I’ve been asked quite a few times today what I thought about the new “red hat” list for the College of Cardinals.
I simply laughed.
The ploy and play of the list is so obvious that it is hardly to be taken seriously anymore.
We must all remember that generations of Catholic through many centuries had no idea even of who the Pope was, much less who was a Cardinal in Mongolia. They got along just fine, saying their prayers and living their lives, and going out of the way to help each other when they could and confess their sins when they had to.
Some Catholics will, alas, suffer greatly because of these choices, and I feel for them. But we have to remember that of all the possible universes God could have created, He created this on and not another. This is the time into which our Creator called us into being. This is our time and we are his team for whatever work on earth is to be done. Sometimes that work involves suffering.
In the days to come we will watch the exaltation of will to power, the acceleration of the modernist grinders, the undermining of Catholic moral teaching to the accompaniment of “ooos” and “aaaahs” of sycophantic toadies, with over the top logorrhea about “new dawns” and the elevation of the mediocre against the memory of the truly accomplished of the past.
As my old pastor used to say, we are living in the era of “piccol0mini… little men”, and those who laud them the most are even smaller.
So, College of Cardinals. It’s hard to see such an institution get jerked around like this, but it has ever been so. History has seen the College as both the garden of flourishing saints, deserving of the role, and a sewer of the corrupt and corrupting.
So, laugh, have a Gin and Tonic, say your prayers, do your work, go to confession, help each other out. It’ll be fine.
And do not underestimate the timely interventions of the Almighty. Remember: ultimately, it’s God’s Church.
la
