ASK FATHER: How to “steel ourselves” and not come down off from our crosses?

Posted on 20 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Dear Father Z, In your post regarding the 18th Sunday after Pentecost you advised us to steel ourselves and not come down off from our crosses. Would you be so kind as to offer some specific devotions/practices to help in building the strength necessary to steel ourselves? I apologize if this seems to be an ignorant question. I am a convert to Catholisim and I have a lot to learn.

All the baptized are participants in the priesthood of Christ. Priests are essentially for sacrifice. They are not priests in the same way that ordained priests are priests, but they are, nonetheless, participants in their own way in the priesthood of Christ. The main purposes of offering sacrifice in a priestly way are to surrender to God in adoration, in thanksgiving, in atonement begging for forgiveness and reconciliation, and in raising up petitions. Performing sacrifice means, not just offering the sacrificial victim, but in a wider sense the giving up of something or self-surrender to God and the outer manifestation of one’s interior disposition of surrender to God. The principle outward manifestations on the part the baptized of this priestly surrender are prayer, alms giving and mortifications such as fasting.

We have to take stock of our own states in life, our vocations, the duties and responsibilities that flow from them, and then, in a careful way, like a general does in mapping out strategy and tactics to attain the goal, determine the practices that we offer. Then, like soldiers, we have to train. The essence of training is drilling, repetition. This is how we also build up virtues. Performance of a good act once or a few times, doesn’t mean that we have a virtue. We have the virtue when the thing becomes easy to perform and a regular aspect of our lives in a stable way. Virtues are habits. Soldiers drill so that their actions become nearly automatic, even with “muscle memory”. This is what piano players do: they practice for years, even rudimentary exercises, so that when they see the music, their fingers just know what to do. The same goes for guitar playing or football, or whatever.

Repetition of acts results in getting tougher. When we work with our hands, we develop calluses. Doing drills in hockey and playing a lot makes you harder, able to take hits, to get up off the ice, to skate and react to extremely fast situations.

As Catholics, we have to do things repeatedly to develop virtues and to toughen up, so that when our old enemies the world, the flesh and the Devil strike, we are ready, like soldiers of the Church Militant.

Pray, alms giving, mortifications such as fasting.

Pray daily in the mornings and evenings and at time in the day when it occurs to you. These can be even very fast, silent prayers. Pray before and after meals. Fast: reduce what you eat. Give alms and perform other acts of mercy, corporal and spiritual. Examine your consciences every night before going to sleep. Use the sacraments – GO TO CONFESSION! – and sacramentals well, including Holy Water and blessed objects.

Regarding the Examination of Conscience: We must know who we are before we can make improvements. This takes brutal honestly in self-examination. This is a sine qua non of the spiritual life. Once we find things that are problems, especially habitual sins that are vices, we have to map out tactics to overcome them. Be smart. Make plans that you will implement the next time you see yourself heading down the path to a sinful act. For example, make the determination that the next time you sense yourself heading toward sin X, implement your plan to do Y instead (such as, go out and scrub oil stains off the floor of the garage). Make it concrete. Instead of using a particular set of words that you should not use, make a list of words you will use instead and then implement that list until those words are habitual. Make your efforts concrete.

Remind yourself that fighting temptations and sins will make you suffer. Be ready to suffer, so that it doesn’t surprise you. Soldiers know training and fighting will hurt. They toughen and prepare for the suffering by training and mental conditioning. The same goes for many other activities, especially in sports. When you know and prepare for the crosses you will bear, you will be less likely to fail. Also, you are not alone: the saints and angels WANT to help you, and God will give you graces. He never lets us be tempted beyond what we can bear.

And say that you have dealt with many or all of your principle faults and that you have developed good, virtuous habits… you can still do more. Then it is time to start working on those smaller things. They become more important as we conquer the bigger things.

We must also remember the Four Last Things: death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. Don’t let a day pass without thinking about these four important things. They will help you figure out what you really want and spur you to the necessary actions and sacrifices to perform in order to attain the happiness of Heaven.

Also, never forget that we are all in this together. Your sins hurt others. You successes raise us all up. You can help others. You can even do penances, mortifications, in reparation for the sins of others, asking God for help and graces of conversion and forgiveness for others.

Being a Catholic is an everyday thing, not a Sunday thing.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Our Catholic Identity, Semper Paratus, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged Church Militant, mortifications
8 Comments

ASK FATHER: Why are we responsible for the sin of Adam and Eve when weren’t there?

