BOOKS RECEIVED: Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church

Posted on 20 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

BOOKS RECEIVED: Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane ChurchSo time ago, I received a new book from a reader about Vatican I. I am not a great fan of the author, John W. O’Malley, who is a liberal Jesuit (tautology).  His book on Vatican II was sharply partisan.

Hence, I hesitated in regard to the new book

Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church

US HERE – UK HERE

However, I read a review of O’Malley’s new book at First Things by Russell Hittinger.  He put my mind at ease by saying:

O’Malley gives an accessible, even-handed overview of the council with a minimum of interpretive gloss. He excels in describing the ways in which the council initiated deep changes that still affect the everyday lives of Catholics.

I’ll be digging into it right away.

I am particularly interested right now because of how the word “ultramontane” is being thrown around rather irresponsibly. Right now, ironically, catholic libs who have never spoken well of the last couple Popes, now use “ultramontane” to bludgeon anyone who resists what Francis is up to.

Posted in REVIEWS | Tagged , ,
Comments Off on BOOKS RECEIVED: Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church

The upcoming Synod’s “working document”

Posted on 20 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

George Weigel described the guiding document for the upcoming 2018 Synod of Bishops and Non-Bishops.

Anyone looking for a remedy for insomnia might try working through the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working document,” for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in Rome next month on the theme “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.” The IL is a 30,000-plus-word brick: a bloated, tedious doorstop full of sociologese but woefully lacking in spiritual or theological insight. Moreover, and more sadly, the IL has little to say about “the faith” except to hint on numerous occasions that its authors are somewhat embarrassed by Catholic teaching—and not because that teaching has been betrayed by churchmen of various ranks, but because that teaching challenges the world’s smug sureties about, and its fanatical commitment to, the sexual revolution in all its expressions.

A gargantuan text like this can’t seriously be considered as a basis for discussion at the Synod. No text of more than 30,000 words, even if written in a scintillating and compelling style, can be a discussion guide. The IL for Synod-2018 reads, rather, like a draft of a Synod Final Report. And that is a prescription for a failed Synod.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged ,
7 Comments

ASK FATHER: Should we pray for or against the success of the Synod?

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’ve had a few questions in email about the upcoming Synod.   People are worried that it is rigged.   Imagine such a thing!  “Surely NOT!”, you might gasp.

Questions have ranged from the new constitution for the Synod’s operation to whether we can, given the changes and given those whom Francis invited personally to participate, we can support it.

This afternoon Peter Kwasniewski has a piece that is as earnest as it is mordant.   He writes about the upcoming Synod.

A sample:

What this suggests to me is that, at this time in history, the higher one’s position in the institutional hierarchy, the more likely one is to be corrupted and compromised, while simple lay believers are far more likely to be outspokenly committed to traditional faith, morals, and liturgy. This is where future Catholic laity, priests, and religious will come from—not from the Synod machinery of the new German-Italian Axis.

Instead of praying for the success of another rigged Synod, perhaps we need to pray for a real chastisement from God to wake up the Church in its heady echelons. We might consider using the so-called cursing Psalms that were excised from the new Liturgy of the Hours.

What are the “cursing psalms” (aka “maledictory psalms”)?

A standard list of the maledictory psalms will include – and alert that Psalms are numbered differently in various editions of Scripture and in newer and older books you might consult – 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40 52, 54, 56, 58, 69, 79, 83, 137, 139, and 143.  Many of these psalms were “edited” or even wholly excluded from the revised Psalter used in the Liturgy of the Hours.   However, there are lots of maledictions, curses and imprecations throughout the Psalter: 5:10; 6:10; 7:9-16; 10:15; 17:13; 18:40-42; 18:47; 26:4-5; 28:4; 31:17, 18; 35:3-8; 40:14; 54:5; 55:9, 19; 56:7; 58:6-10; 59:ll-15; 68:2; 69 (most of the psalm); 70:2-3; 71:13; 79:6, 12; 83:9-17; 104:35; 109:6-20; 129:5; 137:7-9; 140:8-11; 141: 10; 143:12; 149:6-9.

