Politicizing Theology – “It is important to diagnose the current cultural malaise not through the prism of categories such as capitalism and communism, right and left, but the underpinning metaphysical ideologies of materialism and relativism.” Capitalism, Communism, and Catholic Social Teaching (What We Need Now – Substack)
Pathetic Revolutionaries – “This exaltation of youth is simultaneously the exaltation of ignorance and incompetence. Early claims of Israeli occupation of Gaza and the continued sloppy use of the language of genocide, fueled by people at the U.N. who could benefit from using a dictionary, are two obvious examples of the former.” What the Pre-Palestinian Campus Protests Are Really About (First Things)
Nationwide Prayer – “Millions of Americans gathered nationwide to observe the National Day of Prayer on Thursday and to repent for timidly failing “to dispel the darkness and bring light throughout” every cultural institution of the United States.” ‘Darkness Doesn’t Stand a Chance’: A Great Multitude Takes Part in 2024 National Day of Prayer (Washington Stand)
Rights and Duties – “Ultimately, she placed her hope not in human reason, which she well knew was fallible, but in God’s eternal reason and his promises.” The Reason of Mary Wollstonecraft: Championing Women and Their Moral Formation (National Catholic Register)
Poet and Painters – “Recently, five artists collaborated on a collective exhibition at the Roswell Visual Arts Center in an experience once musical, visual and poetic.”Artistic interpretations inspired by Dana Gioia’s poetry on view at Roswell Visual Arts Center (WABE)
An Immense Shift – “Generations of Catholics who embraced the modernizing tide sparked in the 1960s by Vatican II are increasingly giving way to religious conservatives who believe the church has been twisted by change … ” ‘A step back in time’: America’s Catholic Church sees an immense shift toward the old ways (Associated Press)
Catholics and Life Issues – “The vast, vast majority of members of the Catholic church reject the teachings of their faith on all kinds of issues.” Cafeteria Catholicism? How Many Catholics Agree with the Church’s Position on Hot Topics? (Graphs About Religion)
Gravely Harming Believers – “Was it sheer frustration that prompted a group of Catholic scholars to issue their open letter charging Pope Francis with heresy?” Mounting frustration in the twilight of the pontificate (Catholic Culture)
Heroic in Suffering – “The Poles are an iron-forged people, shaped into a sword of faithful resilience in the heat of battle. This faithful resilience has been further shaped by the resilience of their Catholic Faith.” Unsung Heroes from an Undersung Country (Crisis Magazine)
Dying Out – “Liberals are committing genetic suicide and going extinct, despite our efforts to talk them out of it.” Babies Are Just Future Fascists (American Mind)
Hallowing Storytelling – “No doubt you can guess my answer, that fiction is formative, spiritually and humanly, and instead of setting up a dichotomy between fiction and nonfiction, we ought to take a both/and approach.” Fiction as Spiritual Reading: Three Stabs at an Argument (Rhonda Ortiz)
Beyond Tolerance – “By being immersed in both the Congregationalist community focused on social justice and the pious Catholic one, I learned to hold both commitments, to the common good and to the life of faith, as one.” Contours of a Spiritual Universe (The Lamp)
(*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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Re #10 – Dying Out
The Peachy Keenan solution!
@ Gravely Harming Believers
About the very comprehensive letter linked within this article from Catholic Culture, the dozens of signers seem to miss the cleverness of enabling heresy without actually committing “heresy”. So, yours truly disagrees with Phil Lawler, the author of the article, who would “be content if bishops made it clear that the Church’s teaching has not changed, will not change, cannot change on fundamental questions such as the inviolability of the marriage bond and sanctity of the Eucharist.”
The endgame today is a de facto and ever more accepted split between formal “teaching” versus a parallel universe in practice. A polyglot church where even the orthodox Catholics (like the Amish) are included (inclusivity!) with their own and backwardist niche of dhimmitude.
And where, for example, even the faithful hierarchy across all of Africa—in rejecting Fiducia Supplicans—are patronized as only a “special case.”
Regarding the article on Cafeteria Catholicism:
I believe there is no doubt that a majority of Catholics are cafeteria Catholics. If they were the 83% that CARA reports are not weekly Mass goers that would be one thing – but my personal experience indicates otherwise.
However, including Catholics’ views on the death penalty distorts the percentages given in the article. Abortion and euthanasia are intrinsically evil, and the death penalty is not. The reasons for this have been more than adequately addressed by Edward Fesser in CWR.
When American Bishops voted 222 to 8 to not deny The Body of Christ to powerful public facilitators of the abortion holocaust in November 2021, they made it clear that they are cafeteria Catholics.
Who were the eight?
And for Francis to have frequently alluded to the fungibility of truth in the abstract to where he has openly contended that truth, rather than being the immutable reflection of the unchanging mind of God, is subject to a reality where even God changes His mind through history, there fundamentally is no more of a doctrinal truth any more than a moral absolute in his view. The perfect cafeteria Catholic to lead those still willing to be led to nowhere.
@ Gravely Harming Believers
“But what is it that we want bishops to say? That the Pope is a heretic? I, for one, would be content if bishops made it clear that the Church’s teaching has not changed, will not change, cannot change on fundamental questions such as the inviolability of the marriage bond and sanctity of the Eucharist” (Phil Lawler). What else?
That the Church at large must practice exactly as perennial Church teaching commands, stemming from Christ through the Apostles. That whatever this pontiff or any pontiff may suggest, imply, say that contradicts perennial doctrine must be denied, that bishops ordained as defenders of the faith are obligated to make the above known clearly, adamantly, and consistently.
