Hello Everyone.
I ask that in light of some of the other calamities abound in our Church, read my posts the recent SSPX bans in two dioceses in parts one and two, with my take on it (which is in essence, against Radical Traditionalism, and not necessarily in favour of the bishops' motivations themselves.)
No sooner does one crisis hit the fan for the Radical Traditionalists, than they get all in a tizzy over a new (yet not unknown) problem. It's official: Pontifical Latin Mass-saying (in full cappa magna and gloves) Cardinal Burke, is not holding any more key positions in the Curia and will be the Patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta. See here for Fr. Z's posting on the matter. Some other bishop is replacing him as the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, though we do not know his track record. Fr Z at that link gives his most charitable assessment of the transfer as he can ... which doesn't say much.
What do I gotta say about it? The writing was on the wall, and it was just awaiting an official notice. Generally speaking to the Radical Catholic Reactionaries: yeah, one of your precious "Trad Heroes" (My Term! Get my permission before using it!), got booted due to 'big bad mean ol' liberal Francis' papacy'. Wah Wah Wah. Go cry me a river and stop creating lies about His Holiness.
Now, does it affect me at the ground level in the Archdiocese of Toronto with regard to carrying out the Latin Mass, or my spiritual salvation? No. Worldwide, it might give weaker-minded bishops a non-official "permission" as it will to hate on Trads and the Latin Mass more. I know that His Eminence, Cardinal Collins is not that kind of bishop! On the contrary, he's respectful to the Latin Mass, as long as the foolish Trads Behaving Badly and the laity don't screw things up!
More importantly, what we need is to have a proper perspective, thinking with the mind of the Church and in a spirit of benefit of the doubt. We need to keep hope alive! So allow me to share some excellent commentary from the comment box of the Fr. Z post above from a "Grumpy Beggar" who shows us how to take ++Burke's re-arrangement in stride:
Grumpy Beggar says:
8 November 2014 at 12:11 pm
C’mon guys , Father Z just did requiems.
” The language is at best confused, and I’m afraid that some of the Synod Fathers may not have reflected sufficiently on the implications of that, or maybe because the language is confused, didn’t understand completely what was being said.”
Would it help, even if we could find out the origin and particularly the identity of every single person who had a hand in formulating the actual text of the documents/reports – all of them : initial, interim and final ? Or, would we then just have an object that we could hate ?
“The language is at best confused,” indeed. And I would personally need to do an enormous amount of mental gymnastics before I could ever begin to believe that the wording – or at least critical parts of it, had not been engineered with the intention of rendering such results ; namely, confusion.
If , in fact , as Cardinal Burke suggests, ” some of the Synod Fathers may not have reflected sufficiently on the implications of that, or maybe because the language is confused. . . “ then who better to “un-confuse” them than a straight-shooter who clearly sees where the confusion lies (double entendre) ? Especially , a straight shooter who has just been unleashed.
Fr Z said:
“. . . now that Card. Burke is no longer the Prefect of a Dicastery, he is far freer to act and to speak than he was before.”
So, perhaps he is being positioned at this time so that in speaking more freely he may wake up the general comatose Catholic public, and more importantly some of those sleepy-head brothers of his . . . What a revolutionary idea: Re-evangelizing (some of) the Curia. Just think . . . Cardinal Burke just might be able to jump both Cardinal Kasper and his mentor-Hans Kung at their own game.
And we need to take solace – be reminded that Cardinal Pell , Cardinal Ouellette , and some others are also true sons of the Holy Catholic Church who don’t get fooled by any amount or style of sophistry.
It’s still premature IMO to hit the panic button . Didn’t our Lord say there would be “ravenous wolves” coming into the flock. And St. Peter forewarned us quite matter-of-factly in his second Letter :
” There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them . . . ” [2 Peter 2:1]
. . . Anybody audaciously dim enough to believe that what Cardinal Burke has been doing recently is tantamount to denying the Master who ransomed him . . . ? Of course not – he’s defending the truth with clarity. That in itself , doesn’t really reflect so well on anyone who is condemning him , or who would wish to stifle him. Perhaps there is some plausibility in proposing that the Bishop of Rome feels he would have less use for Cardinal Burke in his plans ? Whatever the case, it’s evident to us that our Blessed Lord also has His plan(s) ; and didn’t He say, “My ways are not your ways” ? (I know, I know . . . some of us are thinking, “Well then maybe God could send that same sentiment to Pope Francis in the form of a registered letter.”)
It happened.
So , don’t worry – be grumpy ! And most of all, we mustn’t stop praying !
Think about it . . . look at all the umm, wonderful (oww – it hurt my fingers to type that word) things Cardinal Kasper has accomplished recently – and he’s officially retired . . . I think a good Cardinal – unleashed and armed with the truth might easily be able to dwarf those accomplishments with a few more of his own.
Let’s watch and see. . . Remember what happened when they put St. Peter in prison ? Remember what happened leading up to the event of his release ? .
“Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.”
[Acts 12:5]
We need to see this as our call to prayer (persevering prayer) once the lament is over.
Doesn't sound so grumpy, no? I'd say this is a good perspective to listen to, unlike the sour sack diatribes of the angry Radical Catholic Reactionaries, a.k.a. Trads Behaving Badly.
Pax, Julian.
No comments:
Post a Comment