Posted on 04/25/2005 7:11:26 AM PDT by murphE
SMOKE gets in your eyes; and if it happens to be white smoke, announcing the advent of Pope Benedict XVI, and you belong to the "liberal" coterie of fantasists that equates the Catholic Church with Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, it may be a serious irritant.
Is the Pope a Catholic? There is a strong suspicion among the global media, sometimes amounting to hysteria, that the startling answer may be Yes. Is the madness finally over? Have 40 years of Mao-style continuing revolution within the Church run out of steam? Perhaps. Only time will tell; but the election of Pope Benedict raises a variety of hopes, prospects and possibilities that demand examination.
Firstly, it is necessary to dispose of the sexual distractions that obscure the more important issues because the secular media is interested in fornication, not transubstantiation. It is a depressing measure of the cloacal character of our age that the election of a successor of Peter is greeted with a raucous clamour over condoms. The so-called "liberals" are behaving at the moment as if the Church was in the grip of a fierce reaction. That is not happening. The reality is that, after four decades of demolishing the liturgy, devotional practice and Church authority, the wreckers have hit bedrock, reaching the essential core doctrines of the faith, which the indefectible nature of the Church makes it impossible to revise or abandon.
The catalyst of revolution was the Second Vatican Council. It was only a pastoral council, never comparable in authority with Trent or Vatican I. Only two of its documents had any dogmatic pretensions; but that is academic, since the documents were deliberately worded so vaguely as to admit of radical interpretation later. Among the foremost "progressive" advisers (to Cardinal Frings) at the Council was Father Josef Ratzinger, himself greatly influenced by Karl Rahner, the most powerful of the periti (experts) guiding the Council fathers.
All the evidence suggests that, like Blessed Pius IX, the present Pope has resiled from his early liberal tenets. The reasons are not far to seek. "By their fruits you shall know them" was Christ’s advice in Matthew 7, 16. What were the fruits of Vatican II, hyped as a great spiritual "renewal" of the Church? In France, "Eldest Daughter of the Church", attendance at Mass is now down to 8% (2% among young people). In the United States, in 1965, the year Vatican II ended, there were 49,000 men in training for the priesthood; by 2002 it had slumped to 4,700. Today there are around 3,000 parishes in the US without priests. Renewal?
In Britain, 90% of pupils attending Catholic secondary schools lapse from the faith before leaving. The number of baptisms in England and Wales in 1964 was over 137,000; today it is less than half that number. Nearer home, Glasgow archdiocese had 334,000 Catholics and 361 priests on the eve of Vatican II; by 1996 those numbers had fallen to 250,000 and 209 - and that was a decade ago. A survey last year found that, worldwide, 50% of Catholic priests no longer believed in transubstantiation. Renewal?
It falls to Benedict XVI to remedy this situation. He is exceptionally qualified to do so, because he has shown evidence of understanding the roots of the crisis better than his colleagues. Although a number of cardinals in the recent conclave were described as "conservative", Cardinal Ratzinger was probably unique in attaching key importance to reform of the liturgy, as a means of restoring the Church. In 1997 he said: "I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy..."
That was perceptive and accurate. There is an old Church maxim that runs "lex orandi, lex credendi," meaning simply that the rules by which people pray inform the way in which they believe. The Protestant Reformers acknowledged that and acted accordingly. So did the leaders of the Second Reformation (for that is what the post-Vatican II offensive against Catholic practice and belief amounted to). That is why such extreme measures of repression were employed against the Old Rite of Mass, known as the Tridentine, but dating from the fourth century.
The Old Mass, which has fought its way back into liturgical currency on an extraordinary scale, largely at the behest of young people, would be the ideal instrument of Pope Benedict’s re-evangelisation of the Church and the world. In tandem with a reform of the modern Mass, already tentatively under way, the foundations could be laid for a return to dignified worship and reassertion of doctrine. John Paul II had little interest in liturgical matters: the new Pope is deeply engaged. Therein lies a great hope for the Church. The notion that the Mass - in Catholic belief the bloodless continuation of the sacrifice of Calvary - should be disguised as a Protestant service, in pursuit of false ecumenism, is not tenable.
How will Benedict XVI carry out his mission? His choice of name is significant. By rejecting John, Paul or a combination thereof, he has departed from the blinkered, post-Conciliar psyche that suggests the Church was founded in 1962, rather than two millennia ago. Taken in conjunction with his recent homily, addressing the need to embark on evangelisation of the developed world, it signals a commitment to Europe, whose patron is St Benedict, rather than abandoning it in favour of the Third World.
