or, Why I'm not the least surprised or perturbed about the Synod or the Relatio.
Gravity works, doesn't it? It always works all the time. Same with math. Numbers always turn out the same no matter how you put them together on a page. Logic is the same kind of thing; a syllogism will tell you a true conclusion if you follow its rules, starting with true premises.
If you head off in a particular direction and keep walking along the same path for a long time, if nothing stops you, you will eventually reach your destination.
50 years ago, the Second Vatican Council started the Church off in a direction it was never supposed to go. Many, many people followed along in good faith, assuming that the people in charge knew what they were doing. But a smaller number of others sounded a warning, saying that the direction leads to a deadly falls.
Well, now we are seeing the roaring falls that we have been hearing, and largely not heeding, for all this time. There is still time, of course, to start rowing back and return to the true course. The closer we come to the falls, the harder it will be, but it can still be done.
The only problem is that most of the people we have in charge of the boat are paddling for the falls as hard as they can.
What happens in the next week will be crucial. There are, reportedly, a lot of people in the Synod hall who do not agree with this direction. They now have a sacred duty to make it clear that we do not have to go in this direction, that to do so is disaster. Do they have the strength to force the boat backwards now that the falls is in sight? Do they even have the vision clear enough to understand where we went astray in the first place?
I don't know. I only know that this is the wrong direction, and I don't have to follow. Even if I am the only one, I don't have to go over the falls with them. I seem to have been standing on the shore with my friends shouting at the people in the boat, trying to warn them. But they do seem to be getting further and further away, and the roar of the falls is now so loud, that I wonder if they can hear us at all.
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16 comments:
Not surprising. But very disturbing.
Louise L
Wonderful analogy Hilary. Hopefully if you're standing on the side, I'll be standing beside you. Even if we're the only ones. Your words so often give me courage. Thank you.
Beautifully said, Hilary. Keep the faith. Oremus pro invicem.
Tim
Like you, I've been strangely unperturbed and at peace with the whole synod fiasco. If anything I'm happy to hear Cardinals and Bishops expressing their heretical ideas publicly, because they've been doing it privately for decades now. That to me is the silver lining of the Francis papacy, that we get to see everyone's true colours. What I can't get my head around is the possibility of a Pope leading the Church into schism. Is that possible? Does he stop being Pope then and the faithful Cardinals elect someone else?What if there are only a handful of faithful Cardinals?
Did you happen to see Michael Coren's betrayal tonight? He's turned pod-people on us.
How much are we supposed to hate Benedict for abandoning us?
Interesting. What happened to submission to those who lead the Church? It's not up to you and your private judgement to determine what are or are not dangerous falls ahead. Right? You may as well be Protestant and head off with Bible in hand, because it is all you need, along with your private judgement. Perhaps you're missing the point the Church leaders are trying to teach you? Pope Francis would say you were.
AJ MacDonald, I think you've come to the wrong house...
Lydia
Well, if you want to start following Cardinal Kasper and Cardinal Danneels and approving homosexuality and the desecration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, you go right ahead, but don't expect me to stand up and applaud.
But you do get my coveted Orwell's Picnic "Making-my-point-for-me" Prize of the week.
How does AJ McDonald square submission to Church leadership with the fact that the bishops are in an uproar and that this document flies in the face of the teachings of John Paul II? And that there are, very unfortunately, passages of Vatican II that can easily be read as a contradiction of the teachings of the Church before Vatican II?
We do not, and never have, worship an individual pope. We trust to the Magisterium--which is not the pope--not the pope, except insofar as it is the pope's sacred charge to teach and protect the Magisterium. In the past, we have not really doubted the pope's ability and intention to do so. But the fallout from the reign of Paul VI has made us warier, and Francis' inability to agree that a homosexual sexual scandal on the part of a cleric renders him unfit for high office scared us to death. "Who am I to judge" sounded like a rejection of his most sacred task.
Dorothy
Dummers gotta dum.
Exactly right...
Astonishing to think that despite the Emperor having long been buck naked, Mottramists still cling desperately to their papal positivism.
Oh, "Mottramists" ... keeping that one!
Perhaps it is simply our lot to live in interesting times, as they say. Prayer still works, the Sacraments are still valid, and we have the promise of Christ that the gates of Hell shall not prevail. The ride may not be enjoyable but let's not forget that fallible men cannot ever thwart the will of God.
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