Posted on 12/06/2022 8:35:23 PM PST by ebb tide
The Synod of synodality, which has been extended for another year by decision of Pope Francis, has begun its continental phase.
While this process of global listening, which is being celebrated within the Church, we see how different local Churches decide to bet on very different paths. The most obvious case is the direction that the Church in the United States seems to have taken, with the recent appointments of the president, vice president and secretary general of the country's Bishops' Conference, and the attitude shown by the German bishops in recent days.
The Church in the United States is concerned with issues such as the defense of life, the defense of male-female marriage, or the affirmation of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
n addition to the road map established by the episcopal conferences of each country, some cardinals also decide to take sides and bet on the Church model they wish to promote and defend.
At this time, Cardinal Müller and Cardinal Sarah have decided to raise the banner of defense of the pure and integrity Church and return to transcendental issues and the origin and essence of what the Church is.
Both cardinals have been denouncing in interviews and public speeches the current instrumentalization into which the Church seems to have fallen, more focused on the social work of an NGO, on diplomatic, migratory or ecological issues, leaving the announcement and defense in the background. of the gospel.
In the case of Cardinal Sarah, he is prefect of Divine Worship, his commitment is based on reinforcing the messages on the defense of the liturgy, the sacraments, prayer and silence in the daily life of Catholics.
In a recent interview , the Guinean cardinal asks to rediscover the value of the sacraments and not reduce them to "family gatherings." "Each of the seven sacraments is a gift from the Church, to illuminate how God intervenes in our lives for the sake of our salvation," Sarah adds.
In that same interview, Sarah maintains that “we must be more careful, when we are gathered for the Eucharist at Mass, not to turn Holy Mass into a show or a drama, or a phenomenon of people coming together because they are friends, but rather, rather, to worship God. And when we adore God in silence, then God will transform our lives”, argues the cardinal.
Sarah has emphasized on numerous occasions the importance of silence in reaching God. In another interview she gave last summer , she noted that "without silence, everything we do is superficial. Because in silence we can return to the depths of ourselves. The experience can be terrifying. Some people can no longer bear this moment of truth in which who we are is no longer masked by any disguise. In silence, there is no longer any way to escape the truth of the heart.
“It will be daily prayer, the rosary, life to the rhythm of the liturgy. But we must be clear: this requires a real external and internal struggle. The easiest way is to let yourself be carried away by the noise, by the incessant flow of information. If we don't compel ourselves, we will be overwhelmed and swallowed up by the tsunami of news and requests. Silence is asceticism. Undoubtedly, the most characteristic asceticism of our time. Fasting from food is necessary, but fasting from noise, talk, and commotion is vital," the cardinal said in another interview in May 2022 .
For his part, Cardinal Müller has also been quite active for a few months denouncing the heresies of the German synodal path. In October of this year , the German cardinal stressed that "materialist, communist or post-humanist ideologies cannot be introduced into the Church". "Most of his theses are false, contrary to the Catholic faith," added the cardinal.
In this sense, he called for "100% rejection of those ideologies that are against Christian doctrine" and stressed that "it is the task of the Pope and the Roman Church to resist and call them to the obedience of the Christian faith."
Although he expressed being “very upset” with the members of the synodal path, he was convinced that they will not carry out their proposals: “They will return because they are cowards before public opinion and they will be before the Pope. If the Pope speaks clearly, they will obey," the cardinal said.
Regarding the blessing of homosexual couples, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirmed that “no bishop has the authority to bless things or behaviors that are against the will of our Creator and Redeemer. We have to help these people in pastoral care to find their way, but the way of Jesus Christ and not according to the ideologies of this world”.
In his recent participation in the CEU Congress in Madrid, Müller developed his "program" for the Church today into three ideas: "the Church serves with the gospel, the sacraments and the bishops and it is through the Church that God carries out the salvific task”, “the bishops cannot reinterpret the revealed faith to their liking” and therefore, “the Church is not a political party; it is not based on the ideologies of the people but lives on the promise of God”, “the central themes of the Church should not be climate change or immigration policy, but the gospel of Jesus Christ”.
Faced with the cardinals, bishops and priests who are dedicated to guarding, defending and promulgating the faith as they received it, we find another small group with increasing strength within the Church.
They are those who have their churches empty, without vocations and disoriented. Instead of talking about God, they prefer to talk about gender issues, homosexuality, celibacy, women's ordination etc...
Faced with the problems they face, they promote easy and wrong recipes. They are those who follow the saying that says "if you can't beat them, join them". They are those who prefer to mold the teachings of the Church to worldly proposals to please a small but noisy group, as Cardinal Ouellet reproached the German bishops.
Cardinals like Marx (Germany), De Kesel (Belgium) or Hollerich (Luxembourg) are the ones who champion all these heretical and far from faith recipes. They forget to talk about Christ, the sacraments, prayer, salvation, Eternal Life or hell.
Cardinal Marx during the celebration of a "queer" Mass
They have substituted worldly ideologies for the commandments, Tradition and the catechism. Under the pretext of wanting to bring the Church closer to those who are far away, they end up distancing themselves from the Church because what they perhaps forget is that the Church will always prevail, despite the human errors of those who make up – and we make up – the Church.
Therefore, in this situation there is no room for half measures. What is at stake is the future of the Church model that we want. Facing the model of the mundane Church, concerned only with ecological aspects or social assistance, is the model of the traditional Church, as the way and source of life and salvation for all men.
Opposite the Marx, Hollerich, De Kesel or Bätzing model, there remains the spiritual model of Sarah, the intellectual and theological model of Müller or the one who suffers persecution in silence like that of Zen.
Ping
When did Cardinal Sarah become a "she"?
Into the Abyss. I am not a Catholic. I am Orthodox. I am married to a Catholic woman. I love her with all my heart. We attend each other’s Mass on an alternating basis. Both churches allow members of the other to accept Communion. The Leftist un-Christian path that Francis and those who are responsible for him are taking the Catholic church on is alarming to both of us.
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