Traditionis Custodes provides an opportunity to judge bishops ... or, rather, to let them judge themselves by how they react to this document. When episcopal life resumes in September, it will be amusing to see how they measure up to the observations of Cardinal Mueller in paragraph (3) below!
(1) Fr Aidan Nichols. "[The pope's] programme would not have got as far as it has were it not the case that theological liberals, generally of the closet variety, have in the fairly recent past, been appointed to high positions both in the world episcopate and in the ranks of the Roman Curia".
This led to Fr Aidan, who has taught with distinction in this University, being forbidden to circulate any further the paper which included those words.
(2) Fr Tom Weinandy wrote to PF with these words: "faithful Catholics can only be disconcerted by your choice of bishops, men who seem not merely open to those who hold views counter to Christian belief but who support and even defend them. What scandalises believers, and even some fellow bishops, is not only your having appointed such men to be shepherds of the Church, but that you also seem silent in the face of their teaching and pastoral practice. This weakens the zeal of the many women and men who have championed authentic Catholic teaching over long periods of time, often at the risk of their own reputations and well-being. As a result, many of the faithful, who embody the sensus fidelium, are losing confidence in their supreme shepherd."
(3) Gerhard Cardinal Mueller had written previously about the "shameless half-education" of some episcopal nominees; "theological illiterates in bishops' hats"; "ideologues with a ridiculous super-papalism." Now, in response to Traditionis custodes, he has spoken as follows: "[Bishops] are not merely representatives of a central office ... with opportunities for advancement. The good shepherd can be recognised by the fact that he worries more about the salvation of souls than recommending himself to a higher authority by subservient 'good behaviour'. If the law of non-contradiction still applies, one cannot logically castigate careerism in the Church and at the same time promote careerists."
Nice one, Eminence.
5 comments:
Pope Francis loves The 60s Synod but he does not either recall its teachings or care to actualise some of them.
For example Unitatis redintigrato teaches
All in the Church must preserve unity in essentials. But let all, according to the gifts they have received enjoy a proper freedom, in their various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in their different liturgical rites, and even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth.
Decree Concerning Reform (Trent)
The same holy council, continuing the matter of reform, decrees that the following be ordained in the present session.
Chapter I
Norms Of Procedure In The Election Of Bishops And Cardinals
... It moreover exhorts and admonishes each and all who in any manner have a right from the Apostolic See to participate in the promotion of those to be placed in authority, or who otherwise render assistance (due to the circumstances of the present time no change being made herein), that they above all bear in mind that they can do nothing more serviceable to the glory of God and the salvation of the people than to exert themselves to the end that good and competent shepherds be promoted to the government of the Church, and that they become partakers in the sins of others and sin mortally unless they strive diligently that those be promoted whom they judge the more worthy and useful to the Church
... All examinations, investigations, attestations and proofs of whatever kind and by whomever made, even though in the Roman Curia, concerning the qualifications of the one to be promoted and the condition of the church, shall be carefully examined by the cardinal, who shall report thereon to the consistory, and three other cardinals; and this report shall be authenticated by the signature of the cardinal making the report and of the three other cardinals, in which each of the four cardinals shall affirm that, after having given it his careful attention, he has found those to be promoted to possess the qualifications required by law and by this holy council and at the peril of his eternal salvation firmly believes that they are competent to be placed over churches; and the report having been made in one consistory, that the investigation may in the meantime receive more mature consideration, the decision shall be deferred to another consistory, unless the most blessed pontiff shall deem it expedient to act otherwise. Each and all of the particulars relative to the life, age, learning and the other qualifications of those who are to be appointed bishops, which have been determined elsewhere by this council, the same It decrees are to be required in the election of the cardinals of the holy Roman Church, even though they be deacons, whom the most holy Roman pontiff shall, in so far as it can be conveniently done, choose from all the nations of Christendom according as he finds them competent. Finally, the same holy council, moved by so many very grave afflictions of the Church, cannot but call to mind that nothing is more necessary to the Church of God than that the holy Roman pontiff apply that solicitude which by the duty of his office he owes the universal Church in a very special way by associating with himself as cardinals the most select persons only, and appoint to each church most eminently upright and competent shepherds; and this the more so, because our Lord Jesus Christ will require at his hands the blood of the sheep of Christ that perish through the evil government of shepherds who are negligent and forgetful of their office.
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What we have here is a failure to continuisize (as Bush might say)
The good shepherds will be those who say to the junior shepherds who have been busy providing the TLM for their flocks: "Pascite ut ante (b)oves, pueri...".
The Surgeon's quote from Unitatis redintigrato is a truly damning indictment of TC, which purports to justify itself on the need for unity and adherence to Vatican II.
To his credit, Archbishop Longley (whose diocese includes Oxford) not only gave permission for TLM celebrants to carry on, but also posed the question: what are those who attend the Traditional Mass missing in the Ordinary Form and what can we do about it?
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