Posted on 20 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Father, no priest/bishop/theologian/book has ever answered my question on how human beings after Adam & Eve can be responsible for their sins when, apart from our first parents, we weren’t even participants in their disobedience. I really don’t understand and it troubles me greatly! Thanks.

The simple answer is: We are all in this together.

The human race has great solidarity.

When our First Parents committed the Original Sin, the entire human race sinned. The human race at the time consisted only of two people, but that was the entire race that sinned.

Similarly, our bonds of humanity and of baptism mean that when we sin voluntarily, we hurt everybody else. Our sins hurt the whole Church, which means that we must be reconciled with the Church. That is one of the effects of the Sacrament of Penance.

There remains the manner of “transmission” of Original Sin from our First Parents to everyone who followed (with one exception). The Church teaches dogmatically (it must be accepted) that Adam’s loss of sanctity was not just for him alone, but also for us as well. He transmitted to all posterity both death and suffering as well as the guilt of the Original Sin. We are not guilty of Original Sin by imitation, but by natural generation. The fact that we descend from our First Parents means that we, too, have the effects of Original Sin.

By Original Sin the entire race was deprived of sanctifying grace and the praeternatural gifts of integrity (we suffer from mortality, ignorance, a weakened will, disordered passions, bodily weakness and suffering, etc.). Therefore, we are also deprived of the Beatific Vision if we depart this life without the cleansing of our guilt and the gift of sanctifying grace which comes through baptism, made effective by the Passion and Death of the Lord in His expiatory Sacrifice on Calvary.

Our personal, voluntary sins are not like this. Each of us is guilty of our own sins. It is possible, however, that because of our own actions and choices we can share in the guilt of others for sins. For example, when we counsel someone to sin, we, too, can be guilty of that sin. When we conceal sins which we are obliged to expose, aid in them, praise them, provide the means, provoke them, etc., we can be guilty of the sinful acts others commit. However, those are all instances of person, voluntary sins. Original Sin is a different matter. We are guilty of the sin of our First Parents because we belong to the human race and, hence, because that guilt is transmitted to every member of the human race through the fact of our generation.

The exception, of course, is Mary. Through a singular (unique) grace, God preserved her from the stain of Original Sin. That was fitting, since she would be the Mother of God. When Christ took our human nature from Mary, the stain of Original Sin was not in Mary to pass along. Mary, however, was still a member of this fallen human race, which was in need of a Divine Savior. Therefore, while she was untouched by sin, she was nevertheless also redeemed by her Son. Dante famously called Mary the daughter of her Son.

I hope that helps.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Our Solitary Boast | Tagged Original sin
32 Comments

ASK FATHER: Why MUST one be in communion with Rome?

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Why MUST one be in communion with Rome? The Eastern Church has celebrated the sacraments without communion with Rome for 1000 years, but still they have wonderworking Saints.

GUEST “ASK FATHER” ANSWER from a priest who participates here:

Why MUST one be in communion with Rome? Well, I suppose, on one level, one need not be in communion with Rome. Some perfectly wonderful people have lived wonderful lives without being in communion with Rome. God’s grace and mercy is beyond our comprehension, and it is entirely possible that He may welcome into heaven some of those who have lived their lives outside of the visible bonds of communion with Rome. As you note, there are elements of sanctification and truth found outside the visible structure of the Roman Catholic Church. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council affirmed this as well, while noting that these elements of sanctification and truth that can be found outside the visible structure of the Church are also found within the Church and are elements that impel towards Catholic unity (Lumen Gentium, 8).

Jesus Christ clearly wanted His followers to be united. John 17:21 was not just a fond, impossible wish of Our Lord, but was a fervent prayer He uttered as He entered into the most solemn moments of His life. He offered no exception either. He did not pray, “…that they may be One as Thou, Father, in me, and I in Thee, except when being One causes hardship, stress, confusion, or difficulties. Then, forsooth, mayest they be not more than two thousand or so, depending on the varied and sundry interpretations of Thy Holy Word that may perchance arise.”

No other Church, or denomination, or ecclesiastical gathering expresses the unity which Christ willed for His Church more effectively than the Roman Catholic Church. No stronger principle ensures unity of the faithful in this world than the visible successor of St. Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the task of confirming the faith of the brethren. For some 1,983 years, despite the sometimes motley characters that have sat on the throne of St. Peter, and even occasional confusion about who was, truly, the Pope, the papacy has served that role of a principle of unity and a beacon drawing attention to that fervent prayer of Our Lord on the night before He died.

