URGENT: Romanian Greek Catholic Doctor’s speech to Synod! Members (all) get a serious talking to!

I saw this at Voice of the Family.  You can find it other places too.

The entire Synod of Bishops (and the fancy people running it) received a marvelously cold slap in the face with the wet towel of real “reality” in a speech by a lay woman from Romania.  She didn’t waste time or words, but laid right into them.

My emphases and comments:

The following intervention was made by Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea,  President of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Bucharest (Romania), at the Ordinary Synod on the Family on Friday.

Your Holiness, Synod Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, I represent the Association of Catholic Doctors from Bucharest.

I am from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

My father was a Christian political leader, who was imprisoned by the communists for 17 years. My parents were engaged to marry, but their wedding took place 17 years later.

My mother waited all those years for my father, although she didn’t even know if he was still alive. They have been heroically faithful to God and to their engagement.

Their example shows that God’s grace can overcome terrible social circumstances and material poverty.

We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, [that is, actually doing something] can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle.

Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis. [BAM!]

The primary cause of the sexual and cultural revolution is ideological.  [BIF!]

Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions.

Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sex revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gay-rights and gender ideology. [Naming names, too!]

Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property.

Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sex identity and human nature.

This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.

It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism. [KA-POW!]

It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger. [OORAH!  Is that what the Synod Fathers are doing?  I’m just asking.]

“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion.

Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government. These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gay rights, gender education, and so on.

What the world needs nowadays is not limitation of freedom, but real freedom, liberation from sin. Salvation.

Our Church was suppressed by the soviet occupation. But none of our 12 bishops betrayed their communion with the Holy Father. Our Church survived thanks to our bishops’ determination and example in resisting prisons and terror.  [I guess they were culture warriors.]

Our bishops asked the community not to follow the world. Not to cooperate with the communists.  [Can we hand the Synod over to this gal?  Please?]

Now we need Rome to tell the world: “Repent of your sins and turn to God for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”. [Is this what you are hearing from your pastors these days?  Or are you getting a bunch of half-mumbled, mealy-mouthed temporizing?]

Not only us, the Catholic laity, but also many Christian Orthodox are anxiously praying for this Synod. Because, as they say, if the Catholic Church gives in to the spirit of this world, it is going to be very difficult for all the other Christians to resist it.  [THWACK!]

[01738-EN.01] [Original text: English]

Forward this to everyone.

God bless Dr. Cernea!

I have an imagine of some of the bishops, especially those from a certain country, blinking faster and faster as the speech goes on and, perhaps, pawing the ground with one of their feet while their hands work, aimlessly.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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92 Comments

  1. Patti Day says:

    I hope the bishops who gave the Pope a standing ovation after his speech last night, the same speech that had commenters here sick with fear for our Holy Church, were sweating bullets over this. I hope this gets picked up by the media and is widely published. I’d like to give this doctor a big hug.

  2. Cantor says:

    In the Spirit of compromise, let’s go ahead and approve the installation of female deacons.

    And make Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea the first one.

  3. Vikingconvert says:

    Bravo Dr Cernea and Amen! There is nothing more progressive, liberating, and freeing than the truth of Christ. Indeed, as my priest preached on Sunday morning; we are not called to be fans of Christ, but followers of Christ.

    Many prayers for this synod that they will resist the spirit of this world.

    From an Antiochian Eastern Orthodox Christian

  4. Pingback: URGENT: Romanian Greek Catholic Doctor’s speech to Synod! Members (all) get a serious talking to! | Fr. Z’s Blog | therasberrypalace

  5. CharlesG says:

    But will this speech, like any criticism of Cardinal Kasper, go “in one ear and out the other” of the Pope who had no problem with the Commie Crucifix?

  6. jfk03 says:

    The Greek Catholic Churches suffered horribly under Communism. There were untold martyrs. There are many alive today who had relatives and friends who were martyred. I hope the Holy Father, who preaches much about the Church of the poor, is listening to them. The first thing he should do is make the cardinals swap their Crimson robes for sackcloth and ashes. Threadbare black cassocks would do fine. I am appalled by reports of sumptuous dinners hosted by the Germans in Roman villas. So much for the church of the peripheries.

    Have they forgotten about John the Baptist, who lost his head for calling the powerful on their sexual morality?

  7. Mariana2 says:

    God bless this lady!

  8. Orphrey says:

    What a beautiful statement! What a ray of light amid the gloomy news that keeps coming from Rome!

  9. Eugene says:

    Father I have converted liberal catholicsm and will be petioning the liberal archbishop from Canada who talked about allowing female deacons ( not a synod topic btw) to ask the Pope to allow this lady to become a Cardinal.
    Seriously what a brave soul who needs our prayers respect and support. Compare her courage and plain speaking to the garbage coming out of the mouth of a personally papal invited American media darling Archbishop who stated ill informed consciences are inviolable, which maybe worse than his comparing the dismemberment of little children to the problem of unemployment. Just sickening.
    God love and protect the good doctor.

  10. Benedict Joseph says:

    The movers and shakers at this thing looked at her and thought, “How quant, how naïve, a groundling, what does she know? She is culturally traumatized. Smile. Be polite. Move on with our agenda. Next.”

  11. Fr. Vincent Fitzpatrick says:

    What is “Cultural Marxism”? Look up “Cultural Marxism,” and you will find a picture of Blase Cupich. Abortion is no more appalling than unemployment. The Peripheries. The Marginalized. The Undocumented. Global Warming. Communion for abortionists, gay couples, cats, whatever.

  12. Ed the Roman says:

    Have they forgotten about John the Baptist, who lost his head for calling the powerful on their sexual morality?

    The problem may be that they do remember it, and take the wrong lesson.

