Highlight: CDF Mueller Plays Hardball Against "bad trads" as a Relevant Follow up to my SSPX/CCCB Post

Hello Everyone,

I was surveying my Blogger feed today, and came across this interesting article. A hat tip goes out to Fr. John Zuhlsdorf of What Does the Prayer Really Say, who caught onto this early:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/02/archbp-muller-prefect-of-the-cdf-anti-catholicism-in-usa-time-running-out-for-sspx/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wdtprs%2FDhFa+%28Fr.+Z%27s+Blog+-+What+Does+The+Prayer+Really+Say%3F%29

The Prefect (a.k.a. the head honcho) of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who deals with  essential matters to our Catholic Faith as a Papal Congregation that directly answers to our Holy Father, had been asked questions on some matters and covered them in an article given to a German Daily newspaper that covers Catholic issues. The original coverage article, featured in the Vatican Insider (a.k.a. LaStampa.it.) is found here: http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/germania-germany-alemania-21893/

The reply highlights a few important points. Cardinal Mueller reveals to us, the reader:

- That generally there is an anti-Catholic attitude similar to the negative propaganda or hatred expressed towards Jews in Europe (did he mean World War II? because it is certainly feeling like we will soon become like them the way North America and Europe are going downhill.) He called the hate campaigns pogroms.

- That basically the people of Germany are very liberal and not-Catholic in their dialogue with bishops, wanting to dissent from Catholic Church teachings and want things like womynpriests, gay marriages, and married priests (though that one is a disciplinary issue in the Latin Church, which can be discussed and eradicated with a Papal pen stroke. It's not dogma/docrtine and happened in early Church history!). In essence they are not dialoging, they are selfish and want the Church to become like secular society.

- This big snippet is also mentioned at the end of the article: "Finally, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent a clear message to the Lefebvrians: we presented them with a proposed doctrinal preamble but “we have received no response so far and we will not wait forever.”

In addition, I followed a rabbit hole through another link on my blog feed and came to a blog dealing with the Anglican Ordinate (which I do not cover on this blog). In this link here, it seems Muller is really hitting the Catholic specch/talk circuit as he gave an opening speech for the US Anglican Ordinate's symposium in Houston, Texas, USA. Looking through this, some interesting points caught my eye from this blogger:

- Communion with the Bishops’ Conference, with the local bishop and with the Holy See are “specifically enshrined” in the Apostolic Constitution. [This to me says: You guys cannot act outside the Magisterium and not under the local ordinary. You are not some independent Catholic group. This is in contrast to what the SSPX are doing.]
- Similarly the clergy themselves are “called to maintain fraternal bonds” with other Catholic clergy. 
- It is natural for the Ordinariates to focus first and foremost on “unity on the macro level”, i.e. communion with the chair of Saint Peter.

These three are my particular favourites to highlight:
- The Archbishop particularly took blogs to task, stating that they are a way of promoting what he called “unbridled, unreflected” comment and dissent. He stated that love must be the foundation of our work as bloggers.
- The witness of men and women “joyfully living their faith” is so important.. [!!!!!!!]
- He stressed again the importance of “winning the trust and confidence of the local Catholic community”.

When taken all together, once can see clearly the kind of role that Muller is taking has head of the CDF. He is carrying out the Pope's mandate as the "pope of Christian Unity" as Fr. Z dubs our Holy Father Benedict XVI. 

Furthermore, it is a good reflection/reverberation of the points I was making in my post about the SSPX and the CCCB response to the anti-Semitic comments from other voices of the EF community in Canada. While yes, our bishops certainly as a whole need to stand courageous as the Holy Father is against the wolves of our society and not back down and cave into Church-haters, we must not be so vicious as to tear them apart as "angry trads". 

Why does what Muller is saying have pertinence and connect to my prior post? 
1) They, as well as the CDF under Muller, are not stupid. They realize the stubborness and the spiritual damage that the SSPX and their adherents/supporters (who aren't innocently naieve victims) are doing to the Catholic faithful. They must WORK within the boundaries of the Magisterum and the Church, despite how wicked and cowardly or lukewarm the servants in the positions of power in the Church are acting, or perceived to be acting. The Vatican's patience is wearing this with regards to the SSPX, and soon, should they go down the road they are now, the Society may be deemed outside the Church and once that pronouncement is made, who knows what is going to happen to all those souls, especially those who get suckered into the Society based on aesthetics and a "pretty picture of what Catholicism should look like," who received TRUE, VALID, and LICIT Sacraments, of which those fake ones in the SSPX are unrepeatable or NULL AND VOID. 