Of special note are Ps 55, 108, and 136 which give libs a serious case of the collywobbles (except perhaps if they use it against defenders of doctrine and law).

So, what to make of these psalms?

First, since they are the inspired word of Almighty God, we can safely say that they are not bad and they can be used for prayer.   

St. Augustine believed that every word of the Psalms was Christ speaking to the Father, but in different voices, as the Head, the Body and both together, Christus Totus.  I’ll go with Augustine.

That said, it might make the Christian scratch her head when we pray “Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock” (Ps 137:9).

How to use these psalms in prayer in a way that is pleasing to God and that does not imperil our own salvation by spurring us to soul killing hatred?

Isn’t this a serious consideration in these times of political circuses and ecclesial misadventure?

Christ the Lord commanded us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).  And yet a couple dozen or so psalms – which all Christians can use for prayer – seem to wish some pretty dire things on our enemies.  And, yes, we have enemies.

Love for “enemy” can be expressed different ways.

Love for our enemies does not mean that we must hope that they prosper or succeed in their wicked ways.  Love, charity, means that we will their true good. We pray for their salvation.  We ask God to use the necessary corrections, chastisements, whatever, to punch through their pride and turn their minds and hearts, even if that means suffering unto loss of limb and life.

 

One of the best explanations of the maledictory psalms – and therefore how to pray for our enemies – I’ve run across came in a comment made on this very blog under another entry  Namely, …

ASK FATHER: Should we pray for or against the success of the Synod?In the Introduction (by Pius Parsch) to the Baronius edition of the 1962 Roman Breviary [UK HERE], we read that:

As Christians we may never wish evil upon a sinner directly and personally, but [NB] these [curse] psalms have nothing to do with personal enmities. The theme of all our praying is God’s kingdom and sin, and the curse passages in the psalms are expressions of absolute protest against evil, sin and hell. Try changing the curses into an expression of divine justice and you pronounce them no longer with your own mouth, but with the mouth of Christ and the Church. The curse thus resembles the woes that our Lord addressed against the Pharisees. There is something quite stirring and grand about these curses. The all-just God steps before us as we pray and warns us of the punishments of hell.  [NB: warns us!]

In regard to Psalm 108 (109)—perhaps the most maledictory of all the so-called curse psalms and omitted entirely from the LOH psalter—he says that

Psalm 108 is a curse formula and very difficult to reconcile with the Christian idea of prayer. Let us suppose that the Church or Christ Himself is praying this psalm. Then the curses become no longer wishes, but rather the solemn sentence of divine justice upon unwillingness to repent. With tears in her eyes the Church prays these terrible words–just as Jesus once declaimed his eightfold “Woe is you . . .” against the Pharisees. At the opening of the psalm, the Church laments. In the following two sections, where curses and punishments are asked for, a picture of the everlasting hell is painted for us. The petition which comprises the fourth part of the psalm can be a prayer of the individual soul; I stand terrified before the picture I have seen: “Have mercy on me, a poor weak mortal!”.

While there is a great deal more to be said about the maledictory psalms, that seems a good place to pause so that I can do my job and admonish you.

We members of the Church Militant have enemies.  Right now, many of them are inside the gates.

There are the relentless, ineluctable foes which are the world, the flesh and the Devil.  There are also the agents of the Devil among us, outside the Church and, verily, inside.

We must strive not to hate enemies, to love enemies with the love that is charity, the love that desires what is truly good for them.  If they are doing great harm to our persons, families, nation and Church, yes, we can pray for their conversion or for their ruin lest they continue to do harm and lest they go to Hell.  For example, HERE. And while we pray for and against our enemies (and bear wrongs patiently), we must see to it that we don’t go to Hell, either.

As we soldier on through this vale of tears, we must constantly field strip our consciences while asking God for all the graces we need to do His will and to conform ourselves to His will and ways.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, Urgent Prayer Requests |
12 Comments

What passes for important today.

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Once upon a time, Roman Pontiffs and the Curia they assembled as hired help concerned themselves with the great issues and questions of the day.   Minor issues were left to others to deal with.

These days, in the age of the feckless, a reversal of sorts can be noted.

Head over to Crisis for Fr. Rutler’s tour de force of apposite factoids and dates.  You might make some popcorn.   Here’s a taste…

These days seem to be a “perfect storm” of events which add up to a fourth crisis, and the faithful trust that “through toil and tribulation” the purging of corrupt elements will result in a stronger Catholic witness. Recently, Pope Francis told the press: “I will not say a word” about some of the most serious allegations of decadence in the Church, and he has long declined to respond to the dubia of some cardinals on the spiritual economy of marriage. Some have thought that such reticence is inconsistent with his dogmatic outspokenness on ambiguous matters such as climate change and capital punishment. On the most recent New Year’s Day, he said: “I would once again like to raise my voice” about immigration, and on Palm Sunday he told young people: “You have it in you to shout” even if “older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet.” That is why there was eagerness to hear him when in these most tumultuous months, on the fourth day of World Prayer for the Care of Creation, he finally spoke—but it turned out to be a warning about plastic debris in the world’s waters.

On September 1, the successor of Gregory I, who saw Latin civilization crumbling, and Leo IX, who grieved at the loss of Constantinople, and Pius V, who pitied souls lost in the heretical northern lands, implored and lamented: “We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic. Here, too, our active commitment is needed to confront this emergency.” The struggle against plastic litter must be fought “as if everything depended on us.”

I almost spit my coffee on the keyboard when he reminded us of a 2007 of one of the minor dicasteries (which had to produce occasional documents to remind people – including Popes – of their existence to justify their budget):

 The poignancy of such pastoral solicitude inevitably brings to mind the historic document of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in 2007 which was entitled: “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road.” That was precisely the one thousandth anniversary of the no less important peace treaty with the Vikings signed by King Aethelred the Unready. The world will long remember that pontifical document’s opening line: “Moving from place to place, and transporting goods using different means, have characterized human behavior since the beginning of history.” The guidelines also pointed out (n. 21) that “A vehicle is a means of transport…” and observed (n. 23), “Sometimes the prohibitions imposed by road signs may be perceived as restrictions on freedom.”

ROLF!

In the Online Illustrated Dictionary of the Church, this piece might be linked under the voice: “sardonic”.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
9 Comments

YOU are other people.  It’s always someone else… until it’s YOU.

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

YOU are other people.  It’s always someone else… until it’s YOU.Last night I watched the news for the first time in a few days.

One guy in North Carolina, who lost everything because of Florence, said that he’d seen things like this on TV but he never thought it would happen there.

From time to time, I remind you to make at least basic preparations against the day when you might need to move fast or when disaster strikes.

We don’t know the day or the minute when we will go before our Judge.  Whether it is a natural event like a storm or meteor, or a man-made event like a drunk driver or a nutjob with a rifle, we just don’t know.

Avoid the trap of thinking that these things only happen to other people.

YOU are other people.  It’s always someone else… until it’s you.

You can lose your house and everything you own in a storm, but you can lose your immortal soul from a mortal sin unconfessed.

So, examine your consciences and …

GO TO CONFESSION.

I would also add as a regular feature of your daily prayers that important petition in the Litany of Saints:

“A subitanea et improvisa morte… From a sudden and unprovided death, spare us O Lord.”

Sudden is one thing.  Unprovided is another.  An “unprovided” death is a death without access to the last sacraments, especially absolution from a priest.

That’s a scary thought…. especially if you haven’t been to confession for a  long time.

When did you last go to confession?

Moreover, consider well your living conditions and security.

If you haven’t done so yet, begin to develop a physical situational awareness. Seek advice and training from professionals.

If you haven’t done so yet, begin to develop a spiritual situational awareness.  Seek advice and training from priests.

Also, you should be reviewing what you will do, especially with your loved ones, when the big storm comes.   Will you have food, water, clothing a place to go, a way to keep yourselves safe if you have to move fast?

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Four Last Things, GO TO CONFESSION | Tagged , ,
3 Comments

ASK FATHER: Are we are in the End Times?

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

ASK FATHER: Are we are in the End Times?From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Okay, I know that this is may be “edgy” given the fact it deals with prophesy, so hoping you can pull me back from the ledge. Am I crazy to think that Heaven is literally SCREAMING at us? I see so much about this crisis in the context of the temporal, but isn’t it really a supernatural crisis?

Here’s what I’m looking at:

1) Ven Bartholomew Holhauser’s “7 ages of the church” – we’re apparently in the (end?) of the 5th period.
2) St. Malachi’s prophesy of popes . . . 112th is the last one listed (I know, this one may be sketchy)
3) Marian Apparition after Apparition saying the same thing:

– La Sallete
– Fatima
– Akita
– Our Lady of Good Hope
– Even the messages in Our Lady of America

SO, you read those and they all point to the same things . . . that are happening now:

– Apostasy in the Church
– Apostasy at the highest levels
– War on marriage and the family
– Coming Chastisement (if we don’t reverse course in a darned fine hurry.

Have I crossed over the edge into the “crazy” realm? These are Church approved apparitions, venerated individuals, consistent with church teaching . . . Shouldn’t we listen to our Mother?

Would love you to comment on this. In the meantime, I’ll be over here praying the rosary!

I am sure that readers could add to your lists, and that they will.

Heaven is screaming at us all the time!   Every time you go to Mass and read Scripture and feel movements in your conscience, heaven is screaming.

Every generation of Christians has sensed itself to be in the End Times.  They have been right.  We have been in the end times ever since Our Lord’s feet disappeared into the clouds… I love those medieval illuminations!

We are in the End Times.

But, I think we also have a sense that we are in The End Times.

We are probably witnessing the Great Falling Away.  Sometimes I jest that when we see bloody sacrifice return to the Temple in Jerusalem, I’ll put on that hair shirt.

It seems to me that our response to this echatological spidy-sense must be to redouble our determination to live properly the vocations that God has given us.

God gave us something to do.  Speaking of The End Times, before The Creation, God knew every single one of us, loved us, planned for us.  He brought us into existence at a precisely place and time in his grand plan for salvation.  Hence, we play a role in His plan.  That means that, if we dedicate ourselves with true devotion to our state in life, He will give us every actual grace that we need to live properly and to fulfill His will… no matter what times we live in, peaceful, tumultuous, bellicose, dire, prosperous, whatever.

That we do as individuals.  We must see to our identity and vocations in the sight of God.

Collectively there are things to do as well.   It will not be a surprise if I direct your attention to what I am constantly harping about concerning our sacred liturgical worship of God.

Living our vocations properly is part and parcel in our fulfill our duties according to the virtue of religions.  Collectively, the primary way we fulfill religion is in our collective sacred liturgical worship.

Our vocations are a gift from God.

Our liturgical worship is a gift from God.

Our traditional tried and true, slowly, carefully, organically developed perennial worship is a gift from God.

I will not make that claim about the newer-forms.  First, they were rather artificially cobbled up and they were done so precisely in the way that the Fathers of the Council commanded to avoid.  Also, the newer forms have no track record yet.   The phrase “work of human hands” could not be more ironic.

But let that pass for now.

Our vocations are a gift from God

Our traditional worship is, itself, from God.

Our vocations are the means by which God wants us to be saved.

Our sacraments and the Church’s rites are the means by which God wants us to be saved.

Hence, we have to review and renew our vocations.

Hence, we have to review and renew our liturgical worship.

Going to the heart of each is necessary.  What are the true duties of my state in life?  What is our true form of worship as Catholics?   How do we give ourselves more to both?

These are the questions that we should concern ourselves with.

We don’t know what The End Times will bring.  Should we do some “prepping” in material terms?  Maybe, but we should do a heck of a lot of prepping in spiritual terms.

And if we are not in The End Times, what harm have we do?

None!

We’ve done what we ought to have done, for God’s love, anyway.

Another note about our traditional liturgical worship in the light of the End Times.

The End Times are matters of both present concern and future fulfillment.

