Catholic Bloggers, We May NOT Surrender To Francis-Funk!

Two months ago, I put up a post to exhort my fellow bloggers not to throw up their hands in the face of the pandemonium emanating from the Vatican.  Please review it.

I am not the only one to notice the malaise that has recently manifested itself in the Catholic blogging community.  The ones I'll cite below are observations of Catholic British bloggers.  They write on the heels of the de facto quashing of their (and my) fellow blogger who authored "Protect the Pope".  The blogger is a deacon who was stifled by his bishop for standing for Catholic tradition.  As an ordained deacon, he is bound by obedience to his bishop.  Most of us, being lay, are not so constrained - or shackled and gagged as the case may be.

Father Ray Blake of England, four months after the stifling of Protect the Pope, put up a piece asking "Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?"  His concluding sentence troubles me. I quote, "Most Catholics but especially clergy want to be loyal to the Pope in order to maintain the unity of the Church.  Today that loyalty is perhaps best expressed through silence".  William Oddie of CatholicHerald.UK, elaborating on Father Blake's piece, seems to agree with him.  He admits that much of the silence has been caused by the uncertainty from the Vatican and the subsequent discouragement felt by Catholic bloggers.  I encourage you to read both pieces and their accompanying comments.

With the notion that "loyalty is expressed through silence", I take strenuous exception.  Think about it.  What message is communicated when we are encouraged to be silent about the Pope in order to be loyal to him?  That itself is rather uncomplimentary of the pope; silence often communicates its own message rather unmistakably.  Would Father Blake et al ever dream that silence about Pope Benedict XVI and his writings would have been a proper expression of loyalty to him?  If not, what's the difference?

Let me take a minute to explain why I will continue to point out gaffes emanating from papal interviews and the Vatican.  Not every utterance of the Holy Father constitutes Church teaching - certainly not the interviews, off-the-cuff remarks, etc.  There are those Catholics, particularly converts, who might have the idea that everything the Pope says/does is representative of Church teaching.  Now think back to Holy Thursday, when Pope Francis broke Canon law to wash women's feet.  One person was understandably confused.  She reasoned that if Church law could be broken with impunity on Holy Thursday, why should anyone hold Church teaching about contraception in any higher regard?  I came out point blank and stated that the pope is a human being and what he did was a violation of Church law; I don't know his reasons and I don't really care.  He erred.  What else could I tell her?  Anything else - including silence - would have been a blatant lie to her face.  She deserved better than that; she deserved the truth.  I did not make the pope look bad in so doing; he did that by himself.  Later I will post on the ridiculous notion of the Pope going to preach at an evangelical church - with no intention of preaching the fullness of truth to them.  Don't they deserve better than that?  My fellow bloggers, if you come across a fellow Catholic with similar questions looking for answers, will you wallow in your on dejection and just shrug your shoulders and walk away in silence from that hurting person?

Another blogger named Mundabor proposes that "Now, More Than Ever, It Is The Right Time To Blog".  He's right.  This is no time to surrender to despondency, discouragement and even cynicism.  Too many bloggers have been doing precisely that, I regret to say.  Just during the past few weeks I pulled from my blog roll (right side bar) two Catholic blogs that had been essentially abandoned by their owners (one for over a year); will I have to purge more?

Fellow Catholic Bloggers!  This is no time to go wimpy-wobbly against our blogging apostolates!   I think I remember one of the comments on the other two blogs, written by a Catholic blogger.  He/she wrote that they didn't blog because their heart wasn't in it after the election of Francis.  To that I reply, "So what?  Blog and speak anyway!  You don't feel like it?  What difference does that make?  Shake off your doldrums and start hitting your keyboards again - now!"

We, The Church Militant, May Not Quit The Spiritual Battle

My blogging colleague at Dymphna's Road put up a piece today entitled "Screaming in Pain".  Truth be

told, I've seen a lot of defeatist attitudes among bloggers and other fellow Catholics.  Some are confused over the foibles that issue forth from the Vatican.  They are sincere Catholics wanting to be loyal to the Church, but owing to the lackluster post-Vatican II formation they have received, they do not understand that not every utterance of the Holy Father constitutes dogma.  The Holy Father can be incorrect in matters of prudential judgment and it is only healthy to acknowledge it.  Truth be told, the "three monkeys" approach to the Holy Father's gaffes (exemplified by ChurchMilitant.tv) has exacerbated this confusion since viewers might interpret such silence as tacit approval of Papal blunders.

Still, when I read that article, I cannot help but sense that these distressed individuals are knowingly preparing to cut off their noses to spite their faces.  They sense some leaks in the Barque of Peter.  So if they fear possible drowning, will they really jump ship and undergo definite drowning - and even risk eternal damnation?  (Yes, ladies and gentlemen!  If you go "sedevacantist", you greatly increase your chances of going to hell!  If you wish to avoid hell, you will stay with the Roman Catholic Church, no "ifs ands or buts"!)    Even if we take lousy Catholic education into account, this attitude is bereft of all logic and common sense.  With all due respect, Dymphna is restrained in her advice to such tempted souls - restrained to a fault, I daresay.  You don't tell such individuals to "wait", for that holds out the notion that after a "waiting period" it's acceptable to commit a mortal sin of apostasy.   We tell them the unabridged and plain truth about what is emanating from the Vatican.  We also tell them - in no uncertain and overly "gentle" terms - that if they continue to nurse notions of leaving the Roman Catholic Church that they jeopardize their eternal salvation.  Then we tell them, in no uncertain terms, that they must reject any discouragement and thoughts of leaving the Church as the filthy tempting lies of Satan that they are.

Now let me say a word to some of my fellow bloggers who are flagging or who have in fact quit (I know who some of you are!).  I'm speaking as a blogger myself who has experienced many of the tribulations that come with that job.  Either we've been called by God to proclaim His truth over this media - or we haven't been called by God.  It's one or the other.  If we've been called by God to speak some truth - what makes us think we're at liberty to quit at will?  Let me preface by making clear that some have had to lay aside blogging to attend to duties regarding our states in life; perhaps we have to attend to sick family members or children who need us.  We have our priorities and no one will gainsay that.  I'm addressing those who quit because they're "tired of fighting".  Dymphna speaks of those who've decided to "tune out".   This is mind-boggling for several reasons.

First, let us remind ourselves of what St Catherine of Siena had to say regarding the need to speak out against evil: "We've had enough of exhortations to be silent!  Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues!  I see that the world is rotten because of silence!"  Those once-stalwart bloggers who have decided to quit and "tune out" are now adding to the silence that is contributing to the rot of the world, if not damnation of poor souls who will no longer benefit from their truthful voices.  Either we're part of the solution - or we're part of the problem; there is no middle or neutral ground.  Moreover, on this side of the grave we remain the Church Militant, not the Church Moribund.  We get to retire when we die and join the ranks of either Church Triumphant or Church Suffering - and not split second beforehand.

Now what is leading to all this jaded cop-out?  Frustration?  Anger?  Lack of faith?  What's going on?  I cannot pretend to read minds/hearts, but I do know there's something terribly amiss when those who were engaged in spiritual warfare throw up their hands and walk away.  Let's deal with it, shall we?  To put in another way, you'll deal with it either now or in Purgatory, but you WILL deal with it.  That's the same with any sin to which we have attachment.

I could go on, but I think we get the point.  Keep on persevering.