The Anglican Ordinate is no different. They cannot, like the SSPX, act as a special interest group that can do whatever willy nilly and attack the Pope and the Church and those things which the faithful must adhere to. Considering it was set up by the Pope and is closely working with the Vatican, I doubt that there will be any problems for the most part from the general progress I am seeing on the blogosphere. 

2) Muller is clearly no stranger to the dark side of Traditional Catholicism in the form of the "angry trads", having been dealing with the SSPX. He clearly is aware of these bloggers that are practising Catholics spewing out vitrol in the Church, without solid research or basis (e.g. reading up on church teachings, canon law, etc. or just taking a real piss-pott attitude if they don't fit a "certain mold" of the blogger's liking). He clearly means those on the extreme, though sadly these tend to be the loudest mouthpieces on the Catholic Blogosphere (e.g. Michael Voris and his ChurchMilitantTV), drowning out the good voices who are solid/orthodox/EF/Traditional Catholics (e.g. Robert Barron's Word on Fire Ministry). 

Sadly these bloggers are the ones who are not reflecting the truths of Catholicism in its most beautiful forms, especially those of the Latin Mass. Like he says, we who partake in the Latin Mass, Ordinate, etc. should be blogging joyfully and full of charity. If those choose not to heed the Prefect`s words, and continue in that dark Trad mode,  (and there are examples all over the place on the net/blogosphere) it is these examples that will pose a negative attitude and an apathy/hatred to the emerging Ordinates or EF parishes/communities, and will be shunned by the majority of Catholics and clergy, who would otherwise be open, or at least willing to dialogue with the faithful/members of these communities. It`s bad enough at the moment that there still exists the old insults and a lingering ``Spirit of Vatican II`` mentality due to poor catechesis or liberal interests that attack the EF, but what these bloggers do will only further harden the hearts of these enemies and allow them to say ``Aha! I was right. You traddies are bad news!!!`` And young people like me DO NOT want to make those bloggers our best friends, be it on-line or in person, regardless of age or gender or status in the Church!

If only more of us took the road Muller is suggesting, then perhaps over time, there will be greater reception of the Angilcan Rite AND Latin Mass in the general Church, and while some people will still like the ol' Novus Ordo, those who would have been otherwise apathetic just might give the Angilcan Rite and Latin Mass a chance, and there you have it! The New Evangelization at work!!! Sometimes, it can even be as simple as 1 Latin Mass/Anglican Rite Mass to move the soul of an otherwise lukewarm Catholic back to true, active practice and love of their Faith, or perhaps a visiting pastor of a parish/bishop, and they might incorporate it into their parish/diocese, all because they experienced the Mass at is should be: Redeeming, Passionate, Sorrowful (in a proper way), and joyful! Not cold and Jansenistic. That includes their experience before and after attending the actual Mass.   

Therefore, I do hope that all of you who read this blog, and those involved in the EF via simple participation or Latin Mass serving, will realize that the Church IS getting it. However, those in certain positions of power are getting upset and losing patience with those who are "representing" the EF/Traditional Catholicism and this will only serve to stifle its growth and possibly even cause a backlash against us by those in higher power in the Church. In other words, we gotta show a ton more love folks. 

Muller ..... he's actually got it right. Fellow Catholic youth, let us be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and show the rest of the world, especially those other Catholics among us, what being solidly Catholic is truly like, without the angry traddie-ness.  

Pax Tibi Christi, Julian. 

P.S. I see people are still checking out my Starter Points posts as the most popular item. I do have drafts in progress. I hope to work again on some posts in a couple of days, and once they're done, release concurrently Part 4 of the part-by-part analysis of the Latin Mass, and also Starter Points III: Responses by an Altar Server at Mass (with before Mass and during Mass parts). It's slow, but don't worry! More altar serving stuff is on the way! Be patient.