Tradition is a matter of both present concern and future fulfillment.

We live in the End Times since the Lord ascended.  He will come again to fulfill definitively what He began.

Tradition was handed down to use from those very same days.  Those who handed it on are now fulfilled in heaven.   The End Times are ahead of us, and, in a sense, Tradition is ahead of us.  The End Times are future and so is Traditional.  Tradition isn’t “past”.  It is present execution – proper use of what we have been given – and future fulfillment.

 

Posted in Four Last Things | Tagged ,
9 Comments

Fr. Murray’s Open Letter to ex-Card. McCarrick. Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My good friend Fr. Gerald Murray of the Archdiocese of New York posted an Open Letter to ex-Cardinal McCarrick, also originally a priest of the same Archdiocese.

Fr. Murray really lays it on the line, in spiritual terms. It’s strong medicine, friends.  I can only hope that McCarrick will read it, that someone cares enough for McCarrick to give it to him.

It is important, as Catholics, that we foster the virtue of charity, concretely expressed.   When we deal with people like McCarrick, and we consider the devastation that they caused, we may have a knee jerk reaction to want them to be crushed, ground up, brought down so far that they they even wonder where their next meal will come from.   That, however, isn’t an authentic Christian reaction.

Charity compels us to desire that which is the true good on another, our neighbor.  McCarrick remains a neighbor.  He has an immortal soul.  We should never desire Hell for anyone.  We should always desire conversion and repentance from objective sinners.   We should also desire authentic mercy for the sinner.  Think about the rejoicing in heaven at the conversion of a sinner.  The greater the sinner, the greater the conversion, the greater the joy, the more God’s glory is magnified.   God brings good from evil.

Authentic mercy does not obliterate justice.   True mercy does not ignore the truth.

Mercy mitigates justice.  Mercy does not abandon truth.  Mercy exalts the truth and then shows forth the love and might of God in setting aside something of what delicts deserve.

“Behold!  Here are the horrible facts.  Behold the truth!  Now consider the magnificent love of our Savior who bore all of that, loves of still, and always offers grace and forgiveness!”

With the love of God in mind, we should long to preserve always the truth when we are concerned even with the more complicated situations we little people can get ourselves into.

God’s justice we are going to get whether we want it or not.  Mercy, however, must be and can be asked for.  God will be merciful, but we must ask for it.   Mercy won’t entirely mitigate justice and will in no way obscure the truth.  But mercy will attenuate what our sins have truly deserved.

Mercy is honored even more when the truth is preserved.  Hence, the greater the fault to which we apply mercy, the greater God’s love is shown to be.   Mercy underscores God’s omnipotence.     In this earthly life, wounded by Original Sin, there is no perfect charity.  There is, here and now, no perfect justice, no perfect mercy.  Yet, we must strive for it, so that we always have a foot in the City of God even while we still sojourn in the City of Man.

Fr. Murray has offered good priestly advice – openly and for all to read – to ex-Card. McCarrick.   He rightly points out the role of truth for him now, in light of the mercy that God will show in his judgement… which, at his age, will be very soon.

Remember, dear readers, that we are going to be judged soon.   Even if in earthly years you are still among those considered “young”, your judgement, in the grand arc of salvation history, is going to be soon.  Life is fleeting.   Our years pass like the burning of dry grass, like the whipping of the loom’s shuttle.

Some of you reading this are really close to your judgment, because of age, health or unforeseen accidents that can strike at any moment.

GO TO CONFESSION!

 

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Mail from priests | Tagged , ,
3 Comments

Cri de Coeur about lost innocence and The Present Crisis

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received this.  It may be helpful to some of you.

Cri de Coeur about lost innocence and The Present Crisis

Frankly, quite a few seriously meaningful notes have come.

This is a fruit of The Present Crisis that the Enemy probably didn’t foresee.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes | Tagged
21 Comments

Card. Müller: “the real danger to today’s humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief”

Posted on 18 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Card. Müller: "the real danger to today's humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief"Was was alerted to an item in German.  It seems that Gerhard Ludwig Card. Müller gave quite the sermon last Saturday in Rome for the ordination of Michael Sulzenbacher, SJM.

