Replies

I rmember hearing a talk years ago by Dr. William Marra, concerning the true meaning of religious liberty, which is to move into an every-greater fidelity to Catholic truth. He was a great defender of the Church, and I want to share this based on my memory of the way he explained it: if there are any errors, here, they are entirely mine, not his!

Marra used this analogy: an archer must not only intend for his arrow to strike the target, but must also intend (or allow) the arrow to pass through every intermediate point in space that comes between the archer and the target.

To hit the bulls-eye, the arrow has to traverse a very large number of points as it makes its approach. To the observer it may be uncertain as to whether it is more-or-less inaccurately approaching the "overal area" of its destination, or destined to hit only the general target (which might be 3 feet wide!), or whether it will fly perfectly true, and hit --- perhaps just a fraction of an inch in diameter --- the actual point of the bull's eye.

If you see the arrow flying toward the mark, it makes little sense to complain that a freeze-frame video shows it not (yet) perfectly zeroed in. A gust of wind could blow it wide, or make it fall short. That same gust of wind could take it to precisely the right spot! But if the intention is to hit the bull's-eye, it has the "right" to pass through every intermediary point.

So I think we should look with hope and charity toward the growing goodwill and cooperation between the Orthodox and the Catholics. If it's aimed toward the Lord Jesus Christ, it's aimed at the bulls-eye.

I like to think of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (or you could call it the Parable of the Prodigal's Father.) The father didn't spend his time mentally listing all the faults of his erratic estranged son. He apparently spend his time watching the road.

"But while [the son] was still a long way off,
his father saw him
and was filled with compassion for him;
he ran to his son,
threw his arms around him
and kissed him.'

I'm for that.

We are indeed going through intermediate points in the process. I don’t think reunification is possible till the Roman Church becomes more orthodox — not in liturgical form but in essence — and the Eastern Orthodox become more catholic, again not in form but in lessening of their ethnic character.

One test is the reintegration of SSPX. If that succeeds, as I pray it will, then we could possibly see clear to reunification with the East in a generation or two.

I do, however, think that before the formal unification takes place, a lot of collaboration in the cultural arena shoudl take place, as we have common enemies on the left.

I've read Dr. Marra. and listened to his tapes. I don't think that he would apply his analogy to this situation.

The problem with this "dialogue" is that it's a lie, there is no dialogue when one side is hiding the truth. The Catholic Church's side is hiding truths, hiding is a form of a lie (Honorius I, was excommunicated for doing the same thing. The only pope ever excommunicated.)

You can't lie, even to save the world.

What I'm highlighting is the fact that there is scarcely a Catholic that believes anymore that the Orthodox are still heretics, schismatic, their sacraments are not efficacious to salvation for the heretic and schismatic, and that the Russian Orthodox church is loaded with KGB agents. The Vatican "dialoguers" look past all that, just like they look past all the crimes agaist the Chinese Catholics, just to have relations with Communist China.

You can't lie, even to save the world.

READ THAT VERY CAREFULLY.