  13. Imrahil says:

    I think “cultural Marxism” is a misnomer, taking its origin, apparently, that the quintessence of Marxism is just that it is bad, so everything bad is Marxist, right?

    Real Marxists, on the contrary, may have supported the sexual revolution in an effort to weaken the class-enemy (not unlike the German Empire, which was not Marxist, when it actually planted Marxism in Russia to weaken the war-enemy), and it is also true that an actual part of the Marxist program was elimination of the family (other than as, perhaps, a pragmatical sub-unity of society taken all authority from the socialist collectif under the direction of the secretary-general). But conscious efforts?

    Well aware that good old morality usually strengthens, not weakens society, and not having the prospect of Heaven to offer nor filled with that mercy mildness that comes from the knowledge that God has already done the job and we needn’t build the Kingdom of Heaven, just move to it (so to speak), at home the Marxists were at any time out-moralizing our good old Christian preachers by orders of magnitude.

    Quoth Lenin: “Promiscuity in sexual life is bourgeois: it is a sign of degradation.” Similar notions were held as to homosexuality.

    In fact, even the 1950s idea that other forms of music than the classical one are sinful and depraved, which most of us (though perhaps, as I do, disagreeing with it) will attribute to some (let me say) über-traditional Catholics and the sort of Protestants that term themselves “Bible-believing”, thinking that this is the attitude of any good Christian in the 1950s…

    even that finds a curious echo in the words of President-of-the-State-Council Walter Ulbricht, who said, in his broad Saxonian (it can be heard on Youtube):

    “It is, now, really at that that we must now copy any dirty such as comes from the West [!] ? I think, comrades, to that monotony of this ‘ye ye ye’ and how all that’s called, we’d better put a stop to it.”

  14. gatormom says:

    Yeah, sing it sister! I have to admit that my ebullient joy wanes a a bit when it sets in that this is a direct rebuke of our Pope. Dr. Cernea is not the first to have spoken this truth about Communism. What’s my hope here, that it will have been presented to our Cardinals and Pope just at the right time when they are fully embued by the power of the Holy Ghost? If that type of conversion comes out if this Synod, I think we’d see a great many converts. That would just be really miraculous and awesome.

  15. scotus says:

    Well, you can’t make it much clearer than that. Even Cardinals Kasper and Marx and Archbishop Cupich should have been able to understand it. Unlike the vague verbiage we get from these gentleman about ‘accompanying’ people and introducing Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried in a carefully ‘structured’ way.

  16. anilwang says:

    It’s actually worse than Marxism. It’s a form of Plutocracy, not only because the Plutocrats responsible for this extreme utilitarian humanism, but also because in the region most strongly pushing this agenda (Germany), you have to play for forgiveness.

    So all mortal sins are permissible if you pay the Church tax, but if you’re the poor widow who has lived a saintly life, no sacraments for you, including reconciliation and may God have mercy on your soul if you do slip up before you die since you’ve committed the unforgivable sin of not “paying to pray” and “paying to be forgiven”.

    It’s all well and good that we have such strong and clear defenders of the faith, but we need some attack dogs. Put the German alliance on the defensive for once since if we don’t, the German alliance will keep regrouping until they make an advance.

  17. Sonshine135 says:

    I believe the good Doctor performed a great spiritual work of mercy….Admonishing the sinner(s).

  18. Tradster says:

    Wow, wonderful speech! She sounds like the reincarnation of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
    To quote Cardinal Dolan, “Bravo!”

  19. DonL says:

    God bless that lady.
    I am convinced, and fearful, that the real result sought by the Kasperite/Cupich crowd is one of “compromise” for they know that they cannot be seen to be actually changing “doctrine.”

    One man, on the North rim of the Grand Canyon, calls to his friend on the lip of the South rim of the canyon to come on over. They argue as to who should come to whom. The man on the North rim is far more skillful at persuasion and invokes guilt. “Let’s compromise.” The man on the South rim finally compromises his intellect, wisdom and safety to assuage his feelings of guilt. He takes just one little step…oops!
    That’s the double edged sword of compromise–a word never to be used as a tool of virtue when choosing morality or truth.

  20. Grumpy Beggar says:

    Benedict Joseph says:

    “The movers and shakers at this thing looked at her and thought, ‘How quant, how naïve, a groundling, what does she know? She is culturally traumatized. Smile. Be polite. Move on with our agenda. Next.’ ”

    An exceedingly plausible scenario – given what we’ve already seen in the past, and also given the position of some of the movers and shakers in the 10 – member commission preparing the synod’s final report . . . that same commission which elicited expressions of concern fron Cardinals Napier, Muller and Pell , among others.

    One would think that because this was a doctor speaking, that her comments would warrant serious consideration ; after all, she is someone with extensive scientific/medical training – someone grounded in reality, and someone who is a philanthropist. But unfortunately we have already witnessed, here in this Canadian province, over 500 doctors oppose a euthanasia bill – which the government recently went ahead and passed anyway. To add salt to the wound, the premier of Quebec himself, happens to be a doctor , and the actual bill is purported to have initially been proposed by the College of Physicians here (although it was only an unqualified lackey MNA who actually drafted [might I say dafted] the bill without having any true objective understanding of individual human suffering and without doing any research which could be deemed genuinely pertinent to the cause).

    So even doctors (the real ones- not the abortionists), it appears ,like us , are not immune to spiritual infection.

    I pray that Dr. Cerna’s comments will awaken that spirit of Faith in all the synod members’ hearts.

    Each one of us might further glean from her testimony , just how important our own personal holiness becomes in this great battle, and how it can help us ward off spiritual infection:

    -It was the personal holiness of the bishops she mentioned which kept them faithful to the Church during all the years of persecution.

