Posted on 05/01/2002 6:24:00 AM PDT by history_matters
CARDINALS AND BISHOPS, PLEASE LEAVE THE CHANCERIES AND COME AMONG US TO HEAL
Dear Cardinals:
We wrote the American bishops a month ago. At that time we suggested (hopefully with adequate humility) that the current crisis in the Church could be resolved in large part by a return to tradition -- by a return to basic Christian holiness.
If you would so allow, we'd like to extend that argument. We write you again with what we hope is obedience. But we write with urgency. There is revolution in the air. Lay groups are forming. Radical nuns are expressing rage. The average Catholic wants an entire overhaul of some basic Church teachings, and the majority polled by secular media now even want women priests.
The only way to avert this -- the only way to prevent a deepening crisis, and perhaps even a split (at least ideologically) with Rome -- is to get back to the example of the apostles.
What we mean is that instead of a bureaucratic approach -- instead of the current aloofness -- our leaders should be evangelical. They should be mystical.
This is not a criticism; it is a plea. Please, bishops and cardinals, come out of the chanceries. Pray with us. Recite the Rosary. Adore the Blessed Sacrament in public. Heal. This will solve more than a dozen national meetings or trips to Rome or press conferences.
Dear cardinals, deliver us. You have the authority. You have the power -- as did the apostles -- to cast out demons and there are demons all around your flock. They engulf us. They engulf you. Cast them out. Send them away as Peter sent them away in the Acts of the Apostles -- a part of the Bible we all need to revisit. Cast evil spirits out of the priests and seminarians and theologians who have caused atrocities -- who have harmed our young.
Exorcise, dear cardinals. You do not have much time left. Deliver us. We are under assault and need the hand of your high anointing and this is what Christ left: the legacy of His Holy Spirit. As in Acts, show us the wonders, the miracles, the force of God. We know you can tap into that because you were chosen and have unusual gifts. Use them, dear prelates. Move with those gifts. This and only this will bring us above the crisis. Only with prayer and the special charisms you have can we heal the Church and prevent what may otherwise be a yet greater disaster. The Church will survive -- we have no doubt about that -- but it is going through a purification and during a purification there is the need, the urgency, of the Spirit. The media and the lawyers and the enemies of the Church -- so encouraged at this moment -- will never know what hit them!
It is what the apostles and disciples did: When they were in trouble they asked God to stretch "forth Your hand in cures and signs and wonders" (Acts 4:30).
Are we any different today? Has God changed? The apostles prayed so hard they sent demons out shrieking (Acts 8:7). They shook the place (Acts 4:31)! They went to the streets of Tyre and Derbe and Phoenicia as we need you now to come to the streets -- the homes -- of Boston, Los Angeles, Phoenix.
We look at Scripture and what we see is that the apostles were not bureaucrats or academics or politicians. They established the Church through signs and wonders and now we must re-establish it in the same way. We will come out of this not with intellectual dissertations, not legislative remarks -- but faith expressed with the love of Jesus.
We realize that in the modern structure of the world there may be the need for diplomacy and certain trappings of power but worry that in this regard modern chanceries (limos, palatial rectories) have become too worldly. It is in simplicity that we best convey the truth and in poverty that we find true power -- which will bring us out of situations that seem to have no exit.
Call on Jesus. Call on Mary. Call on Joseph!
This is the Church. This is what the earliest bishops -- the apostles -- did. This was the work of the disciples. Come out of the chanceries, dear cardinals, and pray with us into the night. Lay your hands on us. We need you! This month of May, pray the Rosary.
Dear cardinals, you have been at too much a distance. We need you as apostles. We need you to come among us. Heal us, Your Excellencies, Your Eminences. Pray with us. Lay your hands on us. Speak to us of the wonders of Jesus. If you do that, a new and vital Church will grow. If you do that, nothing can come against you. If you do that you will beats all odds and the Church will be saved (as it says in Acts 2:40) "from this perverse generation."
In an age of Faith, Catholics build Sacre Couer, Chartes, Notre Dame, St. Denis.
In a post-Christian age, Catholics build Mahony's Cathedral. Art is just our Faith expressed in stone.
Mahoney's Monstrosity is nihilism expressed in poured concrete. My desire for the juducious application of thermonuclear weapons is my rejection of nihilism written in advanced physics.
AB
Amasing the sort of reaction Mahony's Catherdal draws - especially from Catholics.
Now, read the reaction that Sacre Couer draws - even from a "liberated woman."
Somehow, I can't imagine anyone ever saying anything like that about Mahoney's Monstrosity.
AB
Yeah, just like a boil on your butt.
AB
What's wrong with the plain ol' communion wafer we all know and love? The church I was baptized in uses a "more breadlike" host these days and I nearly choked to death on it the first time I took it.
Mostar is the diocese that Medjugorje is in, I think? Curious about your (anyone's) take on those apparitions... I almost visited there about 15 years ago, but something held me back. I'm really on the fence about Medjugorje... yet, I know people who have gone and swear something is going on (as in they believe in it).
Yes, that is the diocese. I did believe in the apparitions but something got to working on me and then I came across E. Michael Jones Fidelity Magazine (I miss that - no longer published). The story goes that Jones got so much negative mail concerning his take on Medjugorje that his magazine almost went under so he changed it to "Culture Ware". That's where I came to conclude that something was wrong there. I wrote to the bishop there and they sent me a package of documents.
I put the documents on the web. Since then I've met lots of other people who are upset about what is going on there re the alleged apparitions. People do come away from there with different experiences. You will have to decide for yourself. I've not been there myself but have met people who swear by it. You can read what they sent me hereMedjugorje Is All that Glitters Gold? Right now I'm rereading Jones' book "The Medjugorje Deception, Queen of Peace, Ethnic Cleansing, Ruined Lives". It's a real eye-opener. Jones is a very orthodox faithful novus ordo catholic.
From the link I posted above, you can scroll down and get to a link for Culture Wars if you are interested.
Living Machines: Bauhaus Architecture as Sexual Ideology - E. Michael Jones - 1995 - "Following up his best selling books Degenerate Moderns and Dionysos Rising, E. Michael Jones completes the trilogy as he reveals in this book how modern architecture arose out of the disordered lives of its creators, who catered to the new needs of the modern man as a sexual nomad, who would have no need for home or family, no need to be rooted in a particular time or place or family or soil or culture. Jones' book, Living Machines is an explanation of where that vision came from, where it led, and why it ultimately failed." $11.95 + $4 S&H, Paperback.
Maybe it will grow on me. I never cared much for modern art.
I've heard many favorable stories regarding Medjugorje over the years, but something negative always niggled at me, for no reason I can figure out. I had a deposit on a package plan to Yugoslavia around 1987 or so, but just got cold feet - still not sure why. My own mother went, but she is a religious zealot, so I discount her stories.
About a year ago (and I think it was while I was in lurk mode on FR) someone mentioned in passing that Medjugorje was bogus, in their opinion. My curiousity was piqued again, and I did a "google" search and the best info site was yours... thank you!
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