There is nothing that frustrates me more
than those Catholics who are continuously engaged in highlighting all that is
wrong with the Church; continually stressing why the Church’s teachings are
unreasonable or incorrect; emphasising the need for the Church to conform to
current popular opinion on a variety of subjects; accusing the Church
leadership of being out of touch and draconian, while also making anecdotal pronouncements of them being guilty of bigotry, misogyny
and a host of other offences.
On his Blog today, Fr Ray Blake, one of the bloggers I follow, makes a very
interesting point about these dissidents. He says: “In the past we might have called them
heretics, now we call them dissidents... The problem is that they remain to
teach others to leap the fence, indeed, their role as "dissident"
seems to give them importance in the secular world, and the "Liberal
Catholic" establishment to comment on the Church and to condemn it.”
I must say that I often wonder why these
dreadfully unhappy folks don’t go to a Christian denomination that does comply
with all of their religious requirements and beliefs? After all, there are
already so many Christian denominations out there, many of whom already have
women ‘priests’, permit divorce, give the laity a right to vote for future
leaders/ministers, agree with contraceptive use and with a woman’s right to
choose abortion, to mention just a few examples.
Obviously one wants to encourage Catholics to stay united to the Church, but there must surely be a point at which one must weigh the cost of that continued unity. A point at which one asks of the person, why remain a Catholic if you intend to continue committing such treacherous acts? Why remain a Catholic if you cannot accept that: “The Lord made St. Peter
the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to
him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is "head of
the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church
on earth".”[i]
You can read Fr Ray’s entire post, titled “Shooting And Breaking The Legs Of Sheep And Heretics”, on his Blog by following this link.
Who is in controll of what goes on in our seminaries. In an exchange between a seminarian who had written an article on the Southern Cross and one P.R. Margeot, the seminarian stated that in their seminary they are not exposed to the latin mass, but more, and much more to inculturisation. Now,I detected some unhapiness with this from the tone of the Seminarian.
ReplyDeleteNow, who exactly determines the pragramme, and content of what our future priests are taught. Who selects and monitors those who teach our future priests.
Who is in control? We have a problem that some Theologians are rejecting Sacred Tradition in favour of contextual and liberation theology. The problem is that it dissociates Sacred Theology from faith and looks at it from a political point of view (the worldly view) and forgets that Jesus Christ lived under the totalitarian gvt of the Romans and had to pay tax to them. From this school of thought has come some very bad teachings such as "Jesus before Christianity" and the KD document of the 1980s etc etc.
ReplyDeleteThese people have now been made vicar generals and lecturers at seminaries. There is always a reluctance to obedience and humility in people who subscribe to liberation theology. Hence the trial at re-inventing faith and tracing the "historic Jesus". Obedience and humility are central virtues that are fostered by the Latin Mass - thus there is always going to be a reluctance to talk about it in such circles. This is because you can't innovate with the Mass of all time and it is not a 'meal' but the Holy Sacrifice of the Lamb to the Eternal Father for the expiation of the sins of man. There are no fun and games, no clowns and no liberation theology but strict blessed worship.
The plague of dissidence also arrives by conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteThe sheep are fed into a stupor and then the wolf strikes....
In South Africa, because of a large Protestant influence, Catholics are particularly vulnerable within the Church to participate in certain programs, processes, and movements which promote dissidence in a manner which is not so easy to detect.
In the past, parishes accepted certain slippage to be imported from the USA such as the "Encounter" movements e.g. Marriage Encounter, Youth Encounter, Engaged Encounter. From these movements, the importance of Church doctrine was diluted and mixed up with “feelings”, where individuals were indoctrinated to believe that “feelings “ are neither right nor wrong i.e. indoctrinated to pay less attention to the importance on self-control, Sin, Confession, fidelity, sanctity, holiness, etc; but place more attention on contraception. .
Then came Small Basic Christian Communities (poor black areas were targeted), Renew and the Alpha ( targeting more affluent, middle class and upper areas)...now today, about to be launched, there is "Renew Africa" which is a “repackage” form of “RENEW being launched. Why?
All these programs in some way and another undermine the Roman Catholic Teaching and position in society. These movements infiltrate with ideas and propositions among ordinary Catholic people who are ill-equipped to discern that these are wolves entering the sheepfold. These movements introduce ideas and processes which question not only doctrine, but also the very canonical structures within the Church, including the Papacy. For this dissidence to succeed, certain bishops have also been part of the conspiracy so that eventually "we are church" will be implemented.
I suggest that an in-depth audit be conducted to thoroughly investigate the methodology, pamphlets, organisation and processes of Renew Africa to eliminate any surreptitious conniving behind the scenes, under the table. Perhaps, the most suitable for this audit should be someone from outside the SACBC, rather an appointment from Rome