The European Union’s rejection of Commissioner Buttiglione, for being faithful to the Catholic teaching on homosexuality, and its refusal to include even the most token reference to the continent’s Christian heritage in its proposed constitution, were straws in the wind. The 21st century will be an era of persecution, of one kind or another, for the Catholic Church. Objectively, that is good news: history has shown nothing reinvigorates Catholicism more than persecution, from Diocletian to the filth that was the Spanish Republic.
The Reformation began in Europe in 1519; the Counter-Reformation did not get under way until the Council of Trent, which ended in 1563. The Second Reformation began in 1962: we may soon see the first stirrings of a Second Counter-Reformation. Evviva il Papa.
As the Watergate scandal of 1973-1974 diverted attention from the far greater tragedy unfolding in Southeast Asia, so, too, the scandal of predator-priests now afflicting the Catholic Church may be covering up a far greater calamity.
Thirty-seven years after the end of the only church council of the 20th century, the jury has come in with its verdict: Vatican II appears to have been an unrelieved disaster for Roman Catholicism. Liars may figure, but figures do not lie. Kenneth C. Jones of St. Louis has pulled together a slim volume of statistics he has titled Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II. His findings make prophets of Catholic traditionalists who warned that Vatican II would prove a blunder of historic dimensions, and those same findings expose as foolish and naive those who believed a council could reconcile Catholicism and modernity. When Pope John XXIII threw open the windows of the church, all the poisonous vapors of modernity entered, along with the Devil himself. Here are Jones's grim statistics of Catholicism's decline:
Priests. While the number of priests in the United States more than doubled to 58,000, between 1930 and 1965, since then that number has fallen to 45,000. By 2020, there will be only 31,000 priests left, and more than half of these priests will be over 70.
Ordinations. In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States. In 2002, the number was 450. In 1965, only 1 percent of U.S. parishes were without a priest. Today, there are 3,000 priestless parishes, 15 percent of all U.S. parishes.
Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700, a decline of over 90 percent. Two-thirds of the 600 seminaries that were operating in 1965 have now closed.
Sisters. In 1965, there were 180,000 Catholic nuns. By 2002, that had fallen to 75,000 and the average age of a Catholic nun is today 68. In 1965, there were 104,000 teaching nuns. Today, there are 8,200, a decline of 94 percent since the end of Vatican II.
Religious Orders. For religious orders in America, the end is in sight. In 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuit priests. In 2000, the figure was 389. With the Christian Brothers, the situation is even more dire. Their number has shrunk by two-thirds, with the number of seminarians falling 99 percent. In 1965, there were 912 seminarians in the Christian Brothers. In 2000, there were only seven.
The number of young men studying to become Franciscan and Redemptorist priests fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.
Catholic schools. Almost half of all Catholic high schools in the United States have closed since 1965. The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000. Parochial schools suffered an even greater decline. Some 4,000 have disappeared, and the number of pupils attending has fallen below 2 million – from 4.5 million.
Though the number of U.S. Catholics has risen by 20 million since 1965, Jones' statistics show that the power of Catholic belief and devotion to the Faith are not nearly what they were.
Catholic Marriage. Catholic marriages have fallen in number by one-third since 1965, while the annual number of annulments has soared from 338 in 1968 to 50,000 in 2002.
Attendance at Mass. A 1958 Gallup Poll reported that three in four Catholics attended church on Sundays. A recent study by the University of Notre Dame found that only one in four now attend.
Only 10 percent of lay religious teachers now accept church teaching on contraception. Fifty-three percent believe a Catholic can have an abortion and remain a good Catholic. Sixty-five percent believe that Catholics may divorce and remarry. Seventy-seven percent believe one can be a good Catholic without going to mass on Sundays. By one New York Times poll, 70 percent of all Catholics in the age group 18 to 44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus.
At the opening of Vatican II, reformers were all the rage. They were going to lead us out of our Catholic ghettos by altering the liturgy, rewriting the Bible and missals, abandoning the old traditions, making us more ecumenical, and engaging the world. And their legacy?
Four decades of devastation wrought upon the church, and the final disgrace of a hierarchy that lacked the moral courage of the Boy Scouts to keep the perverts out of the seminaries, and throw them out of the rectories and schools of Holy Mother Church.
Through the papacy of Pius XII, the church resisted the clamor to accommodate itself to the world and remained a moral beacon to mankind. Since Vatican II, the church has sought to meet the world halfway.
