15 th Sunday after Pentecost (Dialectics & Clericalism)

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Audrey Oliver
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1 15 th Sunday after Pentecost (Dialectics & Clericalism) Let Thy continual piety, O Lord, cleanse and defend Thy Church: and because it cannot continue in safety without Thee, may it ever be governed by Thy goodness. Collect 1. The devil and his helpers on earth often employ dialectics to get what they want done to make progress. Dialectics? What does that mean? One dictionary put it like this: a dialectic is the existence of two opposing forces or things. Dialectics is concerned with or acting through opposing forces. So, a dialectician is one skilled at getting two things to oppose each other in order to act through them to bring about the desired progress. He gets them to engage in a struggle of some kind for his own ends. Teenagers sometimes get their parents to oppose each other in order to get their own way. St. Paul used the division between the Pharisees the Sadducees to get out of his trial (cf. Acts 23:6f) and witness to Christ in Rome. Communism seeks to promote class struggle such as pitting black against white, or closer to home, husband against wife, immigrants against citizens to produce a flattened out future workers paradise. The devil does the same to bring about the ruin of souls and the demise of the Church. 2. The devil is a master dialectician, making it essential for us to understand that this crafty, evil fiend is not on THIS side or THAT side of things as we normally draw the lines. No, he wants everyone to join him below. And so, he will infiltrate the camps on both sides appearing as an angel of light even saying things that are true or things that seemingly hurt his own cause all in order to set up a dialectic that will eventually corrupt the heart and minds of the faithful elect. For example, he expertly takes advantage of righteous anger and imprudent zeal to his benefit. He is very experienced and has had some amazing successes. In fact, he is most crafty when operating under the aspect of good, in using our own talents, strengths and concerns against us and to hurt the Church. 3. I bring up dialectics because from all that I can determine this is very much part of why we are in this clerical crisis. It is dialectical. Aristotle taught that true understanding comes from a knowledge of causes. We have heard many say that Sodom and Gomorrah inclined men were the cause. We have also heard it was infiltration, and so on. These are certainly real contributing causes, yet, last Sunday I attempted to expose

2 at least two root causes, one of which was (i) the failure to fulfill duties of state at all levels, on the part of popes, cardinals, bishops, priests and parents. Pope St. Pius V in 1568 explained the duties of bishops in regard to Sodom and Gomorrah inclined clergy and religious. He ordered that once discovered they be reduced to the lay state and handed over to the secular arm if they had committed any crimes nothing has changed. Let s use our memories!! This is the right path as St. Paul says to Timothy: To those clergy that sin reprove before all: that the rest also may have fear (1Tim 5:20). In the same letter, St. Paul says: Impose not hands lightly upon any man, neither be partaker of other men s sins. Keep thyself chaste (5:22). If the bishops had fulfilled their duties in a timely way, the bad clergy would have feared and crafty infiltrators would have been more readily discovered and expelled. How did all this scandal happen? In my estimation, infiltration alone is not a sufficient cause. An observant hierarchy would have sooner or later discovered the intruder seeking to corrupt the whole and dispelled him. 4. Thus, (ii) the other root cause we discovered was failure to remember. We forgot God and His unchanging way. By this we mean a new philosophy (i.e., evolution) was adopted such that a new theology and morality could be developed and keep developing so that modern Catholics could more or less do much of what they wanted as long as they did not do what they used to do. This led to new liturgy and new music and a changing new catechism. In a word, we have a new Christ now the evolving Cosmic Christ of Chardin, which in turn leads to a new ecclesiology, a new style human centered church. Just as in the days of Moses, after making such a golden calf they rose up to play! Any infiltrator would have no problem climbing high up the ladder in such an environment. As we concluded last time, until these root two causes are remedied, the scandals will just continue no matter how many Dallas Charter like programs are adopted. 5. But this begs the question as to how this happened? How did Popes, bishops and priests become so elevated that hardly anyone ever resisted them? How were they able to go outside of their duties so easily without anyone withdrawing from them? This is not traditional. Listen to Melchior Cano, the great Dominican theologian of the Council of Trent: Those who blindly and indiscriminately defend every decision of the supreme Pontiff

