Merciless Catholic fascists

February 15, 2016 techdecisions

“Pope Francis’ decision to call an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy looks more and more urgent with each passing day.

Several incidents in the past couple of weeks here in Rome alone suggest there is a great need for the entire church to reflect deeply on how the acceptance and imitation of God’s mercy, forgiveness and unfailing love make up the central tenet of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Sadly, among those who seem least inclined to embrace this reality are some of the church’s ordained leaders — clergymen at every level of the hierarchy and those preparing to join them. A number of these individuals are quite prominent. And since the little group of which they are a part has become loud and well-organized, one might mistakenly think they represent the majority of all our deacons, priests and bishops.

Pray God that they don’t.

But — at least publicly — they have been promoting petitions, giving interviews and spearheading events that seem to be aimed more at making sure people pay for their mistakes — and, at times, pay dearly — rather than finding a way to offer them God’s mercy.

(These zealots) secured the official backing of six Vatican officials. They included Cardinals Angelo Amato (Congregation for the Causes of Saints), Marc Ouellet (Bishops) and Zenon Grocholewski (retired), as well as Archbishops Vincenzo Paglia (Pontifical Council for the Family) and Zygmunt Zimowski (health care). Cardinal Raymond Burke was actually present at the rally. He was one of 20 non-Italian bishops who outnumbered their Italian confreres… Heads of only 15 of Italy’s more than 220 dioceses (included).

But among them — and perhaps also for strategic motives — was Archbishop Bruno Forte. He, too, sent a written endorsement …. Of course, he is the same theologian-bishop traditionalists fiercely criticized last October after he put accommodating language about gay Catholics in the midterm report at the synod on the family.

The traditionalists were out in spades.., and many of them then attended a Tridentine Mass that Msgr. Marco Agostini offered …. The 53-year-old priest from Verona has been a papal master of ceremonies the last six years.

…Reparation is a favorite theme in traditionalist circles, where, apparently, there are some questions about just how absolute is God’s mercy and forgiveness. The traditionalists place a greater emphasis on divine judgment, sacrifice, penance and the fires of purgatory. It seems as if it all boils down to paying for one’s sins and mistakes.

Not mercy, but sacrifice. Not forgiveness, but repayment of the debt.

Unfortunately, a similar attitude can be found in the alarmist pleas that are urging the pope not to allow this October’s synod to change a single iota of the church’s law and discipline regarding marriage and sexuality. There are at least three or four groups frantically trying to whip up support for petitions in this regard.

A right-wing university group for the “defense of tradition, family and property” claims to have garnered more then 200,000 signatures for an online petition to the pope to “save the family.” They paint a dark picture of “dissident Catholic pressure groups” that are “bombarding” the synod to “water down the indissolubility of marriage; allow the reception of Holy Communion for divorced and civilly remarried couples; make the Church ‘LGBT-friendly’; and approve same-sex civil unions.”

Two other petitions voicing similar concerns are currently trying to solicit signatures from priests in Britain and in the United States.

In the midst of all this, several cardinals and a small group of the world’s roughly 5,000 bishops are engaging a number of theologians to come up with arguments to help block any development of the church’s teaching on marriage and family matters.

Two of them — Cardinals George Pell of the Vatican and Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary — predicted in separate interviews last week that “nothing will change” at the synod. What is most troublesome is the fact that the Hungarian cardinal has a key role in the synod as its “relator general,” a sort of moderator in charge of helping to frame the discussions.

The synod “will massively endorse the tradition” of the church, according to Pell. “I don’t anticipate any deviation from that at all,” he told a few hundred people (including Burke)…

These uncompromising defenders of truth, tradition and life say the church has no authority to develop, alter or modify teachings that, they insist, come directly from Jesus. They are certainly sincere when they express the conviction that they are defending a law of God that cannot be changed.

Pope Francis has taken up the urgent challenge of trying to help them — and all Christians — to understand what is too difficult for most us humans to comprehend: Namely, that greater than any of God’s laws is God’s absolute and boundless mercy.”

“Mercy is the word that summarizes the Gospel; we might say that it is the ‘face’ of Christ, that face that He showed when He went towards everyone, when He healed the sick, when He shared a table with the sinners, and especially when, nailed to the cross, He forgave: there we find the face of divine mercy. And the Lord calls upon us to be ‘channels’ of this love firstly towards the least among us, the poorest, who are privileged in His eyes. Let yourselves be continually challenged by the situations of fragility and poverty with which you come into contact, and endeavor to offer in the appropriate ways the witness of charity that the Spirit infuses in your hearts.

Mercy will allow you to open up promptly to current needs and to be industriously present in the new areopagus of evangelization, prioritizing — even if this may involve sacrifices — openness towards those situations of extreme need, symptomatic of the maladies of today’s society.”

— Audience with General Chapter of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 5, 2015

I hate fascists. I hate Catholic fascists.

Love, and His infinite, unfailing mercy for all to the end,
Matthew

Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom