognized in the world" or whatever you prefer. Bears prefer discussing ideas to engaging in personal attacks, except in the wild, and when they're pretty sure a fellow doesn't have anything bigger than a .38.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome to bring your complaints to the Bear's blog, but, alas, not anonymously.
But if you insist he name names, then he will give one: that awful Bear is one of the worst of the lot, although maybe a little funnier sometimes.
Your Francis humility is duly noted.
DeleteOddly enough, after saying my evening prayers before bed last night, I was thinking about what was said in this blog post. Although, I agree, there at least has to be a balance between outrage and reporting of what's going on in Rome, and uplifting and hopeful truth of our faith. But, can you imagine what 'shell shock' the faithful would experience if the debauchery coming out of Rome was seldom exposed??? Even at the risk of 'desensitizing' faithful Catholics, I would think it's better than the trauma of only occasionally (if ever) reporting on Rome's total apostatizing from the true faith. Isn't it better to KNOW than be blindsided by these hooligans in Rome? Yes, we all need to take a break from it all and find a BALANCE between 'knowing' and devoting ourselves to the true faith in the pursuit of our own holiness and salvation, but I do believe that Our Lord is trying to wake up the sleeping sheep with the evil shock and awe that is pervading His Church. It just may save some souls and at the same time empower us to be what He has called us to be: THE CHURCH MILITANT. I do believe the Lord wants us AWAKE versus SLEEPING in our own personal LA LA LAND. The 'VEIL' is being lifted for a REASON. I pray for the Blessed Mother to lead us in the midst of this TOTAL DISASTER in Rome. We are to be her 'little army'.
ReplyDeleteAnd just another thought: The ROSARY is the WEAPON.
TLM
ReplyDeleteIt is best that the truth comes out and let the chips fall where they may. My guess is that most Catholics who take their faith seriously none of this Vatican scandal should come as a surprise. However, most Catholics, significantly Protestantized following Vatican II, will have their thinking disrupted. These are Catholics who practice contraception and think the Church agrees with them. These are the folks who do not use the faith to become holy but rather to believe God loves them just the way they are with no need to change.
I think Mundabor said it best:
ReplyDeleteSo, shall we just avoid the controversies surrounding Pope Francis and limit ourselves to praying the rosary and writing about edifying material? If you have followed this blog even only a couple of days, you know my answer.
There is an awful lot of material, online and in books, for those who want to deepen their knowledge of traditional Catholicism. This blog, and many others, have plenty of information on the matter for the one who is willing to search. Thank God, the Internet has put this information within the reach of pretty much everyone in the English speaking world.
Blogging is, however, a more immediate form of communication than a book; and it therefore allows a faster reaction when things go wrong. A war is raging, and Satan is clearly very influent in the Vatican. I for myself am not going to spend the time I have for blogging in further explanations about the Works of Mercy or the meaning of the word “charity”. Plenty of resources for that; actually even on this blog, but pretty much everywhere.
No, this is not the time to retreat to a kind of devotional blogging, or spiritual blogging retreat. This is the time to follow St Michael. The reduction of Catholic blogging to online Catholic fare without reference to the war that is raging is tantamount to giving Francis all the liberty he wants, and to wreck everything he wants, safe in the knowledge that Catholic bloggers will focus on the Joyous Mysteries, or on pious toughts on the day of the Ascension.
Let those who think their role is to explain the Catechism to readers do so at the best of their ability. There are many Catholic bloggers out there and everyone can useful in his own way. But without me, and thank you very much.
In times of war you need, first of all, warriors. Cooks may be useful, byt they don’t win wars. The Crusaders never stopped thinking whether it would have been better to stop the war and start spiritual exercises instead. They knew it was the time for war, and they acted accordingly.
Pray your rosary, my dear reader.
And then go on the Internet and blog, comment, retweet, “like”, do all you can to help in the war that is raging.
There is a time for peace and a time for war. In the times of Francis, we need to soldier on on the side of St Michael.
"Mundabor's Blog".......yes, he nailed it. We were not given the title: "The Church Militant" for nothing. "As for me and my house, we will follow the Lord." I am with St. Michael all the way. As to what we see going on in Rome and under this "Holy Father", we SHOULD be outraged!!!! We are to put on our armor. First we must pray, sacrifice and stay in the state of sanctifying grace. THEN, we must speak out against the apostasy coming from Rome. This isn't merely 'heresy' any longer. These men are apostates!!!!! They have left the faith ENTIRELY!!!! They are trying to proclaim that the faithful are in 'schism'. Nothing could be further from the truth. THEY are the ones in 'schism'. They have left the faith.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you Carol. Your gifts and talents are needed. Is it your vocation? Only you know, but I thank you for your faithfulness.
ReplyDeleteKelly, thank you for your kind thoughts and. Support!
ReplyDelete