Highlight: Elizabeth Scalia, The "Anchorress" Counters the Slanderers and Quasi-Schismatics Who Say Pope Francis is Trad Bashing Again!

Hello Everyone,

If someone you know today is a:

• Radical who Misrepresents Traditionalists everywhere, 
• A Pope Francis hater, (different from being just "uncomfortable" with his mannerisms and choice of language in conveying the message)
• A "quasi-schismatic" (as defined by Dave Armstrong) who has truly abandoned Holy Mother Church in mind, body, and soul, but sticks around for the pomp and circumstance of fancy vestments and Latin Masses, afterwards feeling spiritually superior to the "simple" Novus Ordo Catholic they think is the rest of the Church, or
• Just a negative person, etc.

Then they likely woke up to hear another excellent homily of Pope Francis from the Casa Sancta Marta today about being "spiritually open." In typical spiritual pride, conspiracy alert mode, Francis the modernist bashing mode, etc., they then took to their smartphones and social media, and decided to commit more acts of the Devil (e.g. gossip), or perhaps slander and calumny, because once again, "Francis hates traditional Catholics and is evil and wants to destroy the Church. He hates Jesus and is the meanest pope evuh.... wah wah wah ... blah blah blah .... calumny, detraction, slander ....."

(Ha ha. I took a page out of Fr. Z's book.)

Well, allow me to dispel your unfortunate friend's tirades of hate and anti-Catholicism. If they told you that Francis once again went on a hate tirade to wipe the Church of Traditionalists, and they've vowed to be obstinate in their hatred, they are wrong in action and their interpretation of such a homily. 

Or should I say, allow me to feature someone who is much more versed in depth of the Catholic faith, and a professional author and writer on the TRUE Catholic blog-o-sphere and in Catholic newspapers, Mrs. Elizabeth Scalia of "The Anchoress" blog. Today, she writes on the Conservative Catholic or Christian web portal, Aletelia, to counter the fury caused by the Catholic blog-o-sphere of darkness. 

Being a short opinion article, it shall be posted in full. 

Pax, Julian. 

SOURCE: http://aleteia.org/2016/01/18/nothing-grows-in-no-pope-francis-on-the-idolatry-of-ideas/

Opinion  

Nothing Grows in “No”: Pope Francis on the Idolatry of Ideas. Pope urges resistance to the god of "but we’ve always done it this way.”

Elizabeth Scalia  

• January 18, 2016

   

During his homily at Mass today, Pope Francis said:

“Christians who obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,’ this is the path, this is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as if they went about by guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the Word of the Lord.’ Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! [And damned do they. They commit the most Deadliest Sin: The Sin of Pride, taking after their real "god", Satan himself, who told God the ancient equivalent of a middle-fingered salute, "NON SERVIAM!"]The sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God.”

Around the Internet there have some negative responses to these words, particularly by those who feel like Catholic traditions are under attack, but I can’t help wondering if some aren’t missing the pope’s point which is one I made in my book, Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life:

"We cling to ideas long past the point of what is healthy or reasonable, and we set them before us, daring anyone to knock them down. I once heard a new pastor complain about a dreaded first meeting with his pastoral team and liturgy committee. “In every parish,” he sighed, “the first thing they want a priest to do is bow down to the god of ‘but we’ve always done it this way.’” 

When we are too fast to say “no” — especially if we are entrenched in a bunker-mentality that said, “but this is the way we have always done it…” we cannot help but benumb ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And that’s all His Holiness is saying. “But this is the way we have always done it…” shuts the door to Joseph accepting a wife carrying a child not his own; “the way we’ve always done it,” would prevent the church from taking careful looks at who it elevates to canonical sainthood; “the way we’ve always done it” prevents Pope Pius X from advocating for the reception of Holy Communion by children; “the way we’ve always done it,” means no female doctors of the church.

Nothing grows in “no.” Especially not a church, or the life of faith. [Including bringing those "simple" Novus Ordo Catholics that collectively are shunned by these Radicals, to the Latin Mass that they value so much.]

Pope Francis words seem less a call for revolution than a frustrated cry of “ephphatha be opened”! He is prompting us to make sure we leave enough room in our lives, and in the life of the church, to give the Holy Spirit — who has a way of using the most confounding events and people to bring about God’s will — the room to move, and flow, and put God’s purposes to action. As the great saint, Philip Neri reminds us [of whom the Oratory of St. Phillip Neri in Toronto holds the Latin Mass], “All of God’s purposes are to the good, although we may not always understand this we can trust in it.”

Pope Francis is not Confusing ... He's Darn Right, and He's Consistent!!!

So the Radicals Misrepresenting Traditionalists are getting all confused over a statement Pope Francis Made about religious fundamentalists. They just don't know who he is talking about. Well maybe, just maybe, The Holy Father (and the RMTs) know absolutely who Pope Francis is talking about.