Jones' statistics tell us the price of appeasement.
This article is taken from http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/pb20021211.shtml
"Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church since Vatican II" (113 pages) by Kenneth C. Jones is available at many bookstores.
"Were any of these excommunicated as the result of the actions of the Pope?"
Yes St. Hippolytus was. Both he and Pope St. Callistus ended up being exiled to the same place by the emperor. Eventually both their bodies were returned to Rome and both became venerated as Saints.
It is supposedly Hippolytus's fault that we now have Eucharistic Prayer II, but I think that's a heavy charge to lay on any single man - even a Saint.
I don't think St. Athanasius was excommunicated. I believe you are speaking about the antipope Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
In practice, yes, in most of the dioceses around the world. This is what Cardinal Ratzinger witnessed, and what he regarded as disastrous.
>>>>>>>>>>>WYD?
Yes, World Youth Day. I have seen many interviews with the sorts of seminarians who cheered Benedict's election crediting their vocations to World Youth Day. In addition, the New York Times ran an interesting article two weeks ago or so with a title something like "Younger Catholics move to restore traditional views on sex," citing good statistical evidence of more conservative attitudes among younger Catholics, both in the seminary and without. I have never attended WYD, but I do remember John Paul's magnificent homily from Denver, challenging abortion and the rest of the "culture of death."
I would think that Marcel Lefebvre would need to be reconciled with the Church prior to his death in order to be considered for Sainthood.
No, I'm not holding my breath. I'm supporting the Holy Father with my prayers, as you should be.
If you haven't seen his earlier pieces on the Catholic Church, I highly recommend them:
Is the Pope a Catholic? (December 14, 2002)
Gibson's Passion forced to find sanctuary (February 29, 2004)
Struggle to return to Christian values (April 11, 2004)
"Were any of these excommunicated as the result of the actions of the Pope?"
"St. Hippolytus was..."
Hippolytus of Rome was reconcilled with the Church BEFORE his martrydom. So when he died, he was not at the time considered excommunicated.
Regards
I know and I should have none someone would take offense. I lumped it in the Latin section purely because it is part of the tradition like the Latin, but I know it isn't Latin.
I know and I should have none someone would take offense. I lumped it in the Latin section purely because it is part of the tradition like the Latin, but I know it isn't Latin.
thanks!
John Paul II had little interest in liturgical matters...
When you Serve as long as he served as Pope, having no interest in liturgical matters likely takes an enormous toll.
However, I'm not sure he states it correctly. Didn't you post a link that indicated, by quote, that JPII thought that Liturgical reform was an enormous problem and consequently, undertaking? This article seems to imply he was totally a hands off Pope as it relates to that, and the quote I'm referring to would seem to take the opposite view.
>>...the Kyrie is in Greek!<<
There used to be a lot more Greek in the Roman Mass. Why not bring some more of that back? As it is in the 1962 (or before) missal, the only other time is Holy Week, on Good Friday and Holy Saturday (as I recall). That seems to be not frequent enough to make the message of unity clear. Why not have one of the Propers prayers entirely in Greek, one that changes with each Mass? I've never heard a good answer to this question. I mean, if we can have multiple decades of an entirely new rite imposed on the whole western Church, why not consider whether adding a little ancient Tradition instead might be more beneficial? If the pope does well to speak many languages, why not have the Mass reflect some of the conspicuously missing sacred Greek?
Eastern Catholics would be glad to help with this project, I'm sure. They would be justified in readiness for inclusion. And it would help to encourage study of the Bible in Greek, too. There are nuances inherent in the Greek Scriptures that are not so clear in the Latin Vulgate.
And in regards to music, I don't think you can get more awe-inspiring than the chant and polyphonic works of the Orhtodox.
En arche e ho logos, kai ho logos Theon (Ioannes 1:1)
(well, that's all I can remember off hand)
I began teaching myself Ancient Greek two months ago. I am really looking forward to being able to read the New Testament in Greek (hopefully by the end of the year), and then compare it to the Vulgate.
"I don't think St. Athanasius was excommunicated."
Yes he was, but not by the Pope. Check out his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
From what I've read JPII didn't have an attachment to the Tridentine, mainly because he was absolutely for Liturgical reform via inculturation. Evidently, he thought that was a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel.
The reason I say that I don't believe JPII was very attached to the Tridentine is that the tone of Ecclesia Dei was somewhat that of a concession to the Faithful who sought it, but not at all a strong defense of the Mass itself.
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