Just passed this on to a friend of mine, let's call him George, who was for some years, and with disastrous results, ensnared in what was once the Nervous Disorder's favourite cult of personality, the Legionaries/Regnum Christi. I've been trying to tell him the facts of life for some years. A while ago, he phoned me and asked, "Is Regnum Christi a cult?" I tried not to laugh when I responded, "Yes, Regnum Christi is a cult."
"How do you know it's a cult?"
"George, everyone who isn't in Regnum Christi [especially those of us who have seen their naive friends being sucked into its maw] know that Regnum Christi is a cult."
This was a few years ago. George recently sent me a note on Facebook saying that he was sorry he had doubted me. This was after the break up of his marriage at the instigation of cult members. Not sufficiently dedicated, I guess.
I'm trying to get him to understand that you actually have to think for yourself about the Church. It's uphill work with dedicated Novus Ordo conservatives.
Why JPII Should Not be Canonised:
Though Catholics and others are loathe to admit it of an otherwise beloved Pope, John Paul II oversaw a church which deteriorated in both its inner and outer life. His callous indifference toward the victims of priestly sexual abuse in refusing to meet personally with a single one of them, and his stubborn refusal to compel the resignation from office of any of the bishops who aided, abetted, and covered-up the abuse, are testamentary to his utter failure: not as a Catholic or a theologian, but as a Pope.
And this is precisely why he should not be canonized. For in the Catholic (and popular) understanding, canonization is not simply a technical decree indicating one's everlasting abode in Paradise; it is, in addition, the Church's solemn endorsement of a Christian's heroic virtue. The question the Catholic Church must ask herself is: Was John Paul II a model of "heroic" papal virtue?
Contrary to leftist media reportage, the late Pope was not an authoritarian despot, bent on enforcing Catholic orthodoxy on an unwilling church. Quite the contrary: theological liberals and dissenters flourished in all of the Church's structures, from lay politics and Catholic universities, to the ranks of priests and bishops. Not a single pro-abortion Catholic politician has been excommunicated from the church; only a handful of openly heretical priests were asked to stop teaching theology, but were otherwise permitted to exercise their priestly ministry unhindered. The Church in Austria openly dissents from orthodox Catholicism with papal impunity. Fr. Richard McBrien, Sr. Joan Chittiser, Roger Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles, Hans Kung, Charles Curran, Notre Dame University, dissenters galore: the overwhelming majority of prominent far-leftist, theologically modernist Catholic organizations, speakers, and theologians are Catholics in good standing with their church, and are frequently given an official platform at church-sponsored institutions and events. To give just two more examples, several Catholic parishes and universities flaunt themselves as "gay-friendly" in a directory published by the Conference of Catholic Lesbians. These speakers and institutions are in just as good standing with the Church as so-called "orthodox" Catholic pundits and writers.
The unprecedented light of renewed zeal will illuminate our future new Springtime.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that not only did JP refuse to fire bishops who aided, abetted and covered up the sexual abuse, he also refused to discipline bishops who were engaged in it...
ReplyDelete"you actually have to think for yourself about the Church."
ReplyDeleteCan you elaborate on this? It seems ambiguous.
"Santo subito!" was silly I agree, but "Iudicatum subito" is no better. Mr. Giunta's dubia do not amount to conclusive arguments but I'd be disappointed too if every point he makes were not taken up by the Promotor Fidei in the hopefully many years it takes for the cause to proceed.
ReplyDeleteTom
Tell you what, Tom, why don't we wait a hundred years? This is something that the Church has fallen into because of the media, I believe, the notion that it is valuable to do everything right now. The Church has adopted the television news scale of timeliness. Hows about we wait to canonise JPII for the same length of time it took to canonise St. Martin de Porres.
ReplyDelete