The German Synodaler Weg – “Pope Francis’ response to four former delegates of the German ‘Synodal Way’ has once again highlighted Pope Francis’s concern regarding the path undertaken by the Church of Germany.” Pope Francis, what if the Synod responded to the risk of schism? (Monday Vatican)
Plight of Christians – “Thirteen churches, basilicas and cathedrals across France were lit up in red on Wednesday, a colour chosen to symbolise the blood shed by Christians who died for their faith. The event went largely unnoticed by the media . . . “Why does Europe ignore the crimes committed against Christianity? (Catholic Herald)
Remembrance of the Dead – “When those who believe in the Christian view of the world—or any view that involves the survival of the soul—use ‘departed’ and ‘passed away,’ we are using literal language.” On the Language of Death (The Imaginative Conservative)
Cruising Toward a Court Date – “Days before a morality clause violation forced Gary Michael Voris to resign his job leading St. Michael’s Media, Voris’ attorney Richard Lehmann asked United States District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante to delay the upcoming trial in the federal defamation lawsuit.” Hidden evidence and a “coincidental” loan: Voris and Niles headed to court again … after the cruise (Simcha Fischer)
Very Unsynodal – “A simmering dispute between the chairman of the German bishops’ conference and his Polish counterpart heated up dramatically Sunday.” Bätzing v. Gądecki: What’s behind the clash? (The Pillar)
Abortion and the Project of Sexism – “The mother is the truth of pregnancy—the father can only know of it. Mothers, in word and in body, herald the new child; fathers believe what they are told.” Making the All-Male Pregnancy (New Polity)
ACLU Returns to Its Communist Roots – “The ACLU had come full circle. The new generation of left-wing ‘woke’ lawyers is trying to impose on the American justice system the attitude to the law that prevails in Communist countries…” What Happened to the ACLU (First Things)
Museum Preserves Eastern Catholic Heritage – “Inaugurated in spring 2023, the Greek Catholic Museum aims to be a unique place to preserve the heritage treasures of Eastern Catholics.” ‘Window Onto Eternity’: World’s First Greek Catholic Museum Brings Eastern Light to Western Christian Culture (National Catholic Register)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ The German Synodale Weg
Gagliarducci concludes: “Pope Francis, however, is not looking for head-on clashes. He doesn’t go one-on-one. Above all, he does not want to create a division, and he does not want to be the one who, out of rigidity, causes a schism. According to Pope Francis, the Synod of the Universal Church can then, indeed, be the antidote to schismatic pressures.” And “History will tell if this was the case.”
So, now that we are here, how to avoid being the one holding the bag when a formal schism occurs? A very real dilemma. Historians look back with hindsight to events triggering the lasting and Great Schism of A.D. 1054. And, the lasting Western Schism of A.D. 1519. So, what then about the decades following the Second Vatican Council, and the past ten years?
Well, while “time is greater than space” (Evangelii Gaudium), also this: “a stitch in time saves nine.”
And, whether the synodal punchbowl can neutralize the German cyanide, also this lesson from natural ecology (Laudato Si?): “dilution is not the solution to pollution.”
About the Synthesis Report from the Synod, an observation here not so much about the “convergences” leading each of the twenty sections, but rather the method of constructing convergences as the foundation for “considerations” and then “proposals”…
The probably “backwardist” Rev. George William Rutler had this to say, already back in 1987:
“…the manner is the message. And the orthopraxis consists in the resolution of conflict. Even among orthodox Catholics, the fallout from dialecticism abounds: it helps explain the clerical [clericalist!] tendency to reduce antithetical concepts to ‘leftist’ and ‘rightist’ [bigoted, rigid!] labels and then to synthesize them to a middle position [convergence rather than conversion?], a bland theosophy [synodality?]. The clerical form of dialecticism is called the ‘pastoral’ approach; but there is little that is pastoral about it, if one knows what a shepherd is supposed to do” (“Beyond Modernity,” Ignatius, 1987, p. 176).
Not exactly Teilhard’s Omega Point, but some 116 convergences in 20 categories, not objectionable in themselves, but also as echoes of a sociological mindset and subliminal premise?
The French Teilhardian “noosphere” at work…and, speaking Germanic, also what Rutler terms “pastoral Hegelianism.”
@ Plight of Christians
A strange moral lethargy in Catholicism’s ‘eldest daughter’ as well as throughout the Church, although less so in the Vatican’s despised USA. Nigeria, above all, living heroically in the midst of the deadliest persecution by murderous Islam. And virtually all the murders, rapes, desecration of churches is by Muslims, emigres and those native born, as in France [as were the two who decapitated an aged priest during his Mass by Christ’s altar .
Europe, formerly the center of Christianity whose missionaries brought Christ to the world, has since become indifferent to a Christianity with no savor, no rationale for courageous witness. Missionary spirit is dying if not dead. My two experiences as a lay missionary, then priest missionary 30 years apart witnessed the dramatic change from the heroic type priests I knew as a layman, and the more liberal, modernist priest I now met as a priest. First time around most talk and concern were about existential African challenges, second time ecumenical worship in town, civil rights issues, priests and religious rights, frequent abandonment of mission posts.
