The whole Church, the immaculate Spouse, the Ark of salvation, [has been turned into] a vast, sprawling mass of discussion groups. There are the Roman Synod, national and regional councils of bishops, the same of priests, commissions for this, commissions for that, diocesan senates, refresher courses, study days, even deanery meetings, days of recollection, retreats and in some cases the Mass itself have all been turned into discussion groups. The wretched laity have not been spared but have been dragged into commissions and councils at every level. ... everything is discussed in an absract, irresponsible , open-ended way. Everything is questioned, down to the foundations of religion itself ...
Sic scripsit Bryan Houghton Anno 1975.
My own private and personal view of Cosmopolitics is this. The Enemy has got this 'Synodality' thing going because he realised that he was losing control. There were troubling signs in the Church of supernatural growth; of little shoots and new buds offering the first presentiments of a bright Spring of Divine Grace. Emergency action was called for: So a stop had to be put to new expressions of the Religious life, such as the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Liturgical renewal had to be stopped in its tracks before it could do any more harm.
The (from an Infernal point of view) fine days of the post-Conciliar disorders needed to be brought back. And what better method than to get everybody thinking and talking and having meetings about change. Humans need to have some purpose ... and so here is the reason for the feverish nonsense of Synodality. Above all, the policy of the Great Power Below is to get people excited about a Future which ... by definition ... does not exist. And to prevent humans from focussing on the only gift God is bestowing: His present moment.
Men are created for Godhead; for theosis, the divinisation which is imparted in Holy Baptism; and is perfected though participation in the Divine Gifts of the Redeemer's Body and Blood. The over-arching purpose of all human life is the offering of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, a Sanctum Sacrificium, an Immaculata Hostia. And the multiplication of Human Beings to perpetuate this offering as Companions in His love. By this more-than-act, Man and God come into a unity of exchange, an Admirabile Commercium in which the Almighty is given, in the one and only way possible, the glory due to His Name, and Man has the privilege, which is like nothing else on earth, of entering into the movement of that Great Offering.
Will PF's load of contrived busy-ness succeed in putting Glory to flight?
I rather think not. But my duty is not to speculate but to ...
7 comments:
It may be the Synod will be unable to meet owing to more pressing concerns, such as war.
Funny, I used to say that at least the pandemic had distracted me from the horrors of heresy afflicting the Church.
During 1940 a bombed-out old London lady was asked what she thought of the Blitz. "Well", she said, "at least it takes your mind off the war".
I confess I'm having nothing to do with the Synod, which I regard as a calculated and cynical attempt to sow division and dissent. From the Enemy's perspective, it has the enormous attraction of appearing to leave doctrine up for grabs. Sometimes I fear that the protestantisation of the Church is almost complete.
But I have to believe that cannot happen.
I thought I might register for the synod in my own diocese to have at least a small voice make suggestions and sound further desire for Tradition, the EF and conversion of heart. But I know it will talking into the wind.
The middle part of Matthew 12 should give pause for thought here. If PF is P (as a logician might say) then willy-nilly he is the Lord's chosen instrument.
Does that count as argumentum ad hominem?
Dear Father. Yes.
Per this beautiful hymn:
You have united, O Lord,
your divinity with our humanity
and our humanity with your divinity;
your life with our mortality
and our mortality with your life.
You have assumed what is ours,
and you have given us what is yours,
for the life and salvation of our souls.
To you, O Lord, be glory forever.
– From the Maronite Eucharistic liturgy
This is what is real and worthy of our attention and absorption into our intellects. Jesus established His Church for two reasons
Salvation
Sanctification
not for the laity to participate in synods which is Congregationalism for Catholics
"Dialogue" is and always has been a complete waste of time. It is a tactic for wearing down your opponents, draining them of time and energy until they just give in.
Thank God this did not work on Archbishop Lefebvre. One of his most important attributes was that he was a man of action.
Thanks for that great Fr Houghton quotation. I am so old that I think I remember it from its first publication. The whole Synodality thing reminds me of the old wise advice that any spontaneous action should be very carefully planned. Seeing that Cardinal Hollerich of Luxembourg is one of the top dogs at the forthcoming Synod on Synodality and he has already asked for changing Church teaching on homosexual conduct, I think we are allowed only one guess as to the democratically agreed outcome.....
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