Because it is so topical to the debates going on at the moment in the Catholic Church, we have been considering the Truth that the Universal Catholic Church is ontologically prior (see earlier posts for that weirdo expression) to the local Church; and understanding how wrong the Kasperites are in putting the local Church first and concluding that it's OK for Northern European local Churches to abandon the received Tradition of the Universal Church on matters like Communion for Remarried Divorcees; and those in genital homosexual relationships.
C S 'Anglican Patrimony' Lewis's Devil Screwtape wrote like this about the Church:
"One of our [Devils'] great allies at the present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans."
Lewis here brilliantly reminds us of the synchronic as well as diachronic aspects of the Church; i.e. that it is not only spread throughout the world at this present time but throughout all of time. It is more than just what you see around you.
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The First Reading for today in the OF: 2 Corinthians 11, 1-11, seemed to me to be rather apposite to the present situation.
Most peculiar. Pope Francis the politician enthusiastically embraces one world universalism. Thus, Brexit for Britain vexes him. Pope Francis the theologian enthusiastically encourages the dismantling of the one Universal Church founded by Christ to be replaced by an association of local Churches, each local Church supposedly more fit for purpose than the Universal one founded by Jesus our Lord. This should vex the CDF.
As Kasper has already made clear, his contempt for the non-German viewpoint on Catholic morality is based on a belief that the German way of doing everything is the best way; everyone else should follow it, and if they don't, it's their own look-out.
It's an interesting idea: maybe it should be tried, experimentally...Oh? You say it has been tried already?
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