Two things.
First, Swiss Bishop Vitus Huonder has released the third in a series of videos about the undeniable crisis in the Church.
It is in German with subtitles.
Put down or put aside other things. Click. Fold your hands and watch this attentively. No. Really. Resist the temptation, beaten into us now, to succumb to our shortened attention spans… which is a tactic of the Devil, for sure. Am I wrong?
I juxtapose that with this.
It seems that every time Francis goes somewhere he gets together with Jesuits. I suppose it is too much to hope that he will suppress them. Yeah, that’s not going to happen for a while yet.
Also, it seems when he gets together with Jesuits he has to insult people who desire the traditional sacred worship of the Roman Catholic Church.
Bp. Huonder put a question via video to Francis. It seems that putting questions to Francis is a legitimate thing. (So long as it isn’t from certain people or a certain kind of dubia…. that’s when the rules about frankness, dialogue and accompaniment change.)
Here was the question put to Francis by a Jesuit in Hungary:
The Second Vatican Council talks about the relationship between the Church and the modern world. How can we reconcile the Church and the reality that is already beyond the modern? How do we find God’s voice while loving our time?
Here was the answer. Ask yourself how much the answer truly responded to the question.
I wouldn’t know how to answer that theoretically, but I certainly know that the Council is still being applied. It takes a century for a Council to be assimilated, they say. And I know the resistance to its decrees is terrible. There is unbelievable restorationism, what I call “indietrismo” (backwardness), as the Letter to the Hebrews (10:39) says: “But we do not belong to those who shrink back.” The flow of history and grace goes from the roots upward like the sap of a tree that bears fruit. But without this flow you remain a mummy. Going backwards does not preserve life, ever. You must change, as St. Vincent of Lérins wrote in his Commonitory when he remarked that even the dogma of the Christian religion progresses, consolidating over the years, developing with time, deepening with age. But this is a change from the bottom up. The danger today is indietrismo, the reaction against the modern. It is a nostalgic disease. This is why I decided that now the permission to celebrate according to the Roman Missal of 1962 is mandatory for all newly consecrated priests. After all the necessary consultations, I decided this because I saw that the good pastoral measures put in place by John Paul II and Benedict XVI were being used in an ideological way, to go backward. It was necessary to stop this indietrismo, which was not in the pastoral vision of my predecessors.
“I don’t know how to respond ‘theoretically’… but this is what I have done practically. I’m restricting the TLM, etc.”
So, he can’t describe the reason for doing it “theoretically”, which I think is code for “theologically”. He just wants to do it. It is his will. That’s enough.
Note that this time Francis said that the people who want the TLM were diseased, they have “nostalgiac disease”. That would make them … “sick”?
He again used the ridiculous description “backwardism”. Contrast that with the situation you heard in Bp. Huonder’s video.
In one telling comment, however, he said:
“I know the resistance to its decrees is terrible. There is incredible support for restorationism, what I call ‘indietrismo’ (backwardness), as the Letter to the Hebrews (10:39) says: ‘But we do not belong to those who shrink back.’”
The implication is that people who want tradition are cowards (ouk esmen hypostoles).
But don’t bury the important part: “incredible support for restorationism”.
Hmmm… maybe if there is incredible support for it, it could be a good idea?
“Incredible” can mean “a great number of people” are for it or it maybe can be “unbelievable”, in that, “I don’t understand why how many… I don’t believe it….”
That line from Hebrews is in a chapter comes just after a description by Paul of how believers were persecuted and the need to persevere. So, the sense of Hebrews is that the ones who were being persecuted were not cowards who were timidly falling away. The people who want traditional worship are the ones being persecuted, really and actually. Cherry picking is a problem.
Since he made this mistake another time, inexplicable was his mention of Vincent of Lerin. Francissaid: “You must change, as St. Vincent of Lérins wrote in his Commonitory when he remarked that even the dogma of the Christian religion progresses, consolidating over the years, developing with time, deepening with age”. I note that the reportage was from Antonio Spadaro (SJ) who once flew as high as Peter Pan and now is just one of the Lost Boys in the Vatican Neverland. Spadaro, I believe, still maintains the website in honor of the Italian homoerotic writer. HERE
QUAERITUR: How much of what Francis said to the Jesuits is boilerplate pulled from the old files?
This must be asked because the use of Vincent of Lérins in support of Francis’ (?) position, if he really has a position that is his own and isn’t that of someone else, seems to undermine what Francis claims.
What did Vincent of Lérins really say? Allow me a slight editing choice from “he” to “you”… which doesn’t change the sense at all!
“….he is the true and genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God, who loves the Church, who loves the Body of Christ, who esteems divine religion and the Catholic Faith above every thing, above the authority, above the regard, above the genius, above the eloquence, above the philosophy, of every man whatsoever; who set light by all of these, and continuing steadfast and established in the faith, resolves that he will believe that, and that only, which he is sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient time; [Here start reading aloud…] but that whatsoever new and unheard-of doctrine you shall find to have been furtively introduced by some one or another, besides that of all or contrary to that of all the saints, this, you will understand, does not pertain to religion, but is permitted as a trial, being instructed especially by the words of the blessed Apostle Paul, who writes thus in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘There must needs be heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you:’ as though he should say, This is the reason why the authors of Heresies are not forthwith rooted up by God, namely, that they who are approved may be made manifest; that is, that it may be apparent of each individual, how tenacious and faithful and steadfast he is in his love of the Catholic faith.” Commonitorium 20.48
As you read this and reflect on how sick in the head you are, how nostalgically diseased you have become, consider that in a parish in New York a display was set up claiming that God is “trans” and “queer”. Think about what Germans are doing. Think about Pachamama. Think about the equivalence of all religions.
But, no! The Latin Mass needs snuffing out.
The Ave Maria Bell is now in 20:30 mode.
At 05:52 the sun rose over Rome. At 20:21 the sun will un-rise over Rome.
05:53
To get high the sky over Rome, the Sun had to rise at 05:55. It will decline to the horizon line at 20: 19.
There is a beautiful tradition for 8 May, this year Sunday (often right at 1200 noon).