Why MUST one be in communion with Rome? Well, if one truly loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and takes His words seriously, and strives to do what He has told us, I can’t see how one could not wish to be in communion with Rome.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Both Lungs, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Mail from priests | Tagged Orthodox, unity
27 Comments

Recent Islamic terror attacks in NYC and Minnesota

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have tangential connections to the place where the recent Islamic terror bomb was planted in New York City and to the city where the Islamic terrorists stabbed people in a mall in my native Minnesota.

First, I went to St. Cloud State for a year before transferring to the University of Minnesota.

Next, the bomb in the Chelsea area of Manhattan….

I’ve been listening to talking heads wonder why the Islamic terror bomb was placed where it was, on 23rd between 6th and 7th. Next to the Islamic terror bomb site is the now-closed Catholic Church of St. Vincent de Paul. I stayed at the rectory there many times. Of course the church is closed now, but it is unlikely that an Islamic terrorists would know that. There would not have been a place to hide a bomb on the steps of the church. But there was scaffolding and dumpster nearby.

There may be other reasons for the Islamic terrorists to have chosen that area: Chelsea is, or at least was, known also for its large presence of homosexuals.

This is entirely speculation on my part. But that fact is, the bomb was right next to a Catholic church.

Speaking of speculation, I suppose one might wryly ask this question: Is this Islamic terrorist bomber also a homosexual, as was the murderer in Orlando who shot up the “gay” (I detest what’s been done to that word) club?

In any event, we are going to see a lot more of this. Please, everyone, give thought to what I have constantly asked: situational awareness.

Meanwhile, may I remind you of a useful book? HERE

Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War by Sebastian Gorka. (UK HERE)

In this book, Gorka describes one of the reasons why these people choose terror.

According to the Pakistani general, there is only one target of importance in war: the soul of the enemy. The infidel foe must be converted to Islam or crushed. Lastly, since the only target that matters in war is the soul of the infidel, Malik concludes that the most effective weapon in war isterror. Here we see the relevance of his book to groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. The enemy’s belief system must be utterly destroyed, and terror is the most effective way to do that. That is why 9/ 11 was so important. It is the highly symbolic suicide attacks, the crucifixions, the beheadings, the bombings of civilian crowds, and the videos of immolations that will destroy the will of the infidel to go on.

According to the Quranic concept of war, and because these terrorists are inspired to bring about the eschatological fulfillment of their religion, they wage war on the souls of the non-Muslim or, in their view, insufficient-Muslim. Their war has an eschatological view. They must destroy the spirit of their enemy. This is why they use terror and why they commit atrocities which they record and broadcast.

Pray…

Deus, qui conteris bella, et impugnatores in te sperantium potentia tuae defensionis expugnas: auxiliare famulis tuis, implorantibus misericordiam tuam; ut, inimicorum suorum feritate depressa, incessabili et gratiarum actione laudemus.

O God, who bringest wars to nought and shieldest by Thy power all who hope in Thee, overthrowing those that assail them; help Thy servants who implore Thy mercy; so that the fierce might of their enemies may be brought low, and we may never cease to praise and thank Thee.

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.
St. Lawrence of Brindisi, pray for us.
St. Pius V, pray for us.
Martyrs of Otranto, pray for us.
Our Lady of Victor, pray for us.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Posted in Semper Paratus, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Religion of Peace | Tagged Islamic terrorism, terror
26 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

You have to be registered here to be able to post.

I still have a pressing personal petition. Two, in fact.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
38 Comments

This saint, after 1969, never said Mass using the Novus Ordo

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Summorum Pontificum was a tremendous gift to the whole Church. It was certainly one of the most – if not the most – important achievements of Benedict XVI, part of what I cal his Marshall Plan. It is a great tool of the potential revitalization of Catholic identity which is so desperately needed.

At NLM Peter Kwasniewski reminds us about something important.

St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), the founder of Opus Dei, celebrated the traditional Latin Mass all his life as a priest. He had mystical experiences in connection with it. He loved it so much that he obtained permission (it was thought at the time that such permission was necessary) to continue with the Mass he had always offered, rather than shifting over to the Novus Ordo Missae. These are facts that deserve to be better known.[1] A marvelous gallery of photos of the saint celebrating the usus antiquior may be found here.

The footnote says: There are, as one might expect, different stories circulating around about what exactly happened after 1969, some of them more colorful than others. This is a fairly sober account, although its title is oddly anachronistic: “Why St. Josemaría Escrivá Only Celebrated the Extraordinary Form.”

It is possible that some of you newer readers here haven’t yet seen my Marshall Plan reference.