3 [read here any prelate or priest] are the very ones who do most to undermine the authority of the Holy See they destroy instead of strengthening its foundations. In 1559, Pope Paul IV declared (in the Bull, Cum Ex Apostolatus) the pope is judged by none in this world, but may nonetheless be contradicted (i.e., may be resisted) if he be found to have deviated from the faith. We can withdraw from prelates that are not fulfilling their duty! We can carefully and respectfully resist and contradict those who teach false doctrines. Even the current code of canon law Canon states this can be done by the faithful but with due reverence and respect according to the office and dignity of the Prelate being addressed. If it involves the papal office, which has the highest of dignities on earth, obviously such resistance and corrections must be carried out with the greatest care something, sad to say, few are doing today! Thus, now we have an inversion where even the laity openly judge and ridicule those in the highest offices of the Church. It is a shameful situation we are in!! 6. I would argue that one cause of this inversion is dialectics. When you want to destroy something, one way is to over inflate it in order to make it capsize to cause an inversion or what Sr. Lucia termed diabolical disorientation. Produce a big bubble and when it bursts, it leaves a crater. Then, those who were once upon a time over inflated or puffed up will be at the bottom where they are easily scorned, looked down upon, and buried under heaps of opprobrium and suspcion. 7. There are inversions everywhere we turn science rules over the faith, the state over the Church, the laity over the priests, wife over husband, youth over elders, students over teachers making it very difficult for even good leaders to lead. Thus, we can conclude that somehow the clergy was over inflated because we are now in a crater!! 8. I would argue this overinflating began some time after Vatican I, which ended abruptly due to war. Perhaps, had it been allowed to run its full course, this would not have happened so easily. In any case, it is this Council that defined Papal Infallibility, something good and needed. Yet, this brought about a certain over inflated view of the papal office. Over the years, with the tension growing between Church and state, faith and reason, and the spreading of communism loyal members of the Church had fewer and fewer leaders to follow and trust. The Pope became a

4 shining light in dark times along with the bishops and priests. But Our Lady warned us at Fatima WWII would be a chastisement, something I have since discovered is true on nearly every level we look. Not surprisingly, then, about that time, it came to be that the clergy were over inflated could do no wrong. Every word was to be trusted no one could question them. This helps explain why many parents acted as they did according to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and other similar accounts. 9. The Legionaries of Christ come to mind as they held their founder to be flawless and not be spoken against ever. Yet, he committed many crimes under this over inflated reputation. Another example is sedevacantism (those who hold the seat of the Papacy to be vacant ). They can only envision the ideal pope for whom sin and error is impossible at any time whatsoever. The minute any pope does something perceived to be wrong, they conclude: This one cannot be the Pope. With this exaggeration over-inflation they end by deciding there is no pope at all. The Neo- Catholics conservative Catholics are similar, having time and time again defending every word and action of the pope as if he were always and everywhere infallible and impeccable. They are famous for the lengths they go in excusing their every strange action and teaching. They have been quieting down more and more over the last few years. 10. In any case, the point is this: during the time around WWII and beyond when most of the scandals started, the priesthood seemed unassailable. They seemingly could do what they wanted, and so, some took advantage of this to teach heresy, counsel immorality in the confessional and marriage preparation courses, and act immorally with others shamefully and diabolically. Infiltrators thrive in this environment!!! They were over inflated given more than was their due! This is false clericalism! And this was a contributing factor 11. Now the bubble has popped and instead of people coming to a proper understanding and appreciation for the role of the pope, the bishops, the priests, namely to a true and proper clericalism, the clergy is everywhere more and more frowned upon, despised and suspected. This is a dialectic aimed at destroying the Church. What is needed is a proper understanding and appreciation of the roles of each Pope, bishop and priest. Thus, Philadelphia s Archbishop Chaput s recent request for

5 canceling the synod on the youth and replacing it with a synod on bishops makes good sense! 12. Dearly beloved, let s not give way to this diabolical disorientation this dialectic trick. Instead, we must strive to remember know the faith, know tradition, know our proper place and do what we have always done by fulfilling our duties of our state in life to perfection, part of which is to respect those in authority. St. Paul: let the priests that rule well, be esteemed worthy of double honor: especially they who labor in the word and doctrine (1Tim 5:17). Again, as stated last time, we honor the priest and obey him in as much as he fulfills his duties well and distance ourselves from him inasmuch as he does not. Let us stand fast and resist all evil, remaining immoveable not getting caught up in political and diabolical dialectical battles and personal attacks. Yes, we are obliged to resist and withdraw from evil and error, even that which may come from high up in the Church and state but we must avoid falling into the useless oppositions and dialectics of the devil, lest we aid him through our imprudent zeal and righteous anger even as we try to defend our faith and Our Holy Mother, the Church. 13. whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Religious Assent in Roman Catholicism. One of the many tensions in the Catholic Church today, and perhaps the most

Religious Assent in Roman Catholicism. One of the many tensions in the Catholic Church today, and perhaps the most One of the many tensions in the Catholic Church today, and perhaps the most fundamental tension, is that concerning whether when and how the Church manifests her teaching authority in such a way as to