This evening I had supper with His Hermeneuticalness himself! Fr. Tim Finigan!
He has on his excellent blog a good look at:
The dangers of “Woman’s Weekly” spirichooaliddy
I will give you a line or two. I want you to go there and spike his stats in a spectacular fashion.
The Eucharist guarantees that every relationship is sacred; [Seriously – every relationship? Adulterous ones? Child abusing ones?] that no bitter tear or heartfelt wish is ever wasted; that nothing is ‘merely’ human any more; [That’s the key – Rahner-lite – “everything is grace”] that no sin is ever left unredeemed;
Fr. Finigan dissects the whole thing.
He has set his scalpel to something that remains a problem in the Church, particularly among the dumb… and liberal nuns.
Fr. Finigan has received a lot of good combox responses to his excellent article, but one question remains for me: how would one pronounce “spirichooaliddy”? I was reminded of your comment earlier today after reading that syrupy drivel: “Now I am going to go wash.”
As I convert from 20 years in the the Episcopal Church and for the last 5 years a member of an Anglican church of the Anglican Mission under the Diocese of Rwanda, I was surprised to encounter very liberal theology in the RCIA I am attending led by a well meaning nun and her lay team. At first it was very challenging to me but I have come to see it as an additional inner witness to God’s action in my heart and life as He leads me into the Roman Catholic Church….we have the opportunity to participate in the great work of preserving the deposit of faith for those who will come after us…and we are needed. This will require God’s grace and a constant call upon His Holy Spirit to be effective for Him in this mission.
It’s a crazy phonetic spelling of “spirituality”. Fr Finigan said on his blog that he made it up. I love it!
I used to be a teacher in a Catholic school and endured many hours of this sort of thing. Nuns were the worst. They could spout this stuff for hours. I was occasionally driven to saying “Don’t you think we are confusing God with Father Christmas?” It never went down very well.
In reply to my question regarding whether he had been confirmed, my 23 year old grandson said: I know I did the first thing, and I did the second thing too but not the thing where you choose whether you do it or not.’ Translates as ‘Yes I was baptised, and I received my first Holy Communion but I did not choose to be confirmed.’ And he attended both Catholic primary and secondary schools! He is living with me at the moment – where do I start to bring him back?
Overheard a couple of years ago in our parish library, a casual question asked of a prospective 16-yr-old female confirmand: So, tell me about transubstantiation…what is it??? Reply: Beats me…never heard the word before.
And we wonder why we have no vocations in this Archdiocese; why our children’s children have no faith. The chickens returned home to roost quite some time ago. Our pleas to have the teaching materials changed to reflect a more basic Catholicism are met with, “No can do…this is what the Archdiocese tells us to use.” Our DRE is content with the status quo.
And so we stay on our knees praying to God for his mercy and redemption.
Sigh…This is the kind of twaddle that eventually drove me out of the Episcopal Church and across the Tiber. (Yes, I know it’s also a problem in the Catholic Church but, trust me, the Episcopalians have the disease in its most extreme form.)
I heard over and over again that God loved me just as I am — but what I am is a miserable sinner in need of redemption. The Episcopal Church had no remedy for this, because Episcopalians no longer see sin as a problem.
Hang in there, Father, you’re doing a good job.
“Dumb” does not mean stupid; it means speechless, [which often is a sign of intelligence].
You undoubtedly meant to write “Stupid”. Don’t be shy; when you wish to write stupid, write stupid.