    -And it was surely the personal holiness and witness of her parents which helped forge Dr. Cerna’s own soul into the beacon of true Faith that it is today.

    It would appear that, no matter what the question seems to be concerning matters of faith . . . personal holiness will invariably become part of the answer.

  21. SanSan says:

    If the majority within ear shot have “dead” consciences–it will be an Act of God that any of them heard this great wake-up call. Dear Lord, let it be so!

  22. Raymond says:

    In centuries past, Christian emperors, kings and princes would intervene in clerical affairs, although not always for the right reasons. Now that things are getting messy in Rome–in very Bergoglian fashion–I believe that it’s time once again for well-formed Christian laity to intervene and shout over the bishops’ heads to remind them of the Church’s true mission, as this fine lady from Romania showed us.

  23. Kerry says:

    As the Venerable Ralph of Cramden would say, “Bang! Zoom!! To the moon (Synod)!!!”

  24. oldconvert says:

    I applaud the good doctor, but they won’t listen to her. These guys who are so puffed up with spiritual pride that they seriously aim to rewrite the words of Our Lord Himself on adultery, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery except if he lives in many Western European countries and some parts of North America.“….they are not going to let some lay woman tell them what to decide. It would be too much a blow to that pride to have to go along with what the African churchmen are teaching, remember. (the recently discovered Gospel according to Cardinal Kasper)

  25. Ferde Rombola says:

    This is the first time I have seen the Frankfurt School mentioned on the internet. Few know about it, but it is and diabolical engine driving the secular, atheist agenda.

    I pray the Holy Spirit will open the ears and hearts of the Synod bishops to the words of Dr. Cerna. She made more sense in a short speech than all the rest have made together. May God bless her and empower her.

  26. Genna says:

    Voice of the Family has been doing stellar reporting on this synod. I heartily recommend it.

  27. avecrux says:

    Reading this was incredibly cathartic. Thank you.

  28. Imrahil says:

    “any dirt”, not “any dirty”

    Sorry.

  29. Andrew says:

    TRUTH is a weapon.

  30. TNCath says:

    I wonder when the National “catholic” Reporter will cover this story? To borrow a phrase from Johnny Mathis, perhaps “Until the Twelfth of Never, and that’s a long, long time…”

    If the movers and shakers of the Synod get their way, it will be a direct insult to everything our ancestors lived and died for as Catholics. The hymn “Faith of Our Fathers” keeps coming to mind.

  31. CatholicMD says:

    These men have many years of practice ignoring faithful Catholic laity.

  32. oldcanon2257 says:

    WOW!!! Such refreshing Ratzingerian clarity Dr. Cernea’s speech offered!!!

    It’s too bad that Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea is NOT a man.

    Had Dr. Cernea been a man, then good Dr. Cernea should have been ordained priest, consecrated bishop then elevated to cardinal on the spot. This lay woman’s simple but firm grasp on the big picture is much more than that of many synod fathers (especially those from developed countries like Germany).

    The speech was amazing: courageous, straight, simple and to the point. Its no-BS no-nonsense simplicity in calling a spade a spade is just beautiful and incredible at the same time. No beating around the bush, no mumble-jumble like the politicians many prelates (again, especially from the Western European countries) and religious superiors had become. This lay woman clearly understand what’s at stake if the Church abandoned Christ, that the Church will lose the 4 marks and will no longer be (the true bride) of Christ because Christ is the head and abandoning Christ is like an act of self-decapitation.

    Didn’t Pope Francis’ own apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” call for greater role/involvement of the laity and “more incisive female presence in the Church” and “possible role of women in decision-making in different areas of the Church’s life”? There you go, Holy Father, please do away “excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making” (Pope Francis’ own words Evangelii Gaudium, 102) and listen to this faithful and Catholic lay woman for a change. Being the learned men that they are, the Holy Father and all the synod fathers must be fully aware that during the dark age when Arianism was widespread and almost triumphant, it was the laity (and a few faithful bishops) who faithfully preserved the orthodox Catholic Faith.

  33. How incredibly refreshing – God bless her. It’s an interesting exercise to pull up her speech and place a speech by a synod progressive alongside it. See how clear and concise her sentences are, compared to the squishy “what-is-he-really-saying”-ness of the progressive.

  34. Traductora says:

    Truly excellent! It’s very encouraging to hear such clear, unambiguous and orthodox words, especially presented so forcefully to our morally slumbering bishops. (Well, in all fairness, that doesn’t describe all of them.) Now if only the Pope listens to her…

  35. Auggie says:

    The words of Dr. Cernea should be published as the Final Document of the synod.

  36. oldcanon2257 says:

    Also, one thing I have noticed is that the liberal/progressive/modernist synod fathers always mentioned “facing reality this”, “accommodating reality that”, but none of those prelates ever bothered or dared to mention the 4 last “realities” (The Four Last Things)? It’s those 4 “realities” which form the basis of what we should worry about in terms of saving souls, instead of worrying about some fads in a trendy material world.

  37. DonL says:

    Gee, can we make this the final document and teachings from the synod? It would certainly wipe out the issues (some say sins) of “ambiguity” “confusion” contradiction, manipulation, corruption of doctrine with pastoral mercy, coming from our supposed shepherds.
    Unity in ambiguity is a diabolical gift.

  38. DJAR says:

    Practically speaking, it was a waste of her time. She will be ignored by the people who are in control, starting with the Holy Father.

    I believe the entire synod was a sham from the get-go, with predetermined results. It was nothing but a ruse used to usher in damaging practices within the Church while at the same time allowing the gullible to think that the Church is functioning just fine.

  39. aprons says:

    Judges 4:9 Deborah speaking to Barak: “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera (evil man) over to a woman.”
    God bless Dr. Cerna!

