Framing Progressivism In Highfalutin Language

First, you may have noticed that posts have been rather infrequent lately.  I'm dealing with some family matters that simply take priority right now.  Your prayers are appreciated - thank you.

This past Friday, the pope addressed the Italian Theological Association.  He opined to them that "the world needs a theology capable of helping Christians to proclaim the salvific face of the Merciful God".   Then he invited them to a creative fidelity since this association was founded "in the spirit of service and communion indicated by the Second Vatican Council".

So the theology that has served the Church for nearly two thousand years is no longer useful in proclaiming Christ?  Ridiculous.  Theology is the study of God and matters pertaining to Him, is it not?  Because God Himself is immutable, the truths that the Fathers, Doctors, pontiffs and other teachers of the Faith taught throughout the centuries are likewise immutable.  Any theology holding itself out as different by dint of being "newly capable" should immediately be jettisoned as the spiritual poison that it is.

Going down the article to see what the pope considers new challenges, we get a more clear view of the problem.  Here they are: migration, social inequality, climate change.  There is no mention whatsoever of the real problems that threaten the eternal salvation of Catholics, such as: dramatic fall-off in Mass attendance, sacraments being abandoned, Catholics violating purity as they support and embrace all manners of perversion, Catholics facilitating the murders of unborn and elderly.

In short, this "new theology" about which the pope yammers is nothing more than 1960s seamless-garment social-gospel crap.

Also released a few days ago is a "racial examination of conscience", demonstrating yet again why the USCCB doesn't deserve one penny from any Catholic.  Their "questions" demonstrate their attempts to define the terms of conversation and to stifle any debate about their dubious dogmas.  I won't pick through the whole thing, or I'd be typing the entire day.  Rather, I'll direct you to the fifth bullet point. "Have I ever said the following phrases like she's cute for a black girl?".  Nowhere in that question (or anywhere else in this piece) any chiding of someone looking down on a white person.  In this USCCB piece, we see the clear implication that only white people can be racist and that racism is not a fault found in people of color.   That is to day that this USCCB post is itself a racist screed.

I realize that I've posted similar warnings many times in the past.  However, I do so precisely because the progressives within the church are continuously thrusting into our eyes and ears their pernicious lies.  Adolf Hitler once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.  He was correct.  That is why when these lies are thrust into the public square time after time, we must refute them time after time.

I'll close this piece with a link to one of my blogging colleagues.  He/she believes they have seen some hopeful signs that Tradition is returning, or at least is not being treated as a pariah anymore.  Go to item 27, near the bottom of the post.  This hopeful sign is also a challenge to all of us.  What price are we willing to pay to combat blasphemy and sacrilege?

Sin-Nod Slop Oozed Into My Parish Mass This Morning Via Two Zingers

I'll deal with the more insidious zinger first.  As the name of this blog suggests, I am located in the Archdiocese of Washington and the archbishop is Cardinal Donald Wuerl.  As this Church Militant article (and so many of my own posts) states, he is decidedly on the progressive side.  The video makes mention of a priest being disciplined for upholding Canon 915 back in 2012.  Regular readers of this blog will immediately realize that the priest is Father Marcel Guarnizo and it was at my parish where Father Guarnizo attempted to prevent sacrilege.  For some refresher on that situation and the heinous treatment meted out to Father Guarnizo under the direction of Cardinal Wuerl, please click on the archives to the right and read the posts from late Feb 2012 through March 2012.

Presently Cardinal Wuerl is in Rome as one of the synod fathers.  No one doubts that he is lending his hand to the Kasper-Marx-Cupich crowd.  Recall the blasphemies suggested by both Marx and Cupich.  Both prelates are openly calling for the Church to dissent from the teachings of Christ Himself with regards to adultery, sodomy and contraception, and to allow those engaging in these mortally sinful acts to receive Holy Communion.  Hold that thought as I relate what happened a few hours ago at Mass.

One of the prayers during the "Prayers of the Faithful" was for families.  I don't have the text verbatum but still the words were clear: "For families during this time of the synod as they are under attack from addiction, immigration, deportation and poverty".  Leaving aside (for the moment) the open embrace of left-wing positions on lesser issues, do you notice what's missing from that list of malevolent forces that attack our families?  Yes - those sins against family and life that are always intrinsically evil.  I'll list them below:

• Abortion.  That should be included in that list, as abortion is literally an attack on a most helpless babies by members of his/her own family.
• Homosexual conduct.  Those engaged in such sins make a mockery of families.  Two of the same gender who "play house" together are NOT families, wicked and inane civil laws notwithstanding.  We pity and pray for the children embroiled in these situations as they are denied the mother and the father that they need and deserve.
• Contraception.  Usage of these substances distorts the meaning of true marital love and is the most reliable predictor of divorce.

Yet these evils were not included in the list of forces that tear families apart.  Thinking back on the sin-nod, it's not difficult to realize why they were deliberately omitted from that list.  These are the very behaviors that Marx et al want to legitimatize by use of the sin-nod, and he most likely has an ally in Cardinal Wuerl.  Looking at the matter from the progressive viewpoint, how could Wuerl's chancery mandate or even allow them to be included when the progressives at the sin-nod are trying to "mainstream" them into Church life?

I realize that this omission during the prayer may seem like a minor little thing, but it is precisely by these "minor little things" that they hope to change the mindsets of Catholics in the pew.  That's how these little "zingers" work; the less noticed they are, the more effective they are.  This questionable prayer is NOT the only "zinger" that happened in today's 9:30 AM Mass at St John Neumann in Gaithersburg MD.  Let's look at "zinger #2".

The Demonic Today

The Venerable Fulton Sheen passed away in the late 1970s.  I believe he gave this talk long before then.  Listen to him here as he described the operation of the devil in the Church and the world.  At around the 20-minute mark, he draws a rather telling analogy to the temptation of Christ with the siren call of "social justice".  Click here if you can't see embedded video.