The "confusing" quote is what's being passed around and making these RMTs angry. It is this from media sources like the National Catholic Reporter:

""Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions," said the pontiff. "We Catholics have some -- and not some, many -- who believe in the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil."They do evil," said the pope. "I say this because it is my church."

Well, the RMTs should not be angering themselves at others, especially Pope Francis, but rather take Pope Francis' words to heart.

Before we begin, let's clear up a couple of things:

The translation is incorrect, and other things were left out of the snippit being sent out online. 

The part where Pope Francis speaks, has been somewhat incorrectly translated, and things added that were not there. The full transcript, as seen here at Catholic World Report, shows it differently:

`` Fundamentalism is a sickness that exists in all religions. We Catholics have some, not just some, so many, who believe they have the absolute truth and they move forward with calumnies, with defamation and they hurt (people), they hurt. And, I say this because it’s my Church, also us, all of us. It must be combatted. Religious fundamentalism isn’t religious. Why? Because God is lacking. It’s idolatrous, as money is idolatrous. Making politics in the sense of convincing these people who have this tendency is a politics that we religious leaders must make, but fundamentalism that ends up always in tragedy or in crime, in a bad thing comes about in all religions a little bit.   ``

So guess what? He didn't directly call the lot of you evil. That's purposeful misquoting or misinterpretation.

Pope Francis was mainly answering a question in response to the terrorist attacks in France. The Fundamentalists were perhaps a part of it, but the end result was to answer the question.

The original question: "Philippine De Saint-Pierre, KTO (France): Holiness, good afternoon, you paid homage to the platform created by the archbishop, the imam and the pastor of Bangui. Today more than ever, we know that fundamentalism threatens the entire planet. We also saw this in Paris. Before this danger, do you think that religious leaders should intervene more in the political field? (Pope Francis asks for clarification) ...the religious “dignitaries,” bishops and imams?"

See the full quote above for Francis' answer.

Now onto business:

While Pope Francis was mainly responding to the reporters` question, spiritually speaking, HE`s damn consistent in his preaching, he IS talking about faith and morals, and yes he`s talking about your anti-Christian behaviour. He`s done it before many times, with similar or the exact same words. 

Funny, a little search of the old internet, connects material terrorism and religious fundamentalism, which he compares to spiritual terrorism:

".... In fact, those who spend their lives bringing reconciliation and peace are saints, and those who gossip are just “like a terrorist who throws a bomb and walks away”, destroying others while making sure they stay safe and sound, he said .... “This is an evil, this is a disease in our Church: to sow division, sow hatred, plant [what is] not peace, .... “Gossiping is terrorism because the person who gossips is like a terrorist who throws a bomb and walks away, destroying; they destroy with their tongue, they don’t make peace,” the Pope said....”

And this was all but a couple of months ago. The Paris attacks didn`t even happen until a couple of weeks ago. Eerie coincidence or foreshadow??? Only God knows. But no surprise he's said this message before.

More appropriately, Let's take a look back at this wonderful little Fervorino from the Casa Santa Marta back in April 15, 2013, appropriately titled, "Slander Kills":

"Slander destroys God's work because it is spawned by hatred. It is a daughter of the “father of lies” and wants to wipe out man and distance him from God ....  it wants to destroy God's work and is spawned by something very nasty... by hatred. And the person who generates hatred is Satan”. Falsehood and slander go hand in hand ....  "

_____________________________________

So yeah .... do these people have to ask who are his targets? It's a rhetorical question because they know the answer.

Pope Francis knows darn rootin` and tootin` well who he is addressing and he is consistent and intentional in his spiritual, fraternal correction.

Thing is, there's this Year of Mercy coming up in the Church. It might be best if the RMTs took some time out in this year to TRULY seek the Lord's healing mercy of their lives ... that is if they are not too spiritually blind to what the Holy Father is saying.

Oh, and to boot, their "Latin Mass heroes," the Society of St. Pius X (who consistently have partaken in slander and detraction against the Holy Father) can be accessed for valid and licit confession as of December 8 thanks to, who else, but Pope Francis granting them special privilege for that Sacrament, a la Matthew 16:19. That`s right, Pope Francis did that. And yet they accuse him of hating ``Traddies`` cause he is not making the Latin Mass the ``real`` Novus Ordo`` and he won`t just let the SSPX walk back into the Church uncontested. The message is behind their language.

Pax, Julian.

P.S. The whole `he does not kneel thing` is so incredibly stupid. He`s got health issues!!! Are you his primary physicians with his full medical chart and can therefore declare him free of arthritis and a clean bill of health to kneel? Or have you spoken directly to His Holiness and asked his straight out if he can kneel?

Now, if your mother grandmother was mostly or healthy, would you demand in a commanding tone for her to kneel before the tabernacle at a Church if she did not, or at the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass? Yeah I didn't think you would be that authoritarian to say yes. If you want to prove me wrong, by all means try it this Sunday and see what happens.