I have argued that Summorum Pontificum, the centerpiece of Benedict XVI’s “Marshall Plan” (my image) for the Church, is one of our greatest tools for a true revitalization of the Church and Catholic identity.

After World War II these United States rebuilt war-ravaged Europe for humanitarian reasons, but also to help create trading partners and a prosperous bulwark against Communism.

After Vatican II, many spheres of the Church were devastated, ravaged by internal dissent, a loss of continuity with our tradition, and from erosion by the secularism and relativism of the prevailing modern world.

We need a Marshall Plan for the Church in the modern world. Certainly what we have been doing up to this point isn’t producing fantastic results across the board. That’s because we don’t seem to know who we are anymore.

Joseph Card. Ratzinger had been concerned for years about the loss of Christian identity, which is at the heart of Western Civilization. Later, as Benedict XVI, he gave us a great tool by which we could reinvigorate our Catholic identity and, so, resist the negative influences of secularism and relativism.

I think that Benedict intended Summorum Pontificum to play a key part in a long-term strategy to rebuilt our Catholic identity, to correct our way of reading … well… just about everything over the last half century or so, and to establish a strong defense against the dictatorship of relativism.

Only with a solid identity can we, as Catholics, have something positive and healthy to offer to the world at large, a clear voice offering important contributions in the public square. Look, for example, at the clarity and courage of the Little Sisters of the Poor against the evil machinations of the Obama Administration. They have a clear identity and they are steadfast. As a result they provide an inspiring example and they keep certain values before the public eye.

Our identity as Catholics is inextricably bound together with the way we pray as a Church.

To give shape and strength to our Catholic identity in these difficult times, we need an authentic liturgical renewal, a renewal that reintegrates us with our tradition, brings us into continuity with the deep roots of our Catholic Christian experience of two millennia.

Contrary to the notions of most progressivists, “the Catholic thing” did not begin in the 1960s.

There can be no authentic change for a better future without continuity with our past.

Liturgy is the tip of the spear.

Benedict XVI pointed us toward a healthier vision of the Church’s doctrine, history, public worship and our very identity as Catholics.

Just as a return to, for example, reading the Fathers of the Church can help us, collectively, correct the way we have been reading Scripture, so much and too long under the domination of an over-played historical-critical method, so too the Extraordinary Form can help us learn how to worship God as a Church which is not fragmented into tiny shards, and to reorient ourselves away from ourselves.

No positive initiative that we undertake in the Church will succeed unless it is rooted in and oriented by a revitalized sacred liturgical worship of God. Everything comes from worship and everything goes back to worship in a dynamic, ongoing commercium.

Start your local movement for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum NOW. I don’t think we have a lot of time to waste.

¡Hagan lío!

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Benedict XVI, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Saints: Stories & Symbols, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged Marshall Plan, Novus Ordo, St. Jose Maria Escrivá, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM
13 Comments

19 Sept – NAPLES: The blood of St Januarius liquefied!

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Il cardinale Crescenzio Sepe durante la celebrazione in occasione della festa di San Gennaro a Napoli, 19 settembre 2015. ANSA / CIRO FUSCO

According to ANSA the miracle was repeated today: the preserved blood of the 4th c. martyr St. Januarius (San Gennaro) liquified. Good thing for Naples!

Here is something that I wrote for the UK’s best Catholic weekly, the Catholic Herald:

The feast of the bishop martyr St Januarius (d c 305), known in Italian as San Gennaro, is celebrated this week. He is the patron saint of Naples where the faithful venerate vials of his dried blood which regularly liquefies on three days a year: 19 September (the saint’s feast), 16 December (anniversary of the 1631 eruption of the volcano Vesuvius which looms over the Bay of Naples), and the 1st Sunday of May (the day of the translation or moving of the saint’s relics to Naples).

The liquefaction of San Gennaro’s blood is taken seriously by the people of the area. When it fails to change state, bad things tend to happen, such as famine, disease and earthquakes, for example, the terrible quake of 1980 which killed almost 3000 people and injured thousands more. Hence, on these special liquefying days, throngs jam the Cathedral. The Cardinal Archbishop displays the reliquary with the larger of the two ampoules and slowly oscillates it. When it changes, he announces “The miracle has happened”, thus launching the corybantic assemblage into that great hymn of praise the Te Deum.