The whole text in German is on kath.net

Here are some of the most important parts…

On the current crisis:

But the Church, founded by God and made up of human beings, is, according to its human side, in a deep, man-made crisis of its credibility. In this dramatic moment, we suspect and fear the possible negative consequences of scandals and leadership mistakes. Involuntarily we think of the splitting of Western Christendom in the sixteenth century or the secularization of spiritual life in the wake of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

On the causes:

Not clericalism, whatever that may be, [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] but the turning away from the truth and moral lawlessness are the roots of the evil. [One particular lawless sin, as a matter of fact, and then complicity of the corrupt who covered it over.] The corruption of teaching always entails the corruption of morality and manifests itself in it. The grave rejection of the sanctity of the Church without remorse is the result of relativizing the dogmatic foundation of the Church.  [For example… that adulterers can receive Communion ultimately will lead to approbation of homosexual perversion… at any age.]

On reforms:

What is behind the iridescent and media-friendly propaganda formula “reform of the Curia and the whole Church”, if not – as I hope – the renewal in the truth of the revelation and the following of Christ is meant? It is not the secularization of the church, but the sanctification of men for God, that is the true reform.  [Do NOT miss THE BOOK!  More below.]

It is not reform but a heresy to think that the doctrine of the Church can be kept, but for the sake of the weak man one must invent a new pastoral which diminishes the claims of the truth of the Word of God and of Christian morality.  [After all, what the Church (and Christ) teaches are just ideals that not everyone can be expected to live up to!  We have to show mercy and condone the sin while denying that God offers everyone sufficient graces to live holy lives.]

On the mission of the Church

The Church does not gain in relevance and acceptance when she adds the drag of the spirit of the times (Zeitgeist) to the world, but only when she brings the torch to her with the truth of Christ. We should not care about secondary issues and work on the agenda of others who do not want to believe that God alone is the origin and the sole purpose of man and of all creation.

For the real danger to today’s humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief and the decay of morality when no one knows and teaches the difference between good and evil. The best environmentalist and nature lover is the Gospel Herald that there is only survival with God, not just limited and soon, but forever and ever.

Note well that Card. Müller is quite concerned about the environment!   He didn’t go down the rabbit hole that another Cardinal wants us to avoid.  No no.  Müller faced head on the real dangers of green house gasses and global warming.

¡Hagan lío!

THE BOOK

US HERE – UK HERE

Card. Müller: "the real danger to today's humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief"

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Creation and Environment Stuff | Tagged
14 Comments

Thoughts on fatherhood and how priestly identity is undercut by short terms as pastors

Posted on 18 September 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At Crisis there is a thoughtful piece about fatherhood and how priests are assigned to parishes.

Permanent Assignments for Parish Priests Long Overdue

The first part of the article is a something that every young man looking forward to marriage and fatherhood should read. Seriously. Take the time.

Quite a bit long the way, after talking about fatherhood, he gets to the topic of how priests are assigned.

It is a good juxtapositioning.

I’ve long contended that the way that parish priests are assigned – as pastors – in these USA has been undermining the identity of priests and harming vocations to the priesthood.   In most US dioceses – I think that is safe to say – a practice has been adopted of assigning priests for a short term, such as 6 years, with the possibility of renewing the term once for a total of twelve.

From what I’ve seen, problems follow.

  • First, it takes years for a priest to figure out where everything is in a parish.   Then he has to go.
  • Moving priests around signals that his role is only temporary.
  • The pastor doesn’t have the chance, as a father of a family would, to get to know the next generations who come along.
  • Priests lack moorings for their work.
  • Bishops don’t have to work things out with pastors when there is a disagreement: they can simply wait them out.
  • If bishops ignore the terms they assigned and leave priests where they are for longer, a sort of double standard might be perceived.

Sure, it is necessary to move and remove certain guys, find the right match, etc.  That will always be the case for obvious reasons. But the downside of sort terms is far farther down than is good for any of us.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
22 Comments