Enough with the flaming cowardice. Francis is a material heretic. A declaration of formal heresy might require formal procedures, but blatantly obvious acts of heresy are for anyone to proclaim and the obligation of any and all Catholics to oppose.
What is more important, his precious feelings or the incalculable more babies being tossed into the meatgrinder of abortion because we have a figurehead of Catholicism who is indisputably a moral relativist, and in so identifying himself as a denier of immutable truth and moral absolutes tells all the millions of souls around the world sitting on the fence of moral confusion about abortion, go ahead and have it. We Catholics are no authority. God doesn’t talk to us anymore than you. Whatever feels right to you, is what God is asking of you at this time in your concrete circumstances. Stop the quivering nonsense. The babies are more important. It takes monumental cowardice to say we don’t have a right to call a heretic a heretic.
You say, “Enough with the flaming cowardice.” I crudely say, “The skirts need to grow a pair.”
O! Dotter beloved on high,
whence hast thou learned so gruff refrain
That should fairly ashame would be men.
Re: Hallowing Storytelling – Fiction as Spiritual Reading: Three Stabs at an Argument (Rhonda Ortiz)
Rhonda’s three stabs may kill or heal. Doesn’t it depend on where the blade lands? A cut to diseased tissue is good, but a hit to healthy tissue can devastate. A GOOD story is ONE FORM of spiritual reading.
The stories of Jesus are second nature to cradle Catholics, and the happy childhood would grow smaller without them. A faithful lover of Christ and a student of classical literature does best to approach modern fiction with cautious skepticism.
Also, those in middle-aged dotage likely look for meat rather than milk. There’s not much time left! Children understand the stories of Jesus, but do children understand St. Paul? There are times and seasons. Paul’s meat can contain tough gristle. Tenderizing or placing cuts with a sharp knife together with marinating overnight may improve comprehension.
In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Stories are for all ages. But children grow and want meat.
P.S.: I agree with Rhonda’s 16-year-old assessment of Fanny (and the entirety of Mansfield Park). I’m much older now but evidently haven’t matured enough to change my opinion. Maybe it’s time to give Fanny another chance at redemption.
This was a first draft and my attempt to post relayed the colorful message that I’d encountered a *Host Server Error*. Hence two posts, one apology, and an edited better version below. In case you like reading lots of words.
As regards formal pronouncements ex cathedra that’s a separate issue. No pontiff including Francis has ever contradicted the deposit of faith, those truths revealed as essential to faith and salvation by formal ex cathedra pronouncement.
This writer believes Our Lord will not permit it.
In the AP article for An Immense Shift there is a link to another AP report in 2022 about a call for “unity” by the Pope for the 60th anniversary of VATICAN II.
It seems to me “immense shift” continues MESMERISMS aimed at making the Holy Church (with Council) into what she is not and could never be. Propaganda found to be effective in its own cause that never meant to be accommodating, is not going to depart on its own.
We can consider the Church to be in a watershed moment rather than in a storm. She ought to be noticing, as she is, a needed series of correctives such as she traditionally does, known as reform; which belong to her prerogatives (as it were) and which are to come.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-religion-7033b0291ddeea9d5a5facc0d53ece0e
Re: Hallowing Storytelling – Fiction as Spiritual Reading: Three Stabs at an Argument (Rhonda Ortiz)
Rhonda’s three stabs may kill or heal. Where does the blade land? A cut to diseased tissue may heal, but a hit into healthy tissue can kill.
A GOOD story is ONE FORM of spiritual reading. There are other forms, nonfiction among them.
The stories of Jesus are second nature to cradle Catholics, and a happy childhood would well wane without them. Nevertheless, a faithful follower of Christ or a student of classical literature does well to carry his cautious skepticism when he shops for modern fiction.
Speaking of shopping: The site to which Ms. Ortiz’ link takes adverts a dozen or so books of fiction, Ms. Ortiz’ notably among them. Self-promotion carries its own special smell.
Finally, those in middle-aged dotage likely look for meat rather than milk. There’s not much time left! Children understand the stories of Jesus, but have they understood the epistles of St. Paul? There are times and seasons. Paul’s meat can contain tough gristle. Tenderizing or placing cuts with a sharp knife may be necessary. Marinating overnight may improve taste as well as digestion. In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Stories are for all ages, but as children grow, they usually want more solid food.
P.S.: I agree with Rhonda’s first assessment of Fanny (and the entirety of Mansfield Park). I’m much older than her 16 years, and still hold that view. If I could muster the motive and find the time to meander through Mansfield Park again, perhaps I, like Rhonda, would find Fanny redeemed. Hmmm….
@ Politicizing Theology
Two encapsulated, pointed perspectives, 1 “Fr James Schall observed that the problem of today is the reappearance in political form of the suppressed spiritual” (Theology is politics and politics theology). 2 “Guillaume de Thieulloy, For the Church, the question is not about the victory of the Right or the Left. It is about truth and the correct understanding of moral and political consequences of the faith” (Polish Australian Fr Olek Stirrat).
Stirrat’s thesis is that the base issue is a Christian anthropology, not who we vote for. Example is found in Marx’ amazing proposition that to be [a man] consists in standing independently, whereas if there’s a God we owe that existence to an external. The implication is a necessary interdependence in which Man must be God’s equal [Lucifer’s premise?]. Stirrat then assesses Ratzinger’s transcendence and deification of politics to wit an anthropology of Man created in God’s image, further supporting this with John Paul II and the “determination to commit oneself to the common good’.
Apparent is the reality of Christian societal ethics based on a Christian anthropology, and the subsequent necessary ethics of politicization by which we live in commonality. Existentially our dilemma is the dearth of Catholic true believers in politics.