Dissent into Hell – Fr. Z rants

I was just on air with Drew Mariani (Relevant Radio) and we spoke for a while about death and confession. He mentioned one of my blog posts from 2011. Since he said that he is going to link here, I figured I would re-post the piece he mentioned.

Here it is:

Dissent into Hell – Fr. Z rants

Lately there has been a sharp uptick in the media – even “Catholic” media – in open and cavalier dissent from the Church’s teaching and the authority of her duly ordained pastors.  Much of it seems to revolve around the two poles of personal claims of self-determination and autonomy from anything outside one’s own skull or one’s groin.

Many who dissent from the Church’s teachings and authority simply don’t know any better.  They were, perhaps, never taught or they were taught error.  I tremble for those who are responsible for their ignorance.

Some dissenters know full well what they are refusing to accept.  I worry that they are in peril of going to Hell.   Tragically, they are dragging people into confusion with them and putting their souls in peril as well.  Tragically, some of the Church’s pastors are watching it happen.

In so doing we make ourselves slaves of the world, the flesh and the devil and we could wind up in hell as a result.

It is a terrible thing even to think, much less say, but I suspect that in our O-so-sophisticated-age, this time of picking and choosing, not many people are actually going to their judgment in the friendship of God.

St. Teresa of Avila was granted a vision in which she saw souls falling into hell “like snowflakes”.  If memory serves, the three children of Fatima were given the same vision with the same sight of falling souls so numerous that they were like a snowfall.

Many saints have said this in the past.  Is the situation worse now?  I don’t know.  It might be, because the prevailing attitude today, at least in wealthy regions, seems to be autonomy and self-determination without regard for anything transcendent, even while what is truly transcendent is being replaced by concern for the environment, or chimeric personal “rights”, blah blah blah.

Give the way the dissolution of mores is accelerating and given the weakening of the bonds of society ad intra and ad extra regarding even the Church, I don’t know if we can reverse the trend anymore. Nevertheless, the one important challenge that has never changed for everyone through all ages remains.  In accord with our state in life we must do our best to get to heaven.  We have to do what small things we can for ourselves and loved ones and those immediately in our sphere.  We simply must persevere.

The terrible alternative should be a point for daily reflection.

Christ, God, gave us the Catholic Church.  It is the Church He founded.  He gave us the sacraments as the ordinary means of salvation.  He gave His own authority to the Church to teach about faith and morals.  He gave us a visible point of reference for unity and security of knowledge for our membership in His Church: Peter and his successors and the apostles and their successors with Peter.

Knowingly reject the Church – and Peter – and the Church’s teaching and her discipline of Christ’s sacraments, and you place yourself on a path that might just land you in hell for eternity.

If nothing else from this rant gets through to readers, and this is especially my plea to priests and bishops, I beg you on my knees, I implore you: make it a habit to think about the Four Last Things at least once a day.  We are all going to die.  We must all go before our Judge to give an account of the gift of life and the graces we have been offered.

Nothing will change this vector we are on within the Church and throughout the world until Catholics engage in a serious renewal of our liturgical worship of Almighty God.  And that might not work either, frankly.   It may, however, save some souls who would otherwise be lost.  That’s not nothing and it is worth our effort.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices, What Fr. Z is up to, Wherein Fr. Z Rants and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

21 Comments

  1. brushmore says:

    Wow, I wish I was following this blog in 2011. This is fantastic!

  2. Vecchio di Londra says:

    Bravo! That’s a sermon I wish we could hear more often in church: brief and to the point. Leaves no doubt and no leeway for ‘Oh but Father…’

  3. Amen! Not a ‘rant’ Father – simply a series of honest observations.

  4. Kathy B. says:

    We simply must persevere!

  5. OrthodoxChick says:

    Rats! They haven’t posted your appearance on the audio archives of the show yet (5:42pm EST). I’ll keep checking back. I’ve never heard of Relevant Radio. Don’t have Sirius, so…listening to you with this Drew Marini guy will be my intro to the network. Looking forward to it. Hope they post it soon!

  6. HeatherPA says:

    Interestingly appropriate for this post- Nancy Pelosi calls prolifers “dumb” for believing life begins at conception at Planned Parenthood Gala where she is “honored” (damned) with the Sanger award. Why is she still receiving communion in San Francisco? I have read where the Bishop out there was tough, so I am surprised.
    These excellent posts of honest teaching and pastoral care and concern are made for people like her.

    http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/28/nancy-pelosi-pro-lifers-are-dumb-for-believing-life-begins-at-conception/

  7. Priam1184 says:

    “Knowingly reject the Church – and Peter – and the Church’s teaching and her discipline of Christ’s sacraments, and you place yourself on a path that might just land you in hell for eternity.”