  40. steve51b31 says:

    DJAR et al,

    Practically speaking , I understand your sentiment. The true effort that we must undertake is to massively and continually publicize this true witness until it can never be ignored.

  41. juergensen says:

    I read an interesting Catholic blog where it was suggested that despite saying he would be “hidden to the world”, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has in fact been increasingly “active” since his resignation. It would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between controversial developments in the Church and the level of his activity.

  42. Kathleen10 says:

    A woman stood at a podium, a doctor from Romania, but the words she spoke came from the Holy Spirit. Isn’t it a theme we have seen before, God uses the powerless to deliver a message whose content can be easily perceived and understood by those who listen for His voice. Truly, this lady spoke the Truth and those inclined to Jesus Christ will hear that Truth. For me personally, this lady has provided the first REAL hope and indication that God is not off on vacation somewhere, but is actively attentive to the evil proceedings in the Vatican. Thus far, the words of even good Cardinals have not made me feel that way. Hearing the Truth is like a lightning bolt, it focuses the mind and energizes the soul. I thank her for her point blank statements that add nothing frilly or extra, just dead-on accurate Truth. She need not be appointed anything, she will have her reward. I envy her opportunity to defend Jesus Christ publicly and so effectively. A hundred years from now her words will be mentioned.
    If the Cardinals don’t stop whispering and murmuring, and start calling out heretics and dismantling the lies and sacrileges they are advancing, THEY are going to cause as much scandal, confusion, and harm as the heretic innovators. They may not wish to look at it this way, but to be a Cardinal, to take a vow to protect the Deposit of Faith and then NOT do it, would be a serious and grievous insult to God, His Church, and the flock. What do they fear, losing a comfortable office? Being demoted? Being criticized by dissidents? Will they put their own comfort and position, or the high opinion of peers and people, ahead of their responsibility to speak boldly on behalf of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified?

  43. acricketchirps says:

    Sonshine, sure you don’t mean instructing the ignorant? These are cardinals we’re talking about here.

  44. Imrahil is on to something.
    I was really surprised to see the phrase “cultural Marxism” because previously I’d only seen it in weird corners of the internet’s “alt-right.” They have a tendency to create and use obscure jargon to make themselves feel smart.
    Needless to say, actual Marxists are chuckling to themselves about this term. It’s as laughable as talking about “Islamo-nazis” in the Middle East and elsewhere.
    While a reminder of the Church’s mission to save souls is laudable, she’s off the mark by implying economic factors have *nothing* to do with how moral issues develop. Acknowledging that moral issues such as abortion and contraception have economic connections does not excuse their grave evil. It is merely to have both eyes open while addressing these things.

  45. benedetta says:

    Well, Agricola DeHammo (and may I say, awesome handle there, not to raise a rabbit hole) — what would you term it if not cultural Marxism? Does it have no name, no identity, this current or movement? How about rather something along the lines of “slavery” or “tyranny” or even “death culture”? Perhaps this cannot be termed? I know some people have told me, I guess these are the authentic Marxists of which you speak (?), that it stands for “many truths” and not one Truth which we participate and share in together. If we put many truths up against one another, the means of power is then what is obviously happening, violence. This is happening and yet seems in its reality quite far from an envisioning of synodal walking together and listening. I suppose this is more like a listening and then push certain ones over the edge based on who has the greater muscle or who lacks scruples in the use of it, in the pursuit to get what one wants? Of course the Church has a better track record than, well, Marxists, in aiding those who are getting the shaft in the economic equations because they don’t bloat up the entitled elites who hog the upper peripheries of wealth and power like a government in our times tends to, despite the verbiage.

  46. MWindsor says:

    “The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.

    I am SO turning that into a bumper sticker!

  47. anna 6 says:

    May God bless the good doctor.
    Does anyone know how her speech was received? I hope that she received a huge ovation!

  48. NBW says:

    YES!!!!! I am so glad she spoke the Truth. It is clear and concise. I hope and pray those in the Synod will truly listen.

  49. harrythepilgrim says:

    MWindsor

    I’ll buy a dozen of those bumper stickers.

  50. KingofCharity says:

    Wow! She speaks with the precision and clarity of a saint and the courage of Catherine of Sienna- perhaps her words will go down as one of the great defining moments in Church history. Another great turning point in a conciliar showdown between orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
    Yet, To be fair to our Holy Father- he never said income
    Dispariy and climate hange “cause” sin- he says that they are the fruit or the result of sin. Consumerism, idolatry of money, and greed come from the sin within the human heart and lead to the destruction of creation and people rather than the cultivation of creation.
    Nonetheless- she hit the nail on the head.
    Cupich, Bergoglio, Marx, and Kasper want to appease and dialogue with those of the world who want nothing more than to feed them to lions.
    Holy Mother Church was built on the blood and courage of martyrs, not the ambiguous drivel of faithless appeasers
    and cowardice compromisers

  51. jhayes says:

    Brother Hervé Janson is a voting member of the Synod, representing the Union of Superiors General. This is part of his intervention

    I am thinking of these African Christian wnomen I knew when I lived in Cameroon, spouses of a polygamous Muslim husband: they felt excluded from the church, unaccompanied, very much alone.

    Among others, I think of a Belgium family, good friends of mine; one of their daughters has admitted that she has lesbian tendencies, is living with another young woman and has decided to have a child through artificial insemination. [Horrible. Right?] The problem is how the parents should react, precisely as Christians parents. They have showered her with treasures of sensitivity, tenderness, and proximity!

    Is the church not also a family and should it not have the same attitudes toward these men, these women so often helpless, in doubt and in darkness, feeling themselves excluded. What kind of proximity? What kind of accompaniment? What sort of attitude would Jesus have and what would he do in our place…?

