Comes the hour, comes the man: Archbishop Vigano has published a fine piece on the Abrahamic House; a projected building in Abu Dhabi which is to be the great exemplar and universal shrine of Syncretism. This site will embrace places of worship of post-Jamnian Judaism, of Islam, and of the True Faith. I think there should also be a statue there of the great English promotor of Syncretism, King Anna of East Anglia, who, S Bede tells us, maintained a sacral enclosure in which a Christian Altar shared space with the altars of the devils. Clearly, a man with vision, possibly even double vision.
It is interesting that this should be happening in the year of S John Henry Newman's canonisation, which is also Pachamama year. Never was a document more timely now than Newman's biglietto speech, in which he revealed that, since the time of his ordination to the priesthood in the Church of England, he had consistently fought against Liberalism ... that is to say, Relativism. He regarded this error as nothing less than a meretricious trick of the Devil. Yet, in this same year, Vatican connivance apparently surrounds a scandalous project which Newman would have denounced even more fiercely than he denounced the Jerusalem bishopric.
Within this 'Abrahamic' umbrella, the 'Christian Church' will, apparently (news to me) be dedicated to S Francis. Since that Saint is not on the Calendars of the separated Byzantine and non-Chalcedonian Churches, it is interesting to note that this initiative is not designed to treat with respect the diversity within the Christian 'house' itself. Of course, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to suspect that the naming is a gesture towards the current occupant of the Roman See, whose name for the moment eludes me.
Back to Newman ... he referred to the Great Presence of God Himself in the Blessed Sacrament as the Thing 'which makes a Catholic Church unlike any other building on Earth'. I wonder if the Abu Dhabi edifice will include a Tabernacle. If not, it will be a building which the Poverello himself would not have recognised.
Will it include an unambiguous affirmation of the Divinity of the Second Person of the Holy and Undivided Trinity? The Athanasian Creed which Newman so loved, perhaps, carved in massive letters?
In conclusion, I will make a serious and theological point.
People constantly ask me whether ... how ... God could or would prevent the formal and unambiguous imposition ex cathedra of heresy by a Roman Pontiff.
Saint John Henry, who fought against Bergoglianism with vigour and erudition throughout his life, has just been canonised by a pope who ... detests Newman's Faith!
In other words, God has (because he can do this) worked through even this pope to proclaim Newman's Faith.
Geddit?
At risk of cliché, it's straight out Windswept House.
ReplyDeleteWindswept House is mild compared to what we have all been through since 2013.
DeleteAn interesting aspect of the "Christian Church" (which I assume will be some kind of lowest common denominator Protestant like edifice) being dedicated to St. Francis is that he was the one who risked martyrdom by going to the Caliph and trying to convert him (some say he became a secret convert). They may not have been thinking of this, more likely the hippie peace loving version so often portrayed by the "Church of Nice".
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, as you suggest, the church is dedicated to St. Francis as a gesture towards the current pope.
ReplyDeleteThe rather delicious irony (and, I am sure quite unintended) is that St. Francis put his life on the line to try to convert a Muslim (the Sultan of Egypt) to the True Faith. May he continue to do so.
Dear Father. ABS is proposing a cyclorama for the Indifferentist Identitarian Idol center in Abu Dhabi.
ReplyDeleteThe Cyclorama should feature paintings of Gabriel and statements of his and the theological claims about him made by Catholics and Mahomet.
As the person enters the cyclorama and stars viewing the exhibit and starts to look and learn the room will begin to perceptibly rotate and then slowly increase in speed until the person is right dizzy from trying to understand how the Gabriel of the Annunciation is the same Gabriel who supposedly visited mahomet.
Once it gets up to speed, the person will be rotating so rapidly he will be cast out of the cyclorama and once having regained equilibrium will see a quote that reads But because thou art lukewarm....I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth.
King Anna, the father of St Etheldreda, described by Bede as 'vir bene religiosus', is innocent of the charge of Bergoglian syncretism. The culprit was his uncle King Rædwald, possibly the occupant of Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Rogers