Yes, today is the onomastico, the Name Day, of Fr Aidan Nichols, greatest of the theological writers (and lecturers) of the current Anglosphere.
Prayers.
Readers will remember the highly important Paper which Fr Aidan read two or three years ago. In it, he advanced very strongly the thesis that there should be canonical possibilities for calling into question and examining the teachings of a prima facie heretical or unorthodox pope.
He suggested that this might best be done after the end of a ponrificate.
As this present very prima facie pontificate struggles towards its end, NOW is the time, surely, for all good men and true women to take this important agendum in hand.
7 comments:
Were i a cardinal, or even a bishop, i should most surely heed your words and take this important agendum in hand. But what can a mere priest do, except pray for Heaven to grant us a new, truly orthodox catholic pope, and bishops who will obey God rather than man, and to warn fellow catholic christians to be ware of the institutional apostasy? More power than prayer i have not.
How is it us Catholics have a Pope Francis?
Because Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II did not do their most important duty:
Council of Trent
Decree Concerning Reform
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
If in all ecclesiastical grades a prudent and enlightened attention is necessary in order that in the house of the Lord there be nothing disorderly and nothing unbecoming, much more ought we to strive that no error be committed in the election of him who is constituted above all grades. For the state and order of the entire household of the Lord will totter if what is required in the body be not found in the head.
... 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, not moved by entreaties or human affection, or the solicitations of rivals, but because their merits speak for them, whom they know to be persons of lawful wedlock, and whose life, age, learning and all other qualifications meet the requirements of the sacred canons and the decrees of this Council of Trent.
...
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....
IF the Popes subsequent to Pius Xth had stopped the Liturgical revolution and did not surrender to it by degree and instead of flying all over Hell and Georgia to be feted with honors and to deliver political speeches and start a special day for youth or publish trilogies as a Pope etc etc but, rather, had taken Trent seriously, Bergoglio would never have been even a Bishop
As it is, the Cardinals wil never move against a heretical Pope because of fear of schism and so us faithful Catholics must wait on the Lord for Francis appears to have taken pains in selecting Bishops and Cardinals who willsupport his progressive heteropraxis.
Yes, Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque; as I have at times observed, we would not have the Francis nightmare had John Paul II and Benedict done their solemn duty. And what perplexes---and angers---is that they knew, for Bergoglio had a dark, long reputation in Argentina and beyond. The Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Hans Kolvenbach, counseled John Paul II not to consecrate Bergoglio bishop (there was an orthodox contender at the time for the auxiliary bishop position in the Buenos Aires see; Bishop [later] Auer, I think) for he was psychologically unstable and had a history of trouble-making and destruction. A document testifying to this existed until it disappeared when Francis arrived in Rome as pope, although I understand copies are still extant. Not only did JPII not listen, he proceeded in time to make him cardinal. Benedict did not accept Bergoglio's mandatory resignation at age 75 but left him in the Buenos Aires see---thus, putting him in on the path to where he is today. Acceptance of his resignation at 75, a common practice then and now since Paul VI came up with the retirement mandate for bishops, would have ended the destructive career of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and spared the flock of Christ this immense suffering and ensuing apostasy. But not Francis---he certainly has inverted the words of the Council of Trent regarding the appointment of bishops and named those who will perpetuate and possibly worsen the ecclesiastical nightmare: all according to meticulous plan. So, in a perverse way, he has done for his Modernist mission what John Paul II and Benedict failed to do in naming orthodox, solid men as bishops. The words of our Lord come to mind about the children of this world being wiser than the children of light---words I never understood until now.
I was just reading how Newman had a difference with Provost Hawkins at Trinity about the task of tutors. Newman thought they should be given religious guidance. Newman was given no students, therefore, to tutor. Which left him time to read deeply into the Fathers of the Church--hence, we have, very likely, one day, a Doctor of the Church. So, whatever their mistakes, Benedict, and John Paul, the final word is given, we all must remember, to the Lord, who has every life's circumstances in His hand, for our sake, and His glory.
In my research for a dissertation on John Henry Newman (and Matthew Arnold), I found that Newman's abiding interest in the early Church Fathers was a career-long (more likely, a life-long) love and academic pursuit. I doubt his differences with Provost Hawkins over the role of tutors and the resulting lack of students had a deciding influence in this great and fruitful pursuit. I don't doubt for a second that the good Lord has a precise and beneficent purpose for all of us and all that happens---but that divine Providence, at this time, remains mysterious. What is not mysterious but plain fact for all to see are the devastating effects on the Mystical Body of Christ and on countless souls of the mistakes in episcopal appointments of John Paul and Benedict (if indeed "mistakes" they were). After all, the likes of Cardinal Cupich---and they are legion, both in numbers and in the biblical sense---were not raised to the episcopate by John XXIII or Pius XII. To speculate on Divine Purpose is a different activity of the mind and the soul from the rational observation of reality. I have ever remarked in many Catholics a tendency to pronounce rather glibly and sweepingly on teleology---as a kind of bromide to calm apostolic impulses in the defense of the Faith and simultaneously convey great piety.
Well, Cor, I was following indications of Fr. Ker on that one. Surely, having an interest in something, and actually having the time to pursue it, are two different things, no?
God give us a Pope who will spend hours upon hours in picking his bishops, instead of picking a venue for the next beach-ball Mass.
(Although Benedict did his best with WYD:lots of silent prayer, confessions, etc. Why he considered it central to the Sedes of Peter, God knows.)
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