Cardinal Sarah and Our Silent Apostasy

The Catholic Thing ^ | 1/16/16 | Fr. Gerald E. Murray

[marshmallow]

The book God or Nothing, a wide-ranging interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, by the French journalist Nicolas Diat is one of the most refreshing things published in recent memory. I cannot praise this book too highly. It breathes forth the wisdom, insight, and deep faith of a truly devoted servant of the Church. It is a prophetic witness to the truth. Sarah gets to the root of what is ailing the world today, and proposes the Church's unchanging remedy: faith in God as revealed by His Son Jesus Christ. Along the way, he also chides fellow churchmen and the faithful for those occasions when surrender to a worldly spirit has brought great harm to the Church.

Pope St. Pius X was asked after his election what would be the program of his pontificate. He pointed to a crucifix and said, "This is my program." In a similar vein, asked about the current situation, "Is it a crisis of the Church or a 'crisis of God?'," Sarah responds: "Contrary to what we may think, the greatest difficulty of men is not in believing what the Church teaches at the moral level; the most difficult thing for the postmodern world is to believe in God and in his only Son."

The root problem in Western society - and the Church - comes down to this: degrees of unbelief in God and in his revelation. This unbelief ranges from atheism (theoretical and practical) to agnosticism (often the fruit of ignorance, laziness, or spiritual blindness) to pick-and-choose Catholicism. When we fail to adhere unreservedly to Christ and his teaching, we are left to our own devices - not a happy thought.

Sarah states: "If the tie between God and Christians is........

[marshmallow]

.......if we find something in the Gospel offensive to our new sensibilities, then let's ignore it and effectively rewrite Church teaching by changing her sacramental practice. To calm nerves, let's claim that the doctrine remains unchanged. We do not really believe that, of course, but it is the necessary camouflage for revolutionary doctrinal innovation until we can cast off this pretense. Then we can simply announce that whatever anyone thought that Christ's teaching meant in the past, it now means something quite different, thanks to the gift of the "prophetic voices of our age."

He gets it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Sometimes people stumble over the truth and then they pick themselves up and go right on as though nothing had happened.

"Contrary to what we may think, the greatest difficulty of men is not in believing what the Church teaches at the moral level; the most difficult thing for the postmodern world is to believe in God and in his only Son."

This is the quantum leap. Nothing else makes sense except in the light of having made it. Most evangelical congregations have this straight, with a "decision" model. You believe, or you don't believe, and there comes a point where you can definitely say yes, you do believe. Why isn't the Catholic Church getting it. Maybe it's because it's somehow suggesting you can inch your way into it through ritual? And that you can inch your way back out of it? Maybe that has to go before it won't be waffling any more?

[Jim Noble]

Why isn't the Catholic Church getting it.

Well, two points.

First, "the Catholic Church" isn't 60 highly motivated Christians in an unchurched town of 10 000 people who share many things in common - theology, geography, social class, more often than not race - who enjoy one another's company and who more often than not practice separationism. They have gone on and called a pastor who aligns with their world view. It's fairly easy for a group of this size - even up to several hundred (although most congregations are smaller) to "get it" - whatever "it" is.

Second, the Catholic Church is a billion living people, and at least that many who have gone before. They are subject to the same splitting tendencies as the Evangelical congregation I've cartooned above (how many Evangelical splits have you seen in your lifetime?), but somehow they have not split, for the most part. The idea that such a global and timeless entity can "get it", the way you mean it, is unreasonable.

Evangelicals excel at shaking the dust off their sandals. Catholics excel at staying together.

It takes all kinds.

Read Mark 9:38-41.

[sneakers]

bump to read later

[RobbyS]

Do you think the members of your average evangelical congress are more “born again” than Francis of Asissi?

[HiTech RedNeck]

They don’t go on the congress model. Congresses are not needed to welcome Christ.

And anyhow didn’t St. Francis of Assisi say preach the gospel, and if necessary use words?

[Biggirl]

Also the “decision time” is when Catholics at Easter, and also at other times of the year renew their baptism promises. That is the closest thing to an alter call.

[RobbyS]

Francis was a devout Catholic. He responded to the bad example of rich-living by the clergy by trying to live the same lifestyle that Jesus and his disciples had chosen. That included preaching.