Most readers are aware of all the disordered moral thought that’s plagued the Church. When serious sin became a concept of mediaeval thought and no longer referenced in Sunday sermons the fire dwindled to ashes. Nothing to fight and die for if everything was now justifiable in context of conditions. Benedict XVI lamented the death of missionary activity writing that the doctrine of salvation outside the Church was the cause. He was correct. Although that truth is conditional, and was and is now conflated far beyond the reality. Salvation is a hard, rough road, and those outside the Church without access to the sacraments baptism, repentance, penance, the Holy Eucharist are extremely deprived of the means.
Presently, the delusion is that laxity, relaxing of doctrinal requirements or rules is the correct answer, when that is exactly reason for disinterest and apostasy. Evangelization without conversion is presenting the Gospel without Christ, to whom we must convert. When conversion becomes a form of misinterpreted proselytism the faith becomes an ideological platitude. Men don’t die for platitudes. They shed their blood and spend their lives for a living faith inspired by Christ’s grace.
Please stop giving exposure to anything written by Sincha Fischer.
That was unintentional….the name is Simcha.
I’ve been rather disappointed in the tone of her articles. It’s a shame because I used to look forward to them in the National Catholic Register. One of my children enjoyed reading them too.
I don’t know what happened.
The piece was actually written by her husband, Damien Fisher. I’m not a fan of their work, overall, but this piece has a lot of worthwhile information and avoids the sort of “gotcha” nastiness that sometimes characterizes their work.
It did have some pertinent info. Thank you for sharing it.
I’ll note, by the way, that I always appreciate suggestions by readers, even when I disagree with them. If I followed all of the directives given by readers over the years, CWR would have ceased existing years ago. The main point here, however, is that posting these links is not an endorsement of everything in the pieces; rather, we think they have value to CWR readers for a various reasons.
@ Plight of Christians
About red lights shining on French cathedrals and basilicas, there’s a European precedent…
After over a millennium of impregnable security, the Eastern Empire fell with Constantinople when its walls were finally breached (May 29, 1453). Between one hundred and three hundred thousand Muslims moved against a much smaller force of only seven thousand defenders.
The historian, John Julian Norwich, captures this eerie moment:
“By now, too, the omens had begun. On 22 May there was a lunar eclipse; a day or two later, as the holiest icon of the Virgin was being carried through the streets in one last appeal for her intercession, it slipped from its platform. A few hundred yards further on, a violent thunderstorm caused the whole procession to be abandoned.
“The next morning the city was shrouded in fog, unheard-of at the end of May; the same night the dome of Santa Sophia was suffused with an unearthly red glow [!] that crept slowly up from the base to the summit and then went out. The past phenomenon was also seen by the Turks in Galata; Mehmet himself was greatly disturbed, and was reassured only after his astrologers had interpreted it as a sign that the building would soon be illuminated by the True Faith. For the Byzantines, the meaning was clear: the Spirit of God itself had deserted their city” (John Julian Norwich, “A Short History of Byzantium,” 1997).
@ The German Synodle Weg
If anyone assumes the Germans aren’t prepared for battle, just read history and the battle of the Teutoburg Forest, when Rome’s legions were demolished by Germans under command of Arminius, a Romanized German commander familiar with Roman tactics. Reminds me of Rome’s favorite Cardinal Reinhard Marx, noted for heated opposition with Rome, constantly elevated to higher positions. Marx quite familiar with tactics. As is His Holiness. “Why do some of his positions still seem to wink at those of the Germans?” (Gagliarducci). Tactics.
CNA’s Gagliarducci underscores the German Synodale plan as ‘Panzer’ tactic. Although that violence won’t be necessary for victory. They have a Romanized philistine in command at Rome.
No Present Under The Tree
It was the night before Jesus was born,
Mother and Father eyes were worn.
They traveled a long way,
With no place to stay.
Yet they answered the bell,
The Bible would live to tell.
The One and Only born to die,
Long ago I stopped asking why.
Every Christmas I look at the tree,
I see Jesus, His Blood, His saving me.
I ponder the little children He so loved,
Falling on Him like rain from above.
Like the curtain in the Temple, my heart is torn,
And I lament and become forlorn.
I think of the unborn children who are no more,
Never knew Christmas and what was in store.
Oh, if their mother could have just let them be,
The ultimate present under the tree.
No Present Under The Tree
It was the night before Jesus was born,
Mother and Father eyes were worn.
They traveled a long way,
With no place to stay.
Yet they answered the bell,
The Bible would live to tell.
The One and Only born to die,
Long ago I stopped asking why.
Every Christmas I look at the tree,
I see Jesus, His Blood, His saving me.
I ponder the little children He so loved,
Falling on Him like rain from above.
Like the curtain in the Temple, my heart is torn,
And I lament and become forlorn.
I think of the unborn children who are no more,
Never knew Christmas and what was in store.
Oh, if their mother could have just let them be,
The ultimate present under the tree.
There’s a simple answer to why Europe ignores hate crimes against Christians. They know that Christians–unlike Muslims–won’t react in murderous ways to perceived insults. I’m just making an observation here, not advocating that we copy the behavior of vengeful Muslims.
I’ve shared this before so please excuse the repetition, but some years back the BBC had a story about a UK art exhibit that featured a really offensive, sacrilegious depiction of the Blessed Mother. Christian groups complained about it to no avail. Then the Muslims protested saying they took it as a personal offense because they revered Mary & almost immediately the piece of “art” was removed.