Scientists can’t explain this phenomenon. One inexplicable detail is that the weight and volume of the blood isn’t always the same after the blood solidifies again. Sometimes the weight increases and the volume decreases, and vice versa. Sometimes the liquid bubbles or foams becomes bright red. At other times it is duller and rather viscous. And it seems truly to be blood. In 1902 it was examined. The spectral lines produced by the light that passed through it had the characteristics of hemoglobin. In any event, this miraculous transformation has been observed consistently since it was first noticed during a procession in 1389. That’s a solid track record.

Speaking of miracles, if we do not believe in miracles, we do not ask for them. While we accept God’s will and schedule in all things, if we do not ask for miracles they will not be granted.

We are not alone. The Church Militant (us) and the Church Triumphant (saints and angels) are closely knit, interwoven in charity. In this vale of tears we must intercede for each other. We must believe in and ask for the intercession of saints. No one is too small to be an occasion of grace for others.

How often do you invoke the help of the saints and holy angels?

UPDATE:

Check out the entry on St. Januarius by my friend Greg DiPippo at NLM. Very cool stuff there.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Pray For A Miracle, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged blood, miracle, Naples, San Gennaro, St. Januarius
6 Comments

PSA: International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Posted on 19 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Setting aside all the insignificant stuff, like indissolubility of marriage and Communion, Popes and potential heresy and schism, let’s keep our eyes focused on what really matters.

Today, 19 September, is…

Talk Like A Pirate Day.

If you do nothing else, please use the exclamation “YARRRR!” (aka “ARRRR!”) at least 5 times before bedtime.

Helpful words:

bilge
scurvy
matey
scupper
grog
“Which it’s…” [fill in the blank – cf. Preserved Killick (not a pirate but… hey!)]

This has been a public service announcement.

Posted in Lighter fare, Preserved Killick | Tagged Talk Like A Pirate Day
8 Comments

Read the reviews right away before they are removed.

Posted on 18 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is HILARYous.

Read the reviews right away before they are removed.

Clinton and Quisling Kaine.

Click

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine
23 Comments

Ross Douthat on candidate Quisling Kaine (D-VA) and on Francis’ papal doctrine dance

Posted on 18 September 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the NYT (aka Hell’s Bible) see what Ross Douthat has to say:

Dilution of Doctrine

LAST weekend Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and a churchgoing Catholic, briefly escaped obscurity by telling an audience of L.G.B.T. activists that he expects his church to eventually bless and celebrate same-sex marriages. [Quisling.]

In short order his bishop, Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Va., had a statement out declaring that the Catholic understanding of marriage would remain “unchanged and resolute.” [That’s not enough. CAN. 915!]

In a normal moment, it would be the task of this conservative Catholic scribbler to explain why the governor is wrong and the bishop is right, why scripture and tradition make it impossible for Catholicism to simply reinvent its sexual ethics.

[NB] But this is not a normal moment in the Catholic Church. As the governor was making his prediction, someone leaked a letter from Pope Francis to the Argentine bishops, praising their openness to allowing some divorced-and-remarried Catholics to receive communion.

The “private” letter was the latest move in a papal dance that’s been going on since Francis was elected. The pope clearly wants to admit remarried Catholics to communion, and he tried by hook and crook to get the world’s bishops to agree. [There Are Fifty Ways To Rig A Synod.] But he faced intense resistance from conservatives, who pointed out that this reform risked evacuating the church’s teaching that sacramental marriages are indissoluble and second marriages adulterous.

The conservative resistance couldn’t be overcome directly without courting a true crisis. So Francis has proceeded indirectly, offering studied ambiguity in official publications combined with personal suggestions of where he really stands.

This dance has effectively left Catholicism with two teachings on marriage and the sacraments. The traditional rule is inscribed in the church’s magisterium, and no mere papal note can abrogate it.

But to the typical observer, it’s the Francis position that looks more like the church’s real teaching (He is the pope, after all), even if it’s delivered off the cuff or in footnotes or through surrogates.

That position, more or less, seems to be that second marriages may be technically adulterous, but it’s unreasonable to expect modern people to realize that, and even more unreasonable to expect them to leave those marriages or practice celibacy [continence] within them. So the sin involved in a second marriage is often venial not mortal, and not serious enough to justify excluding people of good intentions from the sacraments.

Which brings us back to Tim Kaine’s [BOOOOO!] vision, because it is very easy to apply this modified position on remarriage to same-sex unions. If relationships the church once condemned as adultery are no longer a major, soul-threatening sin, then why should a committed same-sex relationship be any different? If the church makes post-sexual revolution allowances for straight couples, shouldn’t it make the same ones for people who aren’t even attracted to the opposite sex?

An allowance is not the same thing as a blessing. [Ummm…] Under the Francis approach, the church would not celebrate second marriages, and were its logic extended to gay couples there wouldn’t be the kind of active celebration Kaine envisions either.

Instead, the church would keep the traditional teaching on its books, and only marry couples who fit the traditional criteria. But it would also signal approval to any stable relationship (gay or straight, married or cohabiting), treating the letter of the law like the pirate’s code in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies: More what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules.

The cleverness of this compromise, in theory, is that it leaves conservative Catholics with that letter to cling to, and with it the belief that the church’s teaching is supernaturally guaranteed. Thus there is no crisis point, and less risk of imitating Anglicanism’s recent schisms. [We don’t know that.]

[…]

Read the rest there.

Kaine is a quisling. Can. 915 should be applied.

UPDATE:

At The Spectator, Damian Thompson has reacted to Douthat. Let’s enter n medias res (with my usual treatment – “ZISK”):

[…]

Douthat is surely right that the Pope planned to relax the rules dramatically, but last year’s synod of bishops sent him a clear message that it wanted the communion ban upheld. Having called the synod, Francis had backed himself into a corner. There were, however, a few ambiguities in Amoris Laetitia – deliberate ones, we can now see – that allowed liberals to argue that, if you read between the lines, the Pope had changed the rules.

That’s what the Argentine bishops have just claimed, spinning the document so far in a liberal direction that it’s almost unrecognisable. But not unrecognisable to its author, Francis. He barely had time to read the guidelines – sent to to him in a semi-finished state – before he said:

‘The document is very good and completely explains the meaning of chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia. There are no other interpretations.’

There are no other interpretations. Uh? As Dan Hitchens points out, ‘the bishops of Poland and Costa Rica have said they’ll stick to the established practice; so has Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, and – in a document released last week – the six bishops of Alberta, Canada.’ They won’t be changing their minds. [And more bishops will do this, too.]

According to the bishops of Buenos Aires, couples living in sexually active second marriages don’t need ‘permission’ to receive the sacrament. They should, however, exercise ‘discernment’ guided by a priest. You’ll need to read the whole text to grasp their convoluted argument.

The episode raises some puzzling questions. Here are a few of them. It’s too early to be confident of the answers.

• Why did Francis approve a highly contentious draft document in such a rush? Some of the Pope’s critics describe the Bergoglian modus operandi as ‘Jesuitical’, meaning manipulative. But the Society of Jesus is intellectually subtle; this looks more like moving goalposts in the middle of the night and being caught in the spotlights. It’s bizarre. You can’t help wondering if someone close to the Pope had a hand in drawing up the guidelines for Francis’s former diocese, which might mean that he was familiar with them long before September 5.

• Are the Buenos Aires guidelines on communion for the divorced-and-remarried intended for the whole Catholic Church? After all, they’ve received the papal imprimatur. Unlikely, at least in the short term. The Polish and African bishops aren’t about to let a pope with such a rudimentary grasp of theology overrule the verdict of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel: ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her’. Francis must realise this. Is he therefore happy to tolerate ‘local’ solutions to pastoral problems – in other words, a Catholic Church in which doctrine is geographically adjusted, as it is in different provinces of the Anglican Communion and rival Orthodox patriarchates? Moving to that structure won’t be a smooth experience and the church won’t be very catholic if it happens. Is Francis so convinced of his own position (whatever that is) that he’s ready to countenance schism?

• Could this startling pronouncement herald a shake-up of the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Francis doesn’t hide his low opinion of its prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a conservative appointed by Benedict XVI. If Müller were sacked and replaced by, say, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn – an Austrian nobleman and former Ratzinger protégé who has turned into a liberal waffle-merchant in his old age – then the Buenos Aires guidelines could be infiltrated into middle-of-the-road dioceses. (Westminster, for example, where the local bishop, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has been described as ‘probably the leading papolator in the college of cardinals’.) This would still raise the spectre of schism.

• Alternatively, might the Pope simply lose interest in the divorced-and-remarried question? Don’t rule it out. Fr Raymond de Souza argues in the Catholic Herald, that Francis has a habit of making impulsive, sweeping decisions and then reversing them. He asks: ‘Does the improvisational, non-consultative mode of the Holy Father’s reforms mean that he can move fast, going back to fix up the details later? Or does it mean that he simply goes back, undoing what he had proposed to do for lack of proper preparation and attention to detail?’ To put it differently, is Bergoglio a Machiavelli or a Baldrick?