Tuesday, March 17, 2015

From The Maturation Department: Forward, Ho!

Like The Titanic,  The Pope Moves Us Forward!
March 7th was the 50th anniversary for Mass in the vernacular.  Pope Francis celebrated the occasion in a Mass in Rome.  Speaking of the "liturgical reforms" of the past 50 years, he said in his homily, "Let us thank the Lord for what he has done in his Church in these 50 years of liturgical reform. It was truly a courageous gesture for the Church to draw near to the people of God so that they are able to understand well what they are doing. This is important for us, to follow the Mass in this way. It is not possible to go backwards. We must always go forward. Always forward!  And those who go backward are mistaken. Let us go forward on this path."

An important note: When I speak of "liturgical reforms" in quotes, I am NOT speaking of the Novus Ordo rite, as stipulated in real Vatican II documents.  Rather, I refer to popular bastardizations of the same.  Vatican II never mandated:
  • Use of the vernacular.  Rather, they mentioned that Latin was to be held in high esteem and to be commonly used
  • Turning of altar towards the people
  • Removal of Communion rails
  • Distribution of Holy Communion in the hand rather than on the tongue
So what are some of the fruits of these bogus "liturgical reforms" for which we should be "thankful"?
  • Clown and balloon Masses
  • Mass attendance plummeting from 80% of Catholic to approximately 10%
  • Terrible seminary formation (although that might be up-swinging slightly)
  • Reception of Sacraments declining
  • Contraception and abortion being practiced by Catholics resulting in..
  • Reduced numbers of parishioners, resulting in disappearance of entire parishes
  • Religious orders vanishing due to lack of vocations
That list could go on and on; you get the point.  Anyway, the logic in his statements is fundamentally flawed.  "It is not possible to go backwards"?  How about when the course on which one is embarked is wrong or even sinful?  Isn't repentance and conversion all about changing course?  By the way - USA Today confirms the growing popularity of the Latin Mass, that is, Mass in the Extraordinary Rite.

But I would suspect this talk of "moving forward" and "not possible to go backwards" is really part and parcel of the "maturation effort" that seems to have been put in place since the sin-nod ended last October.

We all recall that disastrous interim relatio that came out midway into the sin-nod last October.  It is important to remind ourselves that far from being unaware of this horrid document, that Pope Francis knew of its contents and approved of its release.  At the conclusion of this sin-nod, the pope said we had a "year to mature" before next October's sin-nod.  That remark seemed to be the signal for the progressives in Church hierarchy to bombard us all with "maturation efforts".  I had to develop the "maturation department" on this blog to keep track of it.  We know that there will be more "maturation" efforts during these next few months.  By the way - speaking of "bombardment", realize that it is a tactic of psychological warfare; read this and see how relevant it is to all this "maturation".

One of the latest examples is an effort by Gary Cutting, a philosophy professor at Notre Dame and obviously a protege of the late Fr Hesburgh.  A quote from the Cardinal Newman Society indicates that Cutting finds the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be "philosophically untenable and theologically unnecessary".  I sure hope he repents before he has that conversation before Our Lord, but I digress.  To be fair to Cutting, what he said is just a step or two beyond the dissident plop that was the interim relatio.

Edward Pentin is a British journalist (and faithful Catholic) who did much to shine the light on some chicanery last October.  A few days ago he published a piece that explains why the selection of attendees at the next synod may be an attempt to stack the attendance with those of dissident leanings.  We certainly know that Cardinal Burke won't be in attendance this time.

While the Pope cannot formally declare error (lest he be an anti-pope), we do know that grave harm can be done in the name of being "pastoral".  All indications are that this is a key motive behind all the nonsense oozing from progressive quarters in the Church.  We will keep the spotlight on the cockroaches.  We will continue to pray - and maybe discontinue donations.  I'm sure there will be updates.

1 comment:

  1. Who was it that said: "Francis is the Catholic Obama"? When that came out, it was criticized by pretty much a majority, maybe being too early in the game. Wonder how many now are rethinking that one? Just as Obama thinks we are all 'stupid sheeple' I'm wondering if Francis thinks the same. Kind of reminds me of when 'Obama Care' was being passed.

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful and courteous to others on this blog. We reserve the right to delete comments that violate courtesy and/or those that promote dissent from the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.