Posted on 03/08/2020 5:02:29 PM PDT by marshmallow
Rome, Italy, Mar 8, 2020 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Rome has canceled all public Masses until April 3 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The announcement by the vicar general of the diocese, published Sunday evening, follows a decree by the Italian government suspending all public religious ceremonies.
“The Church of Rome … assumes an attitude of full responsibility towards the community in the awareness that protection from contagion requires even drastic measures, especially in interpersonal contact. Therefore, until the same date of April 3, the communal liturgical celebrations are suspended,” Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of Rome, said in a statement March 8.
“The season of Lent helps us to live this great trial evangelically. I bless you by entrusting you all to Our Lady of Divine Love,” the vicar general said.
Priests living in Rome and Vatican City can continue to offer Mass in private. Parishes in Rome will remain open for personal prayer before the tabernacle, the diocese said.
The announcement by the Rome diocese mirrors national action adopted by the Italian bishops’ conference.
The conference also issued a statement March 8 explaining that the Italian government’s decree “suspends civil and religious ceremonies, including funeral ceremonies, throughout the country until Friday, 3 April.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Heretics all.
Public prayer might be just what they need to end this.
Pope at Audience: Church a ‘field hospital’ that cares for sick
**The announcement by the vicar general of the diocese, published Sunday evening, follows a decree by the Italian government suspending all public religious ceremonies. **
This is the state trying to control the church. Reminds me of why people came to America.
Heretics all.
Song of the Pelagian Heresy
(Hillaire Belloc, 1912)
Pelagius lived in Kardanoel
and taught a doctrine there
How whether you went to Heaven or Hell,
It was your own affair.
How, whether you found eternal joy
Or sank forever to burn,
It had nothing to do with the church, my boy,
But it was your own concern.
(Semi-chorus)
Oh, he didn’t believe in Adam and Eve,
He put no faith therein!
His doubts began with the fall of man,
And he laughed at original sin!
(Chorus)
With my row-ti-tow, ti-oodly-ow,
He laughed at orignal sin!
Whereat the Bishop of old Auxerre
(Germanus was his name)
He tore great handfuls out of his hair,
And he called Pelagius Shame:
And then with his stout Episcopal staff
So thoroughly whacked and banged
The heretics all, both short and tall,
They rather had been hanged.
Oh, he thwacked them hard, and he banged them long
Upon each and all occasions,
Till they bellowed in chorus, loud and strong
Their orthodox persuasions!
With my row-ti-tow, ti-oodly-ow,
Their orthodox persuasions!
Now the Faith is old
and the Devil is bold
Exceedingly bold. indeed;
And the masses of doubt
That are floating about
Would smother a mortal creed.
But we that sit in sturdy youth,
And still can drink strong ale,
Oh — let us put it away to infallible truth,
Which always shall prevail!
And thank the Lord
For the temporal sword,
And for howling heretics, too;
And whatever good things
our Christendom brings,
But especially the barley-brew!
With my row-ti-tow, ti-oodly-ow
Especially the barley-brew!
Certainly some cowardice on display.
He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.
I would like to note three things
1) What we are dealing with here is an exercise of governmental authority in the Church, not a matter of doctrine, so of itself this is not heresy. One might be tempted to inquire about heresy, or at least a very weak faith, at times when there are matters of governance that one disagrees with. One’s practical judgment need not always ally with those governing in the sense that one can recognize that if one were in charge, one would, on the basis of one’s own understanding of the facts, do something else. I am not the Pope, nor am I a member of the Curia, and for this I am grateful to God.
2) While the line “Heretics All” does appear in the poem I posted, Belloc actually has another Poem entitled “Heretics All” which contains lines more relevant to my own mental state
eretics all, whoever you may be,
In Tarbes or Nimes, or over the sea,
You never shall have good words from me.
Caritas non conturbat me.
But Catholic men that live upon wine
Are deep in the water, and frank, and fine;
Wherever I travel I find it so,
Benedicamus Domino.
On childing women that are forelorn,
And men that sweat in nothing but scorn:
That is on all that ever were born,
Miserere Domine.
To my poor self on my deathbed,
And all my dear companions dead,
Because of the love that I bore them,
Dona Eis Requiem.
Hilaire Belloc
3) It is wrong to vow to never say anything kind about people one disagrees with, even if they may appear to be heretics. That said, this is a difficult issue and many people undoubtedly struggle with it, especially as there is a tendency to see formal heresy where, at most, material heresy exists. People in material heresy are not, properly speaking, heretics. And many people who are thought to be material heretics may not actually be even that, but may have weak faith-—or may actually be strong in faith but acting in a way that we do not understand.
In the end, who am I to judge? Always a good question when one is drawing a judgment, and pondering it may cause one to be more judicious in choice of words and poems.
That said, Belloc does speak to my fallen soul at times in a way that says something about how fallen I am, and in a way that others may find cathartic. Whether that is a good thing or not, I do not know.
Always act in a way that promotes the truth charitably so far as one is able to.
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