    The mercy of God is for everyone. Jesus did not come to judge but to save what was lost. He gave his apostles and their successors a heavy responsibility with regard to his mercy: that of binding it or loosening it. Let us be firmly attached to Jesus and let us loosen through the Spirit which makes us free and links us together to Life.

    [And… ?]

  52. Jason Keener says:

    Now THAT’S the kind of talk I would like to hear coming out of the Synod. Perhaps the Holy Father should delegate to our dear Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea the task of preparing the Synod’s final document.

  53. FXR2 says:

    steve51b31 said:
    19 October 2015 at 10:09 AM
    DJAR et al,

    Practically speaking , I understand your sentiment. The true effort that we must undertake is to massively and continually publicize this true witness until it can never be ignored.

    Steve51b31,
    I disagree. You advocate fighting the game on their terms. This battle is spiritual and our weapons are prayers! Think of the battle of Lepanto. We should pray for His Holiness and the Church!

    fxr2

  54. Joseph-Mary says:

    The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

    AMEN!
    Wish she had a miter but them she would be summarily dismissed probably…

  55. SaintJude6 says:

    Odd coincidence: Ann Barnhardt posted a twenty minute video at her blog about Gramsci, cultural Marxism, and the Frankfurt school within the last few days. I think it is from the 1990’s, but it was very informative.

  56. Clinton R. says:

    It is indeed comforting to know as heresy rules the day at the Synod, there is among us, both clergy and laity who love Christ and His Holy Church. I have often felt down, and in distress, as many here have in recent weeks. Like Elijah, I want to curl up and wish God to take my life at the state of the Church today. But, as God informed His Prophet: “And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him, kissing the hands.” 3 Kings 19:18

    God be with Dr. Cernea. May He strengthen those who love Him and His Church. May He convert the hearts of those who oppose Him. +JMJ+

  57. pannw says:

    So, how did the good doctor get on the program for the synod? Whoever scheduled her must have had some idea of what she was going to say. Who makes those decisions?

  58. La Mamma says:

    FrZ, I’m sure there are already many, many fasts in progress throughout the course of this synod but maybe it hasn’t occurred to many that it might be a good idea. If I had a readership of a gazillion, I’d ask them to join their prayers with fasting but I don’t have that readership… I really think this one needs PRAYER AND FASTING. Will you spread the word? heh, y’all, will you join me? For the family? For the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church? For Mother Church in time of need?

  59. Christ_opher says:

    Thank God and AMEN!

    Hopefully, those that are trying to interfere with the true doctrine will pay attention to the TRUTH!

    The pew sitters aren’t just going to sit there and nod at nonsense.

    We are fed up with b******t nice and gentle, no sin, strawberry and vanilla flavoured mercy. Mercy can only be received through the Sacrements ( Confession , Mass , Prayer ).

    They tried in the 1970’s to destroy the catechism and manipulate the message of Jesus Christ and the Saints.

    They invaded the seminaries, the convents, monasteries and the Holy Mass itself with their “nice and easy” message.

    The Lady has summed up what 90% in my opinion of practising Roman Catholics know and we will not go quietly.

    To quote: Arch Bishop Fulton Sheen ” The revolution will start in the pews”

  60. Augustin57 says:

    Is this Romanian Greek Doctor a cardinal? If so, he should be the next Pope!

  61. Augustin57 says:

    Ven. Bishop Sheen said that the attack will always begin in the sanctuary. Judas was an Apostle, remember. Satan knows tactics and strategy better than any human. He knows, full well, that if he can knock off the shepherds, the sheep will be easy picking.

  62. benedetta says:

    I would be very interested in knowing what the evidence is out there (?) a.) that the synodal fathers have listened to/heard what this Catholic lay woman and doctor had to say, b.) that in dialogue or walking together they considered it thoughtfully in toto, with respect all of her points, c.) their responses as to the extremely relevant observations and concerns she expressed from her heart about our shared communion and the needs we as believers have, and d.) the direction we will take together walking this road. Did anyone actually hear what she had to say? Did anyone respond, from the place of mutual respect? I would like to know.

  63. ThankyouB16 says:

    W.O.W.
    Agreed: This is the final document. Now THAT’S progressive, right? A laywoman writing the Apostolic Exhortation, signed by Francis.

  64. The Masked Chicken says:

    Unfortunately, we don’t have the texts of the synod addresses. It would be really interesting to do a data study of word use. I wonder how many times the word, sin, occurs?

    The Chicken

  65. TimG says:

    Wonderful speech…thank you Fr Z for sharing. Though I suspect it will fall on deaf ears, we must continue fighting. God Bless Dr Cernea!

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  67. JARay says:

    This is the finest speech to come out of that Synod.
    God bless her.

  68. Pingback: URGENT: Romanian Greek Catholic Doctor’s speech to Synod! Members (all) get a serious talking to! | Fr. Z’s Blog | Deaconjohn1987's Blog

  69. tufty says:

    I’m betting no one vetted that speech in advance. I’m sure it was quite a surprise to many.

  70. Tamquam says:

    I say give the good Doctor a medal; alas, she is not chromosonally qualified to be Priest, Bishop, Cardinal or Pope.

    I agree with Benedetta: if not cultural Marxism, what would you call it? Marxism, at least in the United States, has managed to disguise itself by making its true name unfashionable. Anyone who cries, “Marxism!” or any of its other names, Communism, Socialism, Progressiveism, etc, is laughed to scorn. But even with its name unspoken its acolytes press on with the agenda of dirty, rotten evil. So unless Agricola DeHammo has another, true name for it, I say cultural Marxism will do.

    As a result I take issue with FXR2. What would have happened on October 7th, (whatever year Lepanto was) had every last Christian prayed ceaselessly day and night if the ships had not been built, or if built ahd not been manned, or if manned had not left port to seek battle? Granted that prayer is integral, necessary, vital to the project of building the Kingdom of God, but so are those who speak and act in faith. Let the Truth be sounded from the roof tops by every faithful voice which was first raised in prayer. Murmur your Pater Nosters and Ave Marias on your knees, then stand up and let your voice be heard in fulsome proclamation! Truth known but unspoken is a tacit lie.

    Recently Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea was interviewed by Jeff Nyquist, here is the video on Youtube:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHH92R8Kglg

  71. KingofCharity says:

    The progressive bishops’ diocese are in the worst conditions all over the world-theologically, doctrinally, pastorally, institutionally, financially, and morally. Their brand of Carholicism doesn’t work. It has failed wherever it goes and is the cause of our current crisis of faith. Encountering, understanding, accompanying, accommodating, engaging, and welcoming people ” where they are” doesn’t fill up pews or lure people to Jesus. In fact, it leads to moral relativism, which leads to atheism Or religious indifference, which empties pews. The only thing that leads peiple
    To Christ is an authentic confrontation with truth and conversion. Liberal bishops’ dioceses are the sources of rampant dissent, shuttered monasteries, schools, and parishes and moral relativism. Pews are emptying wherever one finds a progressive “pastorally inclusive” bishop!
    In addition, these bishops are the most materialistic and worldy!
    So Why would we ever listen to anything they have to say? Why are we having this debate with them and their “pastoral views”? They have nothing to teach us!
    The diocesan “fruit” of faithful, orthodox bishops speaks for itself-
    There is only a “crisis” of faith in those places where the authentic faith isn’t being taught clearly, firmly, and unapologetically.

  72. orlandocruz says:

    Illuminating clarity from someone who’s lived through pure evil. Will they listen?

  73. Suburbanbanshee says:

    For many years, I went to a lady doctor from Romania, whose Christian name was also Anca. She was a good deal older, but I recognize the same aggressive identification of spades as spades!

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  75. joan ellen says:

    Prayer, Fasting, Sacraments, the Mass…and clear thinking as in the Dr.’s words…will help keep the Ship…sailing…by God’s grace.

  76. Grumpy Beggar says:

    The Masked Chicken says:
    “Unfortunately, we don’t have the texts of the synod addresses. It would be really interesting to do a data study of word use. I wonder how many times the word, sin, occurs?”

    The Chicken

    An excellent point of departure for analysis. I might be willing to bet that the word sin does not even appear in the texts half as much as the word tendency , (tendencies) or the term sexual orientation does. One surmises that a similar scarcity of common/proper use of the word adultery , (adulterous) would become apparent as one progressed in the study.

  77. Imrahil says:

    Dear AgricolaDeHammo and Benedetta,

    thanks for the kind words. I do realize that this is a side-issue, which is where the rabbits make their holes, they say; what brought me to remark on the use of “cultural Marxism” is two things: 1. that it is wrong – a general dislike to see a good text contain (what I consider) a mistake; 2. that it is counterproductive – the fear that the enemy-in-argument will trump on anything he can see that might serve him to show that these Catholics just parrot the conspiracy theories of the political right (as he will put it). We don’t have to fear the counter-argument; but it doesn’t help if we’re not taken seriously because one spot, just one little spot, serves the enemy-in-argument to make us look ridiculous.

    So much, in all brevity, why I commented on the thing at all.

    The dear benedetta is quite right when she asks for a word for the tendency. If there were no such word, we’d better invent one; a fitting one, preferably. However, in this case, as far as I see, the word has already been invented for us. It is not such a general one such as “sin”, “error”, “human weakness” (though a lot could be said for them), it does not take its name from an ideology with which it has in common that they both are wrong and happened in the 20th century, and not (as far as I see) much more, as “cultural Marxism” would; it is not a term of propaganda, not even very just and deserved propaganda, as “culture of death” coined by Pope St. John Paul is.

    And it even etymologically suggests a decline, which is pretty much what happens.

    “Decadence”. Plain old decadence is what we are facing here.

    (And while it is true that many decadents were or are Marxists, we can only describe them as decadents in spite of their Marxism and Marxists in spite of their decadence – or could, but for the fact that both philosophies are false ones.)

  78. DonL says:

    ” Wish she had a miter but them she would be summarily dismissed probably…”

    Exiled to Malta no doubt.

  79. The Masked Chicken says:

    Decadence is one aspect of this, but decadence is, usually, accompanied by a type of lack of vigor and an aimlessness, but these guys have a plan, an outlook, a goal. If it wouldn’t be so misunderstood, I would suggest that the correct term is social entropic action – the desire to render all points of view as being equal, with mercy being the carrier wave of the action, the idea that mercy implies that all points of view deserve respect. Of course, this is contrary to nature, which requires pockets of order, especially in the moral realm, to function.

    The Chicken

  80. benedetta says:

    KingofCharity, Exactly — this way was attempted, and not only did it not deliver the results sought but it harmed the very constituencies it auspiciously desired to assist.

    Let’s be honest. People don’t come to Mass not because there aren’t enough progressive/specially liberal/dissenting places around, or because everyone can pretty much receive communion just for the asking without discernment, or because there is not enough friendly warm welcome. No, the reason why people are not coming to Mass has more to do with, whether they realize it or not, that: a.) They do not think they have need of the sacrament; b.) They do not fully know that they are declining communion with the Real Presence of Our Lord; and c.) the Mass has long been gutted of beauty, transcendence, prayer, caritas. One cannot really blame them so much for actually believing what they were taught for so many decades, a, b, and c, quite openly, explicitly, targeting, and comprehensively, with the exclusion of all other “viewpoints” particularly the doctrinal ones, the really believe ones. A people prepared thus will certainly fall, unwittingly, to cultural whatever, and vote the party line, so to speak, on all matters of import to our communion and our salvation. One reason why the one faction doesn’t care so much about the doctrine thing is because the doctrine thing just hasn’t been believed or taught or addressed in many decades. To affirm a doctrine they have spent years deconstructing and studiously pretending does not exist in pastoral and liturgical contexts would make them hypocrites, if not outright cultural Marxists.

  81. robtbrown says:

    Imrahil,

    Although there is no depositum fidei of Marxism, there are two columns on which its ideology is constructed–Elimination of Private Property and Class Conflict. The elimination of private property is the first principler. NB: Marxism does not think there is natural law, of which private property is a corollary. Families must have access to property for obvious reasons. Marx also had no use for family property because it can be inherited.

    According to Marx, Private Property is the basis for Class Conflict. What we see today is the use of Class Conflict to produce ideologies without any reference to private property. Various forms of this are found in, e.g., Literary Criticism (Deconstructionism), the writing of History, and various theologies (e.g., Feminist theology). Thus,

    Thus, even though Lenin might denigrate promiscuity as bourgeois, Marxism (even the use of Class Conflict without reference to Private Property) is an intrinsic opponent of the family.

    And Lenin’s call for revolution is also destructive of the family (as all war is).

  82. aquinasadmirer says:

    This discussion brings to mind a sermon I heard on-line. It is now available here:

    http://www.romans10seventeen.org/audio-files/20050109-The-Errors-of-Russia-How-They-Affect-Family-Life.mp3 It starts at about 11:00

    The homilist refers to the work by Freiderich Engels “The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State” and he summarizes the argument.

    “Private property has caused the enslavement and the oppression of women by men.”
    How’s that?

    “Over the course of their lives, men have the habit of amassing private property.”
    …and they want to hand this property on to their children.. and because of their superior physical strength…
    “A man needs to oppress his wife to ensure that all of her children are really his children, so that only his children will get his private property, but when the revolution is finally done away with private property, then of course, women will no longer need to be oppressed, because there is no longer any economic reason for it.”

    A bit later in the homily, at about 13:20 or so… a summary of Marxist errors, first recorded by Engels in 1884, are listed. See if they sound familiar.

    -Women should be allowed to work in factories on an equal basis with men.
    -Divorce must be made free and easy
    -Definite roles for the two sexes must be eliminated
    -The idea of a woman as a housekeeper must be eliminated
    -Housework must be seen as an industry
    -Child care must be turned over to the community
    -The stigma (and even the concept) of illegitimacy must be eliminated
    -The definition of the family must be made flexible and open
    -Sexual activity must be unrestrained

    This list above is not economic in nature; this list is cultural, and it’s Marxist.

    It’s no wonder that the beloved Fr. John Hardon refers to the United States as the most successful Marxist country on earth.

  83. Imrahil says:

    Dear robtbrown and Chicken,

    well, we may be forced to analyse the Marxist depositum for them, as we did for the Modernists… In fact, we largely did (Divini redemptoris no. 8-14).

    That said, I quite agree to the two columns (and said above, already, that deconstruction of the family is part of the actual Marxist program). However, I do not think our present-day problem, as far as the motivations of their activists go*, can be reasonably traced to a conscious effort to make the Marxist program win. The basis is different.

    Take for example the example of “gender mainstreaming”. Noone or hardly anyone would subscribe to the idea of (utter) equalization of the sexes – noone, that is, if they only could brought to clear thinking. Now, I do see that quite this active equalization of the sexes is the quite official aim of that “gender mainstreaming” thing, which is quite officially subscribed to even by our states! But why?
    Because women are oh so pitifully discriminated against (at least any-one says so), and gender-mainstreaming means taking measures that this will end (at least any-one says so), and when that’s achieved its purpose all things will be in order at least in this respect. What does gender-mainstreaming precisely say? Oh, who cares.

    Homosexuality, or at least the doctrine that homosexuals can, if only recognized by the State, marry among the same sex just as normal people can marry normally, is a similar case. Noone really does believe that; certainly not the homosexuals. This thing is driven by the feeling that the homosexuals have it hard against them and thus should be given bounties. What does this new law precisely say? Oh, who cares, and are you a freaking homophobe that you speak out against it…

    Indifference. Sentimentalism. (How many will even take the effort understand the cool logic of G. K. Chesterton when he preferred divorce-and-concubinage to divorce-and-remarriage, and called the latter the superstitious belief that a vow could be undone by a ceremony including a vain new vow?) All that does look like decadence to me, all the more since I do detect “lack of vigor” and “aimlessness”. And those whose decadence does not go to complete aimlessness will strive to do something good for the world – according to their understanding, of course… yet there is not an conscious and orchestrated campaign to destroy this and destroy that*. Alas there isn’t. An organized enemy might be better to counterattack.

    [* I’m here leaving out the question of possible preternatural influences for actions that can still be naturally explained.]

    (Side-issue within the side-issue: Marxists don’t have the term “natural law”, and they deny, of course, many quite central tenets of the natural law, but I wouldn’t say that they are utterly foreign to the idea that some things are “just right, because they are right”, and others wrong, which is vaguely what natural law means.)

  84. robtbrown says:

    Imrahil,

    It’s irrelevant whether Marxists use the phrase “natural law”. They don’t directly attack the concept but rather the concrete reality. NB: The right to property is a natural right, thus part of natural law.

    Marx said that all that is solid melts into air. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t take that comment as anything but a confirmation that he is a metaphysical materialist–thus sponsoring a philosophy without substance in either the primary or secondary sense, i.e., nature. No nature means no natural law.

    My point is that anytime social analysis is done according to the paradigm of Class Conflict (Oppressor vs the Oppressed–women, homosexuals, et al) Marxism is present. And that presence brings pressure to break the family, whether or not it is explicit.

    Also: Societies that overemphasize the acquisition of goods also put pressure on the family. That is because a situation is created in which the family exists for the acquisition of goods rather than the other way around.

  85. TimG says:

    Folks

    Based on what I see at Radical Catholic and Abp Coleridge’s blog, Dr Cernea has not gotten any attention from the Manipulators and in fact the final document is already being drafting. Here is the Abp’ comments;

    October 20, 2015

    The Italians are past masters of the art of improvisation. In a restaurant (at least of the more old-fashioned kind) the menu is only a rough approximation of what they actually have on offer. So too with the details of the Synod timetable. At the start we were given a timetable, but there have been many adjustments as we’ve gone along. As a group reporter, you never quite know until the last minute when you’ll have to swing into action, so you just stay tuned and learn to improvise. Nothing is set in concrete; everything seems to be fluid.

    I might add that the sense of fluidity has been aggravated by the weather, with unwelcome rain seeping through old shoes, leaving me with wet feet and now a (slightly) sore throat. Pass me a lozenge. In fact most of the bishops seem to be coughing and spluttering.

    I could have done with a lozenge before yesterday’s press conference which turned out to be a bigger affair than I had expected. I’d seen these things on TV but never actually been part of one, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Strangely in all my Roman years I’d never been inside the press office building just off St Peter’s Square. I was on show with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, and Bishop Enrico Solmi of Parma. I think we were also supposed to have Paolo Pezzi, the Italian-born Catholic bishop in Moscow, but he got lost in action.

    We met with Fr Federico Lombardi for a short briefing that simply outlined the process and suggested that certain political issues might be put to the Patriarch and the Bishop of Parma. As it turned out, they weren’t. When we walked on to the podium in the press room, the first thing that surprised me was the number of journalists. The place was packed, and I hadn’t expected that. After a brief intro by Fr Lombardi, we each spoke a few introductory words before the microphone was handed to the journalists. There were no surprises in the questions, but I was surprised at how quickly the 60 minutes went.

    Whatever about the press conference itself, the big surprise for me has been the ferocious reaction in some quarters to what I regard as my quite moderate remarks. Twitter has been frothing with invective, which shows what’s out there – by which I mean the fear, even the panic this Synod seems to have provoked in some. That sort of thing doesn’t look like the Holy Spirit to me – red-eyed joylessness cannot be of God. The impression is that, if you touch the slightest jot or tittle not so much of what the Church teaches but of what her pastoral practice has been or how her truth has been expressed, then the whole edifice built up over 2000 years will come tumbling down. If I believed that, I’d be panicking too and hurling lemon-lipped diatribes this way and that. But I don’t believe it and therefore find myself trusting in the path that’s opening before us, with the abuse rolling like water off a duck’s back. Voices of fear, even panic, have also been heard in the Synod Hall and the small groups, but what’s clearer to me now is that those voices within have strong links to similar voices without. It’s also clear that those voices, clinging desperately to some imagined or ideologised past, cannot point the way into the future. History will have its way, however much we try to cling to illusions of timelessness.

    This morning we’re in the small groups trying to put the working document to bed. We have to submit our proposed amendments to Part III by 1pm. I also have to have the group report in by then. I drafted it late last night and will run it past the group this morning before putting it in and then delivering it at the plenary assembly in the Hall this afternoon.

    When the afternoon session finishes at 7pm, we group reporters have to work though the evening, into the night assessing the proposed amendments from the 13 groups. That could take time and the Secretariat very generously has suggested that there might be “una rapida cena” (a quick meal). Otherwise it’ll be just prayer and fasting. I was due to to go to the English College this evening for a reception, which would have been fun. But I’ve had to cancel because of the work. See what Synods are like.

    Once we’ve done our work, it goes to the 10-man commission who are writing the final document. They’ve been hard at it, dealing with the first two parts of the working document. Cardinal John Dew told me that they were huddled over the work yesterday afternoon and into the room unannounced walked Pope Francis – like the Risen Lord, though not (I think) walking through a locked door. He simply wished them well in the work and urged them to give him a good document. They promised to try. Another moment of the Pope of surprises. Let’s hope for some surprises from the final document.

  86. TimG says:

    Hmm. Posts must be word count limited (in terms of what goes to the moderation queue.) My copy of the blog is awaiting moderation, in the meantime the link provided indicates the Manipulators are not taking Dr Cernea seriously (or at all) and have already started their final document…

  87. TomG says:

    TimG: I was struck in particular by this in Abp Coleridge’s post: “Voices of fear, even panic, have also been heard in the Synod Hall and the small groups, but what’s clearer to me now is that those voices within have strong links to similar voices without. It’s also clear that those voices, clinging desperately to some imagined or ideologised past, cannot point the way into the future. History will have its way, however much we try to cling to illusions of timelessness.” I would refer those interested to the NCRegister and Edward Pentin’s piece from this past July “Understanding Cardinal Walter Kasper” in which he interviews Professor Thomas Stark. This “[h]istory … hav[ing] its way” business is exactly what Prof. Stark was talking about: rank modernisn, if not agnosticism.

  88. Andreas says:

    frjim4321 ; Back on 18 October you labelled those with concerns as expressed on the posted EWTN report as “bellyaching from the fundamentalist far right”. I was curious about your thoughts regarding Dr. Cernea’s comments and if you believe that the characterization you provided then likewise applies to Dr. Cernea and her intervention.

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