    If this statement is true (and it most certainly is) then why are we not busy with the work of making the Church the paramount force in both our nation and in the world, but instead wasting our time making arguments about ‘religious freedom’? [We can do both, you know. I reject your either/or premise.]

  8. JARay says:

    I have a list of friends/acquaintances whom I pray for in order for them to return to the Church. Recently one of them died in bizarre circumstances without being reconciled with the Church. I had a sort of strange feeling but I could only send my condolences and I refused to have Mass said for him and that caused some of my relatives to raise eyebrows as if I was being uncharitable. My response was to point out that he died outside the Church and if we believe the words of Jesus then there was no point in having Mass said for the repose of his soul.

  9. majuscule says:

    @HeatherPA

    It’s rumored that Nancy P has been spoken to over the years by her bishops. I’m wondering if there is any recent footage of her receiving? Maybe she isn’t coming forward? (Hey, I’m not defending her–just wondering.)

    Archbishop Coredileoni is quietly implementing measures to strengthen the Archdiocese of SF. Encouraging the EF for one thing!

  10. Pingback: Dissent at one’s own peril | Gippsland Ordinariate News

  11. HeatherPA says:

    @ Majuscule- I hear you, and I thought she was like Sebelius and not receiving, however, I read an article, I -think- it was at Crisis Magazine a few weeks ago and as an aside (because the article wasn’t about her specifically), the author mentioned Pelosi was still receiving Eucharist at St. Vincent de Paul in San Fran. I was shocked because I honestly thought she was not receiving (under Canon 915) anymore- if anyone has been admonished (even by the Holy Father!) more than Nancy Pelosi, in so many public ways, I just can’t imagine. Talk about rejecting Church doctrine and leading souls to the path of Hell…

  12. ConstantlyConverting says:

    “Nothing will change this vector we are on within the Church and throughout the world until Catholics engage in a serious renewal of our liturgical worship of Almighty God. ”

    Exactly!!!!

  13. JARay says: I have a list of friends/acquaintances whom I pray for in order for them to return to the Church. Recently one of them died in bizarre circumstances without being reconciled with the Church. I had a sort of strange feeling but I could only send my condolences and I refused to have Mass said for him and that caused some of my relatives to raise eyebrows as if I was being uncharitable. My response was to point out that he died outside the Church and if we believe the words of Jesus then there was no point in having Mass said for the repose of his soul.

    I can’t agree with this. However objectively bad things look to us, we still cannot know whether someone was saved or damned, absent some divine revelation. Two or three years back, I had three colleagues die within the space of a year: none of them Catholic, so far as I know. I had Masses offered for all of them. This side of the Last Judgment, I have no way of knowing what good that did for them; but even if it did no good for those souls, it did good for someone. With God, nothing goes to waste.

    St. Faustina says: let all judgments cease, for there are miracles of grace that take place even when, to us, all looks hopeless. Obviously, God is under no obligation to work such miracles, so that that should not make us presumptuous. But when we get to heaven — and, please God, may all who read this blog be saved — we may be very surprised at who made it there.

  14. Mariana2 says:

    I have to agree with Miss Anita Moore, O.P.

    I’ve offered Masses for my father, for my best friend who died earlier this year, and others – Lutherans all, and, as in the case of my father, mocking Lutherans. My Parish Priest graciously accepted the Mass stipends, so I assume it was alright to offer them.

  15. capchoirgirl says:

    So timely! I’m teaching my first grade CCD class about the second coming, the four last things, and purgatory tomorrow!

  16. jameeka says:

    I just listened to your audio streaming interview Fr Z–very good.

  17. Susan M says:

    Would Christ have come and died for all mankind just to see the Kingdom of Hell more populated than the Kingdom of Heaven? If that is the case, it would imply that the Prince of Darkness is more powerful than Almighty God. [We don’t know what we don’t know.]

  18. PostCatholic says:

    “… then says to myself:”All right, then, I’ll go to hell”- and tore it up.

    “It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn’t. “

  19. OrthodoxChick says:

    jameeka,

    Could you please provide a link to the audio stream? I keep checking the audio archives on the Relevant Radio website, but I can’t seem to find it. I would love to listen to it too.

  20. jameeka says:

    Not sure if this will obey Fr Z’s rules?
    link to calendar and the look for 3.28.14 afternoon.
    http://relevantradio.com/audios/the-drew-mariani-show

  21. Supertradmum says:

    Father Z., why do not more priests talk and write like you do? I go to the TLM week after week and never hear anything in a sermon which pertains to the horrible society in which we live and our need for personal holiness.

    I am sick thinking of the fact that priests just do not “get it”. They are talking about fund raising, hiring youth ministers, paying for the air conditioning and are completely impervious to the fact that daily people are dying without God.

    Why are the TLM priests so blind?

    Thanks, again, and keep being the Voice in the Wilderness, 2014.

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