ACTION ITEM! I printed a copy of de Souza’s commentary to a PDF and saved it.

I try not to pay too much attention to Jesuit-run Amerika Magazine.  It occasionally intrudes.   Even less to I want thoughts of or by Austen Ivereigh.  I am therefore grateful to my friend Fr. Raymond J. de Souza who, writing for the National Catholic Register on 9 November, [HERE] gave his take on Ivereigh’s “insider” account in Amerika on 29 October about a committee set up by the Synod (“walking together”) of Bishops (including Ivereigh) at Frascati cobbling up the instrumentum laboris for the next phase towards the Synod (“walking together”) on Synodality (“walking together-ity”).

De Souza’s scathing distillation of the “board room” process engaged at Frascati  in by the Synod’s (“walking together”) committee is brilliant.

Be warned.  Even shielded as we are by his mediation, what is related makes one want a shower with industrial strength soap.

Prompted by de Souza’s analysis, I had look at Amerika.  After I found a video of a couple of youthful Jesuits giving their deeply cringeworthy thoughts about “liturgy” (I think they meant “Mass”, but who knows), I readied my emesis basin by my keyboard and started in with Ivereigh’s account.

De Souza’s analysis is on target.  “Smarmy” isn’t enough.  It was like reading a report written by Lord Haw-Haw.  But it is no joke.  It would be easily dismissible as sycophantic twaddle were it not for the fact that this Synod (“walking together”) thing, this risible clown-car cum crushing juggernaut, is really “walking together”: the teaching of whole pontificates is being white washed from view, and a new set of buzz words is replacing history, reason, and faith.

Heaven only knows what will be done during and in the aftermath of this Synodal (“walking together”) process.  But be assured, everything done, every reasoning defying, doctrine denying transmogrification will be attributed to the inspiration of the “the Holy Spirit”.

A comment by de Souza near the end of his piece is worth recounting here.  It seems that the Synodal (“walking together”) process means that you can make Scripture mean anything you want it to, because, you know, Vatican II and all that.  It’s the Spirit at work.   So, use of Scripture is sure to be dodgy.  Hence de Souza’s observation about the imagery of “enlarging the tent” of the Church, ’cause, you know, it’s too small because of Vatican II:

This time around, the scriptural mischief has landed upon Isaiah 54 and the image of “enlarging the tent.”

“The existing containers are not adequate to hold the diversity of the Church, nor to enable the participation of all in the mission,” writes Ivereigh. Time for a bigger tent.

Yet the tent of meeting for the children of Israel required rigorous purification before entering. And the enlarged tent of Isaiah 54 is an image of Israel subduing the enemies on her borders; enlarging the tent is more an image of conquering, not walking together.

I printed a copy of de Souza’s commentary to a PDF and saved it.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in ACTION ITEM!, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù, Synod, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, What are they REALLY saying?, You must be joking! and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

7 Comments

  1. Benedict Joseph says:

    Nothing is off the table at the end of synodal antics. Nothing.
    If the worst abominations are held off for a year or two, or even five, make no mistake, they are coming.
    We were continually deceived at the conclusion of the mid-century council, which had a modicum of integrity and authenticity if only provided by the moment in history during which it transpired, and boosted by our personal fidelity to authentic ecclesiology. That is all long gone.
    This moment in history and authentic ecclesiology now abandoned — the endless synod has no veracity at all and it never will, except for those who frolic with the long leash — or no leash at all — those now decades out of the closet.
    If there is no aggressive intervention by prominent faithful ecclesiastics there is really nothing we can do. Only self-deceived laity who enjoy the wink-and-the-nod from a permissive errant episcopate are allowed input.
    We must pray without ceasing, knowing Christ’s will be the triumph, all the while remembering that in God’s eyes a thousand years are but a single day.
    Persevere for the glory of God.

  2. jflare29 says:

    My goodness! What happened to Ivereigh?? I thought he had been one of the “good guys”. If not seeking tradition, at least pursuing an orthodox understanding of faith. ..Not so much now apparently. ..He seems to have adopted Francis style of writing a lot, yet not precisely saying much.
    I am a bit concerned by his comments about how the meeting worked hard at steering away from “theologizing”. Seems they paid more attention to what the people from around the world said, and how they said it. ..I do hope that isn’t “the Spirit of Vatican II” coming back. Seeking input from all the faithful, including laity, is fine. We should not act on such input to the exclusion of coherent, robust faith. If someone needs to receive “bad” news, it’s best to be about it. We do no favors to anyone by equivocating, then (ultimately) telling the simple Truth.

  3. Gaetano says:

    I’m old enough to remember when the catchphrase for the New Springtime was “new wineskins”.

    This was reinforced by having to read New Wineskins by Sr. Sandra Schneiders, IHM during novitiate in early 90’s.

    Because nothing is better for young male religious than advice on religious life by a feminist sister from an order hurtling toward demographic oblivion.

    Though if you want an insight into Fr. James Martin’s thinking, he was two years ahead of me in Jesuit formation.

  4. Ms. M-S says:

    “It’s the Spirit at work.” It’s a spirit at work, all right. The question is, which one?

  5. Cornelius says:

    I believe that this synod business, with its determination to radically change Church teaching in many areas, is the consequence of Bishops/Cardinals not confronting PF over his numerous doctrinal deviations over the past 9 years.

    The insurgents have found that they can get away with it – heresies are met with silence and inaction, soooo . . . ‘let’s go further’.

    If PF had been forcefully confronted in Amoris Laetitia (or earlier, when he was shocking Catholics in his airplane pressers), they would have learned their lesson. But no . . . and here we are.

  6. Not says:

    I learned from Priest that they are trained, or used to be trained that every Scripture read at Mass had one meaning. The Epistle and Gospel, along with the collect, etc. all tie in for one lesson. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
    I have always been against Bible studies run by lay people. It becomes a Protestant free for all of what everyone “thinks” it means. I believe VaticanII was just the beginning of the Protestantizing of the Church. The Traditional Latin Mass cannot and will not be copied by and other religion. It is Our One True Faith which is why it is being attacked.

  7. Not says:

    Ms. M-S, You are absolutely correct! The